Ansys Explicit Dynamics Analysis Guide

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Table of Contents
1. Explicit Dynamics Analysis Guide Overview ......................................................................................... 13
2. Explicit Dynamics Workflow .................................................................................................................. 15
2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 15
2.2. Create the Analysis System .............................................................................................................. 16
2.3. Define Engineering Data ................................................................................................................. 16
2.4. Attach Geometry ............................................................................................................................ 17
2.5. Define Part Behavior ....................................................................................................................... 19
2.6. Define Connections ........................................................................................................................ 19
2.6.1. Spot Welds in Explicit Dynamics Analyses ............................................................................... 21
2.6.2. Body Interactions in Explicit Dynamics Analyses ...................................................................... 22
2.6.2.1. Properties for Body Interactions Folder ........................................................................... 24
2.6.2.1.1. Contact Detection ................................................................................................. 24
2.6.2.1.2. Formulation .......................................................................................................... 26
2.6.2.1.3. Sliding Contact ..................................................................................................... 27
2.6.2.1.4. Manual Contact Treatment .................................................................................... 27
2.6.2.1.5. Shell Thickness Factor and Nodal Shell Thickness ................................................... 27
2.6.2.1.6. Body Self Contact .................................................................................................. 30
2.6.2.1.7. Element Self Contact ............................................................................................. 31
2.6.2.1.8. Tolerance .............................................................................................................. 31
2.6.2.1.9. Pinball Factor ........................................................................................................ 31
2.6.2.1.10. Time Step Safety Factor ....................................................................................... 32
2.6.2.1.11. Limiting Time Step Velocity ................................................................................. 32
2.6.2.1.12. Edge on Edge Contact ......................................................................................... 32
2.6.2.2. Interaction Type Properties for Body Interaction Object .................................................. 32
2.6.2.2.1. Frictionless Type ................................................................................................... 33
2.6.2.2.2. Frictional Type ...................................................................................................... 33
2.6.2.2.3. Bonded Type ........................................................................................................ 34
2.6.2.2.4. Reinforcement Type .............................................................................................. 38
2.6.2.3. Identifying Body Interactions Regions for a Body ............................................................ 40
2.6.2.4. Additional Considerations for Robust Contact between Particle Bodies and Lagrange
Bodies ...................................................................................................................................... 40
2.6.3. Manual Contact Regions in Explicit Dynamics Analyses ........................................................... 40
2.6.3.1. Manual Contact Region Behavior for Proximity Based Contact and Trajectory Contact
with Discrete Sliding or Manual Contact Treatment set to Lumped ............................................. 41
2.6.3.2. Manual Contact Region Behavior for Trajectory Contact with Connected Surface Sliding
and Manual Contact Treatment set to Pairwise .......................................................................... 43
2.6.4. Joints in an Explicit Dynamics Analysis .................................................................................... 45
2.6.4.1. Joint Solver ................................................................................................................... 45
2.6.4.2. Scoping to geometry ..................................................................................................... 47
2.6.4.3. Initial Conditions ........................................................................................................... 48
2.6.4.4. Boundary Conditions ..................................................................................................... 48
2.6.4.5. Using Contact with Joints .............................................................................................. 50
2.6.4.6. Postprocessing .............................................................................................................. 51
2.7. Setting Up Symmetry ...................................................................................................................... 51
2.7.1. Explicit Dynamics Symmetry .................................................................................................. 51
2.7.1.1. General Symmetry ......................................................................................................... 51
2.7.1.2. Global Symmetry Planes ................................................................................................ 52
2.7.2. Symmetry in Euler and Particle Domains ................................................................................. 52
2.8. Define Remote Points ..................................................................................................................... 53

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Explicit Dynamics Analysis Guide

2.8.1. Explicit Dynamics Remote Points ............................................................................................ 53

2.8.2. Explicit Dynamics Remote Boundary Conditions ..................................................................... 54
2.8.3. Initial Conditions on Remote Points ........................................................................................ 55
2.8.4. Constraints and Remote Points ............................................................................................... 55
2.9. Apply Mesh Controls/Preview Mesh ................................................................................................ 56
2.10. Establish Analysis Settings ............................................................................................................. 58
2.10.1. Analysis Settings for Explicit Dynamics Analyses ................................................................... 62
2.10.1.1. Explicit Dynamics Step Controls ................................................................................... 62
2.10.1.2. Explicit Dynamics Solver Controls ................................................................................. 67
2.10.1.3. Explicit Dynamics Euler Domain Controls ..................................................................... 71
2.10.1.4. Explicit Dynamics Damping Controls ............................................................................ 73
2.10.1.5. Explicit Dynamics Erosion Controls ............................................................................... 74
2.10.1.6. Explicit Dynamics Output Controls ............................................................................... 75
2.10.1.7. Explicit Dynamics Data Management Settings .............................................................. 79
2.10.1.8. Recommendations for Analysis Settings in Explicit Dynamics ........................................ 79
2.10.2. Body Control ........................................................................................................................ 84
2.11. Define Initial Conditions ................................................................................................................ 85
2.12. Apply Loads and Supports ............................................................................................................ 86
2.12.1. Impedance Boundary ........................................................................................................... 88
2.12.2. Limit Boundary .................................................................................................................... 91
2.12.3. SPH Activation and Deactivation ........................................................................................... 93
2.12.4. Detonation Point .................................................................................................................. 93
2.12.5. Activation/Deactivation of Loads in Explicit Dynamics ........................................................... 97
2.12.6. Importing External Loads ..................................................................................................... 99
2.13. Solve ............................................................................................................................................ 99
2.13.1. Solving from Time = 0 ........................................................................................................... 99
2.13.2. Resume Capability for Explicit Dynamics Analyses ............................................................... 100
2.13.2.1. Load and Constraint Behavior when Extending Analysis End Time ............................... 101
2.13.3. Explicit Dynamics Performance in Parallel ........................................................................... 101
2.14. Postprocessing ............................................................................................................................ 102
2.14.1. Solution Output ................................................................................................................. 102
2.14.2. Result Trackers .................................................................................................................... 103
2.14.2.1. Point Scoped Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics ..................................................... 103
2.14.2.2. Body Scoped Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics ..................................................... 106
2.14.2.3. Spring Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics ............................................................... 108
2.14.2.4. Viewing and Filtering Result Tracker Graphs for Explicit Dynamics ............................... 108
2.14.2.5. Force Reaction Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics ................................................... 109
2.14.3. Review Results ................................................................................................................... 110
2.14.4. Eroded Nodes in Explicit Dynamics Analyses ....................................................................... 112
2.14.5. Euler Domain in Explicit Dynamics Analyses ........................................................................ 114
2.14.6. User Defined Results for Explicit Dynamics Analyses ............................................................ 116
2.15. Commands Objects in Explicit Dynamics ..................................................................................... 122
2.15.1. General Description ............................................................................................................ 122
2.15.2. Explicit Dynamics Commands ............................................................................................. 122
2.15.2.1. Penaltyfactor ............................................................................................................. 122
3. Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics .............................................................. 125
3.1. When Implicit Models Can be Run in Explicit .................................................................................. 125
3.2. When to Consider an Explicit Analysis ............................................................................................ 126
3.2.1. Incorrect Model Setup .......................................................................................................... 126
3.2.2. Large Deformations .............................................................................................................. 127
3.2.3. Large Contact Models ........................................................................................................... 128

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 Explicit Dynamics Analysis Guide

3.2.4. Rigid Body Deformations ...................................................................................................... 129

3.3. Setting up the Explicit Dynamics Analysis ...................................................................................... 130
3.3.1. Attaching an Explicit Dynamics System to an Existing Static Structural System ....................... 130
3.3.2. Materials .............................................................................................................................. 131
3.3.3. Meshing ............................................................................................................................... 131
3.3.3.1. Uniform Mesh Works Best ............................................................................................ 132
3.3.3.2. Midside Nodes not Used .............................................................................................. 132
3.3.3.3. Hex/Rectangular Mesh Elements most Effective ........................................................... 133
3.3.4. Contact/Connections ........................................................................................................... 133
3.3.4.1. Contacts Tab ................................................................................................................ 133
3.3.4.2. Body Interactions Tab .................................................................................................. 134
3.3.5. Boundary Conditions ............................................................................................................ 134
3.3.5.1. Adjusting Load Cases for Reasonable Run Times ........................................................... 134
3.3.5.2. Missing Boundary Conditions from Explicit Dynamics ................................................... 135
3.3.5.3. Avoiding Conflicting Boundary Conditions ................................................................... 135
3.3.5.4. Initial Conditions ......................................................................................................... 137
3.4. Analysis Settings ........................................................................................................................... 138
3.4.1. Analysis Setting Preference ................................................................................................... 138
3.4.2. Step Controls ....................................................................................................................... 138
3.4.2.1. End Time ..................................................................................................................... 138
3.4.2.2. Timestep Controls ........................................................................................................ 139
3.4.2.3. Restarting an Analysis .................................................................................................. 141
3.4.3. Solution Stability .................................................................................................................. 141
3.4.3.1. Mass Scaling ................................................................................................................ 141
3.4.3.2. Erosion ........................................................................................................................ 142
3.4.3.3. Damping .................................................................................................................... 143
3.4.4. Output Controls ................................................................................................................... 143
3.5. Solution Information ..................................................................................................................... 144
3.6. Postprocessing ............................................................................................................................. 146
3.6.1. Result Trackers ..................................................................................................................... 146
3.6.2. Result Sets ........................................................................................................................... 146
3.6.3. Improving your Simulation ................................................................................................... 147
4. Applying Pre-Stress Effects for Explicit Analysis ................................................................................ 149
4.1. Recommended Guidelines for Pre-Stress Explicit Dynamics ............................................................ 149
4.2. Pre-Stress Object Properties .......................................................................................................... 151
5. Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide ......................................................................................................... 153
5.1. Why use Explicit Dynamics? ........................................................................................................... 153
5.2. What is Explicit Dynamics? ............................................................................................................ 153
5.2.1. The Solution Strategy ........................................................................................................... 154
5.2.2. Basic Formulations ............................................................................................................... 155
5.2.2.1. Implicit Transient Dynamics ......................................................................................... 155
5.2.2.2. Explicit Transient Dynamics .......................................................................................... 156
5.2.3. Time Integration ................................................................................................................... 156
5.2.3.1. Implicit Time Integration .............................................................................................. 156
5.2.3.2. Explicit Time Integration .............................................................................................. 157
5.2.3.3. Mass Scaling ................................................................................................................ 159
5.2.4. Wave Propagation ................................................................................................................ 159
5.2.4.1. Elastic Waves ............................................................................................................... 159
5.2.4.2. Plastic Waves ............................................................................................................... 160
5.2.4.3. Shock Waves ................................................................................................................ 160
5.2.5. Reference Frame .................................................................................................................. 161

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Explicit Dynamics Analysis Guide

5.2.5.1. Lagrangian, Eulerian, and Particle Reference Frames ..................................................... 161

5.2.5.2. Eulerian (Virtual) Reference Frame in Explicit Dynamics ................................................ 163
5.2.5.2.1. Multiple Material Stress States ............................................................................. 166
5.2.5.2.2. Multiple Material Transport ................................................................................. 168
5.2.5.2.3. Supported Material Properties ............................................................................. 168
5.2.5.2.4. Known Limitations of Euler Solutions ................................................................... 168
5.2.5.3. Particle (SPH) Reference Frame in Explicit Dynamics ..................................................... 168
5.2.5.3.1. Analysis Settings for SPH ..................................................................................... 170
5.2.5.3.2. Contact ............................................................................................................... 171
5.2.5.3.3. Supported Boundary Conditions ......................................................................... 171
5.2.5.3.4. Limitations and Efficiency .................................................................................... 171
5.2.6. Explicit Fluid Structure Interaction (Euler-Lagrange Coupling) ............................................... 171
5.2.6.1. Shell Coupling ............................................................................................................. 173
5.2.6.2. Sub-cycling ................................................................................................................. 173
5.3. Analysis Settings ........................................................................................................................... 174
5.3.1. Step Controls ....................................................................................................................... 174
5.3.2. Damping Controls ................................................................................................................ 175
5.3.3. Solver Controls ..................................................................................................................... 180
5.3.4. Erosion Controls ................................................................................................................... 188
5.4. Model Size Limitations in Explicit Dynamics ................................................................................... 190
5.5. References .................................................................................................................................... 190
6. Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis .......................................................................... 193
6.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 193
6.2. Explicit Material Library ................................................................................................................. 195
6.3. Density ......................................................................................................................................... 201
6.4. Linear Elastic ................................................................................................................................. 201
6.4.1. Isotropic Elasticity ................................................................................................................ 202
6.4.2. Orthotropic Elasticity ............................................................................................................ 202
6.4.3. Viscoelastic .......................................................................................................................... 203
6.5. Test Data ....................................................................................................................................... 204
6.6. Hyperelasticity .............................................................................................................................. 204
6.7. Plasticity ....................................................................................................................................... 209
6.7.1. Bilinear Isotropic Hardening ................................................................................................. 210
6.7.2. Multilinear Isotropic Hardening ............................................................................................ 210
6.7.3. Bilinear Kinematic Hardening ............................................................................................... 211
6.7.4. Multilinear Kinematic Hardening .......................................................................................... 211
6.7.5. Johnson-Cook Strength ........................................................................................................ 212
6.7.6. Cowper-Symonds Strength ................................................................................................... 213
6.7.7. Steinberg-Guinan Strength ................................................................................................... 215
6.7.8. Zerilli-Armstrong Strength .................................................................................................... 216
6.8. Brittle/Granular ............................................................................................................................. 218
6.8.1. Drucker-Prager Strength Linear ............................................................................................ 218
6.8.2. Drucker-Prager Strength Stassi ............................................................................................. 219
6.8.3. Drucker-Prager Strength Piecewise ....................................................................................... 220
6.8.4. Johnson-Holmquist Strength Continuous ............................................................................. 221
6.8.5. Johnson-Holmquist Strength Segmented ............................................................................. 223
6.8.6. RHT Concrete Strength ......................................................................................................... 225
6.8.7. MO Granular ........................................................................................................................ 230
6.9. Equations of State ......................................................................................................................... 231
6.9.1. Background ......................................................................................................................... 232
6.9.2. Bulk Modulus ....................................................................................................................... 232

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 Explicit Dynamics Analysis Guide

6.9.3. Shear Modulus ..................................................................................................................... 232

6.9.4. Ideal Gas EOS ....................................................................................................................... 232
6.9.5. Polynomial EOS .................................................................................................................... 233
6.9.6. Shock EOS Linear .................................................................................................................. 235
6.9.7. Shock EOS Bilinear ................................................................................................................ 236
6.9.8. JWL EOS ............................................................................................................................... 238
6.10. Porosity ...................................................................................................................................... 240
6.10.1. Porosity-Crushable Foam .................................................................................................... 240
6.10.2. Compaction EOS Linear ...................................................................................................... 242
6.10.3. Compaction EOS Non-Linear .............................................................................................. 243
6.10.4. P-alpha EOS ....................................................................................................................... 245
6.11. Failure ......................................................................................................................................... 249
6.11.1. Plastic Strain Failure ............................................................................................................ 250
6.11.2. Principal Stress Failure ........................................................................................................ 250
6.11.3. Principal Strain Failure ........................................................................................................ 251
6.11.4. Stochastic Failure ............................................................................................................... 252
6.11.5. Tensile Pressure Failure ....................................................................................................... 254
6.11.6. Crack Softening Failure ....................................................................................................... 254
6.11.7. Johnson-Cook Failure ......................................................................................................... 257
6.11.8. Grady Spall Failure .............................................................................................................. 258
6.12. Strength ..................................................................................................................................... 259
6.13. Thermal Specific Heat .................................................................................................................. 259
6.14. Rigid Materials ............................................................................................................................ 260
6.15. References .................................................................................................................................. 260
7. Using the Drop Test Wizard ................................................................................................................. 261
7.1. What is the Drop Test Wizard ......................................................................................................... 261
7.2. Loading and Opening the Drop Test Wizard ................................................................................... 261
7.3. Preparing the Geometry for Use in the Drop Test Wizard ................................................................ 261
7.4. Setting up the Drop Parameters .................................................................................................... 262
7.5. Complete the Analysis ................................................................................................................... 264
7.6. Notes on Usage and Current Limitations ........................................................................................ 264
Index ........................................................................................................................................................ 267

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List of Figures
2.1. Interaction of Lumped Manual Contact Regions .................................................................................... 42
2.2. Treatment of Friction for Lumped Manual Contact ................................................................................. 43
2.3. Interaction of Pairwise Manual Contact Regions .................................................................................... 44
2.4. Treatment of Friction for Pairwise Manual Contact ................................................................................. 44
3.1. Different applications of the two solvers with respect to velocity .......................................................... 125
3.2. Example Model Run with Explicit Dynamics Showing Problem Area (right) ........................................... 127
3.3. Comparison between the implicit (left) and the explicit (right) solvers for maximum deformation val-
ues ........................................................................................................................................................... 128
3.4. Model Setup Showing Contact (left) and Boundary Conditions (right) .................................................. 128
3.5. Final Stress Values Comparison Between the Explicit (left, 3.4E10 Pa) and Implicit (right, 3.7E10 Pa) Solv-
ers ............................................................................................................................................................ 129
3.6. The Clip Model Setup in the Implicit Solver with Final Deformation Values (right) ................................. 129
3.7. The Clip Model Setup in Explicit Dynamics with Final Deformation Values (right) .................................. 130
3.8. Choices for information sharing between cells of implicit and explicit systems ..................................... 130
3.9. Meshing options menu - physics preference ........................................................................................ 132
3.10. Meshing options menu - Defaults ...................................................................................................... 133
3.11. Body Interactions Object under Connections ..................................................................................... 134
3.12. Initial Conditions Object .................................................................................................................... 138
3.13. Analysis Settings - Step Controls ........................................................................................................ 140
3.14. Default Solution Information display during solve with the estimated time remaining highlighted in
yellow ...................................................................................................................................................... 141
3.15. Example of Eroded Material in a Model Simulating a Bullet going Through a Vase (eroded elements
colored red) .............................................................................................................................................. 143
3.16. Analysis Settings - Output Controls .................................................................................................... 144
3.17. Graph of Energy Conservation for an Explicit Simulation .................................................................... 145
3.18. Deformation Graph (with respect to simulation time) and Results Table .............................................. 147
5.1. Conditions at a Moving Shock Front .................................................................................................... 161
5.2. Particle Representation for Steel Bar .................................................................................................... 169
5.3. SPH Computational Cycle .................................................................................................................... 170
5.4. Example energy conservation graph for model with symmetry plane and erosion ................................ 175
5.5. Comparison of pressure solution at a shock wave discontinuity a) using no artificial viscosity b) using the
default artificial viscosity ........................................................................................................................... 176
5.6. Effects of artificial viscosity on the solution .......................................................................................... 177
5.7. Comparison of results of a Taylor test solved using SCP, ANP and NBS Tetrahedral elements. Results using
NBS and ANP tetrahedral elements compare more favorably with experimental results than results using
SCP (see table below). ............................................................................................................................... 183
5.8. Example bending test using SCP (1), ANP (2), NBS tetrahedral (3), and hex (4) elements.The displacement
of the beam with NBS tetrahedral elements is the most similar to the beam meshed with hexahedral elements
as it does not exhibit shear locking. ........................................................................................................... 184
5.9.Taylor test: Iron cylinder impacting rigid wall at 221m/s. Good correlation between ANP and Hex element
results is obtained ..................................................................................................................................... 184
5.10. Example pull out test simulated using both hexahedral elements and ANP tetrahedral elements. Similar
plastic strains and material fracture are predicted for both element formulations used. .............................. 185
6.1. Drucker-Prager Strength Linear ........................................................................................................... 218
6.2. Drucker-Prager Strength Stassi ............................................................................................................ 219
6.3. Drucker-Prager Strength Piecewise ...................................................................................................... 220
6.4. Johnson-Holmquist Strength Model ................................................................................................... 221
6.5. Johnson-Holmquist Damage Model .................................................................................................... 222
6.6. Johnson-Holmquist Strength Segmented ............................................................................................ 224

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6.7. RHT Representation of Compressive Meridian ...................................................................................... 226

6.8.Third invariant dependence ................................................................................................................. 227
6.9. Bi-linear strain hardening function ...................................................................................................... 227
6.10. RHT Elastic, Fracture and Residual Failure Surfaces ............................................................................. 228
6.11. Fit to Shock Velocity-Particle Velocity Relationship ............................................................................. 237
6.12. Pressure as function of density for the JWL equation of state .............................................................. 238
6.13. Loading-Unloading Behavior for a Porous Solid .................................................................................. 242
6.14. Mott Distribution for Varying Values of Gamma .................................................................................. 253

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List of Tables
2.1. Example: Drop Test onto Reinforced Concrete Beam .............................................................................. 39
5.1. Characteristic Element Dimensions ..................................................................................................... 158
5.2. Typical stress strain curves for a ductile metal ...................................................................................... 160
5.3. Comparison of the performance of SCP, ANP, NBS and hex elements in a model involving bending.The
displacement of the beam with NBS tetrahedral elements is the most similar to the beam meshed with
hexahedral elements as it does not exhibit shear locking as is seen in the beams solved using SCP and ANP
tetrahedral elements. ................................................................................................................................ 183
6.1. Input Data .......................................................................................................................................... 203
6.2. Input Data .......................................................................................................................................... 215
6.3. Input Data .......................................................................................................................................... 217
6.4. Input Data .......................................................................................................................................... 219
6.5. Input Data .......................................................................................................................................... 220
6.6. Input Data .......................................................................................................................................... 221
6.7. Input Data .......................................................................................................................................... 222
6.8. Input Data .......................................................................................................................................... 224
6.9. Input Data .......................................................................................................................................... 229
6.10. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 231
6.11. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 233
6.12. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 234
6.13. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 236
6.14. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 237
6.15. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 239
6.16. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 241
6.17. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 248
6.18. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 252
6.19. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 253
6.20. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 254
6.21. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 256
6.22. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 257
6.23. Input Data ........................................................................................................................................ 258

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Chapter 1: Explicit Dynamics Analysis Guide Overview
Ansys Explicit Dynamics is a transient explicit dynamics Workbench application that can perform a
variety of engineering simulations, including the modeling of nonlinear dynamic behaviour of solids,
fluids, gases and their interaction. Additionally, the LS-DYNA extension is available to analyze a model
using the LS-DYNA solver.

A typical simulation consists of setting up the model, interactions and the applied loads, solving the
model's nonlinear dynamic response over time for the loads and interactions, then examining the details
of the response with a variety of available tools.

The Explicit Dynamics application has objects arranged in a tree structure that guide you through the
different steps of a simulation. By expanding the objects, you expose the details associated with the
object, and you can use the corresponding tools and specification tables to perform that part of the
simulation. Objects are used, for example, to define environmental conditions such as contact surfaces
and loadings, and to define the types of results you want to have available for review.

The following sections describe in detail how to use the Explicit Dynamics application to set up and
run a simulation:

• Explicit Dynamics Workflow (p. 15)

• Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics (p. 125)

• Applying Pre-Stress Effects for Explicit Analysis (p. 149)

• Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide (p. 153)

• Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis (p. 193)

For more information on solving an explicit dynamics analysis using the LS-DYNA solver see:

• *MAT_SIMPLIFIED_JOHNSON_COOK (or *MAT_098)

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Chapter 2: Explicit Dynamics Workflow
To learn how to perform an analysis, see Create Analysis System in the Mechanical User's Guide. Note
that the features available may differ from one solver to another.

To perform analyses that are beyond those available using Workbench, you can insert a Commands
object in the tree.

This chapter contains the following topics:

2.1. Introduction
2.2. Create the Analysis System
2.3. Define Engineering Data
2.4. Attach Geometry
2.5. Define Part Behavior
2.6. Define Connections
2.7. Setting Up Symmetry
2.8. Define Remote Points
2.9. Apply Mesh Controls/Preview Mesh
2.10. Establish Analysis Settings
2.11. Define Initial Conditions
2.12. Apply Loads and Supports
2.13. Solve
2.14. Postprocessing
2.15. Commands Objects in Explicit Dynamics

2.1. Introduction
You can perform a transient Explicit Dynamics analysis in the Mechanical application using an Explicit
Dynamics system. Additionally, the LS-DYNA ACT Extension is available to analyze a model using the
LS-DYNA solver. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, this section addresses both the Explicit Dy-
namics system and LS-DYNA. Special conditions for LS-DYNA are noted where pertinent.

An Explicit Dynamics analysis is used to determine the dynamic response of a structure due to stress
wave propagation, impact or rapidly changing time-dependent loads. Momentum exchange between
moving bodies and inertial effects are usually important aspects of the type of analysis being conducted.
This type of analysis can also be used to model mechanical phenomena that are highly nonlinear.
Nonlinearities may stem from the materials, (for example, hyperelasticity, plastic flows, failure), from
contact (for example, high speed collisions and impact) and from the geometric deformation (for example,
buckling and collapse). Events with time scales of less than 1 second (usually of order 1 millisecond)

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

are efficiently simulated with this type of analysis. For longer time duration events, consider using a
Transient analysis system.

The time step used in an Explicit Dynamics analysis is constrained to maintain stability and consistency
via the CFL condition (p. 157); that is, the time increment is proportional to the smallest element dimension
in the model and inversely proportional to the sound speed in the materials used. Time increments are
usually on the order of 1 microsecond and therefore thousands of time steps (computational cycles)
are usually required to obtain the solution.

An Explicit Dynamics analysis typically includes many different types of nonlinearities including large
deformations, large strains, plasticity, hyperelasticity, material failure etc.

An Explicit Dynamics analysis can contain both rigid and flexible bodies. For rigid/flexible body dynamic
simulations involving mechanisms and joints you may wish to consider using either the Transient
Structural Analysis or Rigid Dynamics Analysis options.

Note:

The intent of this document is to provide an overview of an Explicit Dynamics analysis.

Consult our technical support department to obtain a more thorough treatment of this
topic.

2.2. Create the Analysis System

For general information about creating an analysis system see Create Analysis System in the Mechanical
User's Guide.

From the Toolbox drag an Explicit Dynamics or a LS-DYNA template to the Project Schematic.

Note:

Explicit Dynamics analyses only support the mm, mg, ms solver unit system (see Solving
Units in the LS-DYNA User's Guide for supported units in an LS-DYNA analysis).

The Explicit Dynamics solver is double precision (an LS-DYNA analysis can use single or double
precision).

2.3. Define Engineering Data

For general information about defining Engineering Data, see Define Engineering Data in the Mechan-
ical User's Guide.

Material properties can be linear elastic or orthotropic. Many different forms of material nonlinearity
can be represented including hyperelasticity, rate and temperature dependent plasticity, pressure-de-
pendent plasticity, porosity, material strength degradation (damage), material fracture/failure/fragment-
ation. For a detailed discussion on material models used in Explicit Dynamics, refer to Material Models
Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis (p. 193).

Density must always be specified for materials used in an Explicit Dynamics analysis.

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Data for a range of materials is available in the Explicit material library.

Note:

In Engineering Data, temperatures defined in the Material Field Variable section are not used
by the Explicit Dynamics analysis system. In addition, elastic material data and expansion
coefficients that are temperature dependent are not taken into account. Only the first value
in the table is used for these coefficients, and you can only have one reference temperature
even if multiple materials are used in the model. If you need different reference temperatures
per material, this can be accomplished by adding an Autodyn component system to the
analysis and defining the material reference temperature information there.

2.4. Attach Geometry

For general information about attaching a geometry to a system, see Attach Geometry/Mesh in the
Mechanical User's Guide.

Solid, Surface, and Line bodies can be present in an Explicit Dynamics analysis.

Only symmetric cross sections are supported for line bodies in Explicit Dynamics analyses, except those
using the LS-DYNA ACT extension. The following cross sections are not supported: T-Sections, L-Sections,
Z-Sections, Hat sections, Channel Sections. For I-Sections, the two flanges must have the same thickness.
For rectangular tubes, opposite sides of the rectangle must be of the same thickness.

For LS-DYNA all available cross sections in DesignModeler will be exported for analysis with the LS-
DYNA solver. However, there are some limitations in the number of dimensions that the LS-DYNA
solver supports for the Z, Hat and Channel cross sections. For more information, see Attaching Geometry.

To prevent the generation of unnecessarily small elements (and long run times) try using DesignModeler
or SpaceClaim to remove unwanted "small" features or holes from your geometry.

Thickness can be specified for selected faces on a surface body by inserting a thickness object. Constant,
tabular, and functional thickness are all supported.

Stiffness Behavior

Flexible behavior can be assigned to any body type.

Rigid behavior can be applied to Solid, Surface, and Line bodies.

Coordinate System

Local Cartesian coordinate systems can be assigned to bodies. These will be used to define the material
directions when using the Orthotropic Elasticity property in a material definition. The material directions
1, 2, 3 will be aligned with the local x, y and z axes of the local coordinate system.

Note:

Cylindrical coordinate systems assigned to bodies are not supported for Explicit Dynamics
systems. Cylindrical coordinate systems are only supported to define rotational displacement
or velocity constraints.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Cylindrical coordinate systems are not supported with LS-DYNA.

Reference Temperature

This option defines the initial (time=0.0) temperature of the body.

Reference Frame

Available for solid bodies when an Explicit Dynamics system is part of the solution; the user has the
option of setting the Reference Frame to Lagrangian (default), Eulerian (Virtual) (not available for LS-
DYNA systems), or Particle. Two additional options are available for LS-DYNA systems: S-ALE Domain
and S-ALE Fill (see ALE Workflow in the LS-DYNA User's Guide for more information). Rigid Stiffness Be-
havior is only applicable for Lagrangian.

If the Particle reference frame is selected, the body needs to be meshed with a Particle meshing method
which needs to be manually inserted and scoped to the Particle body. The body will then be solved
using the SPH solver in both Explicit Dynamics and LS-DYNA systems.

Rigid Materials

For bodies defined to have rigid stiffness, only the Density property of the material associated with the
body will be used. For Explicit Dynamics systems all rigid bodies must be discretized with a Full Mesh
or the Rigid Body Behavior must be defined as Dimensionally Reduced. The Full Mesh option will be
specified by default for the Explicit meshing physics preference.

The mass and inertia of the rigid body will be derived from the elements and material density for each
body.

By default, a kinematic rigid body is defined and its motion will depend on the resultant forces and
moments applied to it through interaction with other Parts of the model. Elements filled with rigid
materials can interact with other regions via contact.

Constraints can only be applied to an entire rigid body. For example, a fixed displacement cannot be
applied to one edge of a rigid body, it must be applied to the whole body.

Note:

• 2-D Explicit Dynamics analyses are supported for Plane Strain and Axisymmetric behaviors.

2D analyses are Beta in LS-DYNA.

• Only symmetric cross-sections are supported for line bodies.

• Flexible and rigid bodies cannot be combined in Multi-body Parts. Bonded connections
can be applied to connect rigid and flexible bodies.

• The Thickness Mode and Offset Type fields for surface bodies are not supported for Ex-
plicit Dynamics systems.

Offset Type is supported for LS-DYNA.

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• Initial over-penetrations of nodes/elements of different bodies should be avoided or min-

imized if sliding contact is to be used. There are several methods available in Workbench
to remove initial penetration.

2.5. Define Part Behavior

For general information about defining parts, see Define Part Behavior in the Mechanical User's Guide.

Nonlinear effects are always accounted for in Explicit Dynamics analysis.

Parts may be defined as rigid or flexible. In the solver, rigid parts are represented by a single point that
carries the inertial properties together with a discretized exterior surface that represents the geometry.
Rigid bodies should be meshed using similar Method mesh controls as those used for flexible bodies.
The inertial properties used in the solver will be derived from the discretized representation of the body,
and the material density and hence may differ slightly from the values presented in the properties of
the body in the Mechanical application GUI.

At least one flexible body must be specified when using the Explicit Dynamics solver. The solver requires
this in order to calculate the time-step increments. In the absence of a flexible body, the time-step be-
comes underdefined. The boundary conditions allowed for the rigid bodies with Explicit Dynamics are:

• Connections

– Contact Regions: Frictionless, Frictional and Bonded.

– Body Interactions: Frictionless, Frictional and Bonded. Bonded body interactions are not sup-
ported for LS-DYNA.

– In Explicit Dynamics systems, rigid bodies may not be bonded to other rigid bodies.

• Initial Conditions: Velocity, Angular Velocity

• Supports: Displacement, Fixed Support and Velocity.

• Loads: Pressure and Force. Force is not supported for Explicit Dynamics analyses.

For an Explicit Dynamics analysis, the following postprocessing features are available for rigid bodies:

• Results and Probes: Deformation only - that is, Displacement, Velocity.

• Result Trackers: Body average data only.

If a multibody part consists only of rigid bodies, all of which share the same material assignment, the
part will act as a single rigid body, even if the individual bodies are not physically connected.

2.6. Define Connections

For general information about defining connections, see Define Connections in the Mechanical User's
Guide.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Line body to line body contact is possible subject to the following:

• Contact Detection is set to Proximity Based in the Body Interactions Details view.

• Edge on Edge is set to Yes in the Body Interactions Details view.

• The Interaction Type is defined as Frictional or Frictionless.

• LS-DYNA uses the *CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_GENERAL and *CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_SINGLE_SUR-

FACE keywords when a friction or frictionless Body Interaction is scoped to geometry that
contains line bodies. The keywords handle contacts between line bodies only, and line bodies
to other body types respectively. In the case where the Body Interaction is scoped to only line
bodies, then only the *CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_GENERAL keyword is used.

Reinforcement body interaction is supported in the case when only line bodies are scoped to a Body
Interaction of Type = Reinforcement. The line bodies will then be tied to any solid body that they
intersect. Reinforcement beams will not reinforce Particle bodies. Reinforcement body interactions are
not supported for 2D Explicit Dynamics analyses. However for LS-DYNA, Keyword Snippets under Contact
Region objects should provide a suitable alternative.

Body Interactions (p. 22), Contact (p. 40) and Spot Welds are all valid in Explicit Dynamics analyses.
Frictional, Frictionless and Bonded body interactions and contact options are available. Conditionally
bonded contact can be simulated using the breakable property of each bonded region. Spot Welds can
also be made to fail using the breakable property. Contact Regions and Spot Welds cannot be scoped
to Particle bodies (for LS-DYNA only Contact Regions of type No Separation or Rough cannot be scoped
to Particle bodies). Bonded Contact is not supported for Particle reference frames.

Joints and Beam connections are not supported for Explicit Dynamics analyses. The Contact Tool is also
not applicable to Explicit Dynamics analyses.

For LS-DYNA, bonded body interactions are not supported. Also, Contact Region objects with Auto
Asymmetric Behavior or just Asymmetric Behavior are treated the same. Symmetric Behavior will
create a _SURFACE_TO_SURFACE keyword for the contact and an Asymmetric Behavior will create a
_NODES_TO_SURFACE keyword.

Bonded contact is not supported in an Explicit Dynamics analysis for bodies that have their Reference
Frame set to Eulerian (Virtual). A solver warning is shown to let the user know that such bodies will be
ignored for bonds. Bonded contact is not support in a 2D Explicit Dynamics analysis.

To avoid hourglassing problems, remote points can be used if there are only a few nodes active in the
bond definition.

Bonds are not recommended for joining tetrahedral meshes. Use multibodied parts or remote points
instead.

By default, a Body Interaction object will be automatically inserted in the Mechanical application tree
and will be scoped to all bodies in the model. This object activates frictionless contact behavior between
all bodies that come into proximity during the analysis.

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2.6.1. Spot Welds in Explicit Dynamics Analyses

Spot welds provide a mechanism to rigidly connect two discrete points in a model and can be used
to represent welds, rivets, bolts, etc. The points usually belong to two different surfaces and are
defined on the geometry (see DesignModeler or SpaceClaim help).

During the solver initialization process, the two points defining each spot weld will be connected by
a rigid beam element. Additionally, rigid beam elements will be generated on each surface to enable
transfer of rotations at the spot weld location (see figure below). If the point of the spot weld lies on
a shell body, both translational and rotational degrees of freedom will be linked at the connecting
point. If the point of the spot weld lies on a surface of a solid body, additional rigid beam elements
will be generated to enable transfer of rotations at the spot weld location.

Spot welds can be released during a simulation using the Breakable Stress or Force option. If the
stress criteria is selected the user will be asked to define an effective cross sectional area. This is used
to convert the defined stress limits into equivalent force limits. A spot weld will break (release) if the
following criteria is exceeded:

(2.1)

Where:

fn and fs are normal and shear interface forces

Sn and Ss are the maximum allowed normal and shear force limits

n and s are user defined exponential coefficients

Note that the normal interface force f n is non-zero for tensile values only.

After failure of the spot weld the rigid body connecting the points is removed from the simulation.

Spot welds of zero length are permitted. However, if such spot welds are defined as breakable the
above failure criteria is modified since local normal and shear directions cannot be defined. A modified
criteria is used with global forces:

(2.2)

Where, are the force differences across the spot weld in the global coordinate system.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Note:

A spot weld is equivalent to a rigid body and as such multiple nodal boundary conditions
cannot be applied to spot welds.

2.6.2. Body Interactions in Explicit Dynamics Analyses

Within an Explicit Dynamics analysis, the body interaction feature represents contact between bodies
and includes settings that allow you to control these interactions. If the geometry you use has two
or more bodies in contact, a Body Interactions object folder appears by default under Connections
in the tree. Included in a Body Interactions folder are one or more Body Interaction objects, with
each object representing a contact pair.

You can also manually add these two objects:

• To add a Body Interactions folder, highlight the Connections folder and choose Body Interactions
from the Connect group in the Context tab. A Body Interactions folder is added and includes one
Body Interaction object.

• To add a Body Interaction object to an existing Body Interactions folder, highlight the Connections
folder, the Body Interactions folder, or an existing Body Interaction object, and choose Body
Interaction from the Connect group in the Context tab.

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General Notes
Each Body Interaction object activates an interaction for the bodies scoped in the object. With body
interactions, contact detection is completely automated in the solver. At any time point during the
analysis any node of the bodies scoped in the interaction may interact with any face of the bodies
scoped in the interaction. The interactions are automatically detected during the solution.

The default frictionless interaction type that is scoped to all bodies activates frictionless contact
between any external node and face that may come into contact in the model during the analysis.

To improve the efficiency of analyses involving large number of bodies, you are advised to suppress
the default frictionless interaction that is scoped to all bodies, and instead insert additional Body In-
teraction objects which limit interactions to specific bodies. The union of all frictional/frictionless
body interactions defines the matrix of possible body interactions during the analysis.

For example, in the model shown below:

• Body A is traveling towards body B and we require frictional contact to occur. A frictional body
interaction type scoped only to bodies A and B will achieve this. Body A will not come close to
body C during the analysis so it does not need to be included in the interaction.

• Body B is bonded to body C. A bonded body interaction type, scoped to bodies B and C will achieve
this.

• If the bond between bodies B and C breaks during the analysis, we want frictional contact to take
place between bodies B and C. A frictional body interaction type scoped only to bodies B and C
will achieve this.

A bonded body interaction type can be applied in addition to a frictional/frictionless body interaction.

A reinforcement body interaction type be can be applied in addition to a frictional/frictionless body

interaction.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Object property settings are included in the Details view for both the Body Interactions folder and
the individual Body Interaction objects. Refer to the following sections for descriptions of these
properties.
2.6.2.1. Properties for Body Interactions Folder
2.6.2.2. Interaction Type Properties for Body Interaction Object
2.6.2.3. Identifying Body Interactions Regions for a Body
2.6.2.4. Additional Considerations for Robust Contact between Particle Bodies and Lagrange Bodies

2.6.2.1. Properties for Body Interactions Folder

All properties for the Body Interactions folder are included in an Advanced category and define
the global properties of the contact algorithm for the analysis. These properties are applied to all
Body Interaction objects and to all frictional (p. 33) and frictionless (p. 33) manual contact regions.

This section includes descriptions of the following properties for the Body Interactions folder:
2.6.2.1.1. Contact Detection
2.6.2.1.2. Formulation
2.6.2.1.3. Sliding Contact
2.6.2.1.4. Manual Contact Treatment
2.6.2.1.5. Shell Thickness Factor and Nodal Shell Thickness
2.6.2.1.6. Body Self Contact
2.6.2.1.7. Element Self Contact
2.6.2.1.8.Tolerance
2.6.2.1.9. Pinball Factor
2.6.2.1.10.Time Step Safety Factor
2.6.2.1.11. Limiting Time Step Velocity
2.6.2.1.12. Edge on Edge Contact

2.6.2.1.1. Contact Detection

The available choices are described below.

Trajectory

The trajectory of nodes and faces included in frictional or frictionless contact are tracked during
the computation cycle. If the trajectory of a node and a face intersects during the cycle a contact
event is detected.

The trajectory contact algorithm is the default and recommended option in most cases for contact
in Explicit Dynamics analyses. Contacting nodes/faces can be initially separated or coincident at
the start of the analysis. Trajectory based contact detection does not impose any constraint on
the analysis time step and therefore often provides the most efficient solution.

Note that nodes which penetrate into another element at the start of the simulation will be ignored
for the purposes of contact and thus should be avoided. To generate duplicate conforming nodes
across a contact interface:

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1. Use the multibody part option in DesignModeler and set Shared Topology to Imprint.

2. For meshing, use Contact Sizing , the Arbitrary match control or the Match mesh Where
Possible option of the Patch Independent mesh method.

Proximity Based

The external faces, edges and nodes of a mesh are encapsulated by a contact detection zone. If
during the analysis a node enters this detection zone, it will be repelled using a penalty-based
force.

Note:

• An additional constraint is applied to the analysis time step when this contact de-
tection algorithm is selected. The time step is constrained such that a node cannot
travel through a fraction of the contact detection zone size in one cycle. The fraction
is defined by the Time Step Safety Factor (p. 32) described below. For analyses in-
volving high velocities, the time step used in the analysis is often controlled by the
contact algorithm.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• The initial geometry/mesh must be defined such that there is a physical gap/separ-
ation of at least the contact detection zone size between nodes and faces in the
model. The solver will give error messages if this criteria is not satisfied. This con-
straint means this option may not be practical for very complex assemblies.

