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ANSYS BASIC INTERMEDIATE ADVANCED POSTPROC. COMMAND PRINTABLE

UofA ANSYS Tutorial
UTILITIES TUTORIALS TUTORIALS TUTORIALS TUTORIALS LINE FILES VERSION

Effect of Self Weight

Distributed Loading
Application of Distributed Loads
NonLinear Analysis

Solution Tracking Introduction

Buckling
This tutorial was completed using ANSYS 7.0. The purpose of this tutorial is to explain how to apply
NonLinear Materials distributed loads and use element tables to extract data. Please note that this material was also covered
in the 'Bicycle Space Frame' tutorial under 'Basic Tutorials'.
Dynamic - Modal

Dynamic - Harmonic A distributed load of 1000 N/m (1 N/mm) will be applied to a solid steel beam with a rectangular cross
section as shown in the figure below. The cross-section of the beam is 10mm x 10mm while the
Dynamic - Transient modulus of elasticity of the steel is 200GPa.
Thermal-Conduction

Thermal-Mixed Bndry

Transient Heat

Axisymmetric

Index

Contributions

Comments

MecE 563

Mechanical Engineering

University of Alberta

ANSYS Inc.

Copyright © 2001
University of Alberta
Preprocessing: Defining the Problem
1. Open preprocessor menu

/PREP7

2. Give example a Title

Utility Menu > File > Change Title ...

/title, Distributed Loading

3. Create Keypoints

Preprocessor > Modeling > Create > Keypoints > In Active CS

K,#,x,y

We are going to define 2 keypoints (the beam vertices) for this structure as given in the
following table:

Keypoint Coordinates (x,y)

1 (0,0)
2 (1000,0)

4. Define Lines

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Preprocessor > Modeling > Create > Lines > Lines > Straight Line
L,K#,K#

Create a line between Keypoint 1 and Keypoint 2.

5. Define Element Types

Preprocessor > Element Type > Add/Edit/Delete...

For this problem we will use the BEAM3 element. This element has 3 degrees of freedom
(translation along the X and Y axis's, and rotation about the Z axis). With only 3 degrees of
freedom, the BEAM3 element can only be used in 2D analysis.

6. Define Real Constants

Preprocessor > Real Constants... > Add...

In the 'Real Constants for BEAM3' window, enter the following geometric properties:

i. Cross-sectional area AREA: 100

ii. Area Moment of Inertia IZZ: 833.333
iii. Total beam height HEIGHT: 10

This defines an element with a solid rectangular cross section 10mm x 10mm.

7. Define Element Material Properties

Preprocessor > Material Props > Material Models > Structural > Linear > Elastic >
Isotropic

In the window that appears, enter the following geometric properties for steel:

i. Young's modulus EX: 200000

ii. Poisson's Ratio PRXY: 0.3

8. Define Mesh Size

Preprocessor > Meshing > Size Cntrls > ManualSize > Lines > All Lines...

For this example we will use an element length of 100mm.

9. Mesh the frame

Preprocessor > Meshing > Mesh > Lines > click 'Pick All'

10. Plot Elements

Utility Menu > Plot > Elements

You may also wish to turn on element numbering and turn off keypoint numbering

Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Numbering ...

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Solution Phase: Assigning Loads and Solving

1. Define Analysis Type

Solution > Analysis Type > New Analysis > Static

ANTYPE,0

2. Apply Constraints

Solution > Define Loads > Apply > Structural > Displacement > On Keypoints

Pin Keypoint 1 (ie UX and UY constrained) and fix Keypoint 2 in the y direction (UY
constrained).

3. Apply Loads

We will apply a distributed load, of 1000 N/m or 1 N/mm, over the entire length of the beam.

Select Solution > Define Loads > Apply > Structural > Pressure > On Beams
Click 'Pick All' in the 'Apply F/M' window.
As shown in the following figure, enter a value of 1 in the field 'VALI Pressure value at
node I' then click 'OK'.

The applied loads and constraints should now appear as shown in the figure below.

Note:

To have the constraints and loads appear each time you select 'Replot' you must change
some settings. Select Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Symbols.... In the window that appears,
select 'Pressures' in the pull down menu of the 'Surface Load Symbols' section.

4. Solve the System

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Solution > Solve > Current LS
SOLVE

Postprocessing: Viewing the Results

1. Plot Deformed Shape

General Postproc > Plot Results > Deformed Shape

PLDISP.2

2. Plot Principle stress distribution

As shown previously, we need to use element tables to obtain principle stresses for line elements.

1. Select General Postproc > Element Table > Define Table

2. Click 'Add...'

3. In the window that appears

a. enter 'SMAXI' in the 'User Label for Item' section
b. In the first window in the 'Results Data Item' section scroll down and select 'By
sequence num'
c. In the second window of the same section, select 'NMISC, '
d. In the third window enter '1' anywhere after the comma

4. click 'Apply'

5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 but change 'SMAXI' to 'SMAXJ' in step 3a and change '1' to '3' in step
3d.

6. Click 'OK'. The 'Element Table Data' window should now have two variables in it.

7. Click 'Close' in the 'Element Table Data' window.

8. Select: General Postproc > Plot Results > Line Elem Res...

9. Select 'SMAXI' from the 'LabI' pull down menu and 'SMAXJ' from the 'LabJ' pull down
menu

Note:

ANSYS can only calculate the stress at a single location on the element. For this example,
we decided to extract the stresses from the I and J nodes of each element. These are the
nodes that are at the ends of each element.

For this problem, we wanted the principal stresses for the elements. For the BEAM3
element this is categorized as NMISC, 1 for the 'I' nodes and NMISC, 3 for the 'J' nodes. A
list of available codes for each element can be found in the ANSYS help files. (ie. type help
BEAM3 in the ANSYS Input window).

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As shown in the plot below, the maximum stress occurs in the middle of the beam with a value of
750 MPa.

Command File Mode of Solution

The above example was solved using a mixture of the Graphical User Interface (or GUI) and the
command language interface of ANSYS. This problem has also been solved using the ANSYS
command language interface that you may want to browse. Open the .HTML version, copy and paste
the code into Notepad or a similar text editor and save it to your computer. Now go to 'File > Read
input from...' and select the file. A .PDF version is also available for printing.

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