Some years back I found on some website an example of a finite element analysis (done with a code I never heard of until then) that showed very large deformations of a rubber tube. Quite intrigued, I watched the video of the simulation and was kind of relieved when the video stopped just short of the (in my perception) most difficult part of the simulation. After all, I did not sleep through my career overlooking a strong contender in the finite element market!

So I decided to give the problem a go with my FEA code of choice, which is of course Abaqus. Since not too many details were given on said company's website, I had to guess a lot: Dimensions, material properties, boundary conditions and other simulation attributes. I finally managed to come up with a problem from scratch that I believed to be extremely hard from a structural mechanics points of view, but still solvable with Abaqus (both implicitly with Abaqus/Standard as well as explicitly with Abaqus/Explicit) using only best-practice modelling techniques as frequently advocated here by yours truly. "Qonvergence Quartet", anyone?   (-;

I like this simulation because it shows the power of the structural apps on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform (with Abaqus working behind the scenes) at its best: FavoriteSimulation

1. The ease of switching between implicit and explicit codes (only 4 lines in the input file differ)
2. The advantages of (quasi-static) dynamic analyses
3. The tremendous value of good defaults
4. No need for stabilization, *CONTROLS, and other numerical "tricks"
5. Frictional self-contact within the general contact framework
6. Robust element formulations (C3D10)
7. (Numerical) buckling sensitivity of a "perfect" structure (4 versus 5 folds over the circumference)
8. Unstable snap-through at the crucial point of the simulation
9. "THE ANALYSIS COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY"
10. Enough topics for a whole introductory seminar

But now enough advertising, here is the video (left Abaqus/Standard, right Abaqus/Explicit):

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Four years later, I have a attached a .zip file with the .cae file and the two .inp files:

Have fun with it!