• Proximity Based Contact is not supported in 2D Explicit Dynamics analyses.

2.6.2.1.2. Formulation
This property is available if Contact Detection is set to Trajectory.

The available choices are described below.

Penalty

If contact is detected, a local penalty force is calculated to push the node involved in the contact
event back to the face. Equal and opposite forces are calculated on the nodes of the face in order
to conserve linear and angular momentum.

Trajectory based penalty force,

Proximity based penalty force,

Where:

D is the depth of penetration

M is the effective mass of the node (N) and face (F)

Δt is the simulation time step

Note:

• Kinetic energy is not necessarily conserved. You can track conservation of energy
in contact using the Solution Information object, the Solution Output, or one of
the energy summary result trackers.

• The applied penalty force will push the nodes back towards the true contact position
during the cycle. However, it will usually take several cycles to satisfy the contact
condition.

Decomposition Response

All contacts that take place at the same point in time are first detected. The response of the system
to these contact events is then calculated to conserve momentum and energy. During this process,

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 Define Connections

forces are calculated to ensure that the resulting position of nodes and faces does not result in
further penetration at that time point.

Note:

• The decomposition response algorithm cannot be used in combination with bonded

contact regions. The formulation will be automatically switch to penalty if bonded
regions are present in the model.

• The decomposition response algorithm is more impulsive (in a given cycle) than the
penalty method. This can give rise to large hourglass energies and energy errors.

2.6.2.1.3. Sliding Contact

This option is available if Contact Detection is set to Trajectory.

When a contact event is detected part way through a cycle and the contact node has a tangential
velocity relative to the face it has made contact with, the node needs to slide along the face for
the remainder of the cycle. If the node should slide to the edge of the face before the end of the
cycle, it is necessary to determine whether the node needs to begin to slide along an adjacent
face. Two options described below are available for determining which (if any) face the node
needs to slide to.

Discrete Surface

When a node slides to the edge of a face, the next face the node needs to slide on is determined
using the contact detection algorithm. This option is the default and will provide the most time
efficient solution. However, penetrations of nodes may be seen in situations where the faces that
the nodes are sliding on are experiencing large deformations or rotations. When such penetrations
occur, it is recommended the user switches to the Connected Surface option.

Connected Surface

When a node slides to the edge of a face, the next face the node needs to slide on is determined
using the mesh connectivity.

2.6.2.1.4. Manual Contact Treatment

This option is available if Sliding Contact is set to Connected Surface. It determines how combin-
ations of manual contact regions and body interactions are handled in the Explicit Dynamics
solver. Options are Pairwise and Lumped. When Lumped is selected, all regions that are scoped
to a manual contact region are free to contact with each other. When Pairwise is selected, contact
can only occur between a node and a face if the node appears in the contact scoping and the
face in the target scoping of the same manual contact region. This is explained further in Manual
Contact Regions in Explicit Dynamics Analyses (p. 40).

2.6.2.1.5. Shell Thickness Factor and Nodal Shell Thickness

These properties are available if the geometry includes one or more surface bodies and if Contact
Detection is set to Trajectory.

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The Shell Thickness Factor allows you to control the effective thickness of surface bodies used
in the contact. The value of the factor must be between 0.0 and 1.0, and determines the amount
of the shell thickness that is taken into account for the interaction distance. Typically, a value of
0.0 or 1.0 should be chosen.

Interaction in the solver is always taking place between a node and a face (contact surface). You
can enable two (complementary) algorithms to take the shell thickness into account:

1. Shell thickness for the faces which will offset the faces

2. Shell thickness for the nodes which creates a "sphere" around the node

In order to use one or both of these thickness algorithms you can:

1. Set the shell thickness factor to a value other than zero to activate the shell thickness algorithm
for the faces

2. Enable nodal shell thickness to activate the shell thickness algorithm for the nodes, in addition
to shell thickness for the faces

Interaction Behavior with Shell Thickness

Setting the factor to a value other than zero means that the contact surface is positioned at (0.5
x shell thickness x factor) on both sides of the shell mid plane.

A factor of 0.0 means that the shell has no contact thickness and the contact surface is positioned
at the shell mid plane. Note that with this setting the nodal shell thickness can not be activated
separately.

The contact area of a node depends on the setting for Nodal Shell Thickness. If it is set to No,
the node is always located at the mid-surface of the shell (Situation I (p. 28)). If it is set to Yes,
the node is located at a spherical distance of half the thickness away from the physical node
location (Situation II (p. 29)).

Situation I

Two shell parts with thickness δ1 and δ2 will not contact at a distance of (δ1/2 + δ2/2), but at a
distance which is half of the largest shell thickness as is depicted below.

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Note that for shell node on solid face impacts, the node will be able to get to within zero distance
of the solid face; the thickness for the shell nodes will not be taken into account. The solid nodes
will, however, find the shell faces at contact distance.

Situation II

By enabling the nodal shell thickness, two shell parts will contact at a distance of (δ1/2 + δ2/2).
From a physical point of view this is correct, as can be seen in the picture below.

Note:

Care should be taken for nodes that are on or close to a free edge of the shell surface
because the node may find contact in an unexpected manner due to the spherical
contact around these nodes. This is shown below in a 2D manner, where for example
node 1 and 2 have an additional contact area which extends beyond the geometry.

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When set to Program Controlled, the behavior of nodal shell thickness is determined by the
Analysis Settings Preference Type (p. 79).

2.6.2.1.6. Body Self Contact

When set to Yes, the contact detection algorithm will check for external nodes of a body contacting
with faces of the same body in addition to other bodies. This is the most robust option since all
possible external contacts should be detected.

When set to No, the contact detection algorithm will only check for external nodes of a body
contacting with external faces of other bodies. This setting reduces the number of possible contact
events and can therefore improve efficiency of the analysis. This option should not be used if a
body is likely to fold onto itself during the analysis, as it would during plastic buckling for example.

When set to Program Controlled, the behavior of self contact is determined by the Analysis
Settings Preference Type (p. 79).

Presented below is an example of a model that includes self impact.

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2.6.2.1.7. Element Self Contact

When set to Yes, automatic erosion (removal of elements) is enabled when an element deforms
such that one of its nodes comes within a specified distance of one of its faces. In this situation,
elements are removed before they become degenerated. Element self contact is very useful for
impact penetration examples where removal of elements is essential to allow generation of a
hole in a structure. Element removal through Element Self Contact is only activated when one
of the erosion options under Erosion Controls is also set to Yes.

When set to Program Controlled, the behavior of self contact is determined by the Analysis
Settings Preference Type (p. 79).

2.6.2.1.8. Tolerance
This property is available if Contact Detection is set to Trajectory and Element Self Contact is
set to Yes.

Tolerance defines the size of the detection zone for element self contact when the trajectory
contact option is used (see Element Self Contact (p. 31)). The value input is a factor in the range
0.1 to 0.5. This factor is multiplied by the smallest characteristic dimension of the elements in
the mesh to give a physical dimension. A setting of 0.5 effectively equates to 50% of the smallest
element dimension in the model.

Note:

The smaller the fraction the more accurate the solution.

2.6.2.1.9. Pinball Factor

This property is available if Contact Detection is set to Proximity Based.

The pinball factor defines the size of the detection zone for proximity based contact. The value
input is a factor in the range 0.1 to 0.5. This factor is multiplied by the smallest characteristic di-

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

mension of the elements in the mesh to give a physical dimension. A setting of 0.5 effectively
equates to 50% of the smallest element dimension in the model.

Note:

The smaller the fraction the more accurate the solution. The time step in the analysis
could be reduced significantly if small values are used (see Time Step Safety
Factor (p. 32)).

2.6.2.1.10. Time Step Safety Factor

This property is available if Contact Detection is set to Proximity Based.

For proximity based contact, the time step used in the analysis is additionally constrained by
contact such that in one cycle, a node in the model cannot travel more than the detection zone
size, multiplied by a safety factor. The safety factor is defined with this property and the recom-
mended default is 0.2. Increasing the factor may increase the time step and hence reduce runtimes,
but may also lead to missed contacts. The maximum value you can specify is 0.5.

2.6.2.1.11. Limiting Time Step Velocity

This property is available if Contact Detection is set to Proximity Based.

For proximity based contact, this setting limits the maximum velocity that will be used to compute
the proximity based contact time step calculation.

2.6.2.1.12. Edge on Edge Contact

This property is available if Contact Detection is set to Proximity Based.

By default, contact events in Explicit Dynamics are detected by nodes impacting faces. Use this
option to extend the contact detection to include discrete edges impacting other edges in the
model.

Note:

This option is numerically intensive and can significantly increase runtimes. It is recom-
mended that you compare results with and without edge contact to make sure this
feature is required.

A model with edge on edge contact cannot be run in parallel.

2.6.2.2. Interaction Type Properties for Body Interaction Object

This section includes descriptions of the interaction types for the Body Interaction object:
2.6.2.2.1. Frictionless Type
2.6.2.2.2. Frictional Type
2.6.2.2.3. Bonded Type

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 Define Connections

2.6.2.2.4. Reinforcement Type

Note:

Only these four types of contact are permitted for Explicit Dynamic analyses.

2.6.2.2.1. Frictionless Type

Setting Type to Frictionless activates frictionless sliding contact between any exterior node and
any exterior face of the scoped bodies. Individual contact events are detected and tracked during
the analysis. The contact is symmetric between bodies (that is, each node will belong to a target
face impacted by adjacent contact nodes; each node will also act as a contact impacting a target
face).

Supported Connections

Explicit Dynamics

Connection Geometry Volume Shell Line Particle

Volume Yes Yes Yes Yes
Shell Yes Yes Yes Yes
[a]
Line Yes Yes Yes No
Particle Yes Yes No No
[a] Only for Contact Detection = Proximity Based, and Edge on Edge Contact = Yes (This option
switches on contact between ALL lines / bodies / edges; that is, there is no dependence
on the scoping selection of body interactions)

LS-DYNA

Connection Geometry Volume Shell Line Particle

Volume Yes Yes No Yes
Shell Yes Yes No Yes
Line No No No No
Particle Yes Yes No No

2.6.2.2.2. Frictional Type

Setting Type to Frictional activates frictional sliding contact between any exterior node and any
exterior face of the scoped bodies. Individual contact events are detected and tracked during
the simulation. The contact is symmetric between bodies (that is, each node will belong to a
target face impacted by adjacent contact nodes; each node will also act as a contact impacting
a target face).

Friction Coefficient: A non-zero value will activate Coulomb type friction between bodies (F =
μR).

The relative velocity (ν) of sliding interfaces can influence frictional forces. A dynamic frictional
formulation for the coefficient of friction can be used.
(2.3)

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

where

= friction coefficient

= dynamic coefficient of friction

β = exponential decay coefficient

ν = relative sliding velocity at point of contact

Non-zero values of the Dynamic Coefficient and Decay Constant should be used to apply dy-
namic friction.

Supported Connections

Explicit Dynamics

Connection Geometry Volume Shell Line Particle

Volume Yes Yes Yes Yes
Shell Yes Yes Yes Yes
[a]
Line Yes Yes Yes No
Particle Yes Yes No No
[a] Only for Contact Detection = Proximity Based, and Edge on Edge Contact = Yes (This option
switches on contact between ALL lines / bodies / edges; that is, there is no dependence
on the scoping selection of body interactions)

LS-DYNA

Connection Geometry Volume Shell Line Particle

Volume Yes Yes No Yes
Shell Yes Yes No Yes
Line No No No No
Particle Yes Yes No No

2.6.2.2.3. Bonded Type

Setting Type to Bonded activates bonded contact between exterior nodes and exterior faces of
the scoped bodies or regions. The node-face pairs that are considered to be bonded during the
simulation are detected at initialization. During the analysis the node in each node-face pair is
kept at the same relative position to the face to which it is bonded. This is done by means of
penalty forces which can be dependent on either the mass of the nodes/faces or the stiffness of
the material.

The Bonded Contact Region options pertinent to an Explicit Dynamics analysis are discussed in
the remainder of this section.

Maximum Offset

The Maximum Offset value specifies the tolerance used at initialization to determine whether a
node is bonded to a face. This is done using an automatic search algorithm which searches for

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the minimum distance from a node in a bonded region to all of the faces in the bonded region.
If this minimum distance falls within the Maximum Offset value, the bond pair will be established.
In order to compute the proper distance to a face the algorithm will determine if the perpendic-
ular projection to the face falls within the face. If that is not the case, the perpendicular projection
to the face edges is considered. If that is not the case, the distance to one of the face nodes is
considered. This algorithm guarantees that a minimum distance is always found and can be
properly compared against the value input for Maximum Offset.

Note:

It is important to select an appropriate value for the Maximum Offset. The automatic
search will bond everything together which is found within this value using the
method described above. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the Maximum
Offset it is not so large as to generate undesired bonded node-face pairs. Also, partic-
ular attention to the Maximum Offset value may be needed when setting up bonds
including bodies with Reference Frame of type Particle. In this case, ensure that the
Maximum Offset is large enough to capture the desired Particle nodes which may
be half a particle diameter from the geometry exterior surface, but not too large such
that undesired particles are bonded.

You can use the custom variable BOND_STATUS to check the bonded node-face pairs in an Explicit
Dynamics analysis (not available in LS-DYNA analyses). This variable records the number of nodes
bonded to the faces on an element during the analysis. This can be used to verify that the Max-
imum Offset is set appropriately in order to generate the desired bonded node-face pairs.

In addition to the BOND_STATUS variable, additional verification of the initialized bonds can be
done by inspection of the prt file. A summary is given which lists the number of candidate
nodes for bonding and the actual number of nodes that were bonded. If the percentage of nodes
to be bonded is 0% it means none of the nodes are actually bonded. You should consider increas-
ing the Maximum Offset in this case.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Breakable

If the Breakable option is set to No, then the bonds generated at initialization will be active for
the entire analysis.

If the Breakable option is set to Stress Criteria, then the bond may break (or be released) during
the analysis. The criteria for breaking a bond is defined as:

(2.4)

where

= the value entered for Normal Stress Limit

n = the value entered for Normal Stress Exponent

= the value entered for Shear Stress Limit

m = the value entered for Shear Stress Exponent

In Explicit Dynamics analyses, the BOND_STATUS variable can be used to identify bonds that
have broken during the simulation.

Behavior

The Behavior option can be used as described in Behavior with some of the exceptions as dis-
cussed below..

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In an Explicit Dynamics analysis Auto Asymmetric behavior is dependent on the type of scoping:

• Bonded connections with only faces scoped will behave symmetrically.

• All other bonded connections (if the Contact or Target is scoped to a vertex or edge) will
behave asymmetrically.

Note that the generation of bonded node-face pairs at initialization is also dependent on the
Behavior option:

Internal out-of-plane tolerance

• For symmetric bond behavior the perpendicular projection of a node to a face has to
fall within the face bounds otherwise the bond pair is disregarded a candidate.

• For asymmetric bond behavior the perpendicular projection of a node to a face does
not have to fall within the face bounds in order to be considered as a candidate.

• For both types of behavior the Maximum offset is always taken into account.

• If needed, a symmetric bond definition can also be changed to search out-of-plane

by taking the following steps:

– Set the definition to Asymmetric in order to search out-of-plane

– Duplicate the definition of the bond object (right-click operation)

– Subsequently "flip" Contact and Target (right-click operation)

Effectively, you have created a symmetric definition (Contact->Target, Target->Contact)

and bonds will be searched out of plane.

Bond definitions referring to a single part

• Symmetric bonds are disregarded for definitions that scope to a single part.

• Asymmetric bonds are considered for definitions that scope to a single part.

Trim Contact

The Trim Contact option is ignored by the Explicit solver.

Calculation of Penalty Forces

During the analysis the nodes are kept at the same relative position on the face to which they
are bonded. This is done by means of penalty forces which are either dependent on the mass of
the nodes/faces or the stiffness of the material. The stiffness is weighted based on materials on
either side of the bond. In models with mass scaling the penalty method is chosen based on the
mass scaling setting:

• Mass scaling off: Penalty method based on harmonic mass in the bonded pair.

• Mass scaling on: Penalty method based on harmonic stiffness in the bonded pair.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Origin of Model Mass Scaling Mass Scaling

Off On
Any Workbench project opened in R18.0 or Harmonic Mass Harmonic
later Stiffness

Note:

The stiffness weighted penalty method is typically superior to a mass weighted penalty
and increases the robustness of (offset) bonds. By switching on mass scaling and still
using a small target timestep (eg 1e-20) no mass will be added, but the penalty
method will be switched to harmonic stiffness.

When large material stiffness occurs between two materials that are bonded, it is re-
commended that you use an asymmetric definition where the contact scope (nodes
to be bonded) refers to the soft material and the target scope (faces to bond to) refers
to the stiffer material.

Supported Connections

Explicit Dynamics

Connection Geometry Volume Shell Line Particle

Volume Yes Yes Yes No
Shell Yes Yes Yes No
Line Yes Yes Yes No
Particle Yes Yes No No

Note:

Bonded body interactions and contact are not supported for 2D Explicit Dynamics
analyses.

LS-DYNA

The matrix below is valid only for Contact Regions. Bonded body interactions are not supported
at all.

Connection Geometry Volume Shell Line Particle

Volume Yes Yes No Yes
Shell Yes Yes No Yes
Line Yes Yes No No
Particle Yes Yes No No

2.6.2.2.4. Reinforcement Type

This body interaction type is used to apply discrete reinforcement to solid bodies. All line bodies
scoped to the object will be flagged as potential discrete reinforcing bodies in the solver. On

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 Define Connections

initialization of the solver, all elements of the line bodies scoped to the object which are contained
within any solid body in the model will be converted to discrete reinforcement. Elements which
lie outside all volume bodies will remain as standard line body elements.

The reinforcing beam nodes will be constrained to stay at the same initial parametric location
within the volume element where they reside during element deformation. Typical applications
involve reinforced concrete or reinforced rubber structures like tires and hoses.

If the volume element to which a reinforcing node is tied is eroded, the beam node bonding
constraint is removed and becomes a free beam node.

On erosion of a reinforcing beam element node, if inertia is retained the node will remain tied
to the parametric location of the volume element. If inertia is not retained, the node will also be
eroded.

Note:

Volume elements that are intersected by reinforcement beams, but do not contain a
beam node, will not be experiencing any reinforced beam forces. Good modeling
practice is therefore to have the element size of the beams similar or less than that
of the volume elements.

Table 2.1: Example: Drop Test onto Reinforced Concrete Beam

Note that the target solid bodies do not need to be scoped to this object – these will be identified
automatically by the solver on initialization.

Supported Connections

Explicit Dynamics

Connection Geometry Volume Shell Line Particle

[a]
Volume No No Yes No
Shell No No No No
[a]
Line Yes No No No

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Connection Geometry Volume Shell Line Particle

Particle No No No No
[a] Only the line body needs to be included in the scope. The Explicit Dynamics solver auto-
matically detects which volume bodies that the line body passes through.

Note:

Reinforcement body interactions are not supported for 2D Explicit Dynamics analyses.

LS-DYNA

Connection Geometry Volume Shell Line Particle

[a]
Volume No No Yes No
Shell No No No No
[a]
Line Yes No No No
Particle No No No No
[a] Only the line body needs to be included in the scope. The Explicit Dynamics solver auto-
matically detects which volume bodies that the line body passes through.

Note:

Reinforcement body interactions are not supported for 2D LS-DYNA analyses.

2.6.2.3. Identifying Body Interactions Regions for a Body

See the description for Body Interactions for Selected Bodies in the section Correlating Tree Outline
Objects with Model Characteristics in the Mechanical User's Guide.

2.6.2.4. Additional Considerations for Robust Contact between Particle Bodies

and Lagrange Bodies
To ensure there are no missed contacts between particle bodies and Lagrange and shell bodies,
the distribution of particles created as a result of a Particle Mesh Method needs to be inspected
for initial penetrations into neighboring Lagrange or shell bodies. Particles that are initially penetrated
may miss contact with neighboring bodies throughout the simulation. For example, this may be
particularly evident when using particles to model liquids inside curved Lagrangian or shell contain-
ers. If the mesh is not sufficiently fine on the container, the mesh may be such that particles are
generated that reside outside the meshed container. When inspecting for initially penetrated
particles with neighboring shell bodies, the shell thickness must be taken into consideration.

2.6.3. Manual Contact Regions in Explicit Dynamics Analyses

In addition to Body Interaction (p. 22) objects, contact regions can be defined in an Explicit Dynamics
analysis using manual Contact Regions. They can be used to define Bonded, Frictional, and Frictionless
contacts. For setting up Bonded Contact Regions, see the information regarding Bonded Body Inter-
actions in Bonded Type (p. 34). For Frictional and Frictionless Contact Regions, the contact behavior
is determined by a combination of the settings in the Body Interactions object (if it exists – if it does

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not the default contact settings are used), and the settings in each Contact Region. The sections below
describe the expected behavior in Explicit Dynamics depending on the settings. These sections do
not apply to the LS-DYNA solver.

In addition to the rules governing the scoping for manual contact regions in other analysis types,
there are some additional rules for the scoping supported in an Explicit Dynamics analysis. These
rules depend on the overall contact settings defined in the Body Interactions object and are described
in section Manual Contact Region Behavior for Proximity Based Contact and Trajectory Contact with
Discrete Sliding or Manual Contact Treatment set to Lumped (p. 41) and Manual Contact Region Be-
havior for Trajectory Contact with Connected Surface Sliding and Manual Contact Treatment set to
Pairwise (p. 43).

Manual contact regions are additive to any contact defined through Body Interaction objects; they
do not override the behavior defined in Body Interaction objects.

Note:

Frictional (p. 33) and Frictionless (p. 33) Manual Contact Regions cannot be scoped to
Particle bodies in Explicit Dynamics analyses. For LS-DYNA, the Manual Contact Region can
be applied to Particle bodies if the contact bodies are scoped such that the Particle body
is the Target body.

The Explicit Dynamics solver handles manual contact regions based on the options selected in the
Body Interactions object. Note that the discussion that follows is about manual Contact Region
behavior, but the settings that affect the behavior are found in the Body Interactions object. If no
Body Interactions object is present, the default options for Body Interactions are used. The different
behaviors are described in the following sections.
2.6.3.1. Manual Contact Region Behavior for Proximity Based Contact and Trajectory Contact with Discrete
Sliding or Manual Contact Treatment set to Lumped
2.6.3.2. Manual Contact Region Behavior for Trajectory Contact with Connected Surface Sliding and Manual
Contact Treatment set to Pairwise

2.6.3.1. Manual Contact Region Behavior for Proximity Based Contact and Tra-
jectory Contact with Discrete Sliding or Manual Contact Treatment set to Lumped
The behavior described below is expected for contact detection in the following scenarios:

• Contact Detection set to Proximity Based

• Contact Detection set to Trajectory and either:

– Sliding Contact set to Discrete Surface

– Sliding Contact set to Connected Surface and Manual Contact Treatment set to Lumped

The scoping supported with these contact settings are:

• The Contact scoping and the Target scoping are both of type Face or Element Face.

• The Contact scoping and the Target scoping are both of type Body.

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All faces and nodes in the scoping of any manual contact region or any Body Interaction object
are all able to find contact with one another. Therefore, a node in the scoping of one contact region
may find contact with a face in the scoping of a different contact region. See Figure 2.1: Interaction
of Lumped Manual Contact Regions (p. 42) for further explanation.

Figure 2.1: Interaction of Lumped Manual Contact Regions

Manual contact regions are defined A) between the lower face of Body 1 and the upper face of Body 3;
B) between the lower face of Body 2 and the upper face of Body 3; C) between the rightmost face of
Body 1 and the leftmost face of Body 2. In this scenario the Explicit Dynamics solver will also search for
contact events between the upper face of Body 3 and the rightmost face of Body 1 and the leftmost face
of Body 2 even though those interactions have not been explicitly defined with manual contact regions.

The Symmetry Behavior option and Trim Contact option of all manual contact regions are ignored.

Friction coefficients are stored per pairs of bodies in the solver, and not per pair of contact scopings.
Therefore, if a manual contact region has Contact scoped to faces on Body A, and the Target is
scoped to faces on Body B, the friction coefficient defined for this manual contact region will be
use for any contact between Body A and Body B. Care should be taken when defining friction
coefficients, and a warning message will be issued if any manual contact region overwrites the
friction coefficients set by another manual contact region or by a Body Interaction object. See
Figure 2.2: Treatment of Friction for Lumped Manual Contact (p. 43) for further explanation.

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Figure 2.2: Treatment of Friction for Lumped Manual Contact

In this example consisting of two parts (the ball and the slide), three contact regions are defined. Contact
Region 1 is frictionless, but Contact Region 2 and Contact Region 3 are frictional. As friction is only stored
in Explicit Dynamics per pair of parts and not per contact region, all the contact events detected during
the solve will be treated as frictional. This includes the contact events detected between the scoping in
Contact Region 1 which was defined as frictionless.

Frictional forces are computed as described in Frictional Type (p. 33).

2.6.3.2. Manual Contact Region Behavior for Trajectory Contact with Connected
Surface Sliding and Manual Contact Treatment set to Pairwise
The behavior described here is expected when the Contact Detection is set to Trajectory, the
Sliding Contact is set to Connected Surface, and the Manual Contact Treatment is set to Pairwise.

The scoping supported with these contact settings are:

• The Target scoping must be either of type Face or Element Face, or type Body.

• The Contact scoping may be of types Vertex, Edge, Face, Element Face, or Body.

The detected contact events respect the pairwise nature of the manual contact regions. Therefore
if a node is in the scoping of the Contact of one manual contact region, and a face is in the scoping
of the Target of a different manual contact region, but not in the first manual contact region, then
the node will not find contact with the face. See Figure 2.3: Interaction of Pairwise Manual Contact
Regions (p. 44) for further explanation.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Figure 2.3: Interaction of Pairwise Manual Contact Regions

Manual contact regions are defined A) between the lower face of Body 1 and the upper face of Body 3;
B) between the lower face of Body 2 and the upper face of Body 3; C) between the rightmost face of
Body 1 and the leftmost face of Body 2. In this scenario the Explicit solver will not search for contact
events between the upper face of Body 3 and the rightmost face of Body 1 and the leftmost face of Body
2. Note that this is in contrast to the treatment described in Figure 2.1: Interaction of Lumped Manual
Contact Regions (p. 42).

The Symmetry Behavior option is respected, but the Trim Contact option of all contact regions
is ignored.

Friction coefficients are stored per contact region and per Body Interaction object in the solver.
Therefore, the model described in Figure 2.4: Treatment of Friction for Pairwise Manual Contact (p. 44)
will behave from a friction perspective as defined in the model setup. A solver setup error message
is issued if conflicting friction coefficients are defined between any pair of nodes and faces in all
of the scopings to manual contact regions and Body Interaction objects in the model.

Figure 2.4: Treatment of Friction for Pairwise Manual Contact

In this example a frictional manual contact region is defined between the ball and slide. In addition, a
Body Interaction is created which is scoped to all bodies and is frictionless. In this scenario the Explicit

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 Define Connections

solver will issue a solver setup error because two different types of friction behavior have been defined
between the surface of the ball and the surface of the slide.

Frictional forces are computed as described in Frictional Type (p. 33).

Note:

The Pairwise option for Manual Contact Treatment is not fully supported in the Autodyn
user interface. If a model with the above settings is transferred to Autodyn, limited pre-
processing will be available.

2.6.4. Joints in an Explicit Dynamics Analysis

In an Explicit Dynamics analysis joint definitions between bodies can be taken into account by means
of an abstraction. General information about joints is described here Joints. This section describes
Joint information specific to an Explicit Dynamics analysis.

A video demonstrating the capabilities of Joint modeling in an Explicit Dynamics system can be found
here.

2.6.4.1. Joint Solver

Models that are setup to run with the Explicit Dynamics solver often contain mechanisms that we
refer to as joint systems. These systems consist of rigid bodies and remote points that are connected
by joint definitions on rigid or flexible body geometry.

There are two types of remote points, which will always behave rigidly in the Explicit Dynamics
solver.

• Internal Remote Points:

– Defined through a Remote Attachment.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

– These Internal Remote Points can be promoted to User-defined Remote Points.

• User defined Remote Points:

– The properties are defined by a Remote Point object in the tree.

There is no difference in terms of Explicit solver behavior between Internal and User-defined Remote
Points: they effectively create a group of rigid nodes which together act as a normal Rigid Body. If
the group of nodes is already part of a Rigid Body, the definitions will be merged into one single
rigid body while keeping the associated boundary conditions.

Without employing any joint definition, a simple system can be modeled with a remote displacement,
which is effectively a body-grounded joint with a number of free and fixed (or prescribed) displace-
ments.

These remote displacements are always grounded, and as such are limited in their usage. In practice
it is possible to model joints by means of contact definition between parts. It must be noted that
this will employ a penalty method and may not always simulate the desired behavior. Especially
when prescribing rotations, the faceting of the contact surface can cause sticking between the two
surfaces.

By using joint definitions between different geometric parts, it is possible to alleviate these limitations
since the solver will fulfill the kinematic constraints exactly by solving them implicitly during the
timestep. For example, a dropping rotating shaft can be modelled with joints without the need of
defining a contact between contact and target surface of the shaft.

An Explicit model containing joints can be created by:

• Setting the behavior of any geometry object to either Flexible or Rigid.

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• Connecting these geometry objects using Joint definitions, which will create (internal) Remote
Points. The scoped surfaces of flexible bodies will behave rigidly and the scoped surfaces of rigid
bodies will merge into the actual rigid body.

• The rest of the body will have flexible behavior and is as such suitable for a full Explicit investig-
ation.

• It should be noted that a pinball region on the Remote Scope can be used to limit the extent of
the rigid surface that will be created on a flexible body.

Multiple disconnected systems may be defined in a single model, where each system is solved
separately, and the systems interact either through contact or through internal forces of the flexible
elements.

In practice it is valuable to create a fully rigid system in order to establish correct behaviour of the
modeled mechanism. This can be done by:

• Setting the behavior of all geometry to Rigid.

• Connecting these rigid geometry objects using Joint definitions.

• Defining a maximum timestep. Typically you need about 1000 to 10000 timesteps to solve the
system with sufficient robustness. For example:

– Endtime = 1.5 seconds

– Maximum timestep ~ 1e-4 seconds

In this case, the solution will effectively be a Rigid Body Dynamics solution.

2.6.4.2. Scoping to geometry

• Joint mechanisms can be scoped to either flexible or rigid parts (see Stiffness Behavior).

– If the parts are considered Rigid, the scope of the joint (reference and/or mobile) will merge
with the Rigid Body that is created.

– If the parts are considered Flexible, a Remote Point will be created for the scoped nodes.

• Multiple joints scoped to the same geometry (essentially overlapping Remote Points) are allowed
by the Explicit solver. The solver will merge the underlying nodes in the scope into a single rigid
body.

• In theory, the mesh of Rigid Bodies can be defined as dimensionally reduced. However it is im-
portant that the scope of the joints to these Rigid Bodies is passed on to the solver. This means
the scope needs to be meshed with elements. This can be accomplished by defining contact
surfaces on the scope.

– Note that non interpenetrating meshes are needed to warrant frictionless behaviour.

– If a part is not meshed at all the following error will be given:

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

This can be resolved by meshing a part of the geometry with elements.

• Joints can only be scoped to Lagrange bodies, not Eulerian/Particle bodies.

2.6.4.3. Initial Conditions

You can apply initial conditions to rigid bodies that are involved in joint systems. Care should be
taken that the condition satisfies the free motion of the system at the start; in other words, it is
possible to apply an initial velocity in the direction of a fixed degree of freedom, but the solver will
cancel out the initial motion at the start of the solution.

2.6.4.4. Boundary Conditions

There are two considerations when applying boundary conditions in a model with rigid bodies joint
systems.

1. In all joint systems (not limited to the Explicit Dynamics solver) it cannot be guaranteed that
applied boundary conditions result in a converged solution. Consider a simple swing under
gravity which solves correctly:

Alternatively, instead of inducing motion through gravity, the horizontal bar can be given a
velocity boundary condition. This is done by defining a planar body-grounded joint on the ho-
rizontal bar and defining a velocity joint load in the local X-direction.

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The boundary condition can be satisfied up to the point that the horizontal bar reaches the far
left motion of the swing.

After that point the solution will not be correct anymore, even though a solution will be provided.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Caution:

Be aware that the explicit dynamics solver will not issue a warning when boundary
conditions are not satisfied.

2. There is another important consideration for Explicit Dynamics systems. When joints are used
in the model, you should use joint loads for all the necessary kinematic boundary conditions.

Take care evaluating results when using the following boundary conditions on rigid bodies when
a model has joint systems defined:

• Fixed support

• Displacement

• Remote Displacement

• Velocity

The above boundary conditions can always be applied by means of a Joint Load as well. It may
be necessary to define an additional (body-grounded) joint with sufficient free degrees of freedom
in order to setup the model correctly.

2.6.4.5. Using Contact with Joints

The contact algorithm in the Explicit Dynamics solver is active by default. Therefore, contact forces
will be computed during the timestep, including on the scoped geometry of a joint definition.
When geometries are not smoothly meshed (and interpenetrate) these joints may exhibit unexpected
behavior due to additional contact forces in the direction of the free DOF. Typically it is good
practice to model the joints with sufficient offset between the surfaces to be scoped.

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 Setting Up Symmetry

2.6.4.6. Postprocessing
• All Joint probe variables are available after the simulation has been run.

• Values for acceleration ((angular/translational) will be zero at cycle 0 due to the nature of the
solution algorithm.

2.7. Setting Up Symmetry

For general information about setting up symmetry see Defining Symmetry in the Mechanical User's
Guide.

2.7.1. Explicit Dynamics Symmetry

Symmetry regions can be defined in Explicit Dynamics analyses. Symmetry objects should be scoped
to faces of flexible bodies defined in the model. All nodes lying on the plane defined by the selected
face are constrained to give a symmetrical response of the structure.

Note:

• Anti-symmetry, periodicity, and anti-periodicity symmetry regions are not supported in

Explicit Dynamics systems.

• Symmetry cannot be applied to rigid bodies.

• Only the General Symmetry interpretation is used by the solver in 2D Explicit Dynamics
analyses.

Symmetry conditions can be interpreted by the solver in two ways:

2.7.1.1. General Symmetry
2.7.1.2. Global Symmetry Planes

2.7.1.1. General Symmetry

In general, a symmetry condition will result in degree of freedom constraints being applied to the
nodes on the symmetry plane. For volume elements, the translational degree of freedom normal
to the symmetry plane will be constrained. For shell and beam elements, the rotational degrees of
freedom in the plane of symmetry will be additionally constrained.

For nodes that have multiple symmetry regions assigned to them (for example, along the edge
between two adjacent faces), the combined constraints associated with the two symmetry planes
will be enforced.

Note:

• Symmetry regions defined with different local coordinate systems may not be com-
bined, unless they are orthogonal with the global coordinate system.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• General symmetry does not constrain eroded nodes. Thus, if after a group of elements
erodes, a "free" eroded node remains, the eroded node will not be constrained by the
symmetry condition. This can be resolved in certain situations via the special case of
Global symmetry, described in the next section.

2.7.1.2. Global Symmetry Planes

If a symmetry object is aligned with the Cartesian planes at x=0, y=0 or z=0, and all nodes in the
model are on the positive side of x=0, y=0, or z=0, the symmetry condition is interpreted as a
special case termed Global symmetry plane. In addition to general symmetry constraints:

• If a symmetry plane is coincident with the YZ plane of the global coordinate system (X=0), and
no parts of the geometry lie on the negative side of the plane, then a symmetry plane is activated
at X=0. This will prevent any nodes (including eroded nodes) from moving through the plane
X=0 during the analysis.

• If a symmetry plane is coincident with the ZX plane of the global coordinate system (Y=0), and
no parts of the geometry lie on the negative side of the plane, then a symmetry plane is activated
at Y=0. This will prevent any nodes (including eroded nodes) from moving through the plane
Y=0 during the analysis.

• If a symmetry plane is coincident with the XY plane of the global coordinate system (Z=0), and
no parts of the geometry lie on the negative side of the plane, then a symmetry plane is activated
at Z=0. This will prevent any nodes (including eroded nodes) from moving through the plane
Z=0 during the analysis.

Note:

Global symmetry planes are only applicable to 3D Explicit Dynamics analyses.

2.7.2. Symmetry in Euler and Particle Domains

There are additional considerations if an Euler Domain or a Particle Domain is defined for an analysis.
For symmetry to be applied to an Euler Domain or a Particle Domain, symmetry will have to be defined
with the global coordinate system, not a local one, and it will need to be applied on geometry faces
which lie on the global coordinate system planes. An additional constraint for particle bodies is that
the symmetry region cannot be scoped to Particle bodies themselves. Therefore, to ensure symmetry
in an analysis with Particle bodies, the symmetry region needs to be applied to another body in the
analysis.

• If the symmetry is not defined with the global coordinate system, it is ignored and a warning is
shown in the messages window saying that such symmetry will be ignored but the analysis continues
to solve.

• If the symmetry is not applied on faces which lie on the global coordinate system planes then an
error is shown and the solution is terminated.

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 Define Remote Points

In the case where symmetry is valid for use with Euler Domains, if the boundary of the Euler Domain
which is parallel to the symmetry plane is below the symmetry plane, then that boundary will be
moved to lie on the symmetry plane if the following conditions are true:

• The Euler Domain Size Definition option in the Analysis settings is set to Program Controlled.

• The Euler body is on the positive side of the global coordinate axis.

2.8. Define Remote Points

The algorithm in the Explicit Dynamics solver is different from the Implicit solver in the way it handles
rigid bodies. For general information about how to use remote points, see Specifying Remote Points
and Remote Boundary Conditions in the Mechanical User's Guide.

The following topics describe the use of remote points and boundary conditions for the explicit solvers:
2.8.1. Explicit Dynamics Remote Points
2.8.2. Explicit Dynamics Remote Boundary Conditions
2.8.3. Initial Conditions on Remote Points
2.8.4. Constraints and Remote Points

2.8.1. Explicit Dynamics Remote Points

A remote point in Explicit Dynamics consists of a:

• Location - The point in space from which a remote boundary condition can be applied.

• Scoped region - The area of geometry the remote point is scoped to. The nodes of this scoping
form a group of rigid body nodes along with a further node created at the remote point location.

• Boundary condition (optional) - The Remote Displacement and Remote Force boundary conditions
are currently available as remote boundary conditions.

The Explicit Dynamics solver does not support Deformable Behavior when using remote points.

The group of rigid body nodes which is created is treated as a regular rigid body by the Explicit Dy-
namics solver. For example, if the scoped region of the remote point consists of two faces from two
separate parts, the solver will determine the center of mass and the inertial properties for all the
nodes, with all the nodes making up a combined group of rigid body nodes. This calculation creates
a rigid connection between the two parts.

In the solution, the forces acting on the group of rigid body nodes are summed at each time step.
This calculation determines the rigid body motion of the nodes belonging to the remote point. Due
to the mandatory rigid behavior of Remote Points, the group of rigid body nodes are unable to deform,
even if the elements of the parts used have flexible behavior. The group of rigid body nodes are,
however, free to translate and rotate. Due to this restriction it is important to maintain a sufficient
number of nodes in the scoped area of a remote point when scoped to a flexible solid part.

Note:

When using Remote Points in Explicit Dynamics analyses:

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• The Behavior field must be set to Rigid. If it is set to Deformable the solution will ter-
minate and an error will be generated.

• Only the remote displacement and remote force boundary conditions are supported for
Remote Points in Explicit Dynamics analyses.

• Commands are not supported for Remote Points in Explicit Dynamics analyses.

• Remote Points and boundary conditions are not supported for 2D Explicit Dynamics
analyses.

• Remote Points cannot be scoped to bodies with reference frame of type Particle.

2.8.2. Explicit Dynamics Remote Boundary Conditions

The remote boundary conditions available in the Explicit Dynamics solver are Remote Displacement
and Remote Force.

The Explicit Dynamics solver treats a Remote Displacement as follows:

• The geometry that the Remote Displacement boundary condition is scoped to becomes a group
of rigid body nodes, determining its mass and inertial properties, and preventing these nodes from
deforming. If this group of rigid body nodes spans multiple parts, then these parts will be rigidly
connected.

• Displacements and/or rotations at the remote point and the group of rigid body nodes are tracked
and converted into velocities and angular velocities for use by the solver.

• The actual translation and rotation of the remote point are a combination of the imposed boundary
constraints of the Remote Displacement definition and the forces acting on the group of nodes
scoped to the Remote Point. Therefore, the translation and rotation of the Remote Point and the
group of rigid body nodes are determined simultaneously and enforced with the use of a single
corrective force and moment.

The Explicit Dynamics solver treats a Remote Force as follows:

• The geometry that the Remote Force boundary condition is scoped to becomes a group of rigid
body nodes, determining its mass and inertial properties, and preventing these nodes from deform-
ing. If this group of rigid body nodes spans multiple parts, then these parts will be rigidly connected.

• The force specified is applied to the node representing the remote point, which is rigidly attached
to the group of rigid body nodes.

• The force is applied to the scoped group of nodes specified by the remote point.

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 Define Remote Points

• The motion of the remote point is determined by a combination of the loads applied to the remote
point, the mass and inertial properties of the group of rigid body nodes, and the properties of the
parts the group of rigid body nodes are attached to.

Note:

Remote boundary conditions cannot be scoped to bodies with reference frame of type
Particle.

Remote Force is not supported for LS-DYNA.

2.8.3. Initial Conditions on Remote Points

Initial conditions are scoped to geometric parts in the model. Effectively this means that the initial
condition is scoped to a set of elements. However, remote points are scoped to the underlying nodes
in the model. This may result in different initial conditions on the same node in a remote point
definition. This section describes the behavior in such instances.

Initial condition on a flexible part:

Initial conditions can be scoped to a subset of or all elements in a flexible part. It is not necessary
to scope an initial condition to all the nodes in the remote point definition, as long as there is
only one initial condition defined for the nodes that participate in the remote point definition.

Initial condition on a rigid body part:

The remote point definition will automatically include all the nodes in a rigid part. Therefore the
initial condition (or multiple identical initial conditions) should be scoped to all the elements in
the rigid part. The scoped nodes of the remote point will follow the initial condition of the scoped
rigid body. If the flexible scoped nodes of the remote point contain their own initial condition,
this will be ignored.

