Greetings from Adelaide (AU)

I am using ABAQUS/CAE and explicit dynamic simulation. My model consists of an 8-ply composite laminate with stacking sequence [-45/45/0/90]s. The plate in 400mmx400mm in size. Each ply is 0.25mm thick.

I built my model by starting with one part only, consisting of one of the plies. I went ahead and meshed the ply - I am using solid elements - one ply only, then copy the very same (already meshed) ply and change orientation with the stacking sequence as in [-45/45/0/90]s. Then I created one assembly, moved the plies accordingly and tied adjacent plies use tie constraints, so I end up with a 8x0.25mm = 2mm thick plate. I ran one preliminary model with coarse mesh, making a total of 16.000.000 nodes and it ran ok. However, when increasing the number of nodes, by refining the mesh because I need better resolution, just above 17.000.000 the model fails without any evident reason. I just have the following:

"Abaqus Error: Abaqus/Explicit Packager exited with an error - Please see the status file for possible error messages if the file exists."

Also:

.msg file is not created

.dat file does not show any error

.sta file is empty

I exhausted all possibilities, and after many trials, the times I have issues is for models greater than 17.000.000 nodes. Not sure if that’s a limitation but I cannot find any way to solve this issue or any other clue.

Many thanks,

Juan