INTERMED

ANSYS BASIC IATE ADVANCED POSTPROC. COMMAND PRINTABLE

UofA ANSYS Tutorial
UTILITIES TUTORIALS TUTORIAL TUTORIALS TUTORIALS LINE FILESVERSION
S

Two Dimensional Truss

Two Dimensional Truss

Bicycle Space Frame

Plane Stress Bracket

Modeling Tools
Introduction
Solid Modeling

This tutorial was created using ANSYS 7.0 to solve a simple 2D Truss
problem. This is the first of four introductory ANSYS tutorials.
Index

Problem Description
Contributions Determine the nodal deflections, reaction forces, and stress for the truss
Comments
system shown below (E = 200GPa, A = 3250mm2).

MecE 563

Mechanical Engineering

University of Alberta

ANSYS Inc.

(Modified from Chandrupatla & Belegunda, Introduction to Finite Elements in

Engineering, p.123)

Copyright © 2001
University of Alberta
Preprocessing: Defining the Problem
1. Give the Simplified Version a Title (such as 'Bridge Truss
Tutorial').

In the Utility menu bar select File > Change Title:

The following window will appear:

 Enter the title and click 'OK'. This title will appear in the bottom left
corner of the 'Graphics' Window once you begin. Note: to get the
title to appear immediately, select Utility Menu > Plot > Replot

2. Enter Keypoints

The overall geometry is defined in ANSYS using keypoints which

specify various principal coordinates to define the body. For this
example, these keypoints are the ends of each truss.

o We are going to define 7 keypoints for the simplified

structure as given in the following table

coordinate
keypoint
x y
1 0 0
2 1800 3118
3 3600 0
4 5400 3118
5 7200 0
6 9000 3118
7 10800 0

o (these keypoints are depicted by numbers in the above

figure)
o From the 'ANSYS Main Menu' select:
Preprocessor > Modeling > Create > Keypoints > In
Active CS
 The following window will then appear:

o To define the first keypoint which has the coordinates x = 0

and y = 0:
Enter keypoint number 1 in the appropriate box, and enter
the x,y coordinates: 0, 0 in their appropriate boxes (as
shown above).
Click 'Apply' to accept what you have typed.
o Enter the remaining keypoints using the same method.

Note: When entering the final data point, click on 'OK' to

indicate that you are finished entering keypoints. If you first
press 'Apply' and then 'OK' for the final keypoint, you will
have defined it twice!
If you did press 'Apply' for the final point, simply press
'Cancel' to close this dialog box.
 Units
Note the units of measure (ie mm) were not specified. It is the
responsibility of the user to ensure that a consistent set of units are
used for the problem; thus making any conversions where necessary.

Correcting Mistakes
When defining keypoints, lines, areas, volumes, elements,
constraints and loads you are bound to make mistakes. Fortunately
these are easily corrected so that you don't need to begin from
scratch every time an error is made! Every 'Create' menu for
generating these various entities also has a corresponding 'Delete'
menu for fixing things up.

3. Form Lines

The keypoints must now be connected

We will use the mouse to select the keypoints to form the lines.

o In the main menu select: Preprocessor > Modeling >

Create > Lines > Lines > In Active Coord. The following
window will then appear:

o Use the mouse to pick keypoint #1 (i.e. click on it). It will

now be marked by a small yellow box.
 o Now move the mouse toward keypoint #2. A line will now
show on the screen joining these two points. Left click and a
permanent line will appear.
o Connect the remaining keypoints using the same method.
o When you're done, click on 'OK' in the 'Lines in Active
Coord' window, minimize the 'Lines' menu and the 'Create'
menu. Your ANSYS Graphics window should look similar
to the following figure.

Disappearing Lines
Please note that any lines you have created may 'disappear'
throughout your analysis. However, they have most likely NOT
been deleted. If this occurs at any time from the Utility Menu
select:

Plot > Lines

4. Define the Type of Element

It is now necessary to create elements. This is called 'meshing'.