2.8.4. Constraints and Remote Points

When applying constraints to a model that includes remote points, it is important to ensure that the
model is not over-constrained. Since the Explicit Dynamics solver treats the remote point and its
scoped region as a single rigid body, the model could be over-constrained in the following two ex-
amples:

• Two remote points share common nodes in their scoped regions. This is an over-constraint because
each remote point generates its own rigid body and rigid bodies cannot share nodes.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Example of an overconstrained model caused by two remote points scoped to adjacent faces.

• A velocity boundary condition applied to some or all of the nodes in a remote point scoping, and
a remote displacement applied to the remote point.

Example of an overconstrained model caused by a constraining boundary condition such as a fixed

support applied to a face which is adjacent to a remote point scoping with a remote displacement
applied.

This list of examples is not exhaustive and a setup error will be issued to the user on solve if any such
over-constraints occur.

2.9. Apply Mesh Controls/Preview Mesh

For general information about how to apply mesh controls and preview the mesh, see Apply Mesh
Controls and Preview Mesh in the Mechanical User's Guide

All mesh methods available in the Workbench meshing application can be utilized in Explicit Dynamics
systems.

• Swept Volume Meshing

• Patch Dependant Volume Meshing

• Hex Dominant Meshing

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 Apply Mesh Controls/Preview Mesh

• Patch Independent Tetrahedral Meshing

• Multizone Volume Meshing

• Patch dependant shell meshing

• Patch independent shell meshing

• Particle Method

A smooth uniform mesh should be sought in the regions of interest for the analysis. Elsewhere,
coarsening of the mesh may help to reduce the overall size of the problem to be solved. Use the Ex-
plicit meshing preference (set by default) to auto-assign the default mesh controls that will provide a
mesh well suited for Explicit Dynamics analyses. This preference automatically sets the Rigid Body Be-
havior mesh control to Full Mesh. The Full Mesh setting is only applicable to Explicit Dynamics analyses.
Other physics preferences can be used if better consistency is desired between implicit and explicit
models.

Consideration should be given to the number of elements in the model and the quality of the mesh to
produce larger resulting time steps and therefore more efficient simulations. A coarse mesh can often
be used to gain insight into the basic dynamics of a system while a finer mesh is required to investigate
nonlinear material effects and failure. The Mesh Metric option allows you to view mesh metric information
and thereby evaluate the mesh quality. A very useful mesh metric is the Characteristic Length: it is
primarily used to determine the timestep for an element.

Swept/multi-zone meshes are preferred in Explicit Dynamics analyses so geometry slicing, combined
with multibody part options in DesignModeler, are recommended to facilitate hexahedral meshing. Al-
ternatively, use the patch independent tetrahedral meshing method to obtain more uniform element
sizing and take advantage of automatic defeaturing.

Define the element size manually to produce more uniform element size distributions especially on
surface bodies.

Midside nodes should be dropped from the mesh (set Element Order to Linear) for all elements types
(solids, surface and line bodies). Error/warning messages are provided if unsupported (higher order)
elements are present in the mesh.

Pyramid elements are not supported in Explicit Dynamics analyses. Any elements of this type are con-
verted into two tetrahedral elements, and will warrant a warning in the message window of the Mech-
anical application.

An Explicit Dynamics model with fewer elements than the number of worker processes specified cannot
be run in parallel.

For LS-DYNA, only the element types listed below are supported (partly due to LS-DYNA limitations).
Any parts with a mesh containing unsupported elements will be excluded from the exported mesh. A
warning is displayed specifying excluded parts.

• Shells

– 1st Order: triangles, quadrilaterals

– 2nd Order: none

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• Solids

– 1st Order: tetrahedrons, pyramids, wedges, hexahedrons, beams

– 2nd Order: tetrahedrons

• LS-DYNA supports Thick Shell elements. Please refer here in the meshing documentation for inform-
ation on how to create these elements.

Note:

Pyramids are not recommended for LS-DYNA. A warning is issued if such elements are present
in the mesh.

When performing an implicit static structural or transient structural analysis to an Explicit Dynamics
analysis, the same mesh is required for both the implicit and explicit analysis and only low order elements
are allowed. If high order elements are used, the solve will be blocked and an error message will be
issued.

Any bodies with the reference frame Particle need to have been meshed with the Particle Method.

2.10. Establish Analysis Settings

For general information about how to establish analysis settings, see Establish Analysis Settings in the
Mechanical User's Guide.

The basic analysis settings for Explicit Dynamics analyses (p. 62) are:

• Step Controls - The required input for step control is the termination time for the analysis. This
should be set to your best estimate of the solution time required to simulate the event being modeled.
You should normally allow the solver to determine its own time step size based on the smallest CFL
condition (p. 157) in the model. The efficiency of the solution can be increased with the help of mass
scaling options. Use this feature with caution; too much mass scaling can give rise to non-physical
results.

An Explicit Dynamics solution may be started, interrupted and resumed at any point in time. For ex-
ample, an existing solution that has reached its End Time may be extended to continue to review
the progression of the mechanical phenomena simulated. The Resume From Cycle option enables
you to select which Restart file you would like to use to resume the analysis. See Resume Capability
for Explicit Dynamics Analyses (p. 100) for more information.

Step Control options:

– Number of Steps (option not available in LS-DYNA)

– Current Step Number (option not available in LS-DYNA)

– Load Step Type (option not available in LS-DYNA)

– Resume from cycle (option not available in LS-DYNA)

– Maximum Number of Cycles

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 Establish Analysis Settings

– Reference energy cycle (option not available in LS-DYNA)

– The Maximum Element Scaling and Update frequency (options not available in LS-DYNA)

• Solver Controls – These advanced controls allow you to control a range of solver features including
element formulations and solution velocity limits. The defaults are applicable to wide range of applic-
ations.

– Shell thickness update, shell inertia update, density update, minimum velocity, maximum velocity
and radius cutoff options can only be set in the Explicit Dynamics system.

– A selectable Unit System is available only in LS-DYNA.

• Euler Domain Controls – There are three sets of parameters that are necessary to define the Euler
Domain: the size of the whole domain (Domain Size Definition), the number of computational cells
in the domain (Domain Resolution Definition), and the type of boundary conditions to be applied
to the edges of the domain.

Note:

For information on Euler capabilities supported for LS-DYNA systems, see ALE Workflow
in the LS-DYNA User's Guide.

The domain size can be defined automatically (Domain Size Definition = Program Controlled) or
manually (Domain Size Definition = Manual). For both the automatic and manual options, the size
is defined from a 3D origin point and the X, Y, and Z dimensions of the domain.

For the automatic option, specify the Scope of the Domain Size Definition so that the origin and X,
Y, and Z dimensions are set to create a box large enough to include all bodies in the geometry (Scope
= All Bodies) or the Eulerian Bodies only (Scope = Eulerian Bodies Only). The automatically determ-
ined domain size can be controlled with three scaling parameters, one for each direction (X Scale
Factor, Y Scale Factor, Z Scale Factor).

The size of the domain is affected by the scale factors according to the following equations:
(2.5)
(2.6)
(2.7)

where

lx, ly, lz are the lengths of the unscaled domain in the x, y, and z directions respectively. These para-
meters are obtained automatically from the mesh.

l'x, l'y, l'z are the lengths of the scaled domain in the x, y, and z directions respectively.

Fx, Fy, Fz are the scale factors for the x, y, and z directions respectively.

For the Manual option of the Domain Size Definition, specify the origin of the Euler Domain (Minimum
X Coordinate, Minimum Y Coordinate, Minimum Z Coordinate) and the dimension in each direction
(X Dimension, Y Dimension, Z Dimension).

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

The domain resolution specifies how many cells should be created in the X, Y, and Z directions of
the domain. Use the Domain Resolution Definition field to specify how to determine the resolution:
either the cell size (Cell Size), the number of cells in each of the X, Y, and Z directions (Cells per
Component), or the total number of cells to be created (Total Cells).

– For the Cell Size option, specify the size of the cell in the Cell Size parameter. The value specified
is the dimension of the cell in each of the X, Y, and Z directions. The units used for the cell size
follow the ones specified in the Mechanical application window and are displayed in the text box.

The number of the cells in each direction of the domain are then determined from this cell size
and the size of the domain with the following equations:
(2.8)

(2.9)

(2.10)

where

Nx, Ny, Nz are the number of cells in the X, Y, and Z directions respectively.

D is the dimension of the cell in each direction (this is the same in all directions).

– For the Cells per Component option, enter the number of cells required in each of the X, Y, and Z
directions (Number of Cells in X, Number of Cells in Y, Number of Cells in Z).

– For the Total Cells option, specify Total Cells (the default is 250,000). The size of the cells will depend
on the size of the Euler Domain.

The size of the cell is calculated from the following equation:

(2.11)

where

Ntot is the total number of cells in the domain.

If any bodies are defined as Eulerian (Virtual), when Analysis Settings is selected in the outline view,
the Euler domain bounding box is displayed in the graphics window. The Euler domain resolution is
indicated by black node markers along each edge line of the Euler domain. The visibility of this can
be controlled by the Display Euler Domain option in the Analysis Settings.

You can set boundary conditions on each of the faces of the Euler Domain. The faces are labeled
Lower X Face, Lower Y Face, Lower Z Face (which correspond to the faces with the minimum X, Y,
and Z coordinates) and Upper X Face, Upper Y Face, and Upper Z Face (which correspond to the
faces with the maximum X, Y, and Z coordinates). The values of the boundary conditions that can be
set for each face are:

– Flow Out

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Use the Flow Out boundary condition to flow out material through cell faces. The boundary
condition makes the material state of the dummy cell outside the Euler domain the same as
that of the cell adjacent to the Flow Out boundary, thus setting the gradients of velocity and
stress to zero over the boundary. This approach simulates a far field solution at the boundary,
but is only exact for outflow velocities higher than the speed of sound and is an approximation
for lower velocities. Therefore, the Flow Out boundary condition is approximate in many cases,
and should be placed as far as possible from region of interest and best at a location where
the gradients are small.

– Impedance

The Impedance boundary condition acts exactly the same as the Flow Out boundary condition
and provides the same results.

– Rigid

Use the Rigid boundary condition to prevent flow of material through cell faces. The cell faces
are closed for material transport and act as rigid non-slip walls. The Rigid boundary condition
takes the material state of the dummy cell outside the Euler domain as a mirrored image of
the cell adjacent to the Wall boundary, thus setting the normal material velocity at the rigid
wall to zero and leaving the tangential velocity unaffected.

Euler Tracking is currently only By Body, which scopes the results to Eulerian bodies in the same
manner as Lagrangian bodies.

• Damping Controls – Damping is used to control oscillations behind shock waves and reduce hourglass
modes in reduced integration elements. These options allow you to adapt the levels of damping, and
formulation used for the analysis being conducted. Elastic oscillations in the solution can also be
automatically damped to provide a quasi-static solution after a dynamic event.

For Hourglass Damping, only one of either the Viscous Coefficient or Stiffness Coefficient, is used
for the Flanagan Belytschko option - when running an Explicit Dynamics analysis using the LS-DYNA
solver, LS-DYNA does not allow for two coefficients to be entered in *CONTROL_HOURGLASS. Thus
the non-zero coefficient determines the damping format to be either "Flanagan-Belytschko viscous"
or "Flanagan-Belytschko stiffness", accordingly. If both are non-zero, the Stiffness Coefficient will be
used.

Note:

Linear Viscosity in Expansion options are not supported for LS-DYNA.

Hourglass damping in LS-DYNA is standard by default; in the Explicit Dynamics System

the same control is Autodyn Standard.

• Erosion Controls – Erosion is used to automatically remove highly distorted elements from an ana-
lysis and is required for applications such as cutting and impact penetration. In an Explicit Dynamics
analysis, erosion is a numerical tool to help maintain large time steps, and thus obtain solutions in
appropriate time scales. Several options are available to initiate erosion. The default settings will
erode elements which experience geometric strains in excess of 150%. The default value should be
increased when modeling hyperelastic materials. Geometric strain limit and material failure criteria
are not present in LS-DYNA.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• Output Controls – Solution output is provided in several ways:

– Results files which are used to provide nodal and element data for contour and probe results such
as deformation, velocity, stress and strain. Note that probe results will provide a filtered time history
of the result data due to the relatively infrequent saving of results files.

– Restart files should be stored less frequently than results files and can be used to resume an ana-
lysis.

– Tracker data is usually stored much more frequently than results or restart data and thus is used
to produce full transient data for specific quantities.

– Output controls to save result tracker and solution output are not available for LS-DYNA.

– When performing an implicit to explicit analysis, for a nonlinear implicit analysis, the Strain Details
view property must be set to Yes because plastic strains are needed for the correct results.

2.10.1. Analysis Settings for Explicit Dynamics Analyses

The following sections describe the available properties for the Analysis Settings folder in an Explicit
Dynamics analysis. In addition to describing each setting, it is noted whether the setting is available
for 2D analyses, and whether it is available on restart (applies to 2D and 3D analyses).

Note:

Explicit Dynamics settings are not step aware except for the Static Damping Coefficient
and Output Controls. No LS-DYNA settings are step aware.

2.10.1.1. Explicit Dynamics Step Controls

2.10.1.2. Explicit Dynamics Solver Controls
2.10.1.3. Explicit Dynamics Euler Domain Controls
2.10.1.4. Explicit Dynamics Damping Controls
2.10.1.5. Explicit Dynamics Erosion Controls
2.10.1.6. Explicit Dynamics Output Controls
2.10.1.7. Explicit Dynamics Data Management Settings
2.10.1.8. Recommendations for Analysis Settings in Explicit Dynamics

2.10.1.1. Explicit Dynamics Step Controls

Field Options Description 2D Restart
Number of Steps See Defining Multiple Analysis Steps
and Activation/Deactivation of Loads
in Explicit Dynamics (p. 97) for more
information.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Current Step Shows the step ID for the current load
Number step End Time. The currently selected

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Field Options Description 2D Restart

step is also highlighted in the bar at
the bottom of the Graphics window.
Note that Explicit analysis settings are
not step aware except for the Static
Damping Coefficient.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Load Step Type Currently, the only option is Explicit
Time Integration.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

End Time (Required input) The maximum length of Yes Yes
time (starting from time zero) to be
simulated by the explicit analysis. You
should enter a reasonable estimate to
cover the phenomena of interest.
Resume From Allows you to select the integration Yes Yes
Cycle cycle from which to start the solution
upon selecting Solve. A cycle of zero
(default setting) indicates the solution
will clear any previous progress and
start from time zero. A non-zero cycle,
on the other hand, allows you to
revisit a previous solution and extend
it further in time. A solution obtained
from a non-zero cycle is considered
to have been "resumed" or "restarted".

Note that the list will only contain

non-zero selections if a solve was
previously executed and restart files
have been generated.

When resuming an analysis, changes

to analysis settings will be respected
where possible. For example, you may
wish to resume an analysis with an
extended termination time. Changes
to any other features in the model
(geometry suppression, connections,
loads, and so on) will prevent restarts
from taking place.

See Resume Capability for Explicit

Dynamics Analyses (p. 100) for more
information.
This field is not available for LS-DYNA.
Maximum Num- The maximum number of cycles allowed Yes Yes
ber of Cycles during the analysis. The analysis will stop

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Field Options Description 2D Restart

once the specified value is reached. Enter
a large number to have the analysis run
to the defined End Time.
Maximum En- Energy conservation is a measure of the Yes Yes
ergy Error quality of an Explicit Dynamics analysis.
Large deviations from energy conservation
usually imply a less than optimal model
definition. This parameter allows you to
automatically stop the solution if the
deviation from energy conservation
becomes unacceptable. Enter a fraction of
the total system energy (measured at the
Reference Energy Cycle) for which you
want the analysis to stop. For example, the
default value of 0.1 will cause the analysis
to stop if the energy error exceeds 10% of
the energy at the reference cycle.

For LS-DYNA this field requires a

percentage to be entered. Thus the
field name changes to Maximum En-
ergy Error (%).
Reference En- The cycle at which you want the solver to Yes Yes
ergy Cycle calculate the reference energy, against
which it will calculate the energy error.
Usually this will be the start cycle (cycle =
0). You may need to increase this value if
the model has zero energy at cycle = 0 (for
example if you have no initial velocity
defined).

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Initial Time Step Enter an initial time step you want to use, Yes Yes
or use the Program Controlled default. If
left on Program Controlled, the time step
will be automatically set to ½ the
computed element stability time step. The
Program Controlled setting is
recommended.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Minimum Time Enter the minimum time step allowed in Yes Yes
Step the analysis, or use the Program Con-
trolled default. If the time step drops
below this value the analysis will stop. If
set to Program Controlled, the value will
be chosen as 1/10th the initial time step.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Field Options Description 2D Restart

Maximum Time Enter the maximum time step allowed in Yes Yes
Step the analysis, or use the Program Con-
trolled default. The solver will use the
minimum of this value or the computed
stability time step during the solve. The
Program Controlled setting is
recommended.
Time Step Safety A safety factor limit is applied to the Yes Yes
Factor computed stability time step to help keep
the solution stable. The default value of
0.9 should work for most analyses.
Characteristic Di- Diagonals The characteristic dimension (p. 157) Yes No
mension (default setting) used to determine the time-step for
hex elements will be calculated as the
volume of the element divided by the
square of the longest element
diagonal and then scaled by sqrt(2/3).

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Opposing Face The characteristic dimension used to
determine the time-step for hex
elements will be based on the
minimum distance between opposing
faces.

Select this option to obtain the

optimal time step for hex solid
elements. Experience to date has
shown that this option can
significantly improve the efficiency of
3D Lagrange simulations. However,
in certain circumstances when cells
become highly distorted, instabilities
have been observed causing the
calculation to terminate with high
energy errors. The correct choice of
erosion strain can reduce these
problems. It is therefore
recommended that users only utilize
this option if efficiency is critical.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Nearest Face The characteristic dimension used to
determine the time-step for hex
elements will be based on the
minimum distance between
neighboring faces.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Field Options Description 2D Restart

Experience to date has shown that
this option can significantly improve
the efficiency of 3D Lagrange
simulations. However, in certain
circumstances when cells become
highly distorted, instabilities have
been observed causing the calculation
to terminate with high energy errors.
The correct choice of erosion strain
can reduce these problems. It is
therefore recommended that users
only utilize this option if efficiency is
critical.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Automatic Mass If set to Yes, activates automatic mass Yes Yes
Scaling scaling and exposes the following options.
Minimum CFL The time step that you want to Yes Yes
Time Step achieve in the analysis.

Caution:

Mass scaling introduces

additional mass into the
system to increase the
computed CFL time
step (p. 157). Introducing
too much mass can lead
to non-physical results.

Note:

Employ User Defined

Results MASS_SCALE (ratio
of scaled mass/physical
mass) and TIMESTEP to
review the effects of
automatic mass scaling on
the model.

Maximum Ele- This value limits the ratio of scaled Yes Yes
ment Scaling mass/physical mass that can be applied to
each element in the model.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Maximum Part This value limits the ratio of scaled Yes Yes
Scaling mass/physical mass that can be applied to

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Field Options Description 2D Restart

an individual body. If this value is
exceeded, the analysis will stop and an
error message is displayed.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Update Fre- Allows you to control the frequency at Yes Yes
quency which the mass scaling will be calculated
during the solve. The frequency equates
to the increment in cycles at which the
mass scale factor will be recomputed,
based on the current shape of the
elements. The default of 0 is recommended
and means that the mass scale factor is
only calculated once, at the start of the
solve.

Post cycle 0 adjustment will only take

place for solid elements (excluding
ANP and NBS tetrahedra).

In parallel solutions the update

frequency is always set to 0.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

2.10.1.2. Explicit Dynamics Solver Controls

Field Options Description 2D Restart
Solve Units All model inputs will be converted to Yes No
this set of units during the solve.
Results from the analysis will be
converted back to the user units
system in the GUI.
For Explicit Dynamics systems, this setting
is always mm, mg, ms.

For LS-DYNA this field is termed Unit

System and seven systems are
available for selection: nmm; μmks;
Bft; Bin; mks; cgs; mm,ms,kg.
Beam Solution Bending Any line bodies will be represented as No No
Type beam elements including a full bending
moment calculation.
Truss Any line bodies will be represented as
truss elements. No bending moments are
calculated.
Beam Time Step An additional safety factor you may apply No No
Safety Factor to the stability time step calculated for

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Field Options Description 2D Restart

beam elements. The default value ensures
stability for most cases.
Hex Integration Exact Provides an accurate calculation of No No
Type element volume, even for warped
elements.
1pt Gauss Approximates the volume calculation and
is less accurate for elements featuring
warped faces. This option is more efficient.
Shell Sublayers The number of integration points through No No
the thickness of an isotropic shell. The
default of 3 is suitable for many
applications; however, this number can be
increased to achieve better resolution of
through thickness plastic deformation
and/or flow.
Shell Shear Cor- The transverse shear in the element No No
rection Factor formulation is assumed constant over the
thickness. This correction factor accounts
for the replacement of the true parabolic
variation through the thickness in response
to a uniform transverse shear stress. Using
a value other than the default is not
recommended.
Shell BWC Warp The Belytschko-Lin-Tsay element No No
Correction formulation becomes inaccurate if the
elements are warped. To overcome this,
the element formulation has an optional
correction to include warping. Setting this
correction to Yes is recommended.
Shell Thickness Nodal Changes in shell thickness are calculated No No
Update at the nodes of shell elements.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Elemental Changes in shell thickness are calculated
at the element integration points.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Tet Integration Average Nodal The tetrahedral element formulation No No
Pressure includes an average nodal pressure
integration. This formulation does not
exhibit volumetric locking, and can be
used for large deformation, and nearly
incompressible behavior such as plastic
flow or hyperelasticity. This formulation is
recommended for the majority of
tetrahedral meshes.

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Field Options Description 2D Restart

Constant Pres- Uses the constant pressure integrated
sure tetrahedral formulation. This formulation
is more efficient than Average Nodal,
however it suffers from volumetric locking
under constant bulk deformation.
Nodal Strain When Tet Integration is set to Nodal
Strain the Puso Stability Coefficient,
field is shown.

For NBS models exhibiting zero

energy modes, the Puso coefficient
can be set to a non-zero value. A
value of 0.1 is recommended. See
Solver Controls (p. 180) for more
information.
Shell Inertia Up- Recompute The principal axes of rotary inertia are by No No
date default recalculated each cycle.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA

Rotate Rotates the axes, rather than recomputing
each cycle. This option is more efficient;
however, it can lead to numerical
instabilities due to floating point round-off
for long running simulations.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Density Update Program Con- The solver decides whether an incremental Yes No
trolled update is necessary based on the rate and
extent of element deformation.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Incremental Forces the solver to always use the
incremental update.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Total Forces the solver to always recalculate the
density from element-volume and mass.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Minimum Sets the minimum allowed timestep No No
Timestep for for SPH nodes. If any SPH node has a
SPH timestep smaller than this value, then
the analysis will terminate with error
timestep too small.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Field Options Description 2D Restart

Minimum Dens- Use this to set the limits for any SPH No No
ity Factor for node in the model. The minimum
SPH density will be the product of this
value and the reference density of the
SPH node material.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Maximum Dens- Use this to set the limits for any SPH No No
ity Factor for node in the model. The maximum
SPH density will be the product of this
value and the reference density of the
SPH node material.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Density Cutoff Limit Density If an SPH node reaches the density No No
Option for SPH limit specified by the Minimum
Density Factor for SPH or the Max-
imum Density Factor for SPH, then
the density of that SPH node will be
set to the value of the corresponding
limit.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Delete Node If an SPH node reaches the density No No
limit specified by the Minimum
Density Factor for SPH or the
Maximum Density Factor for SPH,
then that SPH node will be deleted
from the analysis.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Minimum Velo- The minimum velocity you want to allow Yes Yes
city in the analysis. If any model velocity drops
below this Minimum Velocity, it will be
set to zero. The default is recommended
for most analyses.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Maximum Velo- The maximum velocity you want to allow Yes Yes
city in the analysis. If any model velocity rises
above the Maximum Velocity, it will be
capped. This can improve the
stability/robustness of the analysis in some
instances. The default is recommended for
most analyses.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Radius Cutoff At the start of your calculation, if a node Yes Yes
is within the specified radius of a

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Field Options Description 2D Restart

symmetry plane, it will be placed on the
symmetry plane. If a node is outside the
specified radius from a symmetry plane at
the start of your calculation, it will not be
allowed to come closer than this radius to
the symmetry plane as your calculation
proceeds.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Minimum Strain The minimum strain rate you want to allow Yes Yes
Rate Cutoff in the analysis. If any model strain rate
drops below this value, it will be set to
zero. The default is recommended for most
analyses. For low speed or quasi-static
analyses, it may be necessary to decrease
this value.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

2.10.1.3. Explicit Dynamics Euler Domain Controls

Field Options Description 2D Restart
Domain Size Program Con- Set Domain Size Definition to automatic. No No
Definition trolled
Manual Set Domain Size Definition to manual.
Display Euler Toggles visibility of the annotation of the No No
Domain Euler domain in the graphics window.
Scope All Bodies Euler domain is sized to include all bodies. No No
Eulerian Bodies Euler domain is sized to include Euler
Only bodies only.
X Scale factor, Y User defined scaling factors for the No No
Scale factor, Z automatically determined X, Y, and Z sizes
Scale Factor .
Minimum X Co- X, Y, Z coordinates for the Euler domain No No
ordinate, Minim- origin for the Manual option.
um Y Coordin-
ate, Minimum Z
Coordinate
X Dimension, Y Euler domain X, Y, Z dimensions for the No No
Dimension, Z Di- Manual option.
mension
Domain Resolu- Total Cells Set Domain Resolution Definition by No No
tion Definition specifying the total number of cells in the
Euler domain.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Field Options Description 2D Restart

Cell Size Set Domain Resolution Definition by
specifying the size of the cells in the Euler
domain.
Cells per Com- Set Domain Resolution Definition by
ponent specifying the number of cells in each
dimension in the Euler domain.
Total Cells Total number of cells that the Euler domain No No
should contain if Domain Resolution
Definition is Total Number of Cells.
Cell Size Dimension of the cell in each of the X, Y, No No
and Z directions if Domain Resolution
Definition is Cell Size.
Number of Cells Number of cells required in the X, Y, and No No
in X, Number of Z directions if Domain Resolution
Cells in Y, Num- Definition is Number of Cells by
ber of Cells in Z Component.
Lower X Face, Flow Out (Default Specify the boundary condition of the No No
Lower Y Face, setting) selected Euler domain face to be Flow Out.
Lower Z Face, Impedance Specify the boundary condition of the
Upper X Face, selected Euler domain face to be
Upper Y Face, Impedance.
Upper Z Face
Rigid Specify the boundary condition of the
selected Euler domain face to be Rigid.
Euler Tracking By Body Results may be scoped to Eulerian bodies No No
in the same way as for Lagrangian bodies.

If any bodies are defined as Eulerian (Virtual), when Analysis Settings is selected in the outline view
the Euler domain bounding box is displayed in the graphics window, as shown below.

The Euler domain resolution is indicated by black node markers along each edge line of the Euler
domain. The visibility of this can be controlled by the Display Euler Domain option in the Analysis
Settings.

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 Establish Analysis Settings

For more information on the Euler domain, see Eulerian (Virtual) Reference Frame in Explicit Dynam-
ics (p. 163).

2.10.1.4. Explicit Dynamics Damping Controls

Field Options Description 2D Restart
Linear Artificial A linear coefficient of artificial viscosity. Yes Yes
Viscosity This coefficient smooths out shock
discontinuities over the mesh. Using a
value other than the default is not
recommended.
Quadratic Artifi- A quadratic coefficient of artificial viscosity. Yes Yes
cial Viscosity This coefficient damps out post shock
discontinuity oscillations. Using a value
other than the default is not
recommended.
Linear Viscosity Artificial viscosity is normally applied to Yes Yes
in Expansion materials in compression only. This option
allows you to apply the viscosity for
materials in compression and expansion.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Linear Artificial Specify the linear coefficient of artificial No No
Viscosity For viscosity for SPH.
SPH
Quadratic Artifi- Specify the quadratic coefficient of artificial No No
cial Viscosity For viscosity for SPH.
SPH
Artificial Viscos- Apply artificial viscosity to all shell No Yes
ity for Shells elements in addition to solid elements.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Hourglass AUTODYN The method of hourglass damping to be Yes Yes
Damping Standard used with solid hexahedral elements. The
Flanagan AUTODYN Standard option is available For
Belytschko 2D analyses only.
Stiffness Coeffi- The Stiffness Coefficient for Flanagan No Yes
cient Belytschko hourglass damping in solid
hexahedral elements.
Viscous Coeffi- The viscous coefficient for hourglass Yes Yes
cient damping used in hexahedral solid elements
and quadrilateral shell elements.
Static Damping A static damping constant may be Yes Yes
specified which changes the solution from
a dynamic solution to a relaxation iteration
converging to a state of stress equilibrium.
For optimal convergence, the value chosen

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Field Options Description 2D Restart

for the damping constant, R, may be
defined by: R = 2*timestep/T where
timestep is the expected average value of
the timestep and T is longest period of
vibration for the system being analyzed.
The Static Damping is step aware. This
allows the solution to be damped during
a step in the solution.

2.10.1.5. Explicit Dynamics Erosion Controls

Field Options Description 2D Restart
On Geometric If set to Yes, elements will automatically Yes Yes
Strain Limit erode if the geometric strain in the
element exceeds the specified limit.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Geometric Strain The geometric strain limit for erosion. Yes Yes
Limit Recommended values are in the range
from 0.75 to 3.0. The default value is 1.5.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

On Material Fail- If set to Yes, elements will automatically Yes Yes
ure erode if a material failure property is
defined in the material used in the
elements, and the failure criteria has been
reached. Elements with materials including
a damage model will also erode if damage
reaches a value of 1.0.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

On Minimum If set to Yes, elements will automatically Yes Yes
Element Time erode if their calculated time step falls
Step below the specified value.
Minimum Ele- The minimum controlling time Yes Yes
ment Time Step step (p. 139) that an element can have.
If the element time step drops below
the specified value, the element will
be eroded.
Retain Inertia of If all elements that are connected to Yes No
Eroded Material a node in the mesh erode, the inertia
of the resulting free node can be
retained if this option is set to Yes.
The mass and momentum of the free
node is retained and can be involved
in subsequent impact events to
transfer momentum in the system.

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Field Options Description 2D Restart

If set to No, all free nodes will be
automatically removed from the
analysis.

2.10.1.6. Explicit Dynamics Output Controls

Field Options Description 2D Restart
Step-aware Out- Set to No by default. If set to Yes the
put Controls frequency of Results, Restart, and Result
Tracker data is made step-aware; that is
the values represent the frequency per
step and the Output Controls are displayed
in the Worksheet.

Note:

When setting this to Yes,

for an analysis with 3 steps
in it and Save Results/Re-
start Files on set to
Equally Spaced points, the
frequency of
Results/Restart Files would
become 3 times the
original value. Therefore, it
is worth resetting these
values per step if needed
when turning on this
feature.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Save Results on During the solve of an Explicit Dynamics Yes Yes
system, results are saved to disk at a
frequency defined through this control.
The following settings are available.
Cycles Save results files after a specified increment Yes Yes
in the number of cycles. Exposes a Cycles
field where you enter the increment in
cycles.

This setting is not available for

LS-DYNA.
Time Save results file after a specified increment Yes Yes
in time. Exposes a Time field where you
enter a time increment.
Equally Spaced (Default) Save a specified number of result Yes Yes
Points files during the analysis. The frequency is

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Field Options Description 2D Restart

defined by the termination time / number
of points. Exposes a Number of Points
field where you enter the number of
results files required.
Save Restart During the solve of an Explicit Dynamics Yes Yes
Files on system, restart files are saved to disk at a
frequency defined through this control.
The following settings are available.
Cycles Save restart files after a specified increment Yes Yes
in the number of cycles. Exposes a Cycles
field where you enter the increment in
cycles.
Time Save restart files after a specified Yes Yes
increments in time. Exposes a Time field
where you enter a time increment.

This setting is not available for

LS-DYNA.
Equally Spaced (Default) Save a specified number of restart Yes Yes
Points files during the analysis. The frequency is
defined by the termination time / number
of points. Exposes a Number of Points
field where you enter the number of restart
files required.
Save Result Use this control to define the Yes Yes
Tracker Data on frequency at which result tracker data
and solution output is saved to disk.

Result tracker data objects are scoped

to specific regions in a model.

Solution output provides a summary

of the state of the solution as the
solve proceeds. This is shown when
Solution Information is highlighted
in the project tree. This setting applies
to all the selectable views in the
Solution Output drop down list
located in the Solution Information
Details view.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

Cycles (Default) Save results tracker and solution Yes Yes
output data after a specified increment in
the number of cycles. Exposes a Cycles
field where you enter the increment in
cycles. The default value is 1.

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Field Options Description 2D Restart

If a number less than or equal to 10
is entered for Cycles, then the
following plots available from the
Solution Output drop down will be
updated every 10 cycles unless overall
progress has increased by 5% since
the last data point (in which case, the
plots will be updated at a frequency
as close to the entered cycle
increment as possible). Results
trackers are excluded from this
limitation.

• Time Increment

• Energy Conservation

• Momentum Summary

• Energy Summary

The Solver Output view from the

Solution Output drop down will be
updated at the entered cycle
increment.

Cycle zero and the final cycle will

always be displayed even if it is not a
multiple of the cycles entered.
Time Save result tracker and solution output Yes Yes
data after a specified increment in time.
Exposes a Time field where you enter a
time increment.

Although time based, the frequency

of Solution Output update is limited
to no more than every 10 cycles. If a
time equating to 10 cycles or less is
chosen, then the following plots
available from the Solution Output
drop down will be updated every 10
cycles, unless overall progress has
increased by 5% since the last data
point (in which case, the output will
be updated at a frequency as close to
the entered time increment as
possible). Results trackers are excluded
from this limitation.

• Time Increment

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Field Options Description 2D Restart

• Energy Conservation

• Momentum Summary

• Energy Summary

The Solver Output view from the

Solution Output drop down will be
updated every cycle.
Output Contact Use this control to define the No Yes
Forces frequency that contact forces are
written out to file.

• Contact forces information is

written to the solution directory
into ASCII files named extf-
con_*.cfr, where * is the cycle
number.

• Each file contains forces in the

global x, y and z directions for
nodes on external faces, where the
forces are non-zero.

• Contact forces are not written for

Line bodies or Eulerian (Virtual)
bodies.

• Contact forces are only written for

3D analyses.

• A separate line pair exists for each

node in the following format:
Node number
Contact Force X Contact Force Y Contact Force Z

• These text files may be used by ACT

to visualize the contact pressure
between bodies.

Note:

Output Contact Forces are

not step-aware.

Off (Default) Disable output of contact forces. No Yes

Cycles Write contact forces to a file after a No Yes
specified increment in the number of

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Field Options Description 2D Restart

cycles. Exposes a Cycles field where you
enter the increment in cycles.
Time Write contact forces to a file after a No Yes
specified increment in time. Exposes a
Time field where you enter a time
increment.
Equally Spaced Write a specified number of contact force No Yes
Points files during the analysis. The frequency is
defined by the termination time/ number
of points. Exposes a Number of Points
field where you enter the number of
contact force files required.

2.10.1.7. Explicit Dynamics Data Management Settings

Note that these settings cannot be changed from the Details panel.

Field Description
Solver Files Directory The permanent location for all the files generated during a solve.
This is a read-only field provided for information.
Scratch Solver Files Directory A temporary location for all files generated during a solve. These
files are then moved to the Solver Files Directory for completed
solves. This is a read-only field provided for information. See
Analysis Data Management in the Mechanical User's Guide for
more information.

This field is not available for LS-DYNA.

2.10.1.8. Recommendations for Analysis Settings in Explicit Dynamics

Explicit Dynamics may be used for a wide range of applications, and a default set of Analysis Settings
designed to provide the most robust solution are not necessarily suited to every application.
Therefore, the Type setting allows the selection of particular defaults depending on the requirements
of the solution. The following options are available:

• Program Controlled – This is the default setting with a priority for a robust solution.

• Low Velocity – Recommended for low deformation/velocity (<100m/s) analyses.

• High Velocity – Recommended for high deformation/velocity (>100m/s) analyses.

• Efficiency – Settings for minimum runtime. In some cases, this may have an effect on robustness
and accuracy.

• Quasi-static – Recommended for quasi-static analyses.

• Drop Test – Recommended for drop test analyses.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

The exact Analysis Settings values for each of the Analysis Settings Preference Types are shown in
the table below. Switching the Type property will update all of the items displayed in the table as
indicated. If any of these settings are subsequently changed, then the Type will be indicated as
Custom.

Program Efficiency Low High Quasi-Static

Drop
Controlled Velocity Velocity Test
Default Setting Recommended RecommendedRecommended Recommended
(Robustness)
for setting for setting setting
minimum for low high for for drop
run time deformation/velocity
deformation/velocity
quasi-statictest
(also simulations simulationssimulationsanalyses
minimum (<100m/s) (>100m/s)
robustness
and
accuracy
in some
cases)
Analysis Notes
Settings
Step
Controls
Timestep 0.9 1 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 If solving in the
Safety Euler reference
Factor frame the
maximum timestep
safety factor is
0.66667. This will
override any values
entered by the
user.
Mass No Yes Yes No Yes No You need to enter
Scaling a reasonable
desired timestep.
Mass Off User User Off User Off You need to enter
Scaling: Must Must Must a sensible desired
Minimum Define Define Define timestep and
CFL ensure the physical
timestep response is not
significantly altered
by the additional
mass added.
Mass Off 1000 100 Off 1000 Off
Scaling:
Maximum
Element
Scaling
Factor (%)

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Program Efficiency Low High Quasi-Static

Drop
Controlled Velocity Velocity Test
Mass Off 1000 5 Off 1000 Off
Scaling:
Maximum
Part
Scaling
Mass Off 0 0 Off 0 Off Note that for low
Scaling: deformation
Update problems, setting
Frequency an update
frequency of
approximately 250
may also help
maintain a higher
timestep
Characteristic Diagonals Opposing Opposing Diagonals Opposing Opposing
Dimension Faces Faces Faces Faces
Solver
Controls
Beam Time 0.5 1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Increasing the
Step Safety safety factor can
Factor lead to unstable
results. Check
results carefully.
Hex Exact 1pt 1pt Exact 1pt 1pt
Integration Gauss Gauss Gauss Gauss
Type
Shell 3 2 3 3 3 3
Sublayers
Shell RecomputeRotate RecomputeRecomputeRecomputeRecomputeRotate option is
Inertia most efficient but
Update can lead to
unstable results.
Check results
carefully.
Tet ANP SCP NBS ANP NBS NBS SCP tet is very
Integration efficient but suffers
from shear and
volume locking.
Check results
carefully if using
this option.
Minimum 1e-10 1e-10 0.0 1e-10 0.0 0.0
Strain Rate
Cutoff

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Program Efficiency Low High Quasi-Static

Drop
Controlled Velocity Velocity Test
Damping
Controls
Hourglass AUTODYN AUTODYN Flanagan AUTODYN Flanagan Flanagan Autodyn standard
Damping standard standard Belytschko standard Belytschko Belytschko is not rigid body
rotation invariant.
Must use Flanagan
Belytschko if large
rotations are
involved.
Static 0 0 0 0 User 0 For quasi-static
Damping Must analyses, it is
Define recommended that
static damping is
used, but the value
used depends on
the configuration
of the model. See
Explicit Dynamics
Damping
Controls (p. 73) for
more details on
selecting an
appropriate value.
Erosion
Controls
On Yes No No Yes No No If you expect large
Geometric deformations and
Strain Limit mesh distortions
during the
simulation, a
geometric strain
limit of 1.0 to 1.5
will be required for
the minimum run
time case.
Geometric 1.5 0.75 Unchanged1.5 UnchangedUnchanged
Strain Limit
Output
Controls
Save 20 20 50 50 10 50
Results on:
Equally
Spaced
Points
Save Result 1 10 10 1 10 10
Tracker

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 Establish Analysis Settings

Program Efficiency Low High Quasi-Static

Drop
Controlled Velocity Velocity Test
Data:
Cycles
Save 100 1000 100 100 100 100
Solution
Output:
Cycles
Body
Interactions:
Details
options
Nodal Shell No No No No No No
Thickness
Body Self Yes No No Yes No No
Contact
Element Yes No No Yes No No
Self
Contact

When using the Explicit Dynamics analysis system, the Body Self Contact and Element Self Contact
settings in the Body Interactions object Details panel should be set to Program Controlled in order
for the Analysis Settings Preference Type to have an effect on the Body Interactions objects. If the
Program Controlled setting is used, the values of the Body Interactions settings will be as shown
in the table.

Note:

Consider the following guidelines for setting up other areas of your analysis:

• Material Properties

– Use simplest Material definition possible

– Use Linear Elastic properties unless you need to model non-linearities

• Bonds

– Only use breakable bonds if you really need to

• Meshing

Mesh quality is a critical aspect for model performance and accuracy:

– Use Hex Meshes whenever possible

– Use the patch independent tetrahedral mesh method to ensure uniform element
size and timestep optimization

– Avoid small elements unless you need them

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

2.10.2. Body Control

You can use the Body Control object to override some of the global solver and damping options for
selected bodies.

The default settings for the Body Control object are equivalent to the default options in Analysis
Settings when the preference type is set to Program Controlled.

Note:

The Body Control options are not updated when the Analysis Settings Preference Type is
updated.

Analysis Types

The Body Control object is available for an Explicit Dynamics analysis only. It is not available for
LS-DYNA.

Common Characteristics

Dimensional Types

• 3D Simulation: Supported.

• 2D Simulation: Not Supported.

Geometry Types: Geometry types supported for the Body Control object include:

• Solid: Supported.

• Surface/Shell: Supported.

• Wire Body/Line Body/Beam: Supported.

Topology: The following topology selection options are supported for the Body Control object

• Body: Supported.

• Face: Not Supported.

• Edge: Not Supported.

• Vertex: Not Supported.

• Nodes: Not Supported.

