Australian Defence Force Academy School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

INTRODUCTION TO THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

TUTORIAL 5: ANSYS FUNDAMENTALS

Organisation of the ANSYS Program: The ANSYS program has two levels Begin level from where the appropriate processor is selected Processor level where commands can be issued to perform a general function depending on the processor. General Preprocessor (/PREP7): Solution Processor (/SOLUTION): General Postprocessor (/POST1): TimeHistory Postprocessor (/POST26): to build the model (geometry and mesh) to apply loads and obtain the solution to review the results to review Time History results

To switch between processors, one should first go back to the Begin level by issuing the FINISH command and typing the required processors name with the forward slash. In the first tutorial, you used the General Preprocessor (/PREP7), the Solution Processor (/SOLUTION) and the General Postprocessor (/POST1) through the use of command line commands only, as in the days when advanced Graphics User Interfaces (GUI) were not available. The ANSYS GUI provides a hierarchical organisation of the hundreds of commands available to the user. File Management The first thing to remember when using ANSYS is that there is NO undo command. Instead, you can save your work using the SAVE_DB button on the ANSYS Toolbar before issuing a suspicious command and resume your work using the RESUM_DB button on the ANSYS Toolbar to return to the original work. The second thing to remember is that ANSYS will only do exactly what you ask. Therefore, when you come back editing a previous work, ANSYS will start with an empty database unless you resume your work using the RESUM_DB button on the ANSYS Toolbar. This may have a dear consequence, as in the case of saving your work as soon as the GUI pops up will overwrite your work with an empty database, actually wiping clear your work. You still have the backup file, but if you save twice, the backup is gone too! Define your jobname and working directory within the xansys54 interactive menu item. All files subsequently generated by ANSYS will be jobname.<ext> where the extension will refer to the type of file. If you do not define a jobname, file will be used by default. Lets assume that the jobname is file then the most important files that will be generated are file.db and file.log where the complete model is stored in the former and all the commands you have issued so far in the latter. Other files are: file.dbb, the backup (previous) of file.db file.rst, the result file (after solution) file.tri, triangulation matrix (can be deleted) file.esav, file.osav, file.emat, temporary element matrices (can be deleted)

by Murat TAHTALI, 09/10/01 15:02

Australian Defence Force Academy School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

INTRODUCTION TO THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD file.log, the log file where all the commands you typed or issued are logged; this file can be used to recreate the file.db file in case it is lost. file.err, the error log file.

The GUI The GUI is merely a shell on top of the command interpreter which is the core of the ANSYS software. All functions selected from the GUI menus are translated into command line commands transparently to the user; instead of issuing obscure commands separated with commas, the user is prompted with labelled dialog boxes to fill in. Most dialog boxes have three execution buttons; the OK button carries the requested task and discards the dialog box, the APPLY button carries the requested task and stays on the screen for further use. Therefore clicking the APPLY and then clicking the OK button is not advisable as this will duplicate the same task. The CANCEL button discards the dialog box without issuing any command. It is a good practice to discard the dialog boxes using the CANCEL button to avoid instability of the GUI. In building the model, you will be either creating new entities from scratch or by using previously created entities. There are two distinct methods of building a model, Bottom-up and Top-to-bottom In the first tutorial, you first created keypoints, then lines using the keypoints and then an area using the lines. Furthermore, you can create a volume using previously defined areas. This is the Bottom-up method where each more complex entity is created using a simpler one. In the Top-to-bottom approach, geometric primitives are used to build the model. Instead of creating each keypoint, line, area and volume one by one, the user can choose from a selection of geometric shapes and only enter its location and dimensions. This is not in contradiction with the Bottom-up approach as the hierarchy of the entities is conserved by the automatic creation of the lower order entities. Once a higher order entity is created lower order entities making it up cannot be deleted. The Entities The word entity is used as a general term to anything that is created such as keypoint, line, area, volume, node and element. Geometric Entities The geometric entities are the ones making up only the geometric part of the model; these are the: Keypoints, the smallest entity that can be referenced in the ANSYS space, Lines, defined by at least 2 keypoints, Areas, defined by at least 3 lines, Volumes, defined by at least 4 areas.

All geometric entities can be selected through their C.G. using ANSYS selection filters (described later)

by Murat TAHTALI, 09/10/01 15:02

Australian Defence Force Academy School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

INTRODUCTION TO THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FEA Entities Without the FEA entities, the model is only a geometrical description devoid of the mathematics governing its physical behaviour. Therefore, using the geometric model, nodes and elements are created to obtain a mathematical model: Node, where the continuity information is transmitted to the neighbouring elements, Element, where the mathematical model is defined.

The Mathematical Model Element Type In order to establish the mathematical model in ANSYS, first the type of the elements should be selected following the type of the problem (static, fluid, thermal, magnetic,), the level of simplification (1D, 2D, 3D) and other assumptions. In doing so, a number can be assigned to the different types of elements used in a particular model. As an example, in modelling a table, the legs can be modelled as straight lines and the top as an area. Real Constants In simplified geometrical models, extra information may be required. In the case of a plate modelled by a simple area where the thickness information is not available through the geometry, the thickness is defined by the appropriate Real Constant set. Again, Real Constants can be assigned unique numbers to differentiate between different parts of the model. Material Properties Material Properties are the engineering constants of the material such as the Youngs Modulus, Poissons Ratio, density, etc Material properties can also be numbered to distinguish different materials used in the same model. Boundary Conditions The BCs are the constraints and the loads applied to the model. They can be applied either on the geometry or the FE model. The advantages of both approaches will be discussed later. Modeling Using the GUI The basic steps using the GUI are: 1. Switch to the Preprocessor from the ANSYS Main Menu 2. Define the relevant Element Types 3. Define the relevant Real Constants 4. Define the Material Properties (doing 2 to 4 first will allow you to decide on the type and dimensionality of your model) 5. Create the geometrical model 6. Mesh the model to create the elements (and nodes) 7. Switch to Solution from the ANSYS Main Menu 8. Apply the boundary conditions 9. Solve Current LS
by Murat TAHTALI, 09/10/01 15:02

Australian Defence Force Academy School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

INTRODUCTION TO THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD 10. Switch to General PostProcessor from the ANSYS Main Menu 11. View results. Exercise Using the GUI Model a steel bench with aluminium tube legs using 2D shell elements (shell63) and elastic straight pipe elements (pipe16) respectively for the top and the legs with the following data: Bench top dimensions: 2m by 1.5m by 5mm (the bench top in the x-z plane, with one of the corners on the origin) Legs (4): Dout =25mm Material properties: Steel: Aluminium: Mesh size: i) ii) iii) 20 subdivisions in both directions (x and z) for the top 10 subdivisions for the legs all Y-displacements zero at the end of the legs (floor reaction) X, Y and Z-displacements zero at the origin Z-displacement zero at the other corner on the X-axis Ex = 200GPa = 0.32 Ex = 73GPa = 0.33 = 7,860 kg/m3 = 2,790 kg/m3 t = 3mm L = 1m

Constraints (in the form of zero displacements):

Loading: i) ii) Under own weight, use g = 9.81 m/s2 Under own weight + 200 N applied uniformly downward on a rectangular area of 20mm by 15mm at the centre of the bench

Hints:
1. Usage of shell elements implies the modelling of the bench top as an area, NOT volume 2. Usage of pipe elements implies the modelling of the legs as simple lines 3. The geometric model should be continuous prior to meshing, make sure that the top keypoints of the legs are the keypoints of the top 4. The 200 N load can be applied as a pressure load

by Murat TAHTALI, 09/10/01 15:02