ANSYS first needs to know what kind of elements to use for our
problem:
 o From the Preprocessor Menu, select: Element Type >
Add/Edit/Delete. The following window will then appear:

o Click on the 'Add...' button. The following window will

appear:

o For this example, we will use the 2D spar element as

selected in the above figure. Select the element shown and
click 'OK'. You should see 'Type 1 LINK1' in the 'Element
Types' window.
o Click on 'Close' in the 'Element Types' dialog box.
5. Define Geometric Properties

We now need to specify geometric properties for our elements:

o In the Preprocessor menu, select Real Constants >

Add/Edit/Delete
 o Click Add... and select 'Type 1 LINK1' (actually it is already
selected). Click on 'OK'. The following window will appear:

o As shown in the window above, enter the cross-sectional

area (3250mm):
o Click on 'OK'.
o 'Set 1' now appears in the dialog box. Click on 'Close' in the
'Real Constants' window.
6. Element Material Properties

You then need to specify material properties:

o In the 'Preprocessor' menu select Material Props >

 Material Models

o Double click on Structural > Linear > Elastic > Isotropic

We are going to give the properties of Steel. Enter the

following field:

EX 200000

o Set these properties and click on 'OK'. Note: You may obtain
the note 'PRXY will be set to 0.0'. This is poisson's ratio and
is not required for this element type. Click 'OK' on the
window to continue. Close the "Define Material Model
 Behavior" by clicking on the 'X' box in the upper right hand
corner.
7. Mesh Size

The last step before meshing is to tell ANSYS what size the
elements should be. There are a variety of ways to do this but we
will just deal with one method for now.

o In the Preprocessor menu select Meshing > Size Cntrls >

ManualSize > Lines > All Lines

o In the size 'NDIV' field, enter the desired number of

divisions per line. For this example we want only 1 division
per line, therefore, enter '1' and then click 'OK'. Note that we
have not yet meshed the geometry, we have simply defined
the element sizes.
8. Mesh

Now the frame can be meshed.

o In the 'Preprocessor' menu select Meshing > Mesh > Lines

and click 'Pick All' in the 'Mesh Lines' Window

Your model should now appear as shown in the following window

Plot Numbering
To show the line numbers, keypoint numbers, node numbers...

 From the Utility Menu (top of screen) select PlotCtrls >

Numbering...
 Fill in the Window as shown below and click 'OK'
 Now you can turn numbering on or off at your discretion

Saving Your Work

Save the model at this time, so if you make some mistakes later on, you will
at least be able to come back to this point. To do this, on the Utility Menu
select File > Save as.... Select the name and location where you want to
save your file.

It is a good idea to save your job at different times throughout the building
and analysis of the model to backup your work in case of a system crash or
what have you.

Solution Phase: Assigning Loads and Solving

You have now defined your model. It is now time to apply the load(s) and
constraint(s) and solve the the resulting system of equations.

Open up the 'Solution' menu (from the same 'ANSYS Main Menu').

1. Define Analysis Type

First you must tell ANSYS how you want it to solve this problem:
 o From the Solution Menu, select Analysis Type > New
Analysis.

o Ensure that 'Static' is selected; i.e. you are going to do a

static analysis on the truss as opposed to a dynamic analysis,
for example.
o Click 'OK'.
2. Apply Constraints

It is necessary to apply constraints to the model otherwise the model

is not tied down or grounded and a singular solution will result. In
mechanical structures, these constraints will typically be fixed,
pinned and roller-type connections. As shown above, the left end of
the truss bridge is pinned while the right end has a roller connection.

o In the Solution menu, select Define Loads > Apply >

Structural > Displacement > On Keypoints
o Select the left end of the bridge (Keypoint 1) by clicking on
it in the Graphics Window and click on 'OK' in the 'Apply
U,ROT on KPs' window.

o This location is fixed which means that all translational and

rotational degrees of freedom (DOFs) are constrained.
Therefore, select 'All DOF' by clicking on it and enter '0' in
the Value field and click 'OK'.

You will see some blue triangles in the graphics window

indicating the displacement contraints.
 o Using the same method, apply the roller connection to the
right end (UY constrained). Note that more than one DOF
constraint can be selected at a time in the "Apply U,ROT on
KPs" window. Therefore, you may need to 'deselect' the 'All
DOF' option to select just the 'UY' option.
3. Apply Loads

As shown in the diagram, there are four downward loads of 280kN,

210kN, 280kN, and 360kN at keypoints 1, 3, 5, and 7 respectively.

o Select Define Loads > Apply > Structural >

Force/Moment > on Keypoints.
o Select the first Keypoint (left end of the truss) and click 'OK'
in the 'Apply F/M on KPs' window.

o Select FY in the 'Direction of force/mom'. This indicate that

we will be applying the load in the 'y' direction
o Enter a value of -280000 in the 'Force/moment value' box
and click 'OK'. Note that we are using units of N here, this is
consistent with the previous values input.
o The force will appear in the graphics window as a red arrow.
o Apply the remaining loads in the same manner.