Body Control Application

To apply a Body Control:

On the Environment context tab: click Conditions and select Body Control. Or, right-click the
Environment tree object or the Geometry window and select Insert → Body Control.

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 Define Initial Conditions

Multiple body controls can be added to an analysis but only one body control can be specified
for any one body.

Different geometry types can be scoped to the same Body Control object. If the scoping for a
Body Control object contains bodies that are of all one geometry type, then only the relevant
section controls will apply.

Details

The following details can be defined as part of the Body Control object:

The Details options are described in the following sections:

• Explicit Dynamics Solver Controls (p. 67)

• Explicit Dynamics Damping Controls (p. 73)

2.11. Define Initial Conditions

For general information about how to define initial conditions, see Define Initial Conditions in the
Mechanical User's Guide

• You can assign a translational or angular velocity to a single body or to multiple bodies. In an Explicit
Dynamics analysis, by default, all bodies are assumed to be at rest with no external constraint or load
applied. It is not a requirement to apply these types of initial conditions to a body.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• An Explicit Dynamics solution requires that the model contains at least one initial condition (transla-
tional or angular velocity), a non-zero constraint (displacement or velocity), or a valid load.

• You can use the results of an implicit analysis as a pre-stress initial condition for an Explicit Dynamics
analysis. For more information, see Applying Pre-Stress Effects for Explicit Analysis (p. 149).

2.12. Apply Loads and Supports

For general information about how to apply loads and supports, see Apply Loads and Supports in the
Mechanical User's Guide

You can apply the following loads and supports in an Explicit Dynamics analysis:

• Acceleration

• Standard Earth Gravity

• Pressure

• Hydrostatic Pressure

• Force

• Nodal Force

• Line Pressure

• Joint Load

• Fixed Support

• Displacement

• Nodal Displacement

• Detonation Point (p. 93)

• Velocity

• Impedance Boundary (p. 88)

• Simply Supported

• Fixed Rotation

• Remote Displacement

• Remote Force

• Limit Boundary (p. 91)

• SPH Activation and Deactivation (p. 93)

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 Apply Loads and Supports

Notes

• Cylindrical coordinate systems allow the definition of a single rotational displacement or velocity
constraint on a rigid or flexible body. These coordinate systems are fixed and so do not move with
the body.

– For Explicit Dynamics analyses, the Y component (that is, Θ direction) of a velocity constraint
defined by a cylindrical coordinate system has units relating to angular velocity.

– For Explicit Dynamics analyses, the Y component (that is, Θ direction) of a displacement constraint
defined by a cylindrical coordinate system has units relating to rotation.

• Stepped or time varying tabular loads can be applied in an Explicit Dynamics analysis. However, Ex-
plicit Dynamics does not support using tabular data to specify the magnitude or components of Ac-
celerations or Line Pressures.

• Displacement and rotation boundary conditions must be ramped, meaning that they cannot have
non-zero values at the first cycle.

• For Explicit Dynamics analyses, loads defined by functions are supported for Pressure, Velocity, and
Remote Force boundary conditions, but only when defined as varying in time. Spatially varying
function definitions are not supported in Explicit Dynamics. See Setting Up Boundary Conditions.

• For LS-DYNA, loads defined by functions are not supported.

• Loads must be applied in a single step.

• Loads and supports are not valid when applied to bodies having a Reference Frame of Eulerian (Vir-
tual).

• Detonation Points are only available for 3D Explicit Dynamics analyses, not 2D Explicit Dynamics
analyses.

• The results DET_INIT_TIME and ALPHA are not available for LS-DYNA.

• For Explicit Dynamics analyses, if multiple constraints (for example, displacements) are applied to a
node then they must use the same coordinate system. This restriction is especially applicable at nodes
on a shared topology such as an edge, where two adjacent faces, each with different constraints,
may come together. These constraints must use the same coordinate system in their specification.

• In the LS-DYNA solver, a Velocity or Displacement boundary condition (implemented with the
*BOUNDARY_PRESCRIBED_MOTION keyword) will override a Fixed Support or a Simple Support or a
Fixed Rotation boundary condition (implemented with the *BOUNDARY_SPC keyword). Hence if a
body has a Velocity constraint and a Fixed Support applied to it, the whole body will move in the
direction of the applied velocity.

• The default unconstrained body is valid. It is not a requirement to constrain any DOF of a body In
Explicit Dynamics systems.

• An Explicit Dynamics solve can be performed if the model contains at least one Initial Condition
(Translational or Rotational velocity) or a non-zero constraint (displacement or velocity) or a valid
load.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• An Explicit Dynamics analysis which contains Pressure, Velocity, Displacement, Force, or Remote Dis-
placement boundary conditions defined with a function cannot be run in parallel.

• The Remote Force boundary condition is not supported in LS-DYNA.

• The Remote Displacement and Remote Force boundary conditions are not supported in 2D Explicit
Dynamics analyses.

• A Remote Displacement boundary condition must have the Behavior field set to Rigid for an Explicit
Dynamics analysis. An error will be reported if it is set to Deformable. If the Remote Displacement or
Remote Force object is scoped to a Remote Point that has its Behavior set to Rigid, the Remote Dis-
placement or Remote Force Behavior will automatically be set to Rigid also.

• For bodies with reference frame of Particle, the only supported boundary conditions are Acceleration,
Standard Earth Gravity, Displacement, Velocity, and Limit Boundary. These boundary conditions cannot
be scoped to faces, edges, or vertices of the body as these scoping entities may not be coincident
with any particle mesh entity. Contrary to other body types, Displacement, Velocity and Limit
Boundaries may be scoped to collections of mesh nodes or Named Selections scoped to collections
of mesh nodes. Limit Boundary is not available for LS-DYNA.

2.12.1. Impedance Boundary

Impedance Boundary is available for an Explicit Dynamics analysis only. It is not available for LS-DYNA.

You can use the impedance boundary condition to transmit waves through cell faces. The boundary
condition predicts the pressure P in the dummy cell from the impedance, particle velocity, and a
reference pressure (P0). Only the perpendicular component is transmitted, as the pressure is spherical.
Therefore, the Impedance boundary condition is only approximate, and should be placed as far as
possible from region of interest.

Theory
In order to economize on problem size it is sometimes advantageous for problems which have only
outward traveling solutions (e.g. an expanding high pressure source) to limit the size of the grid by
a boundary condition which allows outward traveling waves to pass through it without reflecting
energy back into the computational grid.

In practice it proves impossible to include a simple boundary condition which is accurate for all wave
strengths but the algorithm used here give a reasonable approximation over a wide spectrum. However

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 Apply Loads and Supports

it should always be borne in mind that the condition is only approximate and some reflected wave,
however small, will be created and care must be taken that such a wave does not have a significant
effect on the later solution. Note that the following analysis deals only with the normal component
of velocity of the wave and the velocity component parallel to the boundary is assumed to be unaf-
fected by the boundary.

For a one-dimensional wave traveling in the direction of increasing x, the conditions on the rearward
facing characteristic are
(2.12)

where ρc is the acoustic impedance (ρ is the local density and c is the local sound speed) and dp and
du are the changes of pressure and velocity normal to the wave along the characteristic. Since it is
assumed that no wave energy is being propagated back in the direction of decreasing x the error in
applying the above condition on a non-characteristic direction is in general small and it is applied
on the transmitting boundary in the form
(2.13)

where:

uN is the component of mean velocity normal to the boundary

[ρc]boundary is the assumed Material Impedance for the boundary

pref is the user defined reference pressure

uref is the user defined reference velocity at the boundary

For an initially stationary structure at zero pressure, the reference values (pref and uref) are normally
set to zero. In this case we have
(2.14)

which is exact for a plane elastic longitudinal wave propagating in an infinite elastic medium.

Note:

The default Material Impedance (Program Controlled) is zero. In this case the impedance
at the boundary is taken to be the impedance at time t of the element to which the
boundary is applied. This represents the case of perfect transmission of plane normal
elastic waves.

Common Characteristics
The following section outlines the common boundary condition characteristics that include application
requirements of the boundary condition, support limitations, as well as loading definitions and values.

Dimensional Types

• 3D Simulation: Supported.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• 2D Simulation: Supported.

Geometry Types: Geometry types supported for the Impedance Boundary boundary condition include:

• Solid: Supported.

• Surface/Shell: Supported.

• Wire Body/Line Body/Beam: Supported.

Topology: The following topology selection options are supported for Impedance Boundary.

• Body: Not Supported.

• Face: Supported.

• Edge: Not Supported.

• Vertex: Not Supported.

• Nodes: Not Supported.

Loading Data Definition: Enter loading data using one of the following options.

Boundary Condition Application

To apply an Impedance Boundary:

1. On the Environment Context tab: click Supports and select Impedance Boundary. Or, right-click
the Environment tree object or the Geometry window and select Insert>Impedance Boundary.

2. Define the Scoping Method.

Details View Properties

The selections available in the Details view are described below.

Category Fields/Options/Description
Scope Scoping Method: Options include:

• Geometry Selection: Default setting, indicating that the boundary

condition is applied to a geometry or geometries, which are chosen using
graphical selection tools.

– Geometry: Visible when the Scoping Method is set to Geometry Se-

lection. Displays the type of geometry (Body, Face, etc.) and the number
of geometric entities (for example: 1 Body, 2 Edges) to which the
boundary has been applied using the selection tools.

• Named Selection: Indicates that the geometry selection is defined by a

Named Selection.

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 Apply Loads and Supports

Category Fields/Options/Description
– Named Selection: Visible when the Scoping Method is set to Named
Selection. This field provides a drop-down list of available user-defined
Named Selections.

Definition Type: Read-only field set to Impedance Boundary.

Material Impedance: Program Controlled or input value.

Reference Velocity: Program Controlled or input value.

Reference Pressure: Program Controlled or input value.

Suppressed: Include (No - default) or exclude (Yes) the boundary condition.

2.12.2. Limit Boundary

Limit Boundary is available for an Explicit Dynamics analysis only. It is not available for LS-DYNA.

The Limit Boundary can only be scoped to bodies with the Reference Frame option set to Particle.
It is used to impose limits on the position of SPH nodes in the X, Y, and Z directions. The limits effect-
ively specify a rigid wall upon which SPH nodes encroaching on the limit will bounce off. For instance,
specifying a minimum limit of -10 m in the X-direction is like specifying a rigid wall in the Y-Z plane
positioned at X = -10 m.

Common Characteristics
The following section outlines the common boundary condition characteristics that include application
requirements of the boundary condition, support limitations, as well as loading definitions and values.

Dimensional Types

• 3D Simulation: Supported.

• 2D Simulation: Not Supported.

Geometry Types: The Limit Boundary may only be scoped to bodies with the Reference Frame option
set to Particle.

Topology: The following topology selection options are supported for Limit Boundary.

• Body: Supported.

• Face: Not Supported.

• Edge: Not Supported.

• Vertex: Not Supported.

• Nodes: Supported.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Details View Properties

The fields available in the Details view are described below.

Category Fields/Options/Description
Scope Scoping Method: Options include:

• Geometry Selection: Default setting, indicating that the boundary condition is applied
to a geometry or geometries, which are chosen using graphical selection tools.

– Geometry: Visible when the Scoping Method is set to Geometry Selection. Displays
the type of geometry (Body, Face, etc.) and the number of geometric entities (for
example: 1 Body, 2 Nodes) to which the boundary has been applied using the
selection tools.

• Named Selection: Indicates that the geometry selection is defined by a Named

Selection.

– Named Selection: Visible when the Scoping Method is set to Named Selection.
This field provides a drop-down list of available user-defined Named Selections.

Defini- Type: Read-only field set to Limit Boundary.

tion
Limit Direction: Options include:

• X: Use to set limits in the X direction only.

• Y: Use to set limits in the Y direction only.

• Z: Use to set limits in the Z direction only.

• All: Use to set limits in the X, Y and Z directions.

• Minimum Value: Only visible if Limit Direction is set to X, Y, or Z. Set the minimum
permissible value in the direction specified for the SPH node locations.

• Maximum Value: Only visible if Limit Direction is set to X, Y, or Z. Set the maximum
permissible value in the direction specified for the SPH node locations.

• Minimum X Value: Only visible if Limit Direction is set to All. Set the minimum
permissible value in the X direction for the SPH node locations.

• Maximum X Value: Only visible if Limit Direction is set to All. Set the maximum
permissible value in the X direction for the SPH node locations.

• Minimum Y Value: Only visible if Limit Direction is set to All. Set the minimum
permissible value in the Y direction for the SPH node locations.

• Maximum Y Value: Only visible if Limit Direction is set to All. Set the maximum
permissible value in the Y direction for the SPH node locations.

• Minimum Z Value: Only visible if Limit Direction is set to All. Set the minimum
permissible value in the Z direction for the SPH node locations.

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 Apply Loads and Supports

Category Fields/Options/Description
• Maximum Z Value: Only visible if Limit Direction is set to All. Set the maximum
permissible value in the Z direction for the SPH node locations.

2.12.3. SPH Activation and Deactivation

Particle Bodies in an Explicit Dynamics analysis can be activated or deactivated at different load steps
using Element Birth and Death objects. This is not available for LS-DYNA analyses.

For information on how to setup and use an Element Birth and Death object, see the section
Boundary Condition Application in Element Birth and Death in the Mechanical User's Guide.

Element Birth and Death objects in an Explicit Dynamics analysis may only be scoped to bodies with
Reference Frame of type Particle. They must be scoped to the entire body and not a subset of mesh
nodes of the body. You can have multiple Element Birth and Death objects scoped to different Particle
bodies.

An Element Birth and Death object may be used to activate and deactivate its associated Particle
bodies once in the analysis. Particle bodies cannot be reactivated. If you set a Particle body to react-
ivate, an error will be generated during the solution.

Note:

It is not recommended that you change the activation/deactivation time in Autodyn when
the activation/deactivation has been set from a model created in Mechanical.

2.12.4. Detonation Point

You can detonate an explosive by various methods of delivering energy to it. However whether an
explosive is dropped, thermally irradiated, or shocked, either mechanically or through a shock from
an initiator (of a more sensitive explosive), initiation of an explosive always goes through a stage in
which a shock wave is an important feature.

It is assumed that, on initiation, a detonation wave travels away from the initiation point with constant
detonation velocity, being refracted around any inert obstacles in the explosive without moving the
obstacle, maintaining a constant detonation velocity in the refracted zone and detonating each particle
of explosive on arrival at that particle.

Analysis Types
Detonation Point is available for Explicit Dynamics and LS-DYNA analyses.

Common Characteristics
This section describes the characteristics of the boundary condition, including the application require-
ments, support limitations, and loading definitions and values.

Dimensional Types

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• 3D Simulation: Supported.

• 2D Simulation: Not Supported.

Note:

Detonation Points are slightly different in LS-DYNA...list the differences here or in another
appropriate place.

Boundary Condition Application

1. Click the Loads drop-down menu from the Context tab and select Detonation Point. Or, right-
click the Environment tree object or the Geometry window and select Insert → Detonation
Point.

2. Specify Location.

Multiple detonation points can be added to an analysis. The location of the selected detonation point
and the detonation time are displayed in the annotation on the model.

Details View Properties

The selections available in the Details view are described below.

Category Fields/Options/Description
Definition Burn Instantaneously: When set to Yes, results in initiation of detonation for all
elements with an explosive material at the start of the solve.

Detonation Time: User can enter the time for initiation of detonation. [Only
visible if Burn Instantaneously is set to No.]

Suppressed - Include (No - default) or exclude (Yes) the boundary condition.

Location Enter detonation point coordinates:

• X Coordinate

• Y Coordinate

• Z Coordinate

Location: User can interactively select detonation location using the

vertex/edge/face selection tools:

• Select Vertex: Sets X/Y/Z location to vertex location.

• Select Edge: Sets X/Y/Z location to centre of edge.

• Select Face: Sets X/Y/Z location to centre of face.

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 Apply Loads and Supports

Theory
The Detonation analysis method used is Indirect Path detonation. Detonation paths are computed
by finding either a direct path through explosive regions or by following straight line segments con-
necting centers of cells containing explosives. Either:

Detonation paths will be computed as the shortest route through cells that contain explosive.
Or...
Detonation paths are computed by finding the shortest path obtained by following straight line
segments connecting the centers of cells containing explosive.

The correct detonation paths will automatically be computed around wave-shapers, obstacles, corners,
etc.

Detonation points must lie within the grid. Paths cannot be computed through multiple Parts. If a
detonation point is placed in one Part, the detonation from this point cannot propagate to another
Part. If this is required, you must place one or more detonation points in the second Part with the
appropriate initiation times set to achieve the required detonation.

The following illustration outlines the detonation process:

• Detonation is initiated at a node or plane (user defined)

• Detonation front propagates at the Detonation Velocity, D

• Cell begins to burn at time T1

• Burning is complete at time T2

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• Chemical energy is released linearly from T1 to T2; burn fraction increases from 0.0 to 1.0 over this
time

The result DET_INIT_TIME can be used to view the initiation times of the explosive material. For ex-
ample, in the image below, the body on the left side has a detonation point with instantaneous burn
defined, and so the entire material has a detonation initiation time of 1x10-6 ms. The second body
has a detonation point defined in the lower X, lower Y, lower Z corner, and the detonation time can
be seen to vary from 0 ms (in other words, instantaneous detonation) to a value of 0.19555 ms in the
corner of the body furthest away from the detonation point. Once detonation is initiated in an element,
a value of zero is shown for DET_INIT_TIME.

The result ALPHA can be used to view the progress of the detonation wave through the material.
This corresponds to the burn fraction, which will be a value between zero (no detonation) and one
(detonation complete). For the same example, looking at values of alpha at a later stage in the calcu-
lation, the detonation wave can clearly be seen in the body on the right as the spherical band of
contours showing the value of alpha changing from zero to one. The body on the left has a value of
one for the entire body, as it detonated instantaneously.

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 Apply Loads and Supports

2.12.5. Activation/Deactivation of Loads in Explicit Dynamics

You can activate or deactivate a load (which includes it in, or excludes it from, the analysis) within
the time span of a step. For most loads (for example, pressure or force) deleting the load is the same
as setting the load value to zero. But for certain loads, such as a specified displacement, this is not
the case.

Note:

Changing the method of how a multiple-step load value is specified (such as Tabular to
Constant), the Activation/Deactivation state of all steps resets to the default, Active.

To activate or deactivate a load in a stepped analysis:

1. Highlight the load within a step in the Graph or a specific step in the Tabular Data window.

2. Click the right mouse button and choose Activate/Deactivate at this step!.

Note:

For displacements and remote displacements, it is possible to deactivate a selection of

degrees of freedom within a step.

Supported Constraints
• Acceleration

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• Standard Earth Gravity

• Pressure

• Force

• Remote Force

• Line Pressure

• Joint Load (displacement/velocity/acceleration/force/moment)

• Displacement

• Remote Displacement

• Velocity

• Nodal Force

• Nodal Displacement

Step deactivation is (by design) not applicable for:

• Hydrostatic Pressure

• Detonation Point

• Fixed support

• Impedance Boundary

• Limit Boundary

Application of Load Steps

Here are some example scenarios where load deactivation is useful:

• Springback of a cantilever beam after a plasticity analysis.

• Locking a joint or remote point in a certain location by setting the velocities to zero.

• Specifying different initial velocities for different parts in an Explicit Dynamics analysis during the
analysis by activating an acceleration during a load step.

• Multistep type of analysis to keep track of loads in a logical way.

Caution:

Reactivation of translational and rotational displacement boundary conditions is not allowed.

The explicit solver is not able to fulfill such a constraint in one cycle when the boundary
condition becomes active. This will result in an error message:

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 Solve

Boundary condition <bcname> contains a load step which has been react-
ivated after being deactivated. The constraint cannot be fulfilled because
it would cause very large displacements in one solver cycle. Instead use a
velocity based boundary condition.

In the following example the nodes would be free to move during load step 2. Adhering
to the constraint at the start of load step 3 would cause the deformations to become too
large. This restriction does not apply for non-displacement type of boundary conditions.

2.12.6. Importing External Loads

The External Data system allows you to import external loads into an explicit dynamics analysis. Cur-
rently, the only load supported for explicit dynamics analyses is Imported Pressure.

2.13. Solve
For general information about solving, see Perform Solution in the Mechanical User's Guide

2.13.1. Solving from Time = 0

Solving from Time = 0, which is from Cycle=0, is the typical way to start an analysis. This cycle value
is the default setting in the Resume From Cycle field located in the Step Controls (p. 62) section of
the Analysis Settings (p. 58). The analysis will run until either the user-defined Maximum Number
of Cycles or End Time is reached.

The following restriction applies:

• An Explicit Dynamics solve can only be performed if the model contains at least one Initial Condition
(Translational or Rotational velocity), a non-zero constraint (displacement or velocity), or a valid
load.

If you are using RSM for the solution, the Remote Solve Manager can be used to monitor the analysis
and obtain any solution related output.

Another way of monitoring the progress of the solve is to view the Solution Information (p. 102) while
the solve is running, where you can view the estimated run time remaining.

A running analysis can be interrupted; for example, to review results part way through the analysis.
An interrupted analysis can be resumed (p. 100) to continue to the end. Similarly, a successfully ended
analysis can be extended beyond its current end time or cycle.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

2.13.2. Resume Capability for Explicit Dynamics Analyses

If an Explicit Dynamics analysis has partially or totally completed, you can resume the analysis from
a non-zero time step (cycle). You may want to do this in order to:

• Extend an analysis that has successfully completed beyond its current end time or cycle.

• Complete an analysis that has been interrupted. For example you may wish to interrupt an analysis
in order to review results part way through a longer simulation.

• Continue an analysis that has stopped part way through. For example, if an analysis has terminated
prematurely due to the time-step size being too small, you can make adjustments to mass scaling,
and restart the calculation.

• Adjust the frequency of restart file, result file or other output information. For example, you may
wish to re-solve part of an analysis that is of interest with more frequent results.

• Adjust damping or erosion controls.

You may resume an analysis from any cycle that has a restart file by first selecting the cycle in the
Resume From Cycle field located in the Step Controls (p. 62) section of the Analysis Settings
(p. 62), then making any other required analysis changes and selecting Solve. The frequency of restart
file output is controlled in the Analysis Settings Output Controls (p. 75). There is no limit to the
number of times an analysis may be resumed.

The following restrictions apply:

• Changes made to any feature of the model outside of the Analysis Settings will prevent a resume
from taking place.

• Changes made to any of the (Analysis Settings) Solver Controls, except for Minimum Velocity,
Maximum Velocity and Radius Cutoff, will prevent a resume from taking place.

• Changes made to the Retain Inertia of Eroded Material field will prevent a resume from taking
place.

• Changes to all other Erosion Controls, Damping Controls, and Output Controls are valid and
will not prevent a resume from taking place.

Note:

You cannot edit the Static Damping and Output Controls for load steps with End Time
values smaller than the Restart Time corresponding to the Restart Cycle.

• To use Automatic Mass Scaling under Analysis Settings, Step Controls), it must be enabled from
the start of the calculation. You cannot change the Automatic Mass Scaling property for a restart
calculation. If Automatic Mass Scaling is active, the other Mass Scaling properties may be changed
part way through a calculation.

• Analyses with non-zero Displacement constraints defined may not be resumed.

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2.13.2.1. Load and Constraint Behavior when Extending Analysis End Time
For a model with loads and constraint, when using the resume capability to extend the end time
of an analysis, the following points should be considered.

• Loads and constraints may not be modified after cycle zero.

• If an analysis end time has been increased, then it is possible that the analysis time may fall
outside the defined region of a time-dependent load or constraint. If this is the case, no load or
constraint will be applied.

• Time-dependent data for loads and supports can be defined for times greater than the end time
of the analysis, and these will become valid if the end time is then extended for a resumed ana-
lysis.

• The solver representation of loads and constraints may be verified by looking at admodel.prt
in the Solver Files directory.

2.13.3. Explicit Dynamics Performance in Parallel

For general information about solving in parallel with the Mechanical Application see Understanding
Solving in the Mechanical User's Guide

Parallel processing is not supported for 2D Explicit Dynamics models.

Explicit Dynamics 3D solutions default to using up to two cores with shared-memory parallelism. MPI
parallel processing support for 3D Explicit Dynamics models is described in the following table.

Windows Linux
Local Parallel Distributed Windows HPC Local Distributed Parallel
Parallel Jobscheduler Parallel Parallel Jobschedulers
Intel MPI, Intel MPI N/A Intel Intel MPI, N/A
Microsoft MPI MPI, OpenMPI
OpenMPI

You can use the additional command line arguments field as described in Using Solve Process Settings
in the Mechanical User's Guide to specify the information necessary to run an Explicit Dynamics solution
in parallel.

The MPI software used in a distributed parallel simulation can be specified using the -mpi option.
The available options are: intelmpi (Intel), msmpi (Microsoft) and openmpi (OpenMPI). The default
option for Windows and Linux is Intel MPI.

Machines used in a distributed parallel analysis can be specified using the -machines option. The
machines argument should be specified as:
-machines machineName1:N1,MachineName2:N2

where machineName1 will be started with N1 worker executables and MachineName2 will be
started with N2 worker executables. The machine name and number of workers should be separated
by a colon and each pair of machine name\number of workers should be separated by a comma. If
spaces are added then the -machines argument should be enclosed in double quotes:

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-machines "machineName1 : N1 , MachineName2 : N2"

Note:

When running Explicit Dynamics using Intel MPI or OpenMPI, the MPI files used are the
MPI files included with the Ansys installation. It is possible to specify a different location
for the MPI files by setting the environment variable I_MPI_ROOT (IntelMPI) or OPAL_PREFIX
(OpenMPI); for example:
I_MPI_ROOT = "C:\Program Files (x86)\IntelSWTools\mpi\2019.3.203\intel64"
or
OPAL_PREFIX = /usr/lib64/openmpi

The following capabilities of the explicit solver are not supported for a parallel environment:

• Line body to line body contact using Proximity Based interaction in combination with the Edge
on Edge option.

• Trajectory contact with the Decomposition Response formulation.

Note:

When a model contains a capability that is not supported for a parallel environment, the
analysis will automatically run in serial mode.

2.14. Postprocessing
You can review the Solution Information object and the Result Trackers to analyze your solution quality.
Result trackers must be defined before you start the solution.

2.14.1. Solution Output

The Solution Information object provides a summary of the solution time increments and progress
is continuously updated in the solution output. For distributed analyses, the parallel load balancing
is also displayed. This is calculated for each worker as the CPU time taken on the worker divided by
the average CPU time taken on all the workers. For a perfectly balanced solution, all workers will have
a load balancing of one.

Histograms of time step, energy and momentum are also available for real time monitoring of solution
progress.

You can monitor the quality of the solution by reviewing momentum and energy conservation graphs
in the solution output. Low energy errors (<10% of initial energy) are indicative of good quality
solutions.

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From the Solve Process Settings dialog, set your analysis to solve in the background either locally or
remotely. This allows you to retrieve results while the analysis is running to get immediate feedback
on the progress and accuracy of the solution.

Note:

If you choose the My Computer, Background setting, it is necessary that you also click
the Advanced... button and check Use Shared License, if possible, to obtain a successful
solution.

2.14.2. Result Trackers

General information about Result Trackers can be found in Result Trackers in the Mechanical User's
Guide

You can view the full transient time history data after the insertion of Result Tracker objects. Body
averaged data such as momentum and energy can be selected for display. Data at a specific location
(position, velocity, stress etc.) can also be displayed.

The frequency at which Result Tracker information is provided is defined in the Save Result Tracker
Data On option of the analysis settings (p. 62).

The following topics are related specifically to result trackers in Explicit Dynamics analyses:
2.14.2.1. Point Scoped Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics
2.14.2.2. Body Scoped Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics
2.14.2.3. Spring Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics
2.14.2.4. Viewing and Filtering Result Tracker Graphs for Explicit Dynamics
2.14.2.5. Force Reaction Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics

2.14.2.1. Point Scoped Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics

A point scoped result tracker is either associated with a node or element center, depending on the
variable selected.

Note:

The point scoped trackers are only available for an Explicit Dynamics analysis. Point
scoped trackers may only be inserted prior to the analysis being solved.

You can use one of two Location Methods to specify the location of point scoped Explicit Dynamics
result trackers:

• Geometry Selection

1. Set Location Method to Geometry Selection.

2. Select a vertex on the geometry or a node on the mesh.

3. Click in the Geometry field, then click Apply.

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For nodal results, the results tracker will record the results of the variable at the node or the
vertex the tracker is scoped to. For elemental results, the results tracker will record the results of
the variable in an element attached to the node or vertex the tracker is scoped to.

• User Defined Location

1. Set Location Method to User Defined Location.

2. Specify the coordinates in the X, Y, Z Coordinate fields. You can do this in one of two ways:

– Selecting a point using the Hit Point Coordinate icon on the Graphics Toolbar.

a. Choose Click to Change in the Location field.

b. Press the Hit Point Coordinate toolbar button.

c. Move the cursor across the model and notice that the coordinates display and update
as you reposition the cursor.

d. Click the desired location. A small crosshair appears at this location. You can click again
on another location, which changes the crosshair location.

e. Click Apply in the Location field. The location coordinates display in the X, Y, Z Co-
ordinate fields. You can change the location by repositioning the cursor, clicking at
the new location, then clicking Click to Change and Apply, or by editing the X, Y, Z
Coordinate fields in the Details view.

Note:

This method does not specify a vertex or node to track as in the Geometry Se-
lection method, but is purely a method of selecting x, y, and z coordinates in
the X, Y, Z Coordinate fields.

– Selecting a point by entering coordinates directly in the Details view

Type the coordinates into the X, Y, Z Coordinate fields in the Details view.

For trackers that record element results, the tracker will record the results of an element in which
the specified coordinates reside. If the coordinates entered do not correspond to an element location,
the result tracker will not record any data.

For trackers that record nodal results, the tracker will record the results of the node that is closest
to the specified coordinates provided the node is within half an element's dimension of the coordin-
ates. If no such node is found, the tracker will not record any data.

If the coordinates specified lie on the boundary of multiple elements or are coincident with multiple
nodes, the tracker will record the results of the first element/node it finds. The only way to ensure
a particular node is tracked is to use the geometry selection option.

The directional and non-directional point scoped result trackers available for Explicit Dynamics
analyses are shown in the tables below. The Details view properties for each are shown.

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Directional Point Scoped Results Trackers

The properties available in the Details view for Deformation, Position, Velocity, Acceleration,
Strain, or Stress are described in the following table.

Category Fields/Options/Description
Scope Geometry – Select vertex.
Definition Location Method – Select geometry or a user defined location.

Coordinate System – Assigned to user defined location.

X, Y, Z Coordinate – Position of the user defined location.

Location – Select user defined location.

Type – Select deformation, velocity, acceleration, strain, or stress type.

Orientation – X, Y, or Z direction.

Suppressed – Prior to solving, you can include or exclude the result

from the analysis. The default is value is No.
Results Minimum – Read-only indication of the minimum value of the result
tracker type.

Maximum – Read-only indication of the maximum value of the result

tracker type.
Filter Type – Specify low-pass filtering (p. 108) opton.

Note:

Strain results trackers are not available for Euler bodies.

Non-Directional Point Scoped Results Trackers

The properties available in the Details view for Internal Energy, Temperature, Pressure or Density
are described in the following table.

Category Fields/Options/Description
Scope Geometry – Select vertex.
Definition Type – Read only.

Location Method – Select geometry or a user defined location.

Coordinate System – Assigned to user defined location.

X, Y, Z Coordinate – Position of the user defined location.

Location – Select user defined location.

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Category Fields/Options/Description
Suppressed – Prior to solving, you can include or exclude the result
from the analysis. The default is value is No.
Results Minimum – Read-only indication of the minimum value of the result
tracker type.

Maximum – Read-only indication of the maximum value of the result

tracker type.
Filter Type – Specify low-pass filtering (p. 108) option.

Note:

Density results trackers are not available for surface and line bodies and beam elements.

Importing Point Scoped Result Trackers From a File

Choosing Result Trackers From File from the Result Trackers drop-down menu in the Context
tab enables you to import point scoped result trackers from a file. The format of the file should be
as in the following example:
cm
1;2;3;velx;velocity;x
1.4;2.5;3.745;My Deformation;Deformation;Total
10;20;30;prin max strain;strain;principal1
10;20;30;middle strain;strain;principal2

The first line specifies the units of the values in the file. Acceptable inputs for this are: "m", "cm",
"mm", "in", "ft", or "um".

The subsequent lines contain the data for each tracker to be inserted. The first three numbers are
the x,y,z location values. The fourth entry is the user-given name—the one that will be seen in the
tree. The 5th and 6th entries are type and subtype.

Acceptable entries for type and subtype are:

type = "velocity", "acceleration" or "deformation" with subtypes of "x","y","z" or "total"

type = "position", "temperature", "pressure", "energy" or "density" (no subtype used)

type = "stress" or "strain" with subtypes of "xx", "yy", "zz", "xy", "yz", "zx", "principal1", "principal2",
"principal3", "equivalent"

All values in each line should be separated by a semicolon. Any lines that are not properly formatted
will be skipped; no tracker will be inserted for them.

2.14.2.2. Body Scoped Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics

The directional and non-directional body scoped result trackers available for Explicit Dynamics
analyses are shown in the tables below. The Details view properties for each are shown.

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Directional Results Trackers Scoped to Flexible or Rigid Bodies

The properties available in the Details view for Momentum, Total Mass Average Velocity, Contact
Force, or External Force are described in the following table.

Category Fields/Options/Description
Scope Geometry – Select bodies.
Definition Type – Read only.

Orientation – X, Y, or Z direction.

Suppressed – Prior to solving, you can include or exclude the result

from the analysis. The default is value is No.
Results Minimum – Read-only indication of the minimum value of the result
tracker type.

Maximum – Read-only indication of the maximum value of the result

tracker type.
Filter Type – Specify low-pass filtering (p. 108) opton.

Note:

Contact Force and External Force results trackers are not available for Euler bodies.

Non-Directional Results Trackers Scoped to Flexible or Rigid Bodies

The properties available in the Details view for Kinetic Energy, Internal Energy, Total Energy,
Plastic Work, Hourglass Energy, or Contact Energy are described in the following table.

Category Fields/Options/Description
Scope Geometry – Select bodies.
Definition Type – Read only.

Location Method – Select geometry or a user defined location (internal

energy only).

Coordinate System – Assigned to user defined location (internal

energy only).

X, Y, Z Coordinate – Position of the user defined location (internal

energy only).

Location – Select user defined location (internal energy only).

Suppressed – Prior to solving, you can include or exclude the result

from the analysis. The default is value is No.
Results Minimum – Read-only indication of the minimum value of the result
tracker type.

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Category Fields/Options/Description
Maximum – Read-only indication of the maximum value of the result
tracker type.
Filter Type – Specify low-pass filtering (p. 108) option.

Note:

Internal Energy and Plastic Work results trackers will be zero for rigid bodies from a
physics perspective.

2.14.2.3. Spring Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics

You can use a spring tracker to display the following longitudinal result items from a spring in an
Explicit Dynamics analysis:

• Elongation – Elongation is the relative displacement between the two ends of the springs. The
elongation could be positive (stretching the spring) or negative (compressing the spring).

• Velocity – Velocity is the rate of stretch (or compression) of the spring.

• Elastic Force – Elastic force is calculated as (Spring Stiffness * Elongation). The force acts along
the length of the spring.

• Damping Force – Damping force is calculated as (Damping Factor * velocity) and acts to resist
motion.

2.14.2.4. Viewing and Filtering Result Tracker Graphs for Explicit Dynamics
Explicit dynamics analyses typically involve a large number of time history samples, sometimes in
the order of hundreds of thousands, and the results tend to include high frequency noise that can
obscure slow rate phenomena. A low-pass filtering option is available that allows you to separate
slow-rate trends from high frequency noise in signals. This feature can be controlled from the Details
view of a Result Tracker object.

The filtered results are displayed by default in the Graph window after the solve. By setting Display
Filter During Solve to Yes in the Details view of the Solution Information object, the filtered
results can also be displayed in the Worksheet at each refresh interval of the Result Tracker.

To configure the low-pass filter for the sampled data:

• Under Filter, set the following controls:

– Type: Set to one of the following:

→ None: (Default) No filtering is applied to the data.

→ Butterworth: Applies a four-channel low-pass Butterworth filter to the data. Two channels
are passed twice, once in the forward direction and once in the reverse direction, to prevent
phase shifts.

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– Cut Frequency (displayed if Type is set to Butterworth): Set to the desired cut frequency in
Hz or MHz depending on the current unit system. The default is 0, which implies no filtering.

Notes

A time history data is composed of a limited number of frequency signals that bound the range
of meaningful cut frequencies to use for filtering. If the cut frequency is too low, most signals
will be lost. On the other hand, if the cut frequency is too high, the signal may remain unaltered.

In determining a good cut frequency, sampling frequency plays a role. The sampling frequency
can be obtained by dividing the number of samples by the sampling duration. The cut frequency
should not exceed a quarter of this value. For example, if 15,000 samples occur in 0.015 seconds,
the sampling frequency will be 15,000/(0.015 s) = 1,000,000 Hz = 1 MHz. Consequently, the
cut frequency should not exceed 0.25 MHz.

The process of filtering pads the original signal with extrapolated data. This may produce un-
expected shapes in the filtered signal near the margins. The data away from the margins should
reflect, however, the proper trends and slow rate phenomena.

The signal is not filtered at all if it has less than 11 samples.

Under Filter, if Type is set to Butterworth, there are also read only indications for the Minimum
and Maximum values of the filtered data.

2.14.2.5. Force Reaction Result Trackers for Explicit Dynamics

Result trackers that can be scoped to boundary conditions and geometry are available for Explicit
Dynamics analyses.

The Details view settings are presented as sub-bulleted items under the tracker bullet.

• Force Reaction tracker

– Location Method – Select the scoping method for this tracker. Options are Boundary Condition
and Geometry Selection.

– Boundary Condition – When Boundary Condition is selected as the Location Method, select
the defined boundary condition that is to be used for scoping. At this time, the boundary
conditions that are available are: Velocity and Displacement.

– Geometry – When Geometry Selection is selected as the Location Method, select the vertex,
edge, face, or body where the tracker will be located.

– Force Component – When Geometry Selection is selected as the Location Method, select the
Force Component (Support, Euler/Lagrange Coupling, Contact, All) for which reaction force
results will be shown.

Euler/Lagrange Coupling specifies that the tracker show results for the forces exerted by any
material in bodies assigned with an Eulerian reference frame that interact with the scoped re-
gion. These trackers can only be scoped to geometry that has a Lagrangian reference frame.
See Explicit Fluid Structure Interaction (Euler-Lagrange Coupling) (p. 171) for more information
about Euler Lagrange interactions.

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Support specifies that the tracker show results for the forces that will be generated due to
supports that are acting on the scoped area.

Contact specifies that the tracker show results for the total force resulting from the contact
forces acting on the scoped area.

All specifies that the tracker show results for the sum of all three components.

– Orientation – Select X, Y, or Z axis, or Total, which is the resultant force of its X, Y, and Z
components.

• The Filter option in the Details view is defined in the same manner as any other result tracker
(see Viewing and Filtering Result Tracker Graphs for Explicit Dynamics (p. 108)).

The reaction force will be shown varying over time in the Graph window, and a table is displayed
that shows the data. The magnitude of the reaction force is calculated by summing the reaction
forces on each of the nodes selected by the scoping. For example, if you have scoped the tracker
by Geometry Selection to a face using the Contact Force Component, the magnitude of the reaction
force is the sum of all reaction forces due to contact at the nodes on the selected face. If you scope
by Boundary Condition, the magnitude will be the sum of all of the reaction forces due to Support
on the nodes scoped to the selected boundary condition.

Note:

• The Force Reaction trackers are only available for an Explicit Dynamics analysis.

• If you right-click a Force Reaction tracker and select Rename Based on Definition, the
tracker is renamed based on its type, the direction it shows results for, and the object
it is scoped to. For example, if a Force Reaction tracker is selected to show results in
the Y direction and is scoped to a Velocity constraint boundary condition named
"Velocity Fix", by selecting Name Based on Definition it will be renamed to "Y Force
Reaction at Velocity Fix". See Renaming a Result Tracker for more information on this
renaming behavior.

2.14.3. Review Results

General information about Results can be found in Review Results in the Mechanical User's Guide.

The following structural result types are available as results of an explicit dynamic analysis:

• Deformation

• Stress and Strain

• Energy

• Stress Tools

• Structural Probes - Limited in Explicit Dynamics to: Deformation, Strain, Stress, Position, Velocity,
Acceleration, Energy, Reaction Force, Reaction Moment, Joints. Limited in LS-DYNA to: Deform-
ation, Stress, Velocity, Acceleration, Joint, Spring, Beam.

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Once a solution is available you can display contour results or animate them to review the response
of the structure through time.

Note:

For an Explicit Dynamics analysis, there is no results interpolation between the results sets.
Specifying a time in the GUI will display results for the closest results set.

The Scoping Method for Explicit Dynamics results cannot be set to Path or Surface for
Particle bodies.

Eroded nodes (p. 249) can be toggled on or off in the graphics display.

Note:

Reaction Forces and Moments Probes are computed by the Explicit Dynamics solver per
boundary condition. The boundary condition itself will be assigned to the associated nodes
of the scoped geometry or named selection. The boundary condition treatment depends
on the behaviour of the body:

• If the boundary condition is applied to a flexible body: each node will record its own
reaction force or moment, which is directly derived from the necessary impulse correction
on the node.

• If the boundary condition is applied to a rigid body: the impulse correction will be
computed for the full rigid body. Subsequently the impulse (and thus force and moment
reaction) will be distributed across the associated nodes in the scope of the boundary
condition. Be aware that multibody rigid parts can be constrained by applying the
boundary condition to one of the rigid bodies, but the reaction will be distributed across
all nodes of this multibody part, which may yield results that are not immediately clear.

• In case of overlapping boundary conditions the sum of reaction force and moment will
be recorded on the node. In this case the actual exact contribution per boundary condi-
tion may be lost. For example: an edge with two boundary conditions like simply sup-
ported and fixed rotation will show reaction forces and moments for both boundary
conditions, although the actual contribution to moment reaction comes from the fixed
rotation and the actual contribution to reaction forces comes from the simply supported
boundary condition.

