User subroutines in Abaqus -> The user subroutine functionality in Abaqus is a powerful tool in the analysis. It is very useful to simulate different material models, develop new elements, and solve mutiphysics problems. The most common user subroutine in solid mechanics is UMAT which is capable of simulating user defined constitutive laws. UMAT is implicit and , Abaqus also provides explicit equivalent of the UMAT, and is called VUMAT which can be useful in complex constitutive models. The other commonly used user subroutine is UEL (user element) which is used to write special elements that are not available in the Abaqus library or to solve a mutliphysics problem. All these user subroutines are written in Fortran programming language. For this purpose the Abaqus needs to be integrated with the visual studio and intel fortran complier. Step by step procedure to configure Abaqus to run user subroutines is given here.
Some example material subroutines for instructional purpose