The applied loads and constraints should now appear as shown

below.
4. Solving the System

We now tell ANSYS to find the solution:

o In the 'Solution' menu select Solve > Current LS. This

indicates that we desire the solution under the current Load
Step (LS).

o The above windows will appear. Ensure that your solution

 options are the same as shown above and click 'OK'.
o Once the solution is done the following window will pop up.
Click 'Close' and close the /STATUS Command Window..

Postprocessing: Viewing the Results

1. Hand Calculations

We will first calculate the forces and stress in element 1 (as labeled
in the problem description).

2. Results Using ANSYS

Reaction Forces

A list of the resulting reaction forces can be obtained for this

element

o from the Main Menu select General Postproc > List

 Results > Reaction Solu.

o Select 'All struc forc F' as shown above and click 'OK'

These values agree with the reaction forces claculated by

hand above.

Deformation

o In the General Postproc menu, select Plot Results >

Deformed Shape. The following window will appear.
 o Select 'Def + undef edge' and click 'OK' to view both the
deformed and the undeformed object.

o Observe the value of the maximum deflection in the upper

left hand corner (DMX=7.409). One should also observe that
the constrained degrees of freedom appear to have a
deflection of 0 (as expected!)

Deflection

For a more detailed version of the deflection of the beam,

o From the 'General Postproc' menu select Plot results >
Contour Plot > Nodal Solution. The following window will
appear.

o Select 'DOF solution' and 'USUM' as shown in the above

window. Leave the other selections as the default values.
Click 'OK'.
o Looking at the scale, you may want to use more useful
intervals. From the Utility Menu select Plot Controls >
Style > Contours > Uniform Contours...
o Fill in the following window as shown and click 'OK'.
 You should obtain the following.

o The deflection can also be obtained as a list as shown below.

General Postproc > List Results > Nodal Solution select
'DOF Solution' and 'ALL DOFs' from the lists in the 'List
Nodal Solution' window and click 'OK'. This means that we
want to see a listing of all degrees of freedom from the
solution.

o Are these results what you expected? Note that all the
 degrees of freedom were constrained to zero at node 1, while
UY was constrained to zero at node 7.
o If you wanted to save these results to a file, select 'File'
within the results window (at the upper left-hand corner of
this list window) and select 'Save as'.

Axial Stress

For line elements (ie links, beams, spars, and pipes) you will often
need to use the Element Table to gain access to derived data (ie
stresses, strains). For this example we should obtain axial stress to
compare with the hand calculations. The Element Table is different
for each element, therefore, we need to look at the help file for
LINK1 (Type help link1 into the Input Line). From Table 1.2 in
the Help file, we can see that SAXL can be obtained through the
ETABLE, using the item 'LS,1'

o From the General Postprocessor menu select Element

Table > Define Table
o Click on 'Add...'

o As shown above, enter 'SAXL' in the 'Lab' box. This

specifies the name of the item you are defining. Next, in the
'Item,Comp' boxes, select 'By sequence number' and 'LS,'.
Then enter 1 after LS, in the selection box
o Click on 'OK' and close the 'Element Table Data' window.
o Plot the Stresses by selecting Element Table > Plot Elem
Table
o The following window will appear. Ensure that 'SAXL' is
selected and click 'OK'
o Because you changed the contour intervals for the
Displacement plot to "User Specified" - you need to switch
this back to "Auto calculated" to obtain new values for
VMIN/VMAX.

Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Style > Contours >

Uniform Contours ...

Again, you may wish to select more appropriate intervals for

the contour plot

o List the Stresses

 From the 'Element Table' menu, select 'List Elem
Table'
 From the 'List Element Table Data' window which
appears ensure 'SAXL' is highlighted
  Click 'OK'

Note that the axial stress in Element 1 is 82.9MPa as predicted

analytically.

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.

Quitting ANSYS
To quit ANSYS, select 'QUIT' from the ANSYS Toolbar or select Utility
Menu/File/Exit.... In the dialog box that appears, click on 'Save Everything'
(assuming that you want to) and then click on 'OK'.