Note:

A remote displacement boundary condition is only indirectly associated with the scoped
nodes. Since it is applied to the actual remote point location, which can not be selected
as geometry, the scoped nodes just follow the imposed boundary condition. This means
that the total reaction force and/or moment are computed on the internal node that is
associated with the remote point location. Subsequently, the reaction force and moment
will be distributed over the nodes in the scope of the remote point.

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As a result, there are two ways to visualize the reaction probe: by selecting the boundary
condition or by selecting the geometry of the associated scope. If there is no overlapping
scope, the two methods will yield the same result. However, if there is overlap in scope,
or the remote displacement is scoped to a rigid body with other boundary conditions or
joints, the sum of reaction forces and probes will differ between location method boundary
condition and geometry.

Probes can be used to display the variation in specific results over the saved time points in the ana-
lysis. The frequency at which data is available is defined in the Save Results On option of the analysis
settings (p. 62). This data should be specified prior to a solve.

Note:

Probe results are not valid for Eulerian bodies.

You can use a Solution Information object to track, monitor, or diagnose problems that arise during
a solution.

The display of shells may become distorted if they experience large deformations or rotations. A
workaround for this is to disable Shell Thickness by toggling Thick Shells and Beams in the Style
group of the Display tab. Or, set the Workbench variable UsePseudoShellDisp = 1 by selecting
Variable Manager from the File tab. It may be necessary to toggle the deformation scaling from True
Scale to Undeformed to True Scale again (see Scaling Menus for Deformed Shapes under the Result
Context tab). Note that this option requires True Scaling to work properly.

Additional results specific to an Explicit Dynamics analysis are available via user defined results (p. 116).

LS-DYNA supports the ability to review the results of a simulation using the LS-DYNA solver. Addition-
ally, results can be viewed with the installation folder under ANSYS lsprepost.exe application
available at the Ansys Inc\v212\ansys\bin\.

2.14.4. Eroded Nodes in Explicit Dynamics Analyses

During Explicit Dynamics analyses, highly distorted elements may be automatically removed (eroded)
from the model. As elements erode, nodes may become free (not connected to any element). These
nodes have mass and inertia and can impact other structures. By default, eroded nodes are plotted
as red dots (see below).

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The Eroded Nodes toggle found in the Show drop-down menu in the Display tab allows you to remove
the eroded nodes from the display, as shown below.

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2.14.5. Euler Domain in Explicit Dynamics Analyses

In an Explicit Dynamics Analysis, if any bodies have a reference frame set to Eulerian (Virtual), an Euler
domain is created that encloses all bodies in the model. The Euler domain is a structured hexahedral
mesh. The exact size and resolution of the Eulerian domain can be controlled in the Euler Domain
Controls section of the Analysis Settings (p. 62) Details view.

Bodies with a reference frame set to Eulerian (Virtual) are used to initialize material into the Euler
domain. After the initialization of the solve, the mesh associated with such bodies is discarded. The
surfaces of the Eulerian bodies are not tracked exactly; the location of materials in the Euler domain
is stored as a material (volume) fraction for each of the Euler cells. A representation of the material
surface can be displayed as an isosurface for a material fraction value of 50%.

A comparison of Lagrangian (left) and Eulerian (right) representations of the same body is shown
below.

Results cannot therefore be displayed on the original mesh applied to the Euler bodies. Instead, a
mesh is reconstructed for each material associated with the original body to which the result object
is scoped. The reconstruction of the mesh is approximate and includes:

• Finding the exterior surface of each material in its current location in the Euler domain. This is
achieved by forming an isosurface on the volume fraction of each material in a cell (at 50%).

• Filling the interior of the material with cells from the Euler domain that are completely inside the
material.

• Reconstructing an unstructured mesh for any gaps between the exterior surface and interior cells.

The example below illustrates a typical mesh displayed for a Results object scoped to a Body with
Eulerian (Virtual) reference frame:

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When the Show Undeformed Wireframe option is selected for a results object scoped to Euler
bodies, the wireframe of the background Euler domain is displayed. Only the Euler domain cells that
contain material at a given point in time are used to construct the wireframe (cells that only contain
void are not displayed). An example is given below:

If the Euler Tracking By Body option is selected in the Analysis Settings Details view, results may be
scoped to Eulerian bodies in the same way as for Lagrangian bodies, and body trackers are available
for Eulerian parts.

Additional considerations:

• Displacement, strain, and BOND_STATUS results are not available for scoped results.

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• Probes and path plots are not supported for Eulerian bodies.

• External Force and Contact Force trackers will return zero for Eulerian bodies.

• Point trackers for Strain are not supported.

• Deformation scaling (i.e. Undeformed, .5 Auto, AutoScaling, 2x Auto, 5x Auto ) is not available for
Eulerian bodies.

• Show undeformed model is not available for Eulerian bodies.

• Although it is not possible to view the Eulerian domain directly within the Mechanical application,
the size and resolution of the domain are indicated in the graphics window when Analysis Settings
are selected in the outline view; if required, the model may be transferred to an Autodyn component
system where the Euler mesh can be displayed.

• There may be issues with solver efficiency for analyses containing more than ten Eulerian bodies.

• When attempting to use the Euler capabilities in the Explicit Dynamics analysis system, the following
license restrictions are observed:

– Set-up and solve of Euler capabilities in the Explicit Dynamics system are supported for the full
Ansys Autodyn (acdi_ad3dfull) license.

– Set-up but not solve of Euler capabilities in the Explicit Dynamics system are supported for the
pre-post Ansys Autodyn (acdi_prepost) license.

– Set-up and solve of Euler capabilities in the Explicit Dynamics system are supported for the Ansys
Mechanical Enterprise licenses.

Further discussion of the Eulerian solver used by Explicit Dynamics analyses, including a description
of the theory, can be found in Key Concepts of Euler (Virtual) Solutions (p. 165).

2.14.6. User Defined Results for Explicit Dynamics Analyses

For general information about User Defined Results, see User Defined Results in the Mechanical User's
Guide

The following table contains User Defined Results that are specific to an Explicit Dynamics analysis.
The User Defined Results available for analyses using LS-DYNA are noted. Additional User Defined
results available for LS-DYNA are described in History Variable Output.

Expression Description Type

BEAM_LEN Beam length Element
Nodal
BEAM_MISES_STR Combined normal stress in a beam cross-section Elemental
BOND_STATUS The number of nodes bonded to the faces on an element Elemental
during the analysis. A value of -1 is shown where all the
bonds for the face have broken.
C_S_AREA Beam cross section area. Element
Nodal

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Expression Description Type

COMPRESSALL Material compression: Element
Nodal
Compression, μ = ρ/ρ0 .
CROSS_SECTION Beam cross section number. Elemental
DAMAGEALL Material Damage: Element
Nodal
0– intact material.

1- fully fractured.
DENSITY Material Density. Element
Nodal
EFF_STN Effective Geometric Strain. Element
Nodal
EFF_PL_STNALL Effective Plastic Strain. Note: This is calculated incrementally, Element
unlike the equivalent plastic strain (EPPLEQV_RST), which is Nodal
calculated as an instantaneous value.
ENERGY_DAM Energy resulting from fracture for the Johnson-Holmquist Element
brittle strength model. Nodal
EROSION Erosion Status: Elemental

0 - no erosion.

>0 - eroded (will not be displayed).

EPS Effective Plastic Strain. This result is only available for Element
LS-DYNA. Nodal
EPS_RATE Effective Plastic Strain Rate. Element
Nodal
F_AXIAL Beam axial force. Element
Nodal
INT_ENERGYALL Internal energy of the material. Element
Nodal
MASSALL Mass of material in an element. Element
Nodal
MATERIAL Material index. The material index as defined in the Elemental
Explicit solver. There is not always a direct one-to-one
correlation with materials defined in Engineering Data
and those used in the Explicit solver.

For layered section shells, the MATERIAL for individual

layers can be shown by using the Layer property in the
results details view.
MOM_TOR Beam rotation inertia. Element
Nodal
POROSITY Material Porosity: Elemental

Porosity, α = ρSolid/ρ

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Expression Description Type

PRESSURE Pressure. Element
Nodal
PRES_BULK Dilation pressure for the Johnson-Holmquist brittle strength Elemental
model.
RB_CONTACT_ENERGY Energy in Rigid Body contact. Element
Nodal
SOUNDSPEED Material soundspeed. Element
Nodal
SPH_DENSITY Density of SPH particles. This result is only available for Element
LS-DYNA. Nodal
SPH_INTERNAL_ENERGY SPH internal energy. This result is only available for LS-DYNA. Element
Nodal
SPH_MASS Mass of each SPH particle. This result is only available for Element
LS-DYNA. Nodal
SPH_NUMBER_NEIGHBORS Number of neighboring SPH particles. This result is only Element
available for LS-DYNA. Nodal
SPH_PLASTIC_STRAIN SPH plastic strain. This result is only available for LS-DYNA. Element
Nodal
SPH_PRESSURE SPH pressure. This result is only available for LS-DYNA. Element
Nodal
SPH_RADIUS_INFLUENCE SPH radius of influence. This result is only available for Element
LS-DYNA. Nodal
STATUS Material Status: Elemental

1 – elastic.

2 – undergoing plastic flow.

3 – failed due to effective criteria (with healing).

4 – failed due to effective criteria.

5 – failed due to stress/strain in principal direction 1.

6 – failed due to stress/strain in principal direction 2.

7 – failed due to stress/strain in principal direction 3.

8 – failed due to shear stress/strain in principal direction

12.

9 – failed due to shear stress/strain in principal direction

23.

10 – failed due to shear stress/strain in principal

direction 31.

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 Postprocessing

Expression Description Type

For layered section shells, the STATUS for individual
layers can be shown by selecting the Layer number in
the results details view.
STOCH_FACT Stochastic factor applied when the stochastic property as Elemental
defined in the material failure model.
STRAIN_1 Axial strain (beams) Element
Nodal
STRAIN_XX Total strain XX. Element
Nodal
STRAIN_YY Total strain YY. Element
Nodal
STRAIN_ZZ Total strain ZZ. Element
Nodal
STRAIN_XY Total strain XY. These are tensor shear strains, and not Element
engineering shear strains. Nodal
STRAIN_YZ Total strain YZ. These are tensor shear strains, and not Element
engineering shear strains. Nodal
STRAIN_ZX Total strain ZX. These are tensor shear strains, and not Element
engineering shear strains. Nodal
TASK_NO Assigned task number for parallel processing. Elemental
TEMPERATUREALL Material Temperature. Element
Nodal
THICKNESS Shell Thickness. This result is available for LS-DYNA. Element
Nodal
TIMESTEP Element computational time step. Element
Nodal
TYPE Element category (element number returned): Elemental

HEX: 100-101.

PENTA: 102.

TET: 103-104,106.

PYRAMID: 105.

QUAD: 107.

TRI: 108.

SHL: 200-202, 204.

BEAM: 203.
VISC_PRES Viscous pressure due to artificial viscosity. No results will Element
display for an Eulerian part. Nodal

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

Expression Description Type

VTXX Viscoelastic stress XX. Element
Nodal
VTYY Viscoelastic stress YY. Element
Nodal
VTZZ Viscoelastic stress ZZ. Element
Nodal
VTXY Viscoelastic stress XY. Element
Nodal
VTYZ Viscoelastic stress YZ. Element
Nodal
VTZX Viscoelastic stress ZX. Element
Nodal

For Euler (Virtual) Analyses

The following results are multi-material variables:

• EFF_PL_STN

• INT_ENERGY

• MASS

• COMPRESS

• DET_INIT_TIME

• ALPHA

• DAMAGE

• TEMPERATURE

For each Eulerian (Virtual) body in the analysis, a separate component will be available, which will
allow the user to plot the result for the particular material associated with that body. The component
name will be derived from the body name. There will also be an "ALL" component, which displays
results for all materials. Results for Lagrangian bodies can be viewed by selecting this "ALL" component.
For a purely Lagrangian analysis, only the "ALL" component will be available to the user.

For example, an analysis has two Eulerian (Virtual) bodies (Solid, Solid) and a Lagrangian Body (Surface
Body), as shown in the image of the Outline View below.

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In the User Defined Result Expression Worksheet, there are three components available for the multi-
material results named SOLID, SOLID_2, and ALL.

Note:

It may be necessary to delete and reinsert multi-material results in order to view result for
databases created prior to Release 13.0

For NBS Tetrahedral Elements

The element variables listed below can be used to visualize the variable values at the nodes. The
variable values presented in the element are a volume weighted average of those at the nodes.

• TEMPERATURE

• SOUNDSPEED

• DENSITY

• COMPRESS

• STRAINS (NORMAL AND SHEAR)

• EFF_PL_STN

• TIMESTEP

• INT_ENERGY

The following variables are available as calculated directly from the solver in the element:

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Explicit Dynamics Workflow

• EFF_STN

2.15. Commands Objects in Explicit Dynamics

It is possible to insert a Commands object under an Explicit Dynamics system. However, the Explicit
Dynamics Commands objects do not support Mechanical Ansys Parametric Design Language (Mechan-
ical APDL). They support a simple set of comma-separated keywords and arguments.

2.15.1. General Description

Using a Commands object in an Explicit Dynamics is system is similar to using it in a Mechanical
system. You can insert a commands object from the Insert group of the Home tab of the Explicit
Dynamics system, or by inserting it from the right-click menu (Insert → Commands) when the Explicit
Dynamics system is selected in the Outline.

The following are the differences from the Mechanical Commands object:

• You can only insert the Commands object under an Explicit Dynamics system in the Outline.

• There is a fixed set of Explicit Dynamics Commands (p. 122) that can be used in the Commands
object. Mechanical APDL commands cannot be used in an Explicit Dynamics Commands object.

The general format of a command is <Keyword>,<arg1>,<arg2>,…,<arg10>

The number of arguments varies per command. The values are separated with commas without
spaces. Command input is case-insensitive. If an unsupported or improperly formatted command is
entered in the Commands window, the solve will stop and you will get an "unrecognized command"
error.

The input does not support arithmetic operations on numerical values or any type of expression.

2.15.2. Explicit Dynamics Commands

The following commands are valid in an Explicit Dynamics Commands object:
2.15.2.1. Penaltyfactor

2.15.2.1. Penaltyfactor
Use the Penaltyfactor command to modify the penalty factor when using the Penalty method for
solving contact events (see Properties for Body Interactions Folder (p. 24) for more information
about the Penalty method and penalty factors). The default penalty factor of 0.1 is an empirical
value which provides stable solutions in most cases, but in some cases you may want to adjust this
number.

The format of the Penaltyfactor command is:

Penaltyfactor,ContactType,Value

ContactType can take the following values:

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 Commands Objects in Explicit Dynamics

ContactType Description
Input
Global Changes the default penalty factor value. This is the value that will be used in
all contact events, unless it is overruled by another non-global Penaltyfactor
command.
Flex-Rig Defines the penalty factor for contact of flexible contact nodes with rigid target
faces.
Flex-Flex Defines the penalty factor for contact of flexible contact nodes with flexible
target faces (and vice-versa).
Rig-Rig Defines the penalty factor for contact of rigid contact nodes with rigid target
faces (and vice-versa).
Rig-Flex Defines the penalty factor for contact of rigid contact nodes with flexible target
faces.
Bonded Defines the penalty factor for all bonded contact definitions in the model (default
= 0.1)

Note:

• Global is usually the best choice. Using any value other than Global requires that you
have a deep understanding of the solver behavior.

• Bonded contact definitions are defined between nodes and faces of solid or shell
elements. Typically the node lies in the plane of a face. If this is not the case, they are
called offset bonded contact definitions. These offset bonded contacts (and sometimes
also in-plane bonded contacts) may suffer from instability due to the fact that rotational
movement is not considered. Typically this becomes visible through hourglassing of
the underlying elements or nodes moving too fast in the bonded area (blowing up).
A remedy for this phenomenon is to lower the penalty factor for the bonded contacts.
A suggested value could be 0.01, although care should be taken that with a lower
bonding force the surfaces may separate more than wanted.

Value is a real number greater than zero.

Note:

There is no upper limit to this value. However, very large or very small values will lead
to numerical instabilities. It is recommend that you choose a value less than 3.0. Setting
the penalty factor to zero will cause sliding contact with incorrect behavior.

Any penalty factor you define will be sent to the solver and written out in the admodel.prt and
admodel.xml files. However, the values actually used in the calculation of contacts will depend
on the contact settings. For example, if you define an asymmetric flexible to rigid body contact,
then only the FLEX-RIG value will be used.

The solve will stop if the penalty factor is less than zero or if there are multiple values defined for
the same contact type.

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Chapter 3: Transforming an Implicit Model to run in
Explicit Dynamics
3.1. When Implicit Models Can be Run in Explicit
Implicit and Explicit finite element solvers use different methods to evaluate the underlying equations.
A simple high level overview is given in the figure below. There is an overlap in the "Quasi-Static" ap-
plication area, where both Implicit and Explicit methods can be used to solve a model. Implicit methods
are typically bounded by the amount of deformation and contact nonlinearity that is taking place, where
Explicit methods are typically bounded by the problem's time scale, which would lead to excessive run
times.

Figure 3.1: Different applications of the two solvers with respect to velocity

Problems that are in this "Quasi-Static" range have a good chance of being solved by either method
until the limitations of a particular solver are reached. At that point, it can be beneficial to consider the
use of the alternative solver.

This chapter describes the steps necessary to transform a model that was initially set up for simulation
in the Implicit solver to a model setup for simulation in the Explicit solver. Typically, you would want
to consider doing this when the degree of nonlinearity in the model is starting to pose problems for
Implicit methods. Because of the nature of the two methods, the explicit solver is more suitable for
nonlinear problems, working with less computationally heavy but a much larger number of iterations

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

that can follow the physical parameter changes at a much higher frequency. The implicit solver works
with much more complex calculations for each iteration but has a lot fewer of them.

3.2. When to Consider an Explicit Analysis

There are numerous reasons why an implicit methods fails to solve properly. This section tries to give
realistic guidelines for when to switch to an Explicit method.
3.2.1. Incorrect Model Setup
3.2.2. Large Deformations
3.2.3. Large Contact Models
3.2.4. Rigid Body Deformations

3.2.1. Incorrect Model Setup

A model may fail when the Implicit method is used simply due to poor model setup, in which case
Explicit methods will fail also. However, an incorrect model setup may be easier to detect with an
Explicit analysis because the solution progresses with very small timesteps, and results can be visualized
during the solution (by using result trackers (p. 146), or using the Autodyn component system). Once
the problem is identified using the explicit dynamics analysis, it can be corrected and solved using
implicit methods.

The explicit dynamics solver is very useful when working with complex interacting mechanisms and
geometries. The solver can be used to quickly check for fit and how the parts are positioned with
respect to each other at the end of the simulation.

The example model shown in Figure 3.2: Example Model Run with Explicit Dynamics Showing Problem
Area (right) (p. 127) does not converge when run with the Static Structural (Implicit) solver. The output
messages recommend checking for an 'insufficiently constrained model'. The geometry has multiple
angles and edge lengths so the problematic area is not obvious. This is a good example of where
explicit dynamics methods can be used to quickly identify model problems.

The displacement of the interacting bodies is known and final body fit and alignment can be invest-
igated. The Explicit analysis uses the same geometry and model setup as was used for the Static
Structural analysis and the model is meshed using the Explicit meshing defaults. The endtime is
chosen to obtain a fast solution in order to observe the relative movement of the parts and their final
position at the end of the displacement. As a general guideline the endtime,Tend, should be chosen
such that the average velocity of the parts, uavg, is in the order of 10 m/s during the displacement,
d, of the parts:

For this example model, the endtime is set to 1 millisecond.

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 When to Consider an Explicit Analysis

Figure 3.2: Example Model Run with Explicit Dynamics Showing Problem Area (right)

The Explicit analysis takes about a minute, and the model solves with all options being left to their
defaults. The problematic area is obvious as can be seen above: the left notch of the upper part does
not follow the bottom part geometry. This quickly points to where a change of the geometry is ne-
cessary.

3.2.2. Large Deformations

Many models require the simulation of rubber-like highly deformable materials. This is associated
with the use of hyperelastic material models in the setup. The implicit solver makes a strong effort
to solve these models with options like Large Deflection and Nonlinear Adaptivity, which are recom-
mended when such materials are used. Nevertheless these solutions may not converge.

This would be a suitable situation in which to use explicit dynamics. You do need to specify all the
input for the hyperelastic materials as opposed to the implicit solver, where the density and the in-
compressibility parameter can have zero values (see Materials (p. 131)), but the Explicit solver will
provide a solution in most cases where the implicit solver cannot. Important things to look out for
in the Explicit solver when using hyperelastic material models are the energy error/hourglassing and
excessive mesh element distortion requiring the use of erosion (p. 142). Models with high nonlinear
deformations are also a good candidate for mass scaling (p. 141). The following example demonstrates
how the same setup works with the two different solvers. Figure 3.3: Comparison between the implicit
(left) and the explicit (right) solvers for maximum deformation values (p. 128) shows the largest dis-
placement achieved by the disc relative to a hyperelastic material complex part.

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

Figure 3.3: Comparison between the implicit (left) and the explicit (right) solvers for maximum
deformation values

The implicit solver has trouble converging at around half of the total displacement but the explicit
solver manages to complete the run, simulating the high deformations.

3.2.3. Large Contact Models

Handling a large number of contacts can be problematic for the implicit solver. This is especially the
case when the contact is not bonded but is sliding and moving. The explicit dynamics solver has
standard out-of-the-box automatic contact options (trajectory contact) which work very well. Contact
will be detected in the model automatically at any point without requiring the user to define specific
contact regions. On top of that, the user can specify contacts manually (or generate them automatically)
separate from the trajectory contact, which is done similarly to the Contacts feature in the implicit
solver.

Figure 3.4: Model Setup Showing Contact (left) and Boundary Conditions (right)

The model shown in Figure 3.4: Model Setup Showing Contact (left) and Boundary Conditions
(right) (p. 128) demonstrates this contact issue. The implicit setup has a manually defined frictionless
contact consisting of 40 contact and 38 target faces between the two parts. The explicit dynamics
model simply has the default frictionless trajectory contact enabled. All other boundary conditions
are the same for both analyses: a fixed support and a displacement boundary condition. Both models
have the same mesh type and mesh density (the implicit setup does not make use of midside nodes

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 When to Consider an Explicit Analysis

in order to achieve maximum similarity in comparison, since the explicit solver cannot use midside
nodes). The implicit model has problems converging while the explicit solve completes without issues.
This model exemplifies the possible problematic contact handling in the implicit solver. The model
will converge when using a denser mesh; however the differences are clear for comparable mesh size
(the implicit solver using midside nodes with the standard mesh size also does not converge). The
final stress results can be seen in Figure 3.5: Final Stress Values Comparison Between the Explicit (left,
3.4E10 Pa) and Implicit (right, 3.7E10 Pa) Solvers (p. 129).

Figure 3.5: Final Stress Values Comparison Between the Explicit (left, 3.4E10 Pa) and Implicit
(right, 3.7E10 Pa) Solvers

3.2.4. Rigid Body Deformations

A common analysis in the quasi-static range is the simulation of physical mechanisms. This means
that rigid body movements are included in the analysis. A common simulation is a rigid or much
stiffer body that snaps over a soft and flexible one. Some examples include: rubber seals for water-
proofing, snapping of softer metal elements to ensure a tight fit or snapping through a notch to
prevent backward movement. In these situations the implicit solver can encounter problems modeling
the high deformations right before the snap, or the release of the high deformations after the snap.
These problems are inherently unstable for the implicit solver and can be a challenge to solve suc-
cessfully. Figure 3.6: The Clip Model Setup in the Implicit Solver with Final Deformation Values
(right) (p. 129) shows an example of a clip snap through model where a metal clip has to pass over a
rubber step.

Figure 3.6: The Clip Model Setup in the Implicit Solver with Final Deformation Values (right)

The solution does not converge unless the mesh is much coarser - this means the initial clip to rubber
step contact is missed (without any special settings). Also there is a problem of missed contact between
the clip and the hinge, which you can solve in the implicit solver by applying a cylindrical support.
This same model with the same setup for boundary conditions and less constraints (no cylindrical
support or equivalent), can be successfully solved by the explicit solver, as seen in Figure 3.7: The Clip
Model Setup in Explicit Dynamics with Final Deformation Values (right) (p. 130). The setup uses mostly
default settings apart from a Static Damping value which is added because of the hyperelastic mater-
ial (see Damping (p. 143)). The model will run successfully without damping, but due to the nature
of the materials, strong oscillations will be introduced. This means the maximum stress on the clip

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

will spike at a much larger value than in the damped solution and then gradually converge on a
similar final value when the vibrations decrease.

Figure 3.7: The Clip Model Setup in Explicit Dynamics with Final Deformation Values (right)

3.3. Setting up the Explicit Dynamics Analysis

This section will take you through the steps necessary to perform the implicit analysis using the explicit
solver.

3.3.1. Attaching an Explicit Dynamics System to an Existing Static Structural

System
In general, you should use the Implicit analysis to set up the Explicit Dynamics analysis. When you
identify the need to use the Explicit Dynamics solver, you must attach an Explicit Dynamics system
to the existing Implicit one. You do this in the same way that you would attach systems in any other
Workbench project schematic operation - by drag and drop. You have four choices of what to include
in the component system information transfer (see the following figure).

Figure 3.8: Choices for information sharing between cells of implicit and explicit systems

If you drop the Explicit Dynamics system on the Engineering Data cell, only the material data would
be transferred. This is not what you want to do. Dragging and dropping on the cell Geometry or
Model cell should be used when you want to transfer the model from Implicit to Explicit. Dropping

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 Setting up the Explicit Dynamics Analysis

the system on the Solution cell transfers all of the end results, deformation, and stress from the Implicit
solution, so that should only be done in prestressing cases.

If you drop the system on the Geometry cell, all of the Implicit setup has to be recreated manually
for the Explicit solver. This is the better choice when dealing with very simple models with very few
options for the mesh, virtual topology, contacts, and boundary conditions. This connects the two
systems, but the model is launched in two separate Mechanical instances, only sharing the material
and geometry data.

If you drop the system on the Model cell, the models are much more connected. They share a single
Mechanical instance and the same meshing and contact options. Due to the large variation in
boundary conditions, they are not transferred automatically.

Note:

Changing some options for meshing, materials, or others to make the Explicit analysis work
might interfere with the Implicit solver and make the model not solve properly. These
options are discussed in the next sections. If you want to create an Explicit simulation using
the Model cell transfer, it is recommended that you do this in a duplicate project file.

3.3.2. Materials
There are some material models that are not available for both solvers. Whenever a question mark
symbol is observed next to the Engineering Data cell, it must be properly addressed. By inspecting
the materials, it should be clear where the problem is. For example, it might be a missing density
value or a parameter which has not been set; something which might be required for the Explicit
solver but not for the Implicit one. This is the case with hyperelastic materials using the Mooney-Rivlin
material model. To get a value for the incompressibility parameter, the user must either have the
experimental data and use curve fitting, use a value from another material specification, or just use
the rubber model in the Explicit material database.

Another issue you might encounter is where a parameter that is required for the Explicit simulation
can interfere with the Implicit solution and make it unable to solve. This often occurs since both
systems share the same material data, and can be fixed by using different material assignments (if
you are using the Geometry cell data transfer and have separate Mechanical instances). A problem
with unsupported material model types is usually seen as an error message in the solver.log file
or the Solution Information when a solve is attempted.

Another common example of a problem is having tabular data input for a material property in Implicit
with, for example, 12 stress strain pairs. This would trigger an error in the explicit solver, which only
supports 10 or less stress strain pairs. An easy workaround for this would be to take the curve formed
by the 12 points and delete two points, relocating the others so that the curve shape remains the
same.

3.3.3. Meshing
Before running the simulation, the meshing has to be thoroughly checked to ensure all requirements
are met. The Explicit and Implicit solvers require different types of meshes. The simplest way to differ-
entiate is to switch the Physics Preference option between Explicit and Mechanical. However, if the
Model cell connection is used, the models are going to make use of the same mesh; this might mean
that when the mesh is made to work with the Explicit solver it might not solve anymore with the

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

Implicit solver. Generally, with a complex geometry we do not want to use the same mesh for both
solvers.

Figure 3.9: Meshing options menu - physics preference

3.3.3.1. Uniform Mesh Works Best

The Implicit solver works well when the areas of interest have much denser meshes. This is not the
case for the Explicit solver. First, the time step (the time increment at which the Explicit solver ad-
vances) is controlled by the smallest mesh element - thus the size of the smallest elements in the
interest area will control the solve for the whole model, increasing the run times. Second, the nature
of the Explicit Dynamics solver is such that it works best with cuboid, evenly distributed mesh ele-
ments throughout the model. Lastly, this element size difference will skew the results much more
than with the Implicit solver, because of the use of each individual element mass, deformation, and
velocity for the calculations.

To ensure a good Explicit solve, you need to look at the mesh maximum and minimum element
size in the mesh statistics. The smaller the spread of element sizes, the better.

3.3.3.2. Midside Nodes not Used

The implicit solver can create midside nodes in the elements to aid the accuracy of the solution.
This is not possible with the Explicit solver. If you want to use the same mesh for both solvers, set
Element Order to Linear in the Defaults section of the Mesh settings. If this is not set, the error
Higher order elements detected. Element Order must be Linear for Explicit Dynamics analyses. will be
generated.

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 Setting up the Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Figure 3.10: Meshing options menu - Defaults

Note:

It is important when there are regions of the geometry which are relatively thin and will en-
counter bending, that they are meshed with at least two mesh elements across their thickness
to ensure the Explicit solver models the bending correctly. Because of this, you may want to
use shell bodies where more appropriate; the two elements across recommendation can lead
to a very small time step overall.

3.3.3.3. Hex/Rectangular Mesh Elements most Effective

Even though more complex geometry is quite difficult to mesh with hex elements, they are the
most suitable type for the simulation. If you are familiar with the Implicit solver, you should under-
stand the various ways to control how the mesher approaches the geometry. The geometry should
be swept meshed wherever possible. Shell bodies should be face meshed to ensure only rectangular
elements are used.

3.3.4. Contact/Connections
The contact options in Explicit Dynamics are very similar to the ones in the Implicit solver. When the
two are connected via the Model cell, all of the options for the contacts are the same as for Implicit
(apart from the addition of the Body Interactions option). Differences in the Contacts tab are only
visible when looking at a standalone explicit dynamics system or a system only sharing material and
geometry data. Unlike with meshing, the Explicit solver can use contacts defined for the Implicit
solver without any problems, although some of the options do not directly affect the Explicit solution.

3.3.4.1. Contacts Tab

In the Explicit Dynamics system, the contact region options lack the Advanced and Geometric
Modification expandable tabs. These tabs offer features which help the Implicit solver deal with
actions like impact and sliding which are easily simulated with the Explicit solver, making the tabs
unnecessary.

The scoping mechanism and the contact types are the same for both solvers. When using Bonded
contact with the Explicit solver, one of the most important settings is the Maximum Offset. This
should be set to a value greater than the maximum estimated distance between the scoped geo-

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

metries expected during the simulation to allow the contact to function as it should. Setting a very
large value will increase the computational load so a good estimate is preferable.

The Shell Thickness Effect option in Implicit does not affect the Explicit solve and the desired
value should be set to the Shell Thickness Factor in the Body Interactions options. Rather than on
or off, the thickness can be set to a specific portion of the shell - from 0 to 1.

3.3.4.2. Body Interactions Tab

By default, the Body Interactions object is always present for the Explicit Dynamics system. This
is an automated contact detection feature which perfectly suits the nature of the solver. It can be
very useful since Explicit Dynamics mostly models impacts and crashes, where which bodies will
be in contact is usually unknown. There are general options in the main Body Interactions object
and different specified contacts can be added. Contact types include primary types such as Friction-
less, Frictional, and Bonded, but also a specific Explicit Dynamics type, Reinforcement. It is used to
model reinforced structures like steel reinforced concrete columns, for example. The default trajectory
contact settings allow you to understand where the contact points are in the simulation after an
initial coarse mesh run and then refine the contact options and scoping.

Figure 3.11: Body Interactions Object under Connections

3.3.5. Boundary Conditions

Even though both solvers model structural problems, the boundary conditions have a number of
differences. Unlike the Explicit dynamic structural solver, the Implicit static structural solver has no
real dependency on inertia. That is why the load cases in Implicit are usually 1 second per step, which
is an arbitrary amount. Altering this value does not really have any effect on the solution. The Explicit
Dynamics solver, on the other hand, uses time as its main reference for the calculations since the
duration of the events in an Explicit problem are extremely short, and it is one of the most important
aspects of the solve. When the two systems are connected and use the same Mechanical instance,
boundary conditions can be copied by dragging and dropping from the Implicit to the Explicit system.
This is the initial step in transferring the boundary conditions, but before the Explicit solve, adjustments
to the boundary condition definitions must be made.

3.3.5.1. Adjusting Load Cases for Reasonable Run Times

Unlike the Explicit solver, the Implicit solver has no real dependency on inertia (in the static struc-
tural solver). That is why the load cases in Implicit are usually 1 second per step, which is an arbitrary
amount. Altering this value does not really have any effect on the solution. The Explicit Dynamics
solver, on the other hand, uses time as its main reference for the calculations since the duration of
the events in an Explicit problem are extremely short, and it is one of the most important aspects
of the solve (see Timestep Controls (p. 139)).

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 Setting up the Explicit Dynamics Analysis

As a starting point, a time scale factor of 100 or 1000 should be used; that is, 1 second in the implicit
solver becomes 1E-2 or 1E-3 seconds in the explicit solver. The main thing to monitor are the velo-
cities in the model. A good velocity to aim for is 5 m/s; it is not too low going into the static setup
realm and it is not too high which would introduce significant inertial effects.

3.3.5.2. Missing Boundary Conditions from Explicit Dynamics

There are a few Mechanical boundary conditions that do not exist in Explicit Dynamics. Some of
them can be simulated by using other boundary conditions. These include cylindrical support,
frictionless support, bolt pretension and others. Refer to the table below for ways to simulate some
of the missing boundary conditions.

Boundary condition Implicit Explicit solver

solver
Frictionless support Available Available/

Simulated by using an equivalent symmetry plane

(rigid behavior) or by creating displacement with
fixed components to provide the desired constraint.
Bolt pretension Available Pre-stress the bolt by using load steps:

• Cut the bolt geometry in half with a small gap.

• Scope a translational joint to both cut planes.

• Load step 1: Apply a (ramped) force on the cut

planes.

• Load step 2: Lock the joint with a velocity joint

load.

Cylindrical support Available Simulated using remote displacement to restrict rotation.

Displacement (step Available Simulated using different boundary conditions to give
applied) the same movement - force, velocity etc.
Pressure (tabular Available Simulated using the Magnitude - Function setting to
variable value) create a function giving the same values across the
scoped geometry.

3.3.5.3. Avoiding Conflicting Boundary Conditions

When the scoping of two (or more) boundary conditions is done on two (or more) intersecting
planes, the constraints on the shared edge (node) may trigger an error. The Explicit solver will only
allow more than one boundary condition to be applied to the same edge in the following scenarios.
Note that each of the following scenarios is evaluated for each of the load steps defined under
analysis settings.

• Both boundary conditions are defined on the same coordinate system and the combination of
constraints do not conflict.

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

• Both boundary conditions are defined on mutually orthogonal cartesian coordinate systems and
the combination of constraints do not conflict.

• Both boundary conditions are defined on cylindrical coordinate systems whose z-axes are aligned
with one another and the combination of constraints do not conflict.

• Both boundary conditions are defined on cartesian coordinate systems that have one axis aligned
(and the constraints in the two boundary conditions in that direction do not conflict) but the
other two do not. This scenario is depicted in Figure 1 where the y axis in CS1 is parallel to the
y axis in CS2. Then the allowed constraints in the remaining axes x and z in both CS1 and CS2
are:

– If the x and z constraints in one boundary condition are both free (then there are no restrictions
on the constraints in x and z on the other boundary condition).

– Where all of the constraints in x and z in both boundary conditions are either fixed or free

Figure depicting two boundary conditions whose scoping shares a common edge and that
are defined on coordinate systems that are not orthogonal. BoundaryCondition1 is defined
on the coordinate system (CS1) shown on the left. BoundaryCondition2 is defined on the
coordinate system (CS2) shown on the right. CS1 and CS2 both have their y axes aligned,
but the x in CS1 is not orthogonal to x in CS2, and z in CS1 is not orthogonal to z in CS2.

When the two coordinate systems share one axis in the same direction and the other two sets
of two axes are not aligned, the constraints allowed on these remaining four axes are those
shown in the table below marked with green checkmark.

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 Setting up the Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Note:

• Two functions that are the same function but are expressed using a different string
(including differences in white space) may cause conflicts which cannot be resolved
by the Explicit Dynamics solver (although they are not technically conflicting con-
straints).

• The check for conflicting boundary conditions becomes more stringent if multiple
load steps are defined under analysis settings and one (or more) of these boundary
conditions is deactivated during the analysis. An additional conflict may exist if the
solver is not able to combine the active and deactivated boundary condition into a
single new boundary condition and apply it to the common nodes. An error along
the following lines will be given, followed by a suggestion to circumvent the conflict:

The coordinate systems of two boundary conditions are compatible

(or incompatible) but a deactivated load step causes the values of the
boundary conditions to conflict. <suggestion>

3.3.5.4. Initial Conditions

The Initial Conditions object in the Explicit Dynamics system can be helpful when certain aspects
of the Implicit model cannot be directly recreated. It is a simple initial velocity, angular or directional,
that is scoped to a body and is assigned at the initial cycle. This can be altered freely by different
boundary conditions and events during the solve; its value is not constrained or limited. Another
use for Initial Conditions is adding a pre-stress, usually from an Implicit solve. This is useful when
an extensive complex combined simulation is required, and is not intended for situations where
you need to run the same model setup with the two different solvers.

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

Figure 3.12: Initial Conditions Object

3.4. Analysis Settings

The final step before running the Explicit simulation is checking the options in the Analysis Settings.
They are very different compared those used for the Implicit solver, and there are many more options.
Most of them have defaults that work fine for quasi-static models but there are a few important options
to focus on.

3.4.1. Analysis Setting Preference

This setting has various options, but for quasi static simulations the two to use are Quasi Static and
Low Velocity. The default Program Controlled option should be used initially; it automatically detects
the best default options for the simulation settings. Both preference options require an input for the
mass scaling (discussed later) and apply changes to various parts of the setup to suit the velocity
mode.

3.4.2. Step Controls

When using the Explicit solver to investigate a problem that was originally solved using the Implicit
solver, you should set up the analysis to take advantage of the features unique to the Explicit solver.
As discussed earlier, the Explicit simulation takes into account the inertial forces and one of its most
important parameters is the solve time (not to be mistaken with the actual run time it takes for the
model to solve). The Explicit simulation can be seen as a chunk of the real time of an event that is
slowed down as if using a high speed camera. The time values that the Explicit solver usually works
with are much smaller than 1 second. For these quasi-static Implicit to Explicit simulations, we are
working with a total time of around one millisecond to 1 second.

3.4.2.1. End Time

As stated earlier, one of the main parameters governing the solution is the time. The End Time
defines the time frame which the solver simulates, starting from zero going up to the End Time
value. The End Time should match the last entry in any of the boundary conditions tabular data
time setting. This is a good place to estimate the maximum velocity in the model—if there are any
displacements or deformations, dividing the distance covered by the end time gives a good estimate
for the initial run. An end time target would be between 0.001 seconds and 1 second for the quasi-
static simulations. Typically the explicit models are constrained by the end time so the Maximum
Number of Cycles should be left at the default value or set to a very large number (for example,
1E7).

Each cycle is a piece of the solution time with the length of the current timestep and it is the con-
straint for a single iteration. It has a variable time value depending on the settings and the events

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 Analysis Settings

during the solve so it is by no means guaranteed to be consistent. The maximum cycle number is
rarely used to control the solution in explicit dynamics. Its most common use is when you need to
do a short solution to check something in the setup and the Maximum Number of Cycles is set to
a very small value (10,100,1000 etc). Even if we calculate the exact number of cycles we need and
we have set a time step value, it is always better to use the end time to determine when the solve
will terminate.

3.4.2.2. Timestep Controls

The timestep is the time increment at which the solve advances, and the solve time between two
calculation cycles. The smaller the timestep is and the more complex the calculations per cycle are
(dense mesh, material models etc.) the longer run time the solution will take. Having control over
the timestep is crucial for achieving an effective simulation. There are numerous ways to keep track
of and control the timestep. The governing factor for the timestep value is the smallest mesh element
size and its mass. The timestep is calculated based on sound speed (which depends on density and
material properties) and it needs to have a small enough value to accurately simulate the stress
waves traveling through the body.

The following equation is used to determine the minimum timestep:

where is the timestep safety factor (usually not changed from default value), is the element
characteristic dimension (determined by smallest element size) and is the sound speed in the
material (depending on density and elasticity).

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

Figure 3.13: Analysis Settings - Step Controls

The initial, minimum, and maximum time step values usually should be left as default (Program
Controlled), except in a few cases. The Minimum Time Step value is sometimes set to a very small
number to allow the solve to continue to run and not abort with the message: Time step too
small. You would set the Minimum Time Step like this when the time step is expected to become
much smaller than its initial value during the solve due to large deformations or complex contact.
When you set the value, this overrides the minimum time step conditions determined by the solver,
based on the initial setup. This user-defined minimum time step value might lead to a much longer
analysis run time.

Another case where user input might be required is when the analysis time step is determined by
an element of a rigid body. A reasonably smaller time step should be used to prevent the simulation
going forward using too large steps and becoming unstable. This can be achieved by a user defined
Maximum Time Step value.

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 Analysis Settings

Figure 3.14: Default Solution Information display during solve with the estimated time
remaining highlighted in yellow

When you view the Solution Information while the solve is running, the Est. Clock Time Remaining
can be observed. This is an new concept if you've only previously used the Implicit solver. This
value gives an estimate of the remaining time needed to finish the solution. After the initial few
cycles, and providing there are no abnormal deformations and unexpected events in the model
during the solve, this value is quite accurate. It is based upon the time needed to calculate each
cycle and the expected remaining number of cycles.

Usually when dealing with hyperelastic materials with a lot of deformation or other special cases,
this remaining time will get a lot higher once the part of the simulation dealing with the large de-
formations is reached. This estimated time is also a good way to judge how changes to the mesh
and setup will affect the solution time. After each change the model can be solved until a certain
cycle number then interrupted, and the estimated time can be compared. This gives a rough estimate
since it does not take into account any possible difficulties which might arise, but it is a useful tool
for comparison.

3.4.2.3. Restarting an Analysis

As discussed earlier, the simulation will create a number of restart files that can be used to resume
the solve following an interruption. There are a few things to consider when restarting a simulation.
First, you have to make sure that the run will restart from the correct point. Set the Resume From
Cycle value, which is based on the cycle number rather than simulation time. Another thing to
note is that the boundary conditions cannot be altered before restarting and if, for example, the
end time is extended and the user wants to continue the run, all of boundary conditions will assume
they are kept constant at the last value of the normal solve time (before the time extension). Any
change made to the setup while the solve is interrupted will mean that the restart is no longer
possible. You must be careful when examining the interrupted solve results.

3.4.3. Solution Stability

Although, there are no convergence criteria and stability requirements in the Explicit solver, there
are tools to ensure the user gets a good solution. These mainly control the time step, excessive de-
formations, and unwanted oscillations. These tools are discussed in this section.

3.4.3.1. Mass Scaling

The use of mass scaling can be very helpful, especially in these quasi static simulations. It is useful
in cases where we need an area of interest to be more densely meshed, as is commonly seen in
the Implicit solver's mesh. Automatic Mass Scaling increases the mass of the smallest elements
which in turn increases the required time step. Mass scaling is automatically switched on when the
Quasi Static or Low Velocity analysis types are chosen.

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

When using Mass Scaling, there are several parameters to consider, but the primary one is the
Minimum CFL Time Step. This should be set to the minimum desired value of the time step, but
this has to be based on the standard time step that the model would use without scaling. Usually
the mass scaling is set up after the initial run. This minimum time step is usually within the region
of 5-10 times larger than the normal time step. The larger the increase that's required, the more
scaling must be put in. Sometimes the default maximum scaling values have to be increased to
achieve the minimum time step, but when this is done, emphasis has to be put on ensuring that
the mass values are still realistic and do not interfere with the results. It is recommended that the
default maximum scaling values are not changed.

3.4.3.2. Erosion
Another important tool is erosion. This allows for elements from the mesh to be removed and
separated from the rest of the mesh in certain cases. There are three criteria that can be enabled
to cause element erosion—maximum strain, minimum time step, and material failure. The most
commonly used is the On Geometric Strain Limit erosion. It is used when excessive deformations
are expected, and prevents the solution from stopping because of nodes displaced an abnormal
distance away from the rest of the element or heavy deformation. Once the solve with erosion is
completed, you can see where the eroded elements are and decide how the solution can be im-
proved.

The erosion criteria On Material Failure is commonly used to realistically simulate the failure of
materials based on their definitions. This can be due to stress, strain, shear or any other mode of
failure that is defined in the material data.

The last criterion is the On Minimum Element Time Step erosion. This is a very crude way of
controlling the minimum time step by simply removing the elements which would otherwise yield
a smaller computational time step than desired. By default, the Retain Inertia of Eroded Material
is set to Yes. This allows you to examine the erosion process and follow the debris distribution (the
defaults are different for Low Velocity and Quasi Static simulation types). An example of eroded
material can be seen in the following figure.

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 Analysis Settings

Figure 3.15: Example of Eroded Material in a Model Simulating a Bullet going Through a Vase
(eroded elements colored red)

3.4.3.3. Damping
Sometimes, especially when highly flexible materials are present, constant frequency oscillations
can arise in the Explicit simulation. This can be avoided by the use of Static Damping. A damping
value is calculated by dividing double the time step by the longest period of oscillation in the system.
In other words, this value should be aimed at damping the slowest vibration in the analysis. When
you are not sure of the value that should be used, it is best to start from the smallest damping
valude to prevent overdamping. If the simulation is underdamped there will still be vibration visible,
but when the simulation is overdamped it can lead to longer end time requirement and skewing
of results. The other damping controls should be left at their defaults.

3.4.4. Output Controls

The Output Controls section in an Explicit Dynamics system is important for the results visualization
and post processing. There are three types of output controls for saving results, restart points, and
results tracker data. The Result Number of Points controls how the visualization of the chosen
solution tools will look. This determines how many and how frequent the evaluation points will be;
these will later become frames in the post-processing animation. Having a lot of points that are tightly
packed will increase the total solution run time. The Restart Number of Points are useful when the
simulated model goes through complex actions and it is important for you to be able to rerun the
simulation from a certain point. The evaluation points are usually much less dense than the results
points and one restart file is created at the end of the solve, or at a solve interruption. The results

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

trackers save very specific information from small, localized areas and are important for monitoring
places of interest. Depending on the setup, they can be computationally heavy, so they are usually
only used in the initial runs to aid in setting up the model as desired.

Figure 3.16: Analysis Settings - Output Controls

The defaults are Equally Spaced Points for the results and the restart files, and saving is based on
Cycles for the result trackers. In general, these defaults are fine for the initial Explicit run. Since the
number of cycles is initially unknown, if any changes are made to the defaults they should generally
use the Equally Spaced Points options which will automatically distribute the points.

3.5. Solution Information

Once the solve has been initiated, there are a number of ways to monitor how well it is performing.
Different data and values can give clues as to which parts of the simulation are going well and which
aren't. You can also see what might be the reason for a slowdown in the simulation.

The main monitoring tool is the Solver Output viewed from the Solution Information object. Solution
output is constantly updated, providing information for each cycle - the cycle number, the simulation
time, the time step (time increment), the progress (in percent) and the estimated run time remaining.
An indication of an issue here would be inconsistency in the estimated time remaining or a decrease
of the time increment. This can be more precisely monitored by viewing the Time Increment graph of
the time step value with respect to simulation time. There are also a number of graphs available under
the Solver Output to help you determine the health of your solve.

Energy error can also indicate problems in the simulation. You can keep track of it with the Energy
Conservation graph (seen in Figure 3.17: Graph of Energy Conservation for an Explicit Simulation (p. 145))
which also shows the total energy and work done in the solve. The default threshold is 10%; any error
above this will terminate the solve. The reference value for the energy is usually the zero cycle. These
values can be altered in the Analysis Settings. Sometimes it is useful to see what is happening in the
simulation even though there is a large energy error. There are two ways this can be achieved - either
increasing the reference cycle so that its value is higher than or equal to the maximum number of
cycles, or increasing the Maximum Energy Error value. This should only be done to observe what is

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 Solution Information

happening during the solve that gives rise to the error. The results of a simulation completed with high
energy errors should not be considered accurate.

The Momentum Summary graph is also useful for monitoring the dynamics of the simulation, and it
can give some indication of a stability problem. The last monitoring tool is the Energy Summary graph.
High values of hourglass energy here usually indicate problems with the mesh. This graph also shows
the kinetic energy during the solve. The value should be insignificant with respect to the model in the
quasi static simulations to ensure that inertial effects are not altering the results.

Figure 3.17: Graph of Energy Conservation for an Explicit Simulation

Another way to monitor the solve is through Results Trackers. These update in real time, giving inform-
ation about their values for each cycle, or at whatever frequency is set in the Output Controls (p. 143)
in the Analysis Settings. These trackers have to be defined before the start of a solve, and in order to
suppress or remove them they have to be cleared from the data. They cannot be added at a restart
point or at the end of a solve. The other results tools can only be examined after the solve stops (see
Result Sets (p. 146)). If a live picture of what is happening during the solve is required, the Autodyn
component system can be used. It can refresh the visualization of the solution as often as each cycle
and can show various details about whole bodies like velocity vectors, stresses, other data values, and
more.

When the solve is initiated, the checks done before the first cycle can find problems and produce
warning or error messages. These are usually related to the material models, the boundary conditions
setup, or the restart options. When a General failure error is seen, this usually means there are
possible problems with the licensing or the remote solve manager, but it can also signify other problems.
Errors or warnings can also be seen during or after the solve. The two primary reasons for a terminated
solve are the Energy error exceeded and Time step too small errors. Both of them can
mean a variety of problems - meshing, high deformation, incorrectly applied forces, etc. Usually observing
the results up to that point or using the erosion or error options to bypass the termination should give
an indication of what the problem might be.

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Transforming an Implicit Model to run in Explicit Dynamics

3.6. Postprocessing
Evaluating the results is the most crucial point of any simulation. The explicit dynamics solver offers
many tools for efficient post processing. This gives not only quantifiable results but also, through ob-
serving animations and graphs, indication of what went on during the simulation and how well it rep-
resents the real experimental situation.

3.6.1. Result Trackers

As stated in the previous section, the result trackers can be a useful tool for initial evaluation of the
setup. They are usually scoped to strategic locations to give detailed information on the physical
parameters. The trackers are the most suitable tool to use to evaluate the oscillations and vibrations
in a simulation, and are used for calculating the required damping coefficient. Because of their dense
data points, the graphs created are very smooth and accurate, suitable for even very small amplitude
oscillations. Depending on the type, they can be scoped to different geometry entities and evaluate
a variety of parameters. The trackers are also useful for evaluating contact forces and local energy
values.

3.6.2. Result Sets

One of the main tools used for post processing are the result sets. They can help you evaluate stress,
strain, deformation, etc. They work in a similar way as in the Implicit simulation, with all of the controls
and settings being the same. All of the scoping, scaling, and contouring options should also be famil-
iar. Generally, there are a fewer number of result sets and tools than available for the Implicit solver,
similarly to the boundary conditions. The sets can be added before or after the simulation and then
evaluated.

Apart from the standard sets of results, you can also include User Defined Result (p. 116) objects. As
the name suggests, this result can be customized to suit your needs, and can use a variety of variables
(seen by clicking Worksheet from the View drop-down of the Solution Context tab). It can also
evaluate expressions using any of the variables. These results are useful in situations where you want
to evaluate something in a similar way as the results trackers but scoped to whole parts or the whole
model. It can also be used to compare manually calculated values from an equation expression (using
the simple variables), which does not have an equivalent in the standard results.

Animating the results is done using the same tools as the Implicit solver, but because of the nature
of the Explicit solver, this gives much more detailed and valuable information about the solution. It
is important to keep track of the results point density and restart points in order to have an animation
which best represents the solution behavior. The animations are very useful because they are based
on the simulation time, unlike the implicit simulations. This can be helpful to adjust the setup and
the boundary conditions following the initial run. Furthermore, the animation can give an indication
of which parts are oscillating and need damping; you can scope trackers to them to determine the
frequency. The graph of a deformation result set can be seen in the following figure.

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 Postprocessing

Figure 3.18: Deformation Graph (with respect to simulation time) and Results Table

Note:

If the Implicit solver has the result scaling setting at anything other than True Scale (default)
this will not be transferred to the Explicit solver results. This may be the reason if you ob-
serve very different deformations at first glance.

3.6.3. Improving your Simulation

There are many parameters you can check to ensure the simulation has achieved the desired output.
Most of them are indicators that something went wrong rather than that something is working as it
should. Start with the stability of the time step, the energy errors, and unexpected erosion. These
should be examined and the reasons behind any unexpected results should be investigated. Using
the animations to determine the eroding areas can show a number of issues either with the mesh,
the setup, or the geometry. Missed contact is also something to watch out for in the animations, es-
pecially because the Explicit solver does not have a specific contact tool like the Implicit simulation.
Such problems can be addressed by increasing the mesh density or examining the overlap of the
parts. It is also useful to examine parts of the model using a section plane. This might give insight to
some problems which are not obvious at first glance.

It is important for these quasi-static simulations that the velocity values in the model are in the range
of 1 to 10 m/s. If they are too low, it means that the Explicit solver might not be modeling the activity
correctly because it is out of range of its normal velocity modes. If they are too high, this means that
higher stresses and strains may have been introduced due to inertial and shock effects. Evaluating
the velocity also gives indication of how close the simulation is to the real, experimental expectations.
Ideally, the solver should simulate the velocities that are desired for the actual mechanism at work.
This is not always possible but it is the target to aim for. Increasing the end time while keeping the
same displacement values, for example, will decrease the velocities in the simulation but will also
increase the run time required.

The solution output includes files that also hold information, though more technical and not as easy
to understand as the details in the graphical interface. One example is the .prt file which gives ex-
tensive information about the setup and the solve, including which operations took more CPU time,
the energy and momentum balance, and errors. After careful examination of the results, you can start
working on model improvements. Optimization may include: stabilization (damping), modifying the
mesh to give more consistent results, modifying displacement boundary conditions, adding or removing
constraints, and so on. The Explicit solver has extensive capabilities for postprocessing, allowing you
to get the information you need for making necessary adjustments.

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Chapter 4: Applying Pre-Stress Effects for Explicit
Analysis
Because an Explicit Dynamics analysis is better suited for short duration events, preceding it with an
Implicit analysis may produce a more efficient simulation, especially for cases in which a generally slower
(or rate-independent) phenomenon is followed by a much faster event, such as the collision of a pres-
surized container. To produce this combination, you can define pre-stress as an initial condition in an
Explicit Dynamics system, specifying the transfer of either displacements only or the more complete
Material State (displacements, velocities, stresses, and strains), from a static or transient structural ana-
lysis to an Explicit Dynamics analysis.

Characteristics of the Implicit to Explicit pre-stress feature:

• Applicable to 3-D analyses only.

• The Material State mode, for mapping stresses, plastic strains, displacements, and velocities is valid
for solid models only.

• The displacements only mode is valid for solid, shell, and beam models.

• The same mesh is required for both Implicit and Explicit analyses and only low order elements are
allowed. If high order elements are used, the solve will be blocked and an error message will be issued.

• For a nonlinear Implicit analysis, the Strain Details view property in the Output Controls category
under the Analysis Settings object must be set to Yes because plastic strains are needed for the
correct results.

4.1. Recommended Guidelines for Pre-Stress Explicit Dynamics

The following guidelines are recommended when using pre-stress with an Explicit Dynamics analysis:

• Lower order elements must be used in the static or transient structural analysis used to pre-stress
the Explicit Dynamics analysis. To do so, set the Mesh object property, Element Order (Defaults
category), to Linear.

• On the Brick Integration Scheme of all relevant bodies, use the Reduced option, to provide the
most consistent results between the Static Structural or Transient Structural system and the Explicit
Dynamics system. Such a selection amounts to a single integration point per lower order solid element.

• For models containing Line or Surface bodies, the data transfer is limited to displacements only.

In this mode, under Analysis Settings, the Static Damping option (under Damping) should be used
to remove any dynamic oscillations in the stress state due to the imposed static displacements.

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Applying Pre-Stress Effects for Explicit Analysis

• The temperature state is also transferred to the Explicit Dynamics analysis. The Unit System is taken
care of automatically, and Internal Energy due to difference in temperature will be added to each
element based on:

Einternal = Einternal + Cp(T-Tref)

Where:

Cp = specific heat coefficient

Tref = room temperature

Note that stresses may still dissipate because the thermal expansion coefficient is not taken into ac-
count in the Explicit Dynamics analysis.

Example - Drop Test on Pressurized Container:

Pre-stress condition:

Transient stress distribution during drop test:

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 Pre-Stress Object Properties

4.2. Pre-Stress Object Properties

Mode

Displacement

Node-based displacements from a static analysis are used to initialize the Explicit node positions.
These displacements are converted to constant node-based velocities and applied for a pre-
defined time in order to obtain the required displaced coordinates. During this times, element
stresses and strains are calculated as normal by the Explicit solver. Once the displaced node
positions are achieved, all node-based velocities are set to 0 and the solution is completely ini-
tialized. This option is applicable to unstructured solids (hexahedral and tetrahedral), shells, and
beams.

Time Step Factor

The initial time step from the explicit solution is multiplied by the time step factor. The
resulting time is used with the nodal displacements from the Ansys Mechanical analysis to
calculate constant nodal velocities. These nodal velocities are applied to theExplicit model
over the resulting time in order to initialize the Explicit nodes to the correct positions.

Material State

Node-based displacements, element stresses and strains, and plastic strains and velocities from
an Implicit solution are used to initialize an Explicit analysis at cycle 0. This option is applicable
to results from a linear static structural, nonlinear static structural, or transient dynamic Mechan-
ical system. The Ansys solution may be preceded with a steady-state thermal solution in order
to introduce temperature differences into the solution. In this case, the accompanying thermal
stresses due to the thermal expansion coefficient will be transferred but may dissipate since the
thermal expansion coefficient is not considered in an Explicit analysis. This option is only applic-
able to unstructured solid elements (hexahedral and tetrahedral).

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Applying Pre-Stress Effects for Explicit Analysis

Pressure Initialization

From Deformed State

The pressure for an element is calculated from its compression, which is determined by
the initial displacement of the element's nodes. This is the default option and should
be used for almost all Implicit-Explicit analyses.

From Stress State

The pressure for an element is calculated from the direct stresses imported from the
implicit solution. This option is only available for materials with a linear equation of
state. If the pressure for an element is already initialized, this calculation will be ignored.
This is for a pre-stress analysis from an Implicit solution that has been initialized from
an INISTATE command and has an .rst file with all degrees of freedom fixed.

Time

The time at which results are extracted from the Implicit analysis.

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Chapter 5: Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide
This chapter describes the theoretical basis of the Explicit Dynamics system available in Workbench.
The following topics are covered in this chapter:
5.1. Why use Explicit Dynamics?
5.2. What is Explicit Dynamics?
5.3. Analysis Settings
5.4. Model Size Limitations in Explicit Dynamics
5.5. References

5.1. Why use Explicit Dynamics?

The Explicit Dynamics system is designed to enable you to simulate nonlinear structural mechanics
applications involving one or more of the following:

• Impact from low [1m/s] to very high velocity [5000m/s]

• Stress wave propagation

• High frequency dynamic response

• Large deformations and geometric nonlinearities

• Complex contact conditions

• Complex material behavior including material damage and failure

• Nonlinear structural response including buckling and snapthrough

• Failure of bonds/welds/fasteners

• Shock wave propagation through solids and liquids

• Rigid and flexible bodies

Explicit Dynamics is most suited to events which take place over short periods of time, a few milliseconds
or less. Events which last more than 1 second can be modeled; however, long run times can be expected.
Techniques such as mass scaling and dynamic relaxation are available to improve the efficiency of
simulations with long durations.

5.2. What is Explicit Dynamics?

An overview of the solution methodology used in an Explicit Dynamics simulation is provided in this
section.

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

5.2.1.The Solution Strategy

5.2.2. Basic Formulations
5.2.3.Time Integration
5.2.4. Wave Propagation
5.2.5. Reference Frame
5.2.6. Explicit Fluid Structure Interaction (Euler-Lagrange Coupling)

5.2.1. The Solution Strategy

In an Explicit Dynamics solution, we start with a discretized domain (mesh) with assigned material
properties, loads, constraints and initial conditions. This initial state, when integrated in time, will
produce motion at the node points in the mesh.

• The motion of the node points produces deformation in the elements of the mesh

• The deformation results in a change in volume (hence density) of the material in each element

• The rate of deformation is used to derive material strain rates using various element formulations

• Constitutive laws take the material strain rates and derive resultant material stresses

• The material stresses are transformed back into nodal forces using various element formulations

• External nodal forces are computed from boundary conditions, loads and contact (body interaction)

• The nodal forces are divided by nodal mass to produce nodal accelerations

• The accelerations are integrated Explicitly in time to produce new nodal velocities

• The nodal velocities are integrated Explicitly in time to produce new nodal positions

• The solution process (Cycle) is repeated until a user defined time is reached

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 What is Explicit Dynamics?

5.2.2. Basic Formulations

An introduction to the basic equations which are solved in Explicit Dynamics is provided in this section.
5.2.2.1. Implicit Transient Dynamics
5.2.2.2. Explicit Transient Dynamics

5.2.2.1. Implicit Transient Dynamics

The basic equation of motion solved by an implicit transient dynamic analysis is
(5.1)

Where:

m = mass matrix

c = damping matrix

k = stiffness matrix

F(t) = load vector

At any given time, t, these equations can be thought of as a set of "static" equilibrium equations
that also take into account inertia forces and damping forces. The Newmark time integration
method (or an improved method called HHT) is used to solve these equations at discrete time
points. The time increment between successive time points is called the integration time step.

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

5.2.2.2. Explicit Transient Dynamics

The partial differential equations to be solved in an Explicit Dynamics analysis express the conser-
vation of mass, momentum, and energy in Lagrangian coordinates. These, together with a material
model and a set of initial and boundary conditions, define the complete solution of the problem.

For the Lagrangian formulations currently available in the Explicit Dynamics system, the mesh moves
and distorts with the material it models and conservation of mass is automatically satisfied. The
density at any time can be determined from the current volume of the zone and its initial mass
(5.2)

The partial differential equations that express the conservation of momentum relate the acceleration
to the stress tensor σij .

(5.3)

Conservation of energy is expressed via:

(5.4)

These equations are solved explicitly for each element in the model, based on input values at the
end of the previous time step. Small time increments are used to ensure stability and accuracy of
the solution. Note that in Explicit Dynamics we do not seek any form of equilibrium; we simply take
results from the previous time point to predict results at the next time point. There is no requirement
for iteration.

In a well-posed Explicit Dynamics simulation, mass, momentum, and energy should be conserved.
Only mass and momentum conservation is enforced. Energy is accumulated over time and conser-
vation is monitored during the solution. Feedback on the quality of the solution is provided via
summaries of momentum and energy conservation (as opposed to convergent tolerances in implicit
transient dynamics).

5.2.3. Time Integration

In this section, the Explicit Dynamics time integration scheme is described and compared with an
implicit formulation.
5.2.3.1. Implicit Time Integration
5.2.3.2. Explicit Time Integration
5.2.3.3. Mass Scaling

5.2.3.1. Implicit Time Integration

For implicit time integration, Ansys solves the transient dynamic equilibrium equation using the
Newmark approximation (or an improved method known as HHT). For more information, see
Transient Analysis.

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 What is Explicit Dynamics?

For linear problems, the implicit time integration is unconditionally stable for certain integration
parameters. The time step size will vary to satisfy accuracy requirements.

For nonlinear problems:

• The solution is obtained using a series of linear approximations (Newton-Raphson method), so

each time step may have many equilibrium iterations.

• The solution requires inversion of the nonlinear dynamic equivalent stiffness matrix.

• Small, iterative time steps may be required to achieve convergence.

• Convergence tools are provided, but convergence is not guaranteed for highly nonlinear problems.

5.2.3.2. Explicit Time Integration

The Explicit Dynamic solver uses a central difference time integration scheme (often referred to as
the Leapfrog method).

After forces have been computed at the nodes of the mesh (resulting from internal stress, contact,
or boundary conditions), the nodal accelerations are derived by equating acceleration to force divided
by mass.

Therefore the accelerations are

(5.5)

Where:

are the components of nodal acceleration (i=1,2,3)

are the forces acting on the nodal points

are the components of body acceleration

m is the mass attributed to the node.

With the accelerations at time n determined, the velocities at time are found from
(5.6)

and finally the positions are updated to time n+1 by integrating the velocities
(5.7)

The advantages of using this method for time integration for nonlinear problems are:

• The equations become uncoupled and can be solved directly (explicitly). There is no requirement
for iteration during time integration.

• No convergence checks are needed because the equations are uncoupled.

• No inversion of the stiffness matrix is required. All nonlinearities (including contact) are included
in the internal force vector.

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

To ensure stability and accuracy of the solution, the size of the timestep used in Explicit time integ-
ration is limited by the CFL (Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy [1]) condition. This condition implies that the
timestep be limited such that a disturbance (stress wave) cannot travel farther than the smallest
characteristic element dimension in the mesh, in a single timestep. Thus the timestep criteria for
solution stability is
(5.8)

Where

Δt is the time increment

f is the stability timestep factor (= 0.9 by default)

h is the characteristic dimension of an element

c is the local material soundspeed in an element

The element characteristic dimension, h is calculated as follows:

Table 5.1: Characteristic Element Dimensions

Hexahedral/Pentahedral The volume of the element divided by the square of the longest
diagonal of the zone and scaled by
Tetrahedral The minimum distance of any element node to it’s opposing element
face
Quad Shell The square root of the shell area
[a]

Tri Shell The minimum distance of any element node to it’s opposing element
[a]
edge
Beam The length of the element
[a] Quad and Tri Shells: The characteristic element dimension is calculated based on minimal
time-step calculation given in Kennedy et. al.(Recent developments in explicit finite element
techniques and their application to reactor structures). The calculations are based on
computing the element shear, bending, and membrane eigenfrequencies, and choosing

the as the stable time-step. In most cases, the membrane time

step will be the critical one, except for very thick shells.

The time steps used in Explicit time integration will generally be smaller than those used in Implicit
time integration.

For example, for a mesh with a characteristic dimension of 1mm and a material soundspeed of
5000m/s. The resulting stability time step would be 0.18µ seconds. To solve this simulation to a
termination time of 0.1 seconds will require 555,556 time increments.

Note:

The minimum value of h/c for all elements in the model is used to calculate the time
step that will be used for all elements in the model. This implies that the number of time
increments required to solve the simulation is dictated by the smallest element in the

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 What is Explicit Dynamics?

model. Care should therefore be taken when generating meshes for Explicit Dynamics
simulations to ensure that one or two very small elements do not control the timestep.
The patch-independent meshing methods available in Workbench will generally produce
a more uniform mesh with a higher timestep than patch-dependent meshing methods.

5.2.3.3. Mass Scaling

The maximum timestep that can be used in Explicit time integration is inversely proportional to
the soundspeed of the material, hence directionally proportional to the square root of the mass of
material in an element

(5.9)

Where

Cii is the material stiffness (i=1,2,3)

ρ is the material density

m is the material mass

V is the element volume

By artificially increasing the mass of an element, one can increase the maximum allowable stability
timestep, and reduce the number of time increments required to complete a solution. When mass
scaling is applied in an Explicit Dynamics system, it is applied only to those elements which have
a stability timestep less than a specified value. If the model contains a relatively small number of
small elements, this can be a useful mechanism for reducing the number of time steps required to
complete an Explicit simulation.

Note:

Mass scaling changes the inertial properties of the portions of the mesh to which scaling
is applied. The user is responsible for ensuring that the model remains representative
for the physical problem being solved.

5.2.4. Wave Propagation

The Explicit Dynamics systems are particularly well suited to capturing various types of wave
propagation phenomena in solid and liquid materials.
5.2.4.1. Elastic Waves
5.2.4.2. Plastic Waves
5.2.4.3. Shock Waves

5.2.4.1. Elastic Waves

Different types of elastic waves can propagate in solids depending on how the motion of points
in the solid material is related to the direction of propagation of the waves (Meyers [2]). The primary

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

elastic wave is usually referred to as the longitudinal wave. Under uniaxial stress conditions (i.e. an
elastic wave traveling down a long slender rod), the wave propagation speed is given by
(5.10)

For the more general three-dimensional case, the additional components of stress lead to the more
general expression for the primary longitudinal elastic wave speed
(5.11)

The secondary elastic wave is usually referred to as the distortional/shear wave and it’s propagation
speed can be calculated as
(5.12)

Other forms of elastic waves include surface (Rayleigh) waves, Interfacial waves and bending (or
flexural) waves in bars/plates. Further details are provided by Meyers [2].

5.2.4.2. Plastic Waves

Plastic (inelastic) deformation takes place in a ductile metal when the stress in the material exceeds
the elastic limit. Under dynamic loading conditions the resulting wave propagation can be decom-
posed into elastic and plastic regions (Meyers [2]). Under uniaxial strain conditions, the elastic portion
of the wave travels at the primary longitudinal wave speed whilst the plastic wave front travels at
a local velocity
(5.13)

For an elastic perfectly plastic material, it can be shown [3] that the plastic wave travels at a slower
velocity than the primary elastic wave
(5.14)

5.2.4.3. Shock Waves

Typical stress strain curves for a ductile metal under uniaxial stress and uniaxial strain conditions
are given below.

Table 5.2: Typical stress strain curves for a ductile metal

a) Uniaxial b) Uniaxial
stress strain

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 What is Explicit Dynamics?

Under uniaxial stress conditions, the tangent modulus of the stress strain curve decreases with
strain. The plastic wave speed therefore decreases as the applied jump in stress associated with
the stress wave increases – shock waves are unlikely to form under these conditions.

Under uniaxial strain conditions the plastic modulus (AB) increases with the magnitude of the applied
jump in stress. If the stress jump associated with the wave is greater than the gradient (OZ), the
plastic wave will travel at a higher speed than the elastic wave. Since the plastic deformation must
be preceded by the elastic deformation, the elastic and plastic waves coalesce and propagate as a
single plastic shock wave.

A shock wave can be considered to be a discontinuity in material state (density(ρ), energy(e),

stress(σ), particle velocity(u)) which propagates through a medium at a velocity equal to the shock
velocity (Us ).

Figure 5.1: Conditions at a Moving Shock Front

Relationships between the material state across a shock discontinuity can be derived using the
principals of conservation of mass, momentum and energy. The resulting Hugoniot equations are
given by
(5.15)

(5.16)

(5.17)

5.2.5. Reference Frame

You can define the reference frame for bodies in an explicit dynamics analysis to be Lagrangian, Eu-
lerian, or Particle. The following sections describe the reference frames and how their use affects the
analysis.
5.2.5.1. Lagrangian, Eulerian, and Particle Reference Frames
5.2.5.2. Eulerian (Virtual) Reference Frame in Explicit Dynamics
5.2.5.3. Particle (SPH) Reference Frame in Explicit Dynamics

5.2.5.1. Lagrangian, Eulerian, and Particle Reference Frames

By default, all bodies in an Explicit Dynamics analysis system are discretized and solved in a Lag-
rangian reference frame. The material associated with each body is discretized in the form of a
body-fitted mesh. Each element of the mesh is used to represent a volume of material. The same
amount of material mass remains associated with each element throughout the simulation. The
mesh deforms with the material deformation. Solving using a Lagrangian reference frame is the
most efficient and accurate method to use for the majority of structural models. However, in simu-

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

lations where the material undergoes extreme deformations, such as in a fluid or gas flowing around
an obstacle, the elements will become highly distorted as the deformation of the material increases.
Eventually the elements may become so distorted that the elements become inverted (negative
volumes) and the simulation cannot proceed without resorting to numerical erosion of highly dis-
torted elements. The Explicit Dynamics solver offers two alternative solver formulations to overcome
the problems of extreme deformations: the Eulerian and the Particle reference frames.

In an Eulerian reference frame, the grid remains stationary throughout the simulation. Material
flows through the mesh. The mesh does not therefore suffer from distortion problems and large
deformations of the material can be represented. If the material you are going to model is likely
to experience very large deformations, using an Eulerian reference frame is therefore preferable.

Solving using an Eulerian reference frame is generally computationally more expensive than using
a Lagrangian reference frame. The additional cost comes from the need to transport material from
one cell to the next and also to track in which cells each material exists. Each cell in the grid can
contain one or more materials (to a maximum of 5 in the Explicit Dynamics system). The location
and interface of each material is tracked only approximately (to first order accuracy).

The representative example below shows a block of material impacting a rigid wall. First the block
is represented in the Lagrangian reference frame. During the impact process the nodes of the mesh
follow the deformation of the material. The same problem can be modelled in an Eulerian reference
frame; here the nodes of the mesh are fixed in space, they do not move. Instead the material is
tracked as it moves through the mesh.

Solid, Liquid and Gaseous materials can be used with an Eulerian (Virtual) reference frame in the
Explicit Dynamics system. Because of the computational cost and approximate tracking of material
interfaces, the Eulerian reference frame should be used only when very large deformation or flow
of the material is expected.

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 What is Explicit Dynamics?

The Particle reference frame uses a gridless technique for solving the computational continuum
dynamics. In Explicit Dynamics, the gridless technique used is Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics
(SPH).SPH offers the following potential advantages over Lagrange and Euler processors:

• SPH does not require a numerical grid

– No grid tangling as in the Lagrange processor

– No need for erosion

• SPH is a Lagrangian technique

– Allows efficient tracking of material deformation and history dependent behavior

– Efficient compared with Eulerian techniques since only need to model regions where material
exists, not where material will flow

– Specific complex constitutive models can be included with relative ease compared with Eulerian
techniques

5.2.5.2. Eulerian (Virtual) Reference Frame in Explicit Dynamics

Switching the reference frame of any solid body in a 3D Explicit Dynamics system from Lagrangian
to Eulerian will result in the automatic creation of a virtual Multi-Material Eulerian domain. The
domain will have properties such as dimensions and cell size determined by the Euler Domain
Controls (p. 71) in the Analysis Settings. All solid bodies with the reference frame set to Eulerian
will be mapped into the virtual Multi-Material Eulerian background grid at solve time and the ma-
terial associated with these bodies will be solved for in the virtual Eulerian reference frame. The
creation of the virtual Multi-Material Eulerian domain and the mapping of the bodies into the virtual
Multi-Material Eulerian domain are further described in this section.

Note:

The Multi-Material Eulerian reference frame option is supported in 3D Explicit Dynamics

analyses only. Enhancements to the Eulerian solver in Explicit Dynamics are exposed as
a Beta feature, including the abilities to perform Multi-Material Eulerian analyses in 2D
and remap results from 2D Multi-Material Eulerian analyses to 3D Multi-Material Eulerian
analyses. See this document for a description of these enhancements.

Note:

The LS-DYNA system uses S-ALE Domain and S-ALE Fill Reference Frames for Euler analyses
(see ALE Workflow in the LS-DYNA User's Guide for more information).

If one or more solid bodies have a reference frame set to Eulerian (Virtual), the following process
is used on initialization to map the Euler bodies to a background Eulerian domain:

Virtual Euler Domain

A background Eulerian (Virtual) domain is automatically generated to enclose all bodies in the
model. By default, the domain size is set to 1.2 times the size of the bounding box of all bodies

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

in the model. The domain is always aligned with the global Cartesian X, Y, and Z axes. Additional
options to control the size of the domain are provided in the Analysis Settings.

The background Euler domain is discretized with a mesh of uniform cell size. The cell size is
defined to give approximately 500,000 cells in total. Additional options to control the cell size
are provided in the Analysis Settings. The entire Euler domain is initialized as void; the cells
contain no material.

Mapping of bodies with Euler reference frame to virtual Euler domain

The standard mesh generated on bodies marked with Eulerian (Virtual) reference frame is only
used to represent the geometry of the body during initialization of the model for the solver.
The material and initial conditions defined on bodies marked as Eulerian reference frame are
mapped to the Euler domain. The mesh associated with the original body is then deleted, prior
to the solve. A unique material is created for each body that is mapped into the Euler domain
for the purposes of post processing

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 What is Explicit Dynamics?

If multiple bodies marked as Eulerian (Virtual) overlap, the body higher in the Outline view will
take precedence. Therefore, the material assigned to the region of overlap will correspond to
that assigned to the first Eulerian body.

The exterior faces of the Euler domain can each have one of three types of boundary condition
applied. The type of boundary condition for each face is controlled in the Analysis Set-
tings (p. 62):

Flow-out (Default)

This condition will allow any material reaching the boundary of the Euler domain to flow
out of the domain at constant velocity.

Rigid Wall

This condition makes the external boundaries of the domain act as a rigid wall.

Impedance

This condition acts the same as a Flow-out condition and allows any material reaching
the boundary of the Euler domain to flow out of the domain at constant velocity.

Key Concepts of Euler (Virtual) Solutions

The conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy are solved on a block structured
background mesh using a 2nd order accurate multi-material Godunov numerical scheme[17] with
the second order upwind method by Van Leer [19, 20]. The computational cycle for bodies repres-
ented in an Eulerian reference frame is outlined below:

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

In comparison to a traditional Lagrangian numerical scheme, note the points in the following sections.
5.2.5.2.1. Multiple Material Stress States
5.2.5.2.2. Multiple Material Transport
5.2.5.2.3. Supported Material Properties
5.2.5.2.4. Known Limitations of Euler Solutions

5.2.5.2.1. Multiple Material Stress States

During the simulation, material can flow from one cell to another. At some stage in the compu-
tation a given cell is likely to contain more than one material. Note that void (free space) is also
considered as a material in this sense; a cell containing one material and void is typical at any
free surface of the material. In the example below we can see two solid materials (green and
yellow) and free surfaces (white, void material) represented in an Eulerian reference frame.

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 What is Explicit Dynamics?

A volume of fluid (VOF) method is used track the amount of material in each cell. Each material
has a volume fraction and the sum of the volume fraction of each material, plus the volume
fraction of void, will equate to unity.

(5.18)

Nearly all isotropic material properties can be used in an Eulerian reference frame to represent
solids, liquids or gases. Special treatment is required to allow calculation of the strain rates,
pressure and stresses in each material in a cell, and also to calculate a resultant stress tensor
which is then used to calculate cell face impulses, momentum and mass transport. Two algorithms
are used for this purpose:

1. A cell containing two different gases; here we use an iterative procedure to establish an
Equilibrium state (a density and energy of each gas which results in a uniform pressure across
both gases).

2. A cell containing two or more non-gaseous materials; here we use a stiffness weighted aver-
aging technique to distribute strain rates and establish the resultant pressure and deviatoric
stress in each cell.

The choice of the above algorithms is automatic and local to each cell in the model.

Important:

At any point in time during the solution, only the volume fraction of each material in
each cell is recorded and stored. The location of the material within the cell is not
known. During post-processing of the model you will see an outline of the material

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

displayed, this outline is an approximation derived from the volume fraction distribution
in the cells. It is only accurate to within one cell dimension.

5.2.5.2.2. Multiple Material Transport

To move the solution through the mesh from one timestep to another, material must be trans-
ported across cell faces. If a cell contains only one material then we have a trivial solution and a
volume fraction of that material will be transported across the face. If however we have multiple
materials in a cell we need to employ an algorithm to decide which materials to transport and
how much of each material to transport across each cell face. We are using the SLIC (Single Line
Interface Construction) method [18] to calculate the order and quantity of material to transport
across a cell face. This method takes information from both the upstream and downstream cells
to make decisions on material transport.

5.2.5.2.3. Supported Material Properties

The supported material properties are Density, Specific Heat, Isotropic Elasticity, Bilinear Isotropic
Hardening, Multilinear Isotropic Hardening, Johnson Cook Strength, Cowper Symonds Strength,
Steinberg Guinan Strength, Zerilli Armstrong Strength, Drucker-Prager Strength Linear, Drucker-
Prager Strength Stassi, Drucker-Prager Strength Piecewise, Johnson-Holmquist Strength Continuous,
Johnson-Holmquist Strength Segmented, RHT Concrete, MO Granular, Ideal Gas EOS, Bulk Modulus,
Shear Modulus, Polynomial EOS, Shock EOS Linear, Shock EOS Bilinear, Explosive JWL, Explosive
JWL Miller, Compaction EOS Linear, Compaction EOS Non-Linear, P-alpha EOS, Plastic Strain Failure,
Tensile Pressure Failure, Johnson Cook Failure, Grady Spall Failure.

5.2.5.2.4. Known Limitations of Euler Solutions

Sometimes the multimaterial Euler solver exhibits so called checkerboarding where the face values
of Euler elements are correct, but the Euler element values (for example, pressure) are switching
between positive and negative values from element to element. This can be seen when the
smoothing of the contour values is switched off—the plot will show a checkerboard pattern. This
introduces incorrect pressure (and other) values which will, for example, result in wrong coupling
forces on a Lagrangian flexible or rigid body.

The magnitude of the effect of this limitation on the solution may be large and easy to observe:
for example, when the flow or distortion of the material in Euler shows overall incorrect behavior.
Or it may be small and difficult to recognize: for example, in cases where the pressure switches
locally, but the overall average pressure is still correct.

Common solutions for this problem are:

• A refinement of the mesh, with possibly some grading (smaller elements near the area of in-
terest) to reduce run times

• Reduction of the timestep safety factor to, for example, 0.333

5.2.5.3. Particle (SPH) Reference Frame in Explicit Dynamics

A body with the reference frame set to Particle must be meshed with a Particle Method in Mechan-
ical, which will generate a cloud of particles within the body. The continuum dynamics at those
particles is solved for in Explicit Dynamics using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics solver. The

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term Particle in Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics is potentially misleading because the particles
are really interpolation points. To demonstrate this point, consider a rod of steel that is represented
by a series of SPH particles as illustrated in Figure 5.2: Particle Representation for Steel Bar (p. 169).

Figure 5.2: Particle Representation for Steel Bar

The density at particle I can be calculated using an expression such as

Where mJ is the mass of particle J, WIJ is a weighting function, x is the position of the center of
the particle, and h is the smoothing length (or particle diameter). In Explicit Dynamics the weighting
function used is a Kernel B-spline. Therefore to calculate the density of particle I, we sum the value
of the density of all neighboring particles (interpolation points J1, J2, J3, J4, I) multiplied by the
weighting function. A similar approach can also be taken to evaluate the value of other functions
(for example strain rate) at particle I.

Hence, the SPH particles are not simply interacting mass points, but they are interpolation points
from which values of functions and their derivatives can be estimated at discrete points in the
continuum. In SPH, the discrete points at which all quantities are evaluated are placed at the center
of the SPH particles. This is in contrast to the Lagrange processor where the interpolation points
are defined at the corner nodes of each element, while the discrete points at which functions are
evaluated are placed at the cell center (for density, strain rate, pressure, energy, stress) or the cell
nodes (for displacement, velocity, force).

The computational cycle for SPH is similar to that for Lagrange except for some steps in which a
Kernel approximation is used. This is shown in Figure 5.3: SPH Computational Cycle (p. 170)

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

Figure 5.3: SPH Computational Cycle

Kernel approximations are used to compute forces from spatial derivatives of stress and spatial
derivatives of velocity are required to compute strain rates.

5.2.5.3.1. Analysis Settings for SPH

For Explicit Dynamics

Viscosity Coefficients

A special form of artificial viscosity has been developed to spread shocks over a few particle
diameters. In the analysis settings, you can set the values for the linear and quadratic viscosity
coefficients:

• Linear Viscosity Coefficient

– Recommended value between 1.0 (default) and 2.5.

– Lower values produce good results for low impact velocities. However, post shock oscil-
lations may not be completely removed at higher impact velocities (>1000 m/s). The
larger value of 2.5 reduces post shock oscillations at higher velocities but can result in
large diffusion of the shock front at lower velocities.

• Quadratic Viscosity Coefficient

– Recommended value between 1.0 (default) and 2.5.

– The larger value of 2.5 can result in large diffusion of the shock front. Also, higher values
result in smaller stability timesteps and hence longer computation times.

For LS-DYNA

Artificial Viscosity Formulation For SPH Elements can be set to Monaghan Formulation or
Standard Formulation to model the artificial viscosity. The Standard Formulation has better
energy balance for SPH elements.

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See *CONTROL_SPH in the LS-DYNA User's Guide for more information about LS-DYNA SPH
analysis settings.

5.2.5.3.2. Contact
Contact between SPH bodies is treated using the standard algorithm for coupling between dif-
ferent materials modeled with SPH. Contact between SPH bodies and Lagrange and shell bodies
can also be accounted for using Body Interaction objects.

5.2.5.3.3. Supported Boundary Conditions

Boundary conditions supported with Particle reference frames are Displacement, Velocity, and
Limit Boundaries. They can be scoped to whole bodies, or selections of nodes. Limit Boundary is
not supported for LS-DYNA.

5.2.5.3.4. Limitations and Efficiency

• Under certain conditions, the SPH algorithm can exhibit tensile instability. This instability often
arises either at boundaries or when particles are unevenly spaced. The instability can be seen
in practical calculations when pairs of particles clump together and separate from their other
neighbors. For LS-DYNA, you can use the Total Lagrangian Formulation particle approximation
to avoid tensile instability.

• The SPH formulations do not satisfy the consistency criteria for SPH particles that lack neighbors
or whose neighbors are unevenly distributed (for example at free surface).

• Performing an analysis with the SPH solver is typically more computationally efficient than the
equivalent set-up using an Eulerian grid, but will be less computationally efficient than an
equivalent set-up using the Lagrange processor (if appropriate for the scenario).

• For more information about the LS-DYNA SPH solver, see SPH Workflow in the LS-DYNA User's
Guide.

5.2.6. Explicit Fluid Structure Interaction (Euler-Lagrange Coupling)

In the Explicit Dynamics system, solid bodies can be assigned either a Lagrangian reference frame or
an Eulerian (Virtual) reference frame. The reference frames can be combined in the simulation to allow
the best solution technique to be applied to each type of material being modelled. During the simu-
lation, bodies represented in the two reference frames will automatically interact with each other.
For example, if one body is filled with steel using a Lagrangian reference frame, and another body
filled with water using an Eulerian reference frame, the two bodies will automatically interact with
each other if they come into contact. The interaction between Eulerian and Lagrangian bodies provides
a capability for tightly coupled two way fluid structure interaction in the Explicit Dynamics system.

In the simple example below, a body with Lagrangian reference frame (grey) is moving from left to
right over a body with Eulerian reference frame. As the body moves, it acts as a moving boundary in
the Euler domain by progressively covering volumes and faces in the Euler cells. This induces flow of
material in the Euler Domain. At the same time, a stress field will develop in the Euler domain which
results in external forces being applied on the moving Lagrangian body. These forces will feedback
into the motion and deformation (and stress) of the Lagrangian body.

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In more detail, the Lagrangian body covers regions of the Euler domain. The intersection between
the Lagrangian and Eulerian bodies results in an updated control volume on which the conservation
equation of mass, momentum and energy are solved.

At the same time, the normal stress in the intersected Euler cell will act on the intersected area of
the Lagrangian surface.

This provides a two-way closely coupled fluid-structure (or more generally Eulerian-Lagrangian) inter-
action. During a simulation, the Lagrangian structure can move and deform. Large deformations may
also result in erosion of the elements from the Lagrangian body. The coupling interfaces are automat-
ically updated in such cases.

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For accurate results when coupling Lagrangian and Eulerian bodies in Explicit Dynamics it is necessary
to ensure that the size of the cells of the Euler domain are smaller than the minimum distance across
the thickness of the Lagrangian bodies. If this is not the case, you may see leakage of material in the
Euler domain through the Lagrange structure.

5.2.6.1. Shell Coupling

In the case of coupling to thin bodies (typically modelled with shells), an equivalent solid body is
generated to enable intersection calculations to be performed between a Lagrangian volume and
the Euler domain. The thickness of the equivalent solid body is automatically calculated based on
the Euler Domain cell size to ensure that at least one Euler element is fully covered over the thickness
and no leakage occurs across the coupling surface. Note this 'artificial' thickness is only used for
volume intersection calculations for the purposes of coupling and is independent of the physical
thickness of the shell/surface body.

5.2.6.2. Sub-cycling
The Lagrangian reference frame is most frequently used to model solid structures with materials
which have soundspeeds in the order of several thousand meters/second. The Eulerian reference
is most frequently used to represent fluids or gases which typically have soundspeeds in the order
of hundreds of meters/second. In Explicit Dynamics simulations the maximum timestep that can
be used is inversely proportional to the soundspeed of the material. The timestep required to
model structures is therefore often significantly smaller than the timestep required to accurately
model a gas. To enable the Lagrangian and Eulerian parts of a coupled simulation proceed at the
optimum timestep (for efficiency and accuracy) a sub-cycling technique is used where possible.
The Lagrangian domain uses its critical timestep. The Euler domain uses its critical timestep.
Coupling information is exchanged at the end of each Euler domain timestep.

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

5.3. Analysis Settings

In the following sections you find theoretical background for specific controls available in the Explicit
Dynamics system.
5.3.1. Step Controls
5.3.2. Damping Controls
5.3.3. Solver Controls
5.3.4. Erosion Controls

5.3.1. Step Controls

Maximum Energy Error

Energy conservation is a measure of the quality of an explicit dynamic simulation. Bad energy conser-
vation usually implies a less than optimal model definition. This parameter allows you to automatically
stop the solution if the energy conservation becomes poor. Enter a fraction of the total system energy
at the reference cycle at which you want the simulation to stop. For example, the default value of
0.1 will cause the simulation to stop if the energy error exceeds 10% of the energy at the reference
cycle.

The global energy is accounted as follows:

Reference Energy = [Internal Energy + Kinetic Energy + Hourglass Energy] at the reference cycle

Current Energy = [Internal Energy + Kinetic Energy + Hourglass Energy] at the current cycle

Work Done = Work done by constraints + Work done by loads + Work done by body forces + Energy
removed from system by element erosion + Work done by contact penalty forces

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 Analysis Settings

Figure 5.4: Example energy conservation graph for model with symmetry plane and erosion

5.3.2. Damping Controls

Treatment of Shock Discontinuities

Strong impacts on solid bodies can give rise to the formation of shock waves in the material. Because
of the nonlinearity of the equations being solved, shocks can form even though the initial conditions
are smooth.

In order to handle the discontinuities in the flow variables associated with such shocks, viscous terms
are introduced into the solutions. These additional terms have the effect of spreading out the shock
discontinuities over several elements and thus allow the simulation to continue to compute a smooth
solution, even after shock formation and growth.

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

Figure 5.5: Comparison of pressure solution at a shock wave discontinuity a) using no artificial
viscosity b) using the default artificial viscosity

The viscous terms used in the Explicit Dynamics system is based on the work of von Neumann and
Richtmeyer [4] and Wilkins [5].

(5.19)

Where

CQ is the Quadratic Artificial Viscosity coefficient

CL is the Linear Artificial Viscosity coefficient

ρ is the local material density

d is a typical element length scale

c is the local sound speed

is the rate in change of volume

The quadratic term smooths out shock discontinuities while the linear term acts to damp out oscillations
which may occur in the solution behind the shock discontinuity.

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 Analysis Settings

Figure 5.6: Effects of artificial viscosity on the solution

a) Quadratic term stabilizes b) The linear term reduces

noise

Note:

• The pseudo-viscous term is usually added only when the flow is compressing. The Linear
Viscosity in Expansion option can be used to apply the pseudo-viscous term in both
compression and expansion. This can lead to excessive dispersion in the solution.

• The inclusion of the pseudo-viscous pressure imposes further restrictions on the time
step in order to ensure stability:

Due to the quadratic term,

Due to the linear term,

The resulting critical time step is

• The pseudo-viscous pressure is stored for each element and can be contoured using the
custom variable VISC_PRESSURE

Hourglass Damping
The reduced integration eight node hexahedral elements, or 4 node quadrilateral elements, used in
Explicit Dynamics can exhibit "hourglass" modes of deformation.

Since the expressions for strain rates and forces involve only differences in velocities and/or coordinates
of diagonally opposite nodes of the cuboidal element, if the element distorts in such a way that these
differences remain unchanged there will be no strain increase in the element and therefore no resist-
ance to this distortion. Hourglass modes of deformation occur with no change in energy (also called
zero energy modes) and are unphysical.

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An example of such a distortion in two dimensions is illustrated below where the two diagonals remain
the same length even though the cell distorts.

Visualization in three dimensions is much more difficult but if such distortions occur in a region of
many elements, patterns such as that shown below occur and the reason for the name of "hourglass
instability" is more easily understood.

To avoid these zero energy modes of deformation from occurring, corrective forces (Hourglass forces)
are added to the solution to resist the hourglass modes of deformation.

Hexahedral Elements

Two formulations for calculating the Hourglass forces are available for Hexahedral elements:

The Standard formulation is based on the work of Kosloff and Frazier [6] and generates hourglass
forces proportional to nodal velocity differences. This is often referred to as a viscous formulation.
(5.20)

Where

FH is a vector of the hourglass forces at each node of the element

CH is the Viscous Coefficient for hourglass damping

ρ is the material density

c is the material soundspeed

V is the material volume

is a vector function of the element nodal velocities aligned with the hourglass shape vector

The standard formulation is the most efficient formulation in terms of CPU and is therefore the default
option. It is not however invariant under rigid body rotation (i.e. under rigid body rotation the hourglass
forces may not sum to zero)

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 Analysis Settings

The Flanagan Belytschko [7] formulation is invariant under rigid body rotation and is therefore recom-
mended for simulations in which large rotations of hexahedral elements are expected. The Flanagan
Belytschko formulation is similar to the standard form.
(5.21)

The difference lies in the construction of the vector function of element nodal velocities, .
These are constructed to be orthogonal to both linear velocity field and the rigid body field.

Note:

• The Viscous Coefficient for hourglass forces usually varies between 0.05 and 0.15. The
default value is 0.1.

• The sum of the hourglass forces applied to an element is normally zero. The momentum
of the system is therefore unaffected by hourglass forces.

• The hourglass forces do however do work on the nodes of the elements. The energy
associated with hourglass forces is a) stored locally in the specific internal energy of the
element b) recorded globally over the entire model and available to review via the
Solution Output, Energy Summary.

Static Damping
The Explicit Dynamics system is primarily designed for solving transient dynamic events. Using the
static damping option, a static equilibrium solution can also be obtained.

The procedure is to introduce a damping force which is proportional to the nodal velocities and which
is aimed to critically damp the lowest mode of oscillation of the static system. The solution is then
computed in time in the normal manner until it converges to an equilibrium state. The user is required
to judge when the equilibrium state is achieved. If the lowest mode of the system has period T then
we may expect the solution to converge to the static equilibrium state in a time roughly 3T if the
value of T is that for critical damping.

When the dynamic relaxation option is used the velocity update is modified to
(5.22)

where the Static Damping Coefficient, Rd , is input by the user. The value of Rd for critical damping
of the lowest mode is

(5.23)

where T is the period of the lowest mode of vibration of the system (or a close approximation to it).
Usually
(5.24)

A reasonable estimate of T must be used to ensure convergence to an equilibrium state but if the
value of T is not known accurately then is it recommended that the user overestimates it, rather than

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

underestimating it. Approximate values of Δt and T can usually be obtained by first performing a
dynamic analysis without static damping.

A static damping coefficient may be defined, or removed, at any point during an Explicit Dynamic
simulation. Typical examples of its use would be:

• To establish an initial stress distribution in a structure, prior to solving a transient dynamic event.
For example applying gravity to a structure.

• To establish the final static equilibrium position of a structure after it has experienced a transient
dynamic event. For example finding the equilibrium position of structure after it has undergone
large plastic deformation during a dynamic event.

5.3.3. Solver Controls

Hexahedral Elements
The preferred element for solid bodies in Explicit Dynamics systems is the eight node reduced integ-
ration hexahedral. These elements are well suited to transient dynamic applications including large
deformations, large strains, large rotations and complex contact conditions. The basic element char-
acteristics are

Connectivity 8 Node

Nodal Quantities Position, Velocity, Acceleration, Force

Mass (lumped mass matrix)

Element Quantities Volume, Density, Strain, Stress, Energy

Other material state variables
Material Support All available materials

Points to Note Preferred element for Explicit Dynamics

Reduced integration, constant strain element
Requires hourglass damping to stabilize zero
energy "hourglass" modes (see section Damping
Controls, Hourglass Damping)

The default Integration Type for hexahedral elements is the Exact option. Here the element formulation
based upon the work of Wilkins [8] results in an exact volume calculation even for distorted elements.

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 Analysis Settings

This formulation is therefore the most accurate option, especially if the faces of the hex elements
become warped. This is also computationally the most expensive formulation.

It is possible to speed-up simulations by using the 1pt Gaussian quadrature integrated hexahedral
element. This uses the element formulation described by Hallquist [9]. There will be some loss in ac-
curacy when using this formulation with warped element faces which are common place in large
deformation analysis.

Tetrahedral Elements
Linear 4 noded tetrahedron elements are available for use in Explicit Dynamic analysis.

Connectivity 4 Node

Nodal Quantities Position, Velocity, Acceleration, Force

Mass (lumped mass matrix)
Additionally ANP formulation: Volume, Pressure,
Energy
Additionally NBS: Volume, Density, Strain, Stress,
Energy, Pressure and other material state variables
Element Quantities Volume, Density, Strain, Stress, Energy
Other material state variables
Additionally NBS: If PUSO stability coefficient is set
to a non-zero value, there is an additional variable
set for all variables for the PUSO solver
Material Support SCP: All available materials
Only Isotropic materials can be used with the ANP
formulation
Only ductile materials can be used with the NBS
formulation
Points to Note Only the ANP and NBS are recommended for use
in majority tetrahedral meshes
For NBS models exhibiting zero energy modes, the
Puso coefficient can be set to a non-zero value. A
value of 0.1 is recommended.
Reduced integration, constant strain element

The four noded linear tetrahedron is available with three forms of Pressure Integration

• Standard Constant pressure integration (SCP), Zienkiewicz [10].

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• Average Nodal Pressure (ANP) integration, based around the work of Burton [11].

• Nodal Based Strain (NBS) integration, based on work of (Bonet [21] and Puso [22]).

The SCP tetrahedral element is a basic, constant strain element and can be used with all the material
models. The element is intended as a "filler" element in meshes dominated by hexahedral elements.
The element is known to exhibit locking behavior under both bending and constant volumetric
straining (that is, plastic flow). If possible the element should therefore not be used in such cases.

The ANP tetrahedral formulation used here is an extension of the advanced tetrahedral element
(Burton [11]) and can be used as a majority element in the mesh. The ANP tetrahedral overcomes
problems of volumetric locking.

The NBS tetrahedral formulation based on the work of (Bonet [21] and Puso [22]) is a further extension
of the ANP tetrahedral element and can also be used as a majority element in the mesh. The NBS
tetrahedral overcomes both problems of volumetric and shear locking, therefore is recommended
over the other two tetrahedral formulations for models involving bending.

Supported material types in the NBS tetrahedral element are currently limited to ductile materials.
The following is a list of supported material properties for NBS tetrahedral elements:

• Isotropic Elasticity

• Bulk Modulus

• Shear Modulus

• Polynomial EOS

• Shock EOS

• Johnson Cook Strength

• Zerilli Armstrong Strength

• Cowper Symonds Strength

• Steinberg Guinan Strength

• Bilinear Isotropic Hardening

• Multilinear Isotropic Hardening

• Tensile Pressure Failure

• Plastic Strain Failure

• Principal Stress Failure

• Principal Strain Failure

• Principal Stress/Principal Strain Failure

• Grady Spall Failure

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 Analysis Settings

• Johnson Cook Failure

• Stochastic Failure

Note:

Both flexible and rigid bodies are supported for NBS tetrahedral elements.

If a model containing NBS tetrahedral elements exhibits zero-energy modes (Puso, 2006 [22]), the
PUSO stability coefficient can be set to a non-zero value. The recommended value is 0.1. Stabilization
is achieved by taking a contribution to the nodal stresses from the SCP solution. Therefore, for models
with a non-zero Puso stability coefficient, the solution is computed on both the nodes and the ele-
ments.

NBS tetrahedral elements cannot share nodes with ANP tetrahedral elements, SCP tetrahedral elements,
shell elements, or beam elements. Also note that the use of NBS tetrahedral elements with joins or
spotwelds is not supported.

Figure 5.7: Comparison of results of a Taylor test solved using SCP, ANP and NBS Tetrahedral
elements. Results using NBS and ANP tetrahedral elements compare more favorably with
experimental results than results using SCP (see table below).

Tet-SCP Tet-ANP Tet-NBS

Table 5.3: Comparison of the performance of SCP, ANP, NBS and hex elements in a model
involving bending. The displacement of the beam with NBS tetrahedral elements is the most
similar to the beam meshed with hexahedral elements as it does not exhibit shear locking as
is seen in the beams solved using SCP and ANP tetrahedral elements.

Experiment SCP Tet ANP Tet NBS Tet

Cylinder length 31.84 30.98 30.97 31.29
(mm)
Impact diameter 12.0 10.66 11.32 11.28
(mm)

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Figure 5.8: Example bending test using SCP (1), ANP (2), NBS tetrahedral (3), and hex (4) elements.
The displacement of the beam with NBS tetrahedral elements is the most similar to the beam
meshed with hexahedral elements as it does not exhibit shear locking.

Figure 5.9: Taylor test: Iron cylinder impacting rigid wall at 221m/s. Good correlation between
ANP and Hex element results is obtained

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 Analysis Settings

Figure 5.10: Example pull out test simulated using both hexahedral elements and ANP tetrahedral
elements. Similar plastic strains and material fracture are predicted for both element formulations
used.

Pentahedral Elements
Linear 6 noded pentahedral elements are available for use in Explicit Dynamics analysis.

Connectivity 6 Node

Nodal Quantities Position, Velocity, Acceleration, Force

Mass (lumped mass matrix)
Element Quantities All available materials
Other material state variables
Material Support All available materials

Points to Note Reduced integration, constant strain element

The pentahedral element is a basic constant strain element and is intended as a filler element in
meshes dominated by hexahedral elements.

Pyramid Elements
Pyramid elements are not recommended for Explicit Dynamic simulations. Any pyramid elements
present in the mesh will be converted to 2 tetrahedral elements in the solver initialization phase.
Results are mapped back onto the Pyramid element for postprocessing purposes.

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Shell Quad Elements

Bilinear 4 noded quadrilateral shell elements are available for use in Explicit Dynamics analysis.

Connectivity 4 Node

Nodal Quantities Position, Velocity, Angular Velocity, Acceleration,

Force, Moment
Mass (lumped mass matrix)
Element Quantities Strain, Stress, Energy
Other material state variables
Data stored per layer
Material Support Linear elasticity must be used
Equations of state and porosity are not applicable
to shell elements
Pressure dependant material strength is not
applicable to shell elements
Points to Note Reduced integration, constant strain element
Based on Mindlin plate theory, transverse shear
deformable
Shells have zero through thickness stress and are
therefore not suitable for modelling wave
propagation through the thickness of the surface
body

The bilinear 4 noded quadrilateral shell element is based on the corotational formulation presented
by Belytschko-Tsay [13]. The element has one quadrature point per layer and is stabilized using
hourglass control. By default, additional curvature terms are added for warped elements in accordance
with Belytschko [14]. This option can be deactivated using the Shell BWC Warp Correction setting in
the Solver Controls.

The number of through thickness integration points (sublayers) is controlled through the analysis
settings option Solver Controls, Shell Sublayers. The default value is 3.

The thickness of the shell element is updated during the simulation in accordance with the material
response. The update is carried out at the shell nodes by default.

The principal inertia of the shell nodes is recalculated every time increment (cycle) by default. This is
the most robust method. It is more efficient to rotate the principal inertias rather than recalculate
(although less robust for certain applications). The "Shell Thickness Update" option can be used to
select this more efficient inertial update method.

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 Analysis Settings

Shell Tri Elements

Linear 3 noded triangular shell elements are available for use in Explicit Dynamics analysis.

Connectivity 3 Node

Nodal Quantities Position, Velocity, Angular Velocity, Acceleration,

Force, Moment
Mass (lumped mass matrix)
Element Quantities Volume, Density, Stress, Energy
Other material state variables
Data stored per layer
Material Support Linear elasticity must be used
Equations of state and porosity are not applicable
to shell elements
Pressure dependant material strength is not
applicable to shell elements
Points to Note Reduced integration, constant strain element
This element is only recommended for use as a
"filler" element in quad dominant shell meshes
Shells have zero through thickness stress and are
therefore not suitable for modelling wave
propagation through the thickness of the surface
body

The bilinear 3 noded, C0, triangular shell element is based on the formulation presented by
Belytschko et al. [15]. The number of through thickness integration points (sublayers) is controlled
through the analysis settings option Solver Controls, Shell Sublayers. The default value is 3.

The thickness of the shell element is updated during the simulation in accordance with the material
response. The update is carried out at the element irrespective of the global settings for Shell Thickness
update in Mechanical.

Beam Elements
Linear 2 noded beam elements are available for use in Explicit Dynamics analysis.

Connectivity 2 Node

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

Nodal Quantities Position, Velocity, Angular Velocity, Acceleration,

Force, Moment
Mass (lumped mass matrix)
Element Quantities Resultant Strain/Stress, Energy
Other material state variables
Material Support Linear elasticity must be used
Equations of state and porosity are not applicable
to beam elements
Pressure dependant material strength is not
applicable to beam elements
Points to Note Supports symmetrical circular, square, rectangular,
I-Beam and general cross sections
Beams have zero transverse stress and are
therefore not suitable for modeling wave
propagation across the cross section

The 2 noded beam element is based on the resultant beam formulation of Belytschko [16] and allows
for large displacements and resultant elasto-plastic response.

5.3.4. Erosion Controls

Erosion is a numerical mechanism for the automatic removal (deletion) of elements during a simulation.
The primary reason for using erosion is to remove very distorted elements from a simulation before
the elements become inverted (degenerate). This ensures that the stability timestep remains at a
reasonable level and solutions can continue to the desired termination time. Erosion can also be used
to allow the simulation of material fracture, cutting and penetration.

There are a number of mechanisms available to initiate erosion of elements. The erosion options can
be used in any combination. Elements will erode if any of the criteria are met.

Geometric Strain
Geometric strain is a measure of the distortion of an element and is calculated from the global strain
components as

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 Analysis Settings

(5.25)

This erosion option allows removal of elements when the local element geometric strain exceeds the
specified value. Typical values range from 0.5 to 2.0. The default value of 1.5 can be used in most
cases.

Custom result EFF_STN can be used to review the distribution of effective strain in the model.

Timestep
This erosion option allows removal of elements when the local element timestep, multiplied by the
time step safety factor falls below the specified value.

Custom result TIMESTEP can be used to review the time step for each element.

Material Failure
Using this option, elements will automatically erode if a material failure property is defined in the
material used in the elements, and the failure criteria has been reached. Elements with materials in-
cluding a damage model will also erode if damage reaches a value of 1.0.

Other Mechanisms of Erosion

Aside from Geometric Strain, Timestep and Material Failure, the Explicit solver may erode elements
for the following reasons:

• If Element Self Contact is set to Yes (see Element Self Contact in the Explicit Dynamics Analysis
Guide (p. 31)) and an element deforms such that one of its nodes comes within a specified
distance of one of its faces, the element is eroded to prevent it becoming degenerate.

• In 2d analyses, elements that become degenerate are automatically eroded irrespective of

whether Element Self Contact is set to Yes or No.

Retained Inertia
If all elements that are connected to a node in the mesh are eroded, the inertia of the resulting free
node can be retained. The mass and momentum of the free node is retained and can be involved in
subsequent impact events to transfer momentum in the system. If this option is set to No, all free
nodes will be automatically removed from the simulation.

Note:

• Erosion is not a physical process and should be used with caution.

• The internal energy of elements which are eroded is always removed from the system.
This energy is accumulated in the work done term for global energy conservation pur-
poses.

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

5.4. Model Size Limitations in Explicit Dynamics

Exceedingly large (number of elements/nodes) models may not be able to complete an Explicit Dynamics
solution in a reasonable amount of time for the following reasons:

• As in any Mechanical application, you will start out with a coarse mesh and investigate convergence
behavior while refining the mesh. This will typically lead to a satisfactory number of elements for a
certain elapsed time. You may reduce the CPU time by distributing the model over multiple processors
in parallel. With larger model sizes the initialization time (which is typically a small fraction of the
total run time) may increase significantly because the initialization is not running in parallel.

• When doing convergence studies you may run into hardware limitations. An Explicit Dynamics solution
takes place in core memory, which means that RAM is the most limiting factor. Most modern work-
stations typically contain large amounts of RAM and will be able to cope with large models. Note
that disk space is not generally a problem since result files are typically not exceedingly large.

• Although modern workstation hardware may allow large models to be meshed, the Explicit solver
may not be able to handle some large models because most integer numbers are still allocated on
a 32 bit based definition, and if a single internal array needs to be allocated with larger than 2e9
entries the solution will fail.

The current limitations can be summarized as follows, although these numbers are only a guideline as
to what to expect:

• Although Workbench can mesh a single part up to a maximum of 100 million solid elements, or 10
million shell elements, the Explicit solver may not be able to calculate a solution in a reasonable
amount of time with a mesh of this size. Each element and node has a number of associated variables.
The number typically depends on the type of solver chosen along with material models used and
the number of options activated; for example, Failure models or the type of Interaction.

• The AUTODYN component system can be used to generate structured meshes, which in turn can be
converted to unstructured. The limit for the number of elements that can be converted lies between
50 million and 60 million.

• The number of objects that can be created in the AUTODYN component system is limited to 99 in
3D.

• If the Explicit solver detects that more than 500,000 nodes are packed in an SPH object a warning
will be given, since it will affect CPU and RAM resources.

Please note that these limitations are approximate and serve as a guideline when modeling for Explicit
Dynamics and AUTODYN component systems. To reduce the solution time, you should try using a
coarser mesh or use Mass Scaling in your model.

5.5. References
The following references are cited in this section:

1. R. Courant, K. Friedrichs and H. Lewy, "On the partial difference equations of mathematical physics",
IBM Journal, March 1967, pp. 215-234

2. Meyers, M. A., (1994) "Dynamic behaviour of Materials", John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-58262-X.

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 References

3. Zukas, J. A., (1990) "High velocity impact dynamics", John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-51444-6

4. von Neumann, J., Richtmeyer, R. D. (1950)., "A Method for the Numerical Calculation of Hydrodynamic
Shocks", J. App. Phys., 21, pp 232-237, 1950

5. Wilkins, M. L., (1980). "Use of Artificial Viscosity in Multidimensional Fluid Dynamic Calculations", J.
Comp. Phys., 36, pp 281-303, 1980

6. Kosloff D., Frazier G. A., (1978) "Treatment of hourglass patterns in low order finite element codes",
Int. J. Num. Anal. Meth. Geomech. 2, 57-72

7. Flanagan D. P., Belytschko T., (1981) "A uniform strain hexahedron and Quadrilateral and Orthogonal
Hourglass Control", Int. J. Num. Meth. Eng. 17, 679-706.

8. Wilkins, M. L., Blum, R. E., Cronshagen, E. & Grantham, P. (1974). "A Method for Computer Simulation
of Problems in Solid Mechanics and Gas Dynamics in Three Dimensions and Time." Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory Report UCRL-51574, 1974

9. Hallquist, J. O., (1982) "A theoretical manual for DYNA3D, LLNL Report UCID-19401.

10. Zienkiewicz, O. C., Taylor, R. L., "The finite element method, Volume 1", ISBN 0-07-084174-8

11. Burton, A..J.. (1996) 'Explicit, Large Strain, Dynamic Finite Element Analysis with Applications to
Human Body Impact Problems', PhD Thesis, University of Wales.

12. Wilkins, M. L., Blum, R. E., Cronshagen, E., & Grantham, P. (1974). "A Method for Computer Simulation
of Problems in Solid Mechanics and Gas Dynamics in Three Dimensions and Time." Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory Report UCRL-51574, 1974

13. Belytschko, T., et al. (1984), "Explicit algorithms for the nonlinear dynamics of shells", Comp. Meth.
Appl. Mech Eng., 42, 225-251.

14. Belytschko, T., et al. (1992), "Advances in one-point quadrature shell elements", Comp. Meth. Appl.
Mech Eng., 1992, 93-107.

15. Belytschko, T., et al. (1984), "A C0 Triangular Plate Element with One-point Quadrature", Int. J. Num.
Meth. Engng., 20, 787-802, 1984.

16. Belytschko, T. et al., 1977, "Large Displacement Analysis of Space Frames", Int. J. Num. Meth. And
Anal. Mech. Engng., 11, 65-84, 1977.

17. Godunov, S. K. (1959), "A Difference Scheme for Numerical Solution of Discontinuous Solution of
Hydrodynamic Equations", Math. Sbornik, 47, 271-306, translated US Joint Publ. Res. Service, JPRS
7226, 1969.

18. Noh, W. F. and Woodward, P., “SLIC (Simple line interface calculation),” in Lecture Notes in Physics
(A. I. van der Vooren and P. J. Zandbergen, eds.), pp. 330–340, Springer-Verlag, 1976.

19. Van Leer, B (1977). “Towards the Ultimate Conservative Difference Scheme. IV. A new Approach to
Numerical Convection”, J. Comp. Phys. 23, pp 276-299, 1977.

20. Van Leer, B (1979). “Towards the Ultimate Conservative Difference Scheme. V. A Second Order Sequel
to Godunov’s Method”, J. Comp. Phys. 32, pp 101-136, 1979.

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Explicit Dynamics Theory Guide

21. Bonet J., Marriott H., Hassan O. “An averaged nodal deformation gradient linear tetrahedral element
for large strain explicit dynamics applications”. Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering
2001; 17, 551-561.

22. Puso M. A.,Solberg J. “A stabilized nodally integrated tetrahedral”. International Journal for Numerical
Methods in Engineering 2006; 67, 841-867.

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Chapter 6: Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics
Analysis
This chapter discusses the following:
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Explicit Material Library
6.3. Density
6.4. Linear Elastic
6.5.Test Data
6.6. Hyperelasticity
6.7. Plasticity
6.8. Brittle/Granular
6.9. Equations of State
6.10. Porosity
6.11. Failure
6.12. Strength
6.13.Thermal Specific Heat
6.14. Rigid Materials
6.15. References

6.1. Introduction
In general, materials have a complex response to dynamic loading and the following phenomena may
need to be modeled.

• Non-linear pressure response

• Strain hardening

• Strain rate hardening

• Pressure hardening

• Thermal softening

• Compaction (for example, porous materials)

• Orthotropic response (for example, composites)

• Crushing damage (for example, ceramics, glass, concrete)

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

• Chemical energy deposition (for example, explosives)

• Tensile failure

• Phase changes (for example, solid-liquid-gas)

The modeling of such phenomena can generally be broken down into three components:

Equation of State
An equation of state describes the hydrodynamic response of a material.

This is the primary response for gases and liquids, which can sustain no shear. Their response to dynamic
loading is assumed hydrodynamic, with pressure varying as a function of density and internal energy.

This is also the primary response for solids at high deformation rates, when the hydrodynamic pressure
is far greater than the yield stress of the material.

Material Strength Model

Solid materials may initially respond elastically, but under highly dynamic loadings, they can reach stress
states that exceed their yield stress and deform plastically. Material strength laws describe this non-
linear elastic-plastic response.

Material Failure Model

Solids usually fail under extreme loading conditions, resulting in crushed or cracked material. Material
failure models simulate the various ways in which materials fail. Liquids will also fail in tension, a phe-
nomenon usually referred to as cavitation.

Engineering Data properties for explicit analysis in the Mechanical application cover a wide range of
materials and material behaviors. Some examples are provided below:

Class of Material Material Effects

Metals Elasticity

Shock Effects

Plasticity

Isotropic Strain Hardening

Kinematic Strain Hardening

Isotropic Strain Rate Hardening

Isotropic Thermal Softening

Ductile Fracture

Brittle Fracture (Fracture Energy based)

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 Explicit Material Library

Class of Material Material Effects

Dynamic Failure (Spall)
Concrete/Rock Elasticity

Shock Effects

Porous Compaction

Plasticity

Strain Hardening

Strain Rate Hardening in Compression

Strain Rate Hardening in Tension

Pressure Dependent Plasticity

Lode Angle Dependent Plasticity

Shear Damage/Fracture

Tensile Damage/Fracture
Solid/Sand Elasticity

Shock Effects

Porous Compaction

Plasticity

Pressure Dependent Plasticity

Shear Damage/Fracture

Tensile Damage/Fracture
Rubbers/Polymers Elasticity

Viscoelasticity

Hyperelasticity
Orthotropic Orthotropic Elasticity

The Engineering Data properties supported by explicit analysis are described below. Additional material
modeling options, particularly in the areas of composite materials and reactive materials, are available
in the Ansys Autodyn product.

6.2. Explicit Material Library

An extensive set of material data is provided in the Engineering Data Explicit library.

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

We strongly recommend that you review the material data before using it in production applications.
In particular, some of the materials only contain a partial definition of the material. This data may need
to be complemented with additional properties to give the full definition required for the simulation.

Explicit Material Library

Plastics-

ADIPRENE

LUCITE

NEOPRENE

POLYCARB

POLYRUBBER

POLYRUBBERH

POLYSTYRENE

RUBBER1

RUBBER2

RUBBER3

EPOXY RES

EPOXY RES2

PHENOXY

PLEXIGLAS

POLYURETH

NYLONS

POLYETHYL

TEFLON

TEFLONH
Sand/Concrete-

CONC 140MPA

CONC 35 MPA

CONCRETEL

INCENDPOWD

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 Explicit Material Library

PERICLASE

SAND
Mineral/Element-

ANTIMONY

BARIUM

BISMUTH

CALCIUM

GERMANIUM

POTASSIUM

QUARTZ

SODIUM CHLORIDE

SODIUM

SULFUR

VANADIUM

VANADIUM2
Glass/Ceramics-

BORON CARBIDE

FLOATGLASB

FLOATGLASS
Liquid-

Parafin

WATER

WATER2

WATER3
Metals/Alloys-

AL 1100–O

AL 2024

AL 2024–T4

AL 6061–T6

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

AL 7039

AL 7075–T6

AL 921–T

AL 2024T351

AL 203–99.5

AL 203–99.7

AL203 CERA

AL5083H116

ALUMINUM

BERYLLIUM

BERYLLIUM2

BRASS

CADMIUM

CART BRASS

CHROMIUM

COBALT

COPPER

COPPER2

CU OFHC

CU OFHC

CU OFHC2

CU-OFHC-F

DU-.75TI

GOLD

GOLD 5%CU

GOLD2

HAFNIUM

HAFNIUM–2

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 Explicit Material Library

INDIUM

IRIDIUM

IRON

IRON-ARMCO

IRON-ARMCO2

IRON-C.E.

LEAD

LEAD2

LEAD3

LITHIUIM

LITHIUM F

LITH-MAGN

MAG AZ-31B

MAGNESIUM

MAGNESIUM2

MERCURY

MOLYBDENUM

NICKEL

NICKEL ALL

NICKEL Z

NICKEL-200

NICKEL 3

NIOBIUM

NIOBIUM AL

NIOBIUM 2

PALLADIUM

PLATE 20% IR

PLATINUM

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

PLATINUM2

RHA

RHENIUM

RHODIUM

RUBIDIUM

SILVER

SILVER2

SIS 2541–3

SS 21–6–9

SS 304

SS-304

STEEL 1006

STEEL 4340

STEEL S-7

STEEL V250

STNL. STEEL

STRONTIUM

TANT 10%W

TANTALUM

TANTALLUM2

TANTALLUM3

THALLIUM

THORIUM

THORIUM2

TI 6% AL 4% V

TIN

TIN2

TITANIUM

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 Linear Elastic

TITANIUM2

TITANIUM-2

TUNG.ALLOY

TUNGSTEN

TUNGSTEN2

TUNGSTEN3

U 0.75% TI

U 5% MO

U 8% NB3 %ZR

U – 0.75% TI

U3 WT %MD

URANIUM

URANIUM2

URANIUM3

W 4% Ni 2%FE

ZINC

ZIRCONIUM

ZIRCONIUM2

6.3. Density
Density is the initial mass per unit volume of a material at time = 0.0.

Note:

The temperature dependence of the linear elastic properties is not available for explicit dy-
namics systems. Only a single value can be used. The first defined values in temperature
dependent data will be used in the solver.

6.4. Linear Elastic

• Young's Modulus

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

• Poisson's Ratio

Note:

The temperature dependence of the linear elastic properties is not available for explicit dy-
namics systems. Only a single value can be used. The first defined values in temperature
dependent data will be used in the solver.

6.4.1. Isotropic Elasticity

Define isotropic linear elastic material behavior by specifying

• Young's Modulus

• Poisson's ratio

Note:

The temperature dependence of the linear elastic properties is not available for explicit
dynamics systems. Only a single value can be used. The first defined values in temper-
ature dependent data will be used in the solver.

6.4.2. Orthotropic Elasticity

Define orthotropic linear elastic material behavior by specifying:

• Young's Modulus in direction X

• Young's Modulus in direction Y

• Young's Modulus in direction Z

• Poisson's ratio XY

• Poisson's ratio YZ

• Poisson's ratio XZ

• Shear Modulus XY

• Shear Modulus YZ

• Shear Modulus XZ

Note:

The coordinate system X, Y, Z relates to the local coordinate system assigned to the
body.

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 Linear Elastic

6.4.3. Viscoelastic
To represent strain rate dependent elastic behavior, a linear viscoelastic model can be used. The long
term behavior of the model is described by the long term or elastic shear modulus G∞. Viscoelastic
behavior is introduced via an instantaneous shear modulus and a viscoelastic decay constant .
The viscoelastic deviatoric stress at time increment n+1 is calculated from the viscoelastic stress at
time increment n and the deviatoric strain increments at time increment n via

where

is the long term shear modulus of the material

is the instantaneous shear modulus of the material. This value is derived from linear elastic
properties or defined directly using the equation of state, shear modulus property
is the viscoelastic decay constant

The deviatoric viscoelastic stress is added to the elastic stress to give the total stress at the end of
each cycle.

Note:

The model must be combined with either the linear elastic property or an equation of
state property (including shear modulus).

The model can only be applied to solid bodies.

Table 6.1: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Instantaneous Shear Stress
Modulus (High rate)
Viscoelastic Decay 1/ time
Constant

Custom results variables available for this model.

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

VTXX Viscoelastic stress XX Yes No No
VTYY Viscoelastic stress YY Yes No No
VTZZ Viscoelastic stress ZZ Yes No No
VTXY Viscoelastic stress XY Yes No No
VTYZ Viscoelastic stress YZ Yes No No
VTZX Viscoelastic stress ZX Yes No No

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

6.5. Test Data

Uniaxial Test Data

Biaxial Test Data

Shear Test Data

Volumetric Test Data

6.6. Hyperelasticity
Following are several forms of strain energy potential (Ψ) provided for the simulation of nearly incom-
pressible hyperelastic materials. The different models are generally applicable over different ranges of
strain as illustrated in the table below, however these numbers are not definitive and users should
verify the applicability of the model chosen prior to use.

Currently hyperelastic materials may only be used in solid elements for explicit dynamics simulations.

Model Applied Strain Range

Neo-Hookean 30%
Mooney-Rivlin 30%-200% depending on order
Polynomial
Ogden Up to 700%

Neo-Hookean
The strain energy function for the Neo-Hookean hyperelastic model is,

where is the deviatoric first principal invariant, J is the Jacobian and the required input parameters
are defined as:

µ = initial shear modulus of the material

d= incompressibility parameter.

and the initial bulk modulus is defined as:

K = 2/d

Mooney-Rivlin
The strain energy function of a hyperelastic material can be expanded as an infinite series in terms of
the first and second deviatoric principal invariants and , as follows,

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 Hyperelasticity

The 2, 3, 5 and 9 parameter Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic material models have been implemented and
are described in turn below.

2–Parameter Mooney-Rivlin Model

The strain energy function for the 2–parameter model is,

where:

C10, C01 = material constants

d = material incompressibility parameter.

The initial shear modulus is defined as:

and the initial bulk modulus is defined as:

K = 2/d

3–Parameter Mooney-Rivlin Model

The strain energy function for the 3–parameter model is,

where the required input parameters are defined as:

C 10 ,C 01 ,C 11 = material constants
d = material incompressibility parameter

The bulk and shear modulus are as defined for the 2–parameter Mooney-Rivlin model.

5–Parameter Mooney-Rivlin Model

The strain energy function for the 5–parameter model is,

(6.1)

where the required input parameters are defined as:

C 10 ,C 01 ,C 20 ,C 11 ,C 02 = material constants

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

d = material incompressibility parameter.

The bulk and shear modulus are as defined for the 2–parameter Mooney-Rivlin model.

9–Parameter Mooney-Rivlin Model

The strain energy function for the 9–parameter hyperelastic model is,

(6.2)

where the required input parameters are defined as:

C 10 ,C 01 ,C 20 ,C 11 ,C 02 ,C 30 ,C 21 ,C 12 ,C 03 = material constants
d = material incompressibility parameter.

The bulk and shear modulus are as defined for the 2–parameter Mooney-Rivlin model.

Polynomial
The strain energy function of a hyperelastic material can be expanded as an infinite series of the first
and second deviatoric principal invariants l 1 and l 2. The polynomial form of strain energy function is
given below:

1st, 2nd, and 3rd order polynomial hyperelastic material models have been implemented in the solver
where N is 1, 2 or 3 respectively.

Cmn = material constants

dk = material incompressibility parameters.

The initial shear modulus is defined as:

and the initial bulk modulus is defined as:

K = 2/d1

Yeoh
The Yeoh hyperelastic strain energy function is similar to the Mooney-Rivlin models described above
except that it is only based on the first deviatoric strain invariant. It has the general form,

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 Hyperelasticity

Yeoh 1st order

The strain energy function for the first order Yeoh model is,

where:

N=1
C10 = material constant
d1 = incompressibility parameter

The initial shear modulus is defined as:

µ = 2c10

and the initial bulk modulus is defined as:

K = 2/d1

Yeoh 2nd order

The strain energy function for the second order Yeoh hyperelastic model is

where the required input parameters are defined as:

N = 2.
C10, C20 = material constants
d1, d2 = incompressibility parameters

See 1st order Yeoh model for definitions of the initial shear and bulk modulus.

Yeoh 3rd order

The strain energy function for the third order Yeoh hyperelastic model is,

where the required input parameters are defined as:

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

N = 3.
C10, C20, C30 = material constants
d1, d2, d3 = incompressibility parameters

See 1st order Yeoh model for definitions of the initial shear and bulk modulus.

Ogden
The Ogden form of the strain energy function is based on the deviatoric principal stretches of the left-
Cauchy-Green tensor and has the form,

Ogden 1st Order

The strain energy function for the first order Ogden hyperelastic model is,

where:

λ p = deviatoric principal stretches of the left-Cauchy-Green tensor

J = determinant of the elastic deformation gradient
µp, αp and dp = material constants

The initial shear modulus is given as:

and the initial bulk modulus is:

Ogden 2nd order

The strain energy function for the first order Ogden hyperelastic model is,

where:

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 Plasticity

λ p= deviatoric principal stretches of the left-Cauchy-Green tensor

J = determinant of the elastic deformation gradient
µp, α p and dp = material constants

The initial shear modulus is given as:

and the initial bulk modulus is:

Ogden 3rd order

The strain energy function for the first order Ogden hyperelastic model is,

where:

λ p= deviatoric principal stretches of the left-Cauchy-Green tensor

J = determinant of the elastic deformation gradient
µp, α p and dp = material constants

The initial shear modulus is given as:

and the initial bulk modulus is:

6.7. Plasticity
All stress-strain input should be in terms of true stress and true (or logarithmic) strain and result in all
output as also true stress and true strain. For small-strain regions of response, true stress-strain and
engineering stress-strain are approximately equal. If your stress-strain data is in the form of engineering
stress and engineering strain you can convert:

• strain from engineering strain to logarithmic strain using:

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

• engineering stress to true stress using:

Note:

This stress conversion is only valid for incompressible materials.

The following Plasticity models are discussed in this section:

6.7.1. Bilinear Isotropic Hardening
6.7.2. Multilinear Isotropic Hardening
6.7.3. Bilinear Kinematic Hardening
6.7.4. Multilinear Kinematic Hardening
6.7.5. Johnson-Cook Strength
6.7.6. Cowper-Symonds Strength
6.7.7. Steinberg-Guinan Strength
6.7.8. Zerilli-Armstrong Strength

6.7.1. Bilinear Isotropic Hardening

This plasticity material model is often used in large strain analyses. A bilinear stress-strain curve requires
that you input the Yield Strength and Tangent Modulus. The slope of the first segment in the curve
is equivalent to the Young's modulus of the material while the slope of the second segment is the
tangent modulus.

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes Yes* Yes*
SUBL_EPS Effective sublayer plastic strain No Yes No

*Resultant value over shell/beam section.

6.7.2. Multilinear Isotropic Hardening

This plasticity material model is often used in large strain analyses. Do not use this model for cyclic
or highly nonproportional load histories in small-strain analyses.

You must supply the data in the form of plastic strain vs. stress. The first point of the curve must be
the yield point, that is, zero plastic strain and yield stress. The slope of the stress-strain curve is assumed
to be zero beyond the last user-defined stress-strain data point. No segment of the curve can have
a slope of less than zero.

Note:

You can define up to 10 stress strain pairs using this model in explicit dynamics systems.
Temperature dependence of the curves is not directly supported. Temperature dependent
plasticity can be represented using the Johnson-Cook plasticity model.

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 Plasticity

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes Yes* Yes*
SUBL_EPS Effective sublayer plastic strain No Yes No

*Resultant value over shell/beam section.

6.7.3. Bilinear Kinematic Hardening

This plasticity material model assumes that the total stress range is equal to twice the yield stress, to
include the Bauschinger effect. This model may be used for materials that obey Von Mises yield cri-
teria (includes most metals). The tangent modulus cannot be less than zero or greater than the
elastic modulus.

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes Yes* Yes*
SUBL_EPS Effective sublayer plastic strain No Yes No

*Resultant value over shell/beam section.

6.7.4. Multilinear Kinematic Hardening

This plasticity model simulates metal plasticity behavior under cyclic loading. You must supply the
data in the form of plastic strain vs. stress. The first point of the curve must be the yield point, that
is, zero plastic strain and yield stress. No segment can have a slope of less than zero. The slope of
the stress-strain curve is assumed to be zero beyond the last user-defined stress-strain data point. No
segment of the curve can have a slope of less than zero.

Note:

You can define up to 10 stress strain pairs using this model in explicit dynamics systems.
Temperature dependence of the curves is not directly supported. Temperature dependent
plasticity can be represented using the Johnson-Cook plasticity model.

This model is available for solid elements in explicit dynamics systems.

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes No No

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

SUBL_EPS Effective sub layer plastic strain No No No

Note:

This material property can only be applied to solid bodies.

6.7.5. Johnson-Cook Strength

Use this model to represent the strength behavior of materials, typically metals, subjected to large
strains, high strain rates and high temperatures. Such behavior might arise in problems of intense
impulsive loading due to high velocity impact.

With this model, the yield stress varies depending on strain, strain rate and temperature.

The model defines the yield stress Y as

where

= effective plastic strain

= normalized effective plastic strain rate
TH = homologous temperature = (T-Troom)/(Tmelt -Troom)

The five material constants are A, B, C, n and m.

The expression in the first set of brackets gives the stress as a function of strain when = 1.0 sec-1
and TH = 0 (for laboratory experiments at room temperature). The constant A is the basic yield stress
at low strains while B and n represent the effect of strain hardening.

The expressions in the second set of brackets represent the effects of strain rate on the yield strength
of the material. The reference strain rate against which the material data was measured is used to
normalize the plastic strain rate enhancement. 1.0/second is used by default.

The expression in the third set of brackets represents thermal softening such that the yield stress
drops to zero at the melting temperature Tmelt.

The plastic flow algorithm used in this model has an option to reduce high frequency oscillations
that are sometimes observed in the yield surface under high strain rates. A first order strain rate cor-
rection is applied by default. An additional implicit strain rate correction is available that can be used
in cases where the first order strain rate correction doesn’t suffice, although at the cost of extra CPU
time usage.

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 Plasticity

The Johnson-Cook strength model can be used in all element types and in combination with all
equations of state and failure properties.

Note:

A specific heat capacity property should be defined to enable the calculation of temperature
hence thermal softening effects.

Name Symbol Units Notes

Initial Yield Stress A Stress
Hardening Constant B Stress
Hardening Exponent n None
Strain Rate Constant C None
Thermal Softening m None
Exponent
Melting Temperature Tmelt Temperature
Reference Strain Rate None Units fixed at 1/sec

Default = 1.0
Strain Rate Correction None Option List:

None

1st Order (Default)

Implicit

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes Yes* Yes*
EFF_PL_STN_RATE Effective Plastic Strain Rate Yes Yes* Yes*
TEMP Temperature** Yes Yes* Yes*
SUBL_EPS Effective sublayer plastic strain No Yes No

*Resultant value over shell/beam section.

**Temperature will be non-zero only if a specific heat capacity is defined.

6.7.6. Cowper-Symonds Strength

The Cowper-Symonds strength model lets you define the yield strength of isotropic strain hardening,
strain rate dependent materials. The yield surface is defined as

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

where

A is yield stress at zero plastic strain

B is the strain hardening coefficient
n is the strain hardening exponent
D and q are the strain rate hardening coefficients

It should be noted that, in the implementation within the Explicit Dynamics solver, the plastic strain
rate ( ) used in the Cowper Symonds model has a minimum value of unity to allow for compatibility
with the linear strain rate correction method. The consequence of this is that for plastic strain rates
less than unity, the material will exhibit a strain rate hardening effect equal to that for a strain rate
of unity.

The plastic flow algorithm used in this model has an option to reduce high frequency oscillations
that are sometimes observed in the yield surface under high strain rates. A first order strain rate cor-
rection is applied by default. An additional implicit strain rate correction is available that can be used
in cases where the first order strain rate correction doesn’t suffice, although at the cost of extra CPU
time usage.

Note that the strain rate constants should be input assuming that the units of strain rate are 1/second.

The Cowper-Symonds strength model can be used in all element types and in combination with all
equations of state and failure properties.

Name Symbol Units Notes

Initial Yield Stress A Stress
Hardening Constant B Stress
Hardening Exponent n None
Strain Rate Constant D None Assumed 1/second in all cases
Strain Rate Constant q None
Strain Rate Correction - None Option List:

None

1st Order (Default)

Implicit

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes Yes* Yes*
EFF_PL_STN_RATE Effective Plastic Strain Rate Yes Yes* Yes*
SUBL_EPS Effective sublayer plastic strain No Yes No

*Resultant value over shell/beam section.

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 Plasticity

6.7.7. Steinberg-Guinan Strength

In this formulation the authors have assumed that while yield stress initially increases with strain rate,
experimental data on shock-induced free surface velocity versus time records indicate that at high
strain rates (greater than 105sec-1) strain rate effects become insignificant compared to other effects
and that the yield stress reaches a maximum value which is subsequently strain rate independent.

They have also postulated that the shear modulus increases with increasing pressure and decreases
with increasing temperature and in doing this they have attempted to include modeling of the
Bauschinger effect into their calculations. They have therefore produced expressions for the shear
modulus and yield strength as functions of effective plastic strain, pressure and internal energy
(temperature).

The constitutive relations for shear modulus G and yield stress Y for high strain rates are :

subject to

where

ε = effective plastic strain

T = temperature (degrees K)
η = compression = ν0/ ν

and the primed parameters with the subscripts p and T are derivatives of that parameter with respect
to pressure and temperature at the reference state (T = 300 K, p= 0, ε = 0).

The subscript zero also refers to values of G and Y at the reference state.

If the temperature of the material exceeds the specified melting temperature the shear modulus and
yield strength are set to zero.

Note:

A specific heat capacity property should be defined to enable the calculation of temperature
hence the melting effect.

Table 6.2: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Initial Yield Stress Y Stress
Maximum Yield Stress Ymax Stress
Hardening Constant None
Hardening Exponent n None

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Name Symbol Units Notes

Derivative dG/dP G'P None
Derivative dG/dT G'T Stress/Temperature
Derivative dY/dP Y'P None
Melting Temperature Tmelt Temperature

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes Yes* Yes*
EFF_PL_STN_RATE Effective Plastic Strain Rate Yes Yes* Yes*
TEMP Temperature** Yes Yes* Yes*
SUBL_EPS Effective sublayer plastic strain No Yes No

*Resultant value over shell/beam section.

**Temperature will be non-zero only if a specific heat capacity is defined.

6.7.8. Zerilli-Armstrong Strength

While the Johnson-Cook model predicted the behavior of most materials in the Taylor tests, the
model's prediction and test results for OFHC (oxygen free high conductivity) copper did not agree
well.

In an approach seeking to improve on Johnson-Cook, Zerilli and Armstrong proposed a more soph-
isticated constitutive relation obtained through the use of dislocation dynamics.

The effects of strain hardening, strain-rate hardening and thermal softening (based on thermal activ-
ation analysis) have been incorporated into the formulation. The effect of grain size has also been
included.

The relation has a relatively simple expression and should be applicable to a wide range of fcc (face
centered cubic) materials.

A relation for iron has also been developed and is also applicable to other bcc (body centered cubic)
materials.

An important point made by Zerilli and Armstrong is that each material structure type (fcc, bcc, hcp)
will have its own constitutive behavior, dependent on the dislocation characteristics for that particular
structure. For example, a stronger dependence of the plastic yield stress on temperature and strain
rate is known to result for bcc metals as compared with fcc metals.

With this model, the yield stress varies depending on strain, strain rate and temperature.

The yield stress is given by:

For fcc metals

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 Plasticity

For bcc metals:

where

ε = effective plastic strain

= normalized effective plastic strain rate
T = temperature (degrees K)

The parameters Y0, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 and n are material constants.

The plastic flow algorithm used in this model has an implicit strain rate correction option to reduce
high frequency oscillations that are sometimes observed in the yield surface under high strain rates.
The strain rate correction algorithm will be at the expense of increased CPU usage.

Note:

A specific heat capacity property should be defined to enable the calculation of temperature
hence the melting effect.

Table 6.3: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Initial Yield Stress Y0 Stress
Hardening Constant #1 C1 Stress
Hardening Constant #2 C2 Stress
Hardening Constant #3 C3 None
Hardening Constant #4 C4 None
Hardening Constant #5 C5 Stress
Hardening Constant n n None
Reference Strain Rate None Units fixed at 1/sec

Default = 1.0
Strain Rate Correction None Option List:

None (Default)

Implicit

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes Yes* Yes*
EFF_PL_STN_RATE Effective Plastic Strain Rate Yes Yes* Yes*
TEMP Temperature** Yes Yes* Yes*

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

SUBL_EPS Effective sublayer plastic strain No Yes No

*Resultant value over shell/beam section.

**Temperature will be non-zero only if a specific heat capacity is defined.

6.8. Brittle/Granular
A number of properties are available to allow modeling of brittle/granular materials such as concrete,
rock, soil, glass and ceramics.
6.8.1. Drucker-Prager Strength Linear
6.8.2. Drucker-Prager Strength Stassi
6.8.3. Drucker-Prager Strength Piecewise
6.8.4. Johnson-Holmquist Strength Continuous
6.8.5. Johnson-Holmquist Strength Segmented
6.8.6. RHT Concrete Strength
6.8.7. MO Granular

6.8.1. Drucker-Prager Strength Linear

This model is used to represent the behavior of dry soils, rocks, concrete and ceramics where the
cohesion and compaction behavior of the materials result in an increasing resistance to shear up to
a limiting value of yield strength as the loading increases. The yield strength of these materials is
highly dependent on pressure.

There are three forms available for this model; linear, stassi and piecewise.

Although the yield stress is pressure dependent in each case, the flow rule is volume independent;
in other words, a Prandtl-Reuss type.

Figure 6.1: Drucker-Prager Strength Linear

Y

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 Brittle/Granular

The yield stress is a linear function of pressure (the original Drucker-Prager model)

Note:

This property can only be applied to solid bodies.

Table 6.4: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Yield Stress (at zero pressure) Stress
Slope (degrees) Θ None Slope in degrees

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Yes No No
Strain
Pressure Material Pressure Yes No No

Note:

This material property can only be applied to solid bodies.

6.8.2. Drucker-Prager Strength Stassi

Figure 6.2: Drucker-Prager Strength Stassi
Y

The Stassi yield condition takes the form:

where

J2Y is the second invariant of the deviatoric stress yield

Y0 is the yield strength in simple tension
k is the ratio between the yield strengths in compression and tension

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

p is the pressure

Note:

This property can only be applied to solid bodies.

Table 6.5: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Yield Stress Uniaxial Tension Y0 Stress Measure under uniaxial stress
conditions
Yield Stress Uniaxial Stress Measure under uniaxial stress
Compression conditions

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes No No
Pressure Pressure Yes No No

6.8.3. Drucker-Prager Strength Piecewise

Figure 6.3: Drucker-Prager Strength Piecewise
Yield stress Y varies with pressure as a piecewise linear
function. Constant shear modulus G

Yield
Stress Y
Ymax

Piecewise Linear

Pressure P

The yield stress is a piecewise linear function of pressure.

In tension (negative values of pressure), such materials have little tensile strength and this is modeled
by dropping the yield stress rapidly to zero as pressure goes negative to give a realistic value for the
limited tensile strength.

Note:

You can use up to 10 pressure-yield points to define the material strength curve.

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 Brittle/Granular

This property can only be applied to solid bodies.

Table 6.6: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Yield Stress vs Pressure Y vs P Stress

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes No No
Pressure Material Pressure Yes No No

6.8.4. Johnson-Holmquist Strength Continuous

This model is used for modeling brittle materials such as glass and ceramics (Johnson & Holmquist
1993) [1] subjected to large pressures, shear strain and high strain rates. Two forms of this model are
found in the literature and are available in explicit dynamics systems; continuous (JH2), segmented
(JH1).

Both these forms can be used with a linear or energy dependent polynomial equation of state.

The strength of the brittle material is described as a smoothly varying function of intact strength,
fractured strength, strain rate and damage via a dimensionless analytic function as described below.
P* is the pressure normalized by the pressure at the Hugoniot Elastic Limit (PHELL) and T* is the max-
imum tensile hydrostatic pressure normalized by PHELL. The effective plastic strain rate, , is normalized
by a reference strain rate of 1.0/second.

Figure 6.4: Johnson-Holmquist Strength Model

Intact Surface,

Damage,

Fractured,

As the material undergoes inelastic deformation, damage is assumed to accumulate which degrades
the overall load carrying capacity of the materials. The Johnson-Holmquist Damage model was de-
veloped for the simulation of the compressive and shear induced strength and failure of brittle ma-

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

terials. Damage is accumulated as the ratio of incremental plastic strain over the current estimated
fracture strain. The effective fracture strain is pressure dependent as described below.

Figure 6.5: Johnson-Holmquist Damage Model

There are two methods for the application of damage to the material strength. The default Gradual
failure type results in damage being incrementally applied to the material strength as it accumulates.
If the Instantaneous failure type is selected, damage accumulates over time, however it is only applied
to the failure surface when its value reaches unity. The material strength instantaneously transitions
from intact to fully failed in this case.

The model includes an option to represent volumetric dilation of the material due to shear deformation
(Bulking). The work done in deforming the material inelastically in shear can be converted into a
pressure increase, hence volumetric dilation (if unconstrained). The amount of work which is converted
into dilation pressure is controlled through the Bulking constant, B. This can have values ranging from
0.0 (representing no shear induced dilatancy) to 1.0 (producing maximum dilatancy effects).

Note:

If the Bulking constant, B is greater than zero then the Johnson-Holmquist model should
be used in conjunction with a polynomial equation of state or linear elasticity.

This property can only be applied to solid bodies.

Table 6.7: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Hugoniot Elastic Limit σHEL Stress Elastic limit under dynamic
compressive uniaxial strain
conditions
Intact Strength Constant A None
A
Intact Strength Exponent n None
n

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 Brittle/Granular

Name Symbol Units Notes

Strain Rate Constant C C None
Fracture Strength B None
Constant B
Fracture Strength m None
Exponent m
Maximum Fracture σF Max None Maximum fracture strength as
Strength Ratio fraction of intact strength
Damage Constant D1 D1 None
Damage Constant D2 D2 None
Bulking Constant B None
Hydrodynamic Tensile T Stress
Limit
Failure Type Option list:

Gradual (Default)

Instantaneous

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_Pl_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes No No
EFF_Pl_STN_RATE Effective Plastic Strain Rate Yes No No
PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DAMAGE Damage Yes No No
STATUS Material Status** Yes No No
PRES_BULK Dilation pressure Yes No No
ENERGY_DAM Damage energy contributing Yes No No
to bulking

**Material status indicators (1= elastic, 2= plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4 = bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction 1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed direction 3)

6.8.5. Johnson-Holmquist Strength Segmented

Recent studies (Holmquist and Johnson 2002) have showed that gradual softening in the JH2 model
has not been supported by available experimental data yet while there are some indications that an
early variant of the model, known as JH1, may be more accurate. In the JH1 material model, material
strength is described by linear segments and the damage is always applied instantaneously.

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Figure 6.6: Johnson-Holmquist Strength Segmented

Note:

If the Bulking constant, B is greater than zero then the Johnson-Holmquist model should
be used in conjunction with a polynomial equation of state or linear elasticity.

This property can only be applied to solid bodies.

Holmquist, T.J. & Johnson, G.R. (2002). Response of silicon carbide to high velocity impact.
Journal of Applied Physics, pp 5858-5866, Vol 91, No. 9, May 1, 2002.

Table 6.8: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Hugoniot Elastic Limit σHEL Stress Elastic limit under
dynamic compressive
uniaxial strain
conditions
Intact Strength Constant S1 S1 Stress
1
Intact Strength Constant P1 P Stress
2
Intact Strength Constant S2 S Stress
2
Intact Strength Constant P2 P Stress
Strain Rate Constant C C None
FMax
Maximum Fracture Strength S Stress
Failed Strength Constant α None
Damage Constant D1 None
Damage Constant D2 Stress
Bulking Constant B None
Hydrodynamic Tensile Limit T Stress

Custom results variables available for this model:

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 Brittle/Granular

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes No No
EFF_PL_STN_RATE Effective Plastic Strain Rate Yes No No
PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DAMAGE Damage Yes No No
STATUS Material Status** Yes No No
PRES_BULK Dilation pressure Yes No No
ENERGY_DAM Damage energy contributing Yes No No
to bulking

**Material status indicators (1 = elastic, 2 = plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4 = bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction 1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

6.8.6. RHT Concrete Strength

The RHT concrete model is an advanced plasticity model for brittle materials developed by Riedal et
al [2], [3], [4]. It is particularly useful for modeling the dynamic loading of concrete. It can also be
used for other brittle materials such as rock and ceramic.

The RHT constitutive model is a combined plasticity and shear damage model in which the deviatoric
stress in the material is limited by a generalized failure surface of the form:

(6.3)

This failure surface can be used to represent the following aspects of the response of geological ma-
terials

• Pressure hardening

• Strain hardening

• Strain rate hardening in tension and compression

• Third invariant dependence for compressive and tensile meridians

• Strain softening (shear induced damage)

• Coupling of damage due to porous collapse

The model is modular in nature and is designed such that individual aspects of the material behavior
can be turned on and off. This gives the model significant practical usefulness. Further details of how
the model represents the various aspects of the material behavior are now presented.

Fracture surface
The fracture surface is represented through the expression
(6.4)

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

where fc' is the cylinder strength

AFAIL, NFAIL are user defined parameters

P* is pressure normalized with respect to fc'
Pspall* is the normalized hydrodynamic tensile limit
FRATE is a rate dependent enhancement factor

Additionally, there is an option to truncate the fracture surface to fit through the characteristic points
that can be observed experimentally at low pressures, while retaining the flexibility to match data at
high pressures. This feature is described in the figure below.

Figure 6.7: RHT Representation of Compressive Meridian

Tensile and Compressive Meridians

The RHT model can represent the difference between the compressive and tensile meridian in terms
of material strength using the third invariant dependence term (R3). This can be utilized to represent
the observed reduction in strength of concrete under triaxial extension, compared with triaxial com-
pression. The third invariant dependence term is formulated using the expression

(6.5)

The input parameter Q2.0 defines the ratio of strength at zero pressure and the coefficient BQ defines
the rate at which the fracture surface transitions from approximately triangular in form to a circular
form with increasing pressure (Figure 6.8: Third invariant dependence (p. 227)).

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 Brittle/Granular

Figure 6.8: Third invariant dependence

Te nsile
meridian
Q 2 = 1.0
Compressive
meridian

Q 2 = 0.5

Strain Hardening
Strain hardening is represented in the model through the definition of an elastic limit surface and a
"hardening" slope. The elastic limit surface is scaled down from the fracture surface by user defined
ratios; (elastic strength/fc) and (elastic strength/ft). The pre-peak fracture surface is subsequently
defined through interpolation between the elastic and fracture surfaces using the "hardening" slope,
. This is shown in Figure 6.9: Bi-linear strain hardening function (p. 227) for the case of
uniaxial compression.

where

Figure 6.9: Bi-linear strain hardening function

Shear Damage
Damage is assumed to accumulate due to inelastic deviatoric straining (shear induced cracking) using
the relationships

(6.6)

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

where D1 and D2 are material constants used to describe the effective strain to fracture as a function
of pressure. Damage accumulation can have two effects in the model

• Strain softening (reduction in strength)

The current fracture surface (for a given level of damage) is scaled down from the intact surface
using the expression
(6.7)

where
(6.8)

The term Y XTC*SFMAX is used to limit the maximum residual shear strength (for completely damaged
material) to be a fraction (SFMAX) of the current fracture strength.

• Reduction in shear stiffness

The current shear modulus is defined through the expression

(6.9)

Porous Collapse Damage

The model includes the option to include a cap to limit the elastic deviatoric stress under large
compressions. This effectively leads to the assumption that porous compaction results in a reduction
in deviatoric strength.

The final combination of elastic, fracture and residual failure surfaces is shown schematically below
in Figure 6.10: RHT Elastic, Fracture and Residual Failure Surfaces (p. 228).

Figure 6.10: RHT Elastic, Fracture and Residual Failure Surfaces

Strain Rate Effects

Strain rate effects are represented through increases in fracture strength with plastic strain rate. Two
different terms can be used for compression and tension with linear interpolation being used in the
intermediate pressure regime.

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 Brittle/Granular

where

= 3e-6 in tension and 30e-6 in compression.

Tensile Failure
By default, tensile failure is achieved using a hydrodynamic tensile limit. The maximum tensile pressure
in the material is limited to
(6.10)

Using this option, no additional user input is required since the value of Pmin is derived from ft, which
forms part of the input for the strength model.

Note that the principal tensile stress and crack softening failure properties may also be used in con-
junction with this model.

Data for concrete with cube strengths of 35MPa and 140MPa are included in the distributed material
library.

The model is formulated such that input can be scaled with the cube strength; fc for example. you
can retrieve one of the two concretes in the library, change its cube strength to match the concrete
you want to model and the remaining terms will automatically scale proportionately. The resulting
data set will be approximate and we recommend validation of the material data against experimental
characterization tests in all cases.

Note:

This property can only be applied to solid bodies.

Table 6.9: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Compressive Strength fc Stress
Tensile Strength ft/fc None
Shear Strength fs/fc None
Intact failure surface AFAIL None
constant A
Intact failure surface NFAIL None
exponent N
Tens./Comp. Meridian Q2.0 None
ratio
Brittle to Ductile BQ None
Transition

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Name Symbol Units Notes

Hardening Slope None Gel/(Gel-Gpl)
Elastic Strength/ft None
Elastic Strength/fc None
Fracture Strength B None
Constant
Fracture Strength m None
Exponent
Compressive strain rate α None
exponent
Tensile strain rate δ None
exponent
Maximum fracture SFMAX None
strength ratio
Use cap on elastic None Option:
surface
Yes (default)

No
Damage constant D1 D1 None
Damage constant D2 D2 None
Minimum strain to None
failure
Residual Shear modulus None
fraction

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes No No
EFF_PL_STN_RATE Effective Plastic Strain Yes No No
Rate
PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DAMAGE Damage Yes No No
STATUS Material Status** Yes No No

**Material status indicators (1=elastic, 2= plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4 = bulk failure, 5= failed principal
direction 1, 6= failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

6.8.7. MO Granular
This model is an extension of the Drucker-Prager model that takes into account effects associated
with granular materials such as powders, soil and sand. In addition to pressure hardening, the model
also represents density hardening and variations in the shear modulus with density.

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 Equations of State

The yield stress is made up of two components, one dependent on the density and one dependent
on the pressure,

where σy, σp and σρ denote the total yield stress, the pressure yield stress and the density yield stress
respectively.

The unload/reload slope is defined by the shear modulus which is defined as a function of the zero
pressure density of the material.

Note:

The yield stress is defined by a yield stress - pressure and a yield stress - density curve with
up to 10 points in each curve.

The shear modulus is defined by a shear modulus - density curve with up to 10 points.

All three curves must be defined.

This model can only be applied to solid bodies.

Table 6.10: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Yield Stress vs Pressure Stress Tabular data
Yield Stress vs Density Stress and Density Tabular data
Shear Modulus vs Density Stress and Density Tabular data

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes No No
PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No

6.9. Equations of State

Background information is discussed in this section along with available EOS models:
6.9.1. Background
6.9.2. Bulk Modulus
6.9.3. Shear Modulus
6.9.4. Ideal Gas EOS
6.9.5. Polynomial EOS
6.9.6. Shock EOS Linear
6.9.7. Shock EOS Bilinear

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

6.9.8. JWL EOS

6.9.1. Background
A general material model requires equations that relate stress to deformation and internal energy (or
temperature). In most cases, the stress tensor may be separated into a uniform hydrostatic pressure
(all three normal stresses equal) and a stress deviatoric tensor associated with the resistance of the
material to shear distortion.

Then the relation between the hydrostatic pressure, the local density (or specific volume) and local
specific energy (or temperature) is known as an equation of state.

Hooke's law is the simplest form of an equation of state and is implicitly assumed when you use linear
elastic material properties. Hooke's law is energy independent and is only valid if the material being
modeled undergoes relatively small changes in volume (less than approximately 2%). One of the al-
ternative equation of state properties should be used if the material is expected to experience high
volume changes during an analysis.

Before looking at the various equations of state available, it is good to understand some of the fun-
damental physics behind their formulations. Details are provided in Explicit Dynamics Analysis Guide
(to be published).

6.9.2. Bulk Modulus

Bulk Modulus — A bulk modulus can be used to define a linear, energy independent equation of
state. Combined with a shear modulus property, this material definition is equivalent to using linear
elasticity; in other words, Young's Modulus and Poisson's ratio.

6.9.3. Shear Modulus

Shear Modulus — A shear modulus must be used when a solid or porous equation of state is selected
to fully define the elastic stiffness of a material. To represent fluids, specify a small value.

6.9.4. Ideal Gas EOS

One of the simplest forms of equation of state is that for an ideal polytropic gas which may be used
in many applications involving the motion of gases. This may be derived from the laws of Boyle and
Gay-Lussac and expressed in the form

This form of equation is known as the Ideal Gas equation of state, and only the value of the adiabatic
exponent γ must be supplied.

In order to avoid complications with problems with multiple materials where initial small pressures
in the gas would generate small unwanted velocities the equation is modified for use in these cases

where pshift is a small initial pressure defined to give a zero starting pressure.

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 Equations of State

The definition of a non-zero adiabatic constant, c, will turn the energy dependent ideal gas equation
of state into the following energy independent adiabatic equation of state

Note:

This equation of state can only be applied to solid bodies. A specific heat capacity should
be defined with this property to allow the calculation of temperature.

Table 6.11: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Adiabatic γ None
exponent
Adiabatic c None
constant
Pressure shift Pshift Pressure

This equation of state can only be used with solid elements. Custom results variables available for
this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No
COMPRESSION Compression Yes No No
INT_ENERGY Internal Energy Yes No No
TEMPERATURE Temperature Yes No No

6.9.5. Polynomial EOS

This is a general form of the Mie-Gruneisen form of the equation of state and it has different analytic
forms for states of compression and tension.

This equation of state defines the pressure as

µ> 0 (compression):

µ< 0 (tension)

where

µ = compression = ρ/ρ0-1

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

ρ0 = solid, zero pressure density

e = internal energy per unit mass
A1, A2, A3, B0,, B1, T1 and T2 are material constants

If T1 is input as 0.0 it is reset to T1 = A1 in the solver.

The validity of this equation depends upon the ability to represent the variation of pressure at e = 0
(or some other reference curve) as a simple polynomial in µ of no more than three terms. This is
probably true as long as the range in density variation (and hence range in µ) is not too large.

The Polynomial equation of state defines the Gruneisen parameter as

This allows a number of useful variants of the Gruneisen parameter to be described:

Note:

This equation of state can only be used with solid elements.

The Poisson's ratio is assumed to be zero when calculating effective strain.

A specific heat capacity should be defined with this property to allow the calculation of
temperature.

Table 6.12: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Parameter A1 A1 Stress Often equivalent to the
material bulk modulus
Parameter A2 A2 Stress
Parameter A3 A3 Stress
Parameter B0 B0 None
Parameter B1 B1 None
Parameter T1 T1 Stress This value will be
automatically set to the
material bulk modulus
if entered as zero.
Parameter T2 T2 Stress

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 Equations of State

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No
COMPRESSION Compression Yes No No
VISC_PRESSURE Viscous Pressure Yes No No
INT_ENERGY Internal Energy Yes No No
TEMPERATURE Temperature Yes No No

6.9.6. Shock EOS Linear

The Rankine-Hugoniot equations for the shock jump conditions can be regarded as defining a relation
between any pair of the variables ρ(density), P (pressure), e (energy), up (particle velocity) and U (shock
velocity).

In many dynamic experiments making measurements of up and U it has been found that for most
solids and many liquids over a wide range of pressure there is an empirical linear relationship between
these two variables:

It is then convenient to establish a Mie-Gruneisen form of the equation of state based on the shock
Hugoniot:

where it is assumed that Γ ρ = Γ0 ρ0 = constant and

Note that for s>1 this formulation gives a limiting value of the compression as the pressure tends to
infinity. The denominator of the first equation above becomes zero and the pressure therefore becomes
infinite for

1– (s-1)µ= 0

giving a maximum density of ρ = s ρ0 (s-1). However, long before this regime is approached, the as-
sumption of constant Γ ρ is probably not valid. Furthermore, the assumption of linear variation
between the shock velocity U and the particle velocity up does not hold for too large a compression.

Γ is known as the Gruneisen coefficient and is often approximated to Γ ~2s-1 in the literature.

The Shock EOS linear model lets you optionally include a quadratic shock velocity, particle velocity
relation of the form:

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

The input parameter, S2, can be set to a non-zero value to better fit highly non-linear Us - up material
data.

Data for this equation of state can be found in various references and many of the materials in the
explicit material library.

Note:

This equation of state can only be applied to solid bodies.

The Poisson's ratio is assumed to be zero when calculating effective strain.

A specific heat capacity should be defined with this property to allow the calculation of
temperature.

Table 6.13: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Gruneisen coefficient Γ None
Parameter C1 C1 Velocity
Parameter S1 S1 None
Parameter Quadratic S2 S2 1/Velocity

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No
COMPRESSION Compression Yes No No
VISC_PRESSURE Viscous Pressure Yes No No
INT_ENERGY Internal Energy Yes No No
TEMPERATURE Temperature Yes No No

6.9.7. Shock EOS Bilinear

This is an extension of the Shock EOS Linear property. At high shock strengths nonlinearity in the
shock velocity - particle velocity relationship is apparent, particularly for non-metallic materials. To
account for this nonlinearity, the input calls for the definition of two linear fits to the shock velocity
- particle velocity relationship; one at low shock compressions defined by Up > VB and one at high
shock compressions defined by Up < VE.

The region between VE and VB is covered by a smooth interpolation between the two linear relation-
ships as shown below.

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 Equations of State

Figure 6.11: Fit to Shock Velocity-Particle Velocity Relationship

In the input you are prompted for values of the parameters c1, c2, s1, s2, VE/Vo, VB/Vo, Γo and ρo. Then

Note:

This equation of state can only be applied to solid bodies.

The Poisson's ratio is assumed to be zero when calculating effective strain.

A specific heat capacity should be defined with this property to allow the calculation of
temperature.

Table 6.14: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Gruneisen coefficient Γ None
Parameter C1 C1 Velocity
Parameter S1 S1 None
Parameter C2 C2 Velocity
Parameter S2 S2 None
Relative Volume VB/V0 VB/V0 None
Relative Volume VE/V0 VE/V0 None

This equation of state can only be used with solid elements.

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

COMPRESSION Compression Yes No No
VISC_PRESSURE Viscous Pressure Yes No No
INT_ENERGY Internal Energy Yes No No
TEMPERATURE Temperature Yes No No

6.9.8. JWL EOS

The JWL equation of state describes the detonation product expansion down to a pressure of 1 kbar
for high energy explosive materials and has been proposed by Jones, Wilkins and Lee according to
the following equation

, where ρ0 is the reference density, ρ the density and η = ρ/ρ0.

The values of the constants A, B, R1, R2 and ω for many common explosives have been determined
from dynamic experiments.

Figure 6.12: Pressure as function of density for the JWL equation of state

The standard JWL equation of state can be used in combination with an energy release extension
whereby additional energy is deposited over a user-defined time interval. Thermobaric explosives
show this behavior and produce more explosive energy than conventional high energy explosives
through combustion of inclusions, like aluminum, with atmospheric oxygen after detonation.

This option is activated when the additional specific energy is specified different from zero.

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 Equations of State

Burn on Compression
In this process the detonation wave is not predefined but the unburned explosive is initially treated
similarly to any other inert material. However, as an initiating shock travels through the unburned
explosive and traverses elements within the explosive the compression of all explosive elements is
monitored. If and when the compression in a cell reaches a predefined value the chemical energy is
allowed to be released at a controlled rate.

Burn on compression may be defined in one of two ways:

• Pre-burn bulk modulus KBK is zero. The elements start to release their energy when the element
compression μ exceeds a specified fraction of the Chapman-Jouguet compression:

μ > BCJμCJ, where μCJ = PCJ/(ρDCJ 2)

• Pre-burn bulk modulus KBK is non zero. The elements start to release their energy when the element
pressure exceeds a specified fraction of the Chapman-Jouguet pressure:

P = KBK(ρ/ρ0–1) > BCJPCJ

The critical threshold compression and the release rate are parameters that must be chosen with care
in order to obtain realistic results. The burn on compression option may give unrealistic results for
unconfined regions of explosive since the material is free to expand at the time of initial shock arrival
and may not achieve sufficient compression to initiate energy release in a realistic time scale.

Typically, a burn logic based upon compression is more successful in Lagrangian computations rather
than Eulerian.

Note:

The constants A, B, R1, R2 and ω should be considered as a set of interdependent parameters

and one constant cannot be changed unilaterally without considering the effect of this
change on the other parameters.

This equation of state can only be applied to solid bodies.

The Poisson's ratio is assumed to be zero when calculating effective strain.

A specific heat capacity should be defined with this property to allow the calculation of
temperature.

Table 6.15: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Parameter A A Stress
Parameter B B Stress
Parameter R1 R1 None
Parameter R2 R2 None
Parameter ω ω None
C-J Detonation Velocity DCJ Velocity

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Name Symbol Units Notes

C-J Energy/unit mass Energy/mass
C-J Pressure PCJ Stress Burn on compression logic
Burn on compression BCJ None Burn on compression logic
fraction
Pre-burn bulk modulus KBK Stress Burn on compression logic
Adiabatic constant None
Additional specific Energy/mass Additional energy release
internal energy/unit
mass
Begin Time Time Start time of additional
energy release
End Time Time End time of additional energy
release

This equation of state can only be used with solid elements.

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No
COMPRESSION Compression Yes No No
INT_ENERGY Internal Energy Yes No No
TEMPERATURE Temperature Yes No No
BURN_FRAC Burn Fraction Yes No No

6.10. Porosity
The following Porosity models are discussed in this section:
6.10.1. Porosity-Crushable Foam
6.10.2. Compaction EOS Linear
6.10.3. Compaction EOS Non-Linear
6.10.4. P-alpha EOS

6.10.1. Porosity-Crushable Foam

This is a relatively simple strength model designed to represent the crush characteristics of foam
materials under impact loading conditions (non-cyclic loading).

The model principal stress vs volumetric strain behavior is shown below.

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 Porosity

The strength model must be used with isotropic elasticity and the following incremental elastic update
of pressure and stress deviators is used.

In tension, the model additionally includes the possibility to apply a tension cut-off to the maximum
allowable principal tensile stress. If the tensile stress exceeds this value, it is maintained at this value.
The model cannot currently be used with other failure properties.

Note:

This property must be used in combination with isotropic elasticity.

The property can only be applied to solid bodies.

Note that the plastic strain variable is used to store the inelastic volumetric strain for this
porosity model.

Table 6.16: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Maximum Principal Stress vs Stress and strain Tabular data
Volumetric Strain
Maximum Tensile Stress Stress

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes No No
PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Porous Materials
Porous materials are extremely effective in attenuating shocks and mitigating impact pressures. The
material compacts to its solid density at relatively low stress levels but, because the volume change
is relatively large, a large amount of energy is irreversibly absorbed thereby attenuating shocks by
lengthening the wave in time and reducing it in amplitude as more material is compacted.

Cellular porous materials contain a population of microscopic cells separated by cell walls. When
stressed the initial elastic compression is assumed to be due to elastic buckling of the cell walls and
the plastic flow to be due to plastic deformation of these cell walls. Materials with low initial porosity
has fewer cells and thicker cell walls so that the stress required to cause buckling and subsequent
deformation of the cell walls will be greater.

Once some plastic flow has taken place, even if the fully compacted density hasn't been reached,
unloading to zero stress and reloading to the elastic limit will be elastic. This phenomenological be-
havior is illustrated in the following figure.

Figure 6.13: Loading-Unloading Behavior for a Porous Solid

pressure

Plastic compaction

Elastic Fully
loading compacted

Elastic
unloading
(variable slope)

density

6.10.2. Compaction EOS Linear

The response of porous materials is represented via

• A plastic compaction path defined as a piecewise linear function of pressure versus density

• The elastic unloading/reloading path defined via a piecewise linear function of sound speed versus
density.

The use of a fixed compaction path (which may be derived from static compression data, either in
its original state or arbitrarily enhanced to model dynamic data) is equivalent to using a Mie-Gruneisen
equation of state with an assumed value of zero for the Gruneisen Gamma. This ignores the pressure
enhancement due to the energy absorption.

The elastic bulk stiffness of the material is defined as a piecewise linear curve of sound speed (c)
versus density (ρo). The bulk stiffness of the material is given by

The level of compaction in the material is given by

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 Porosity

Initially, ρo will be equal to the value defined in the density property of the material. Material property
ρs is the solid zero pressure density of the material and corresponds to the fully compacted material
density. For a porous material the initial density will be less than the solid density hence the value
of α will be greater than 1.0. As compaction takes place, α will reduce to a value of 1.0 for the fully
compacted state.

Note:

It is important when using the model to ensure that the input data is such that the elastic
loading line from the initial porous density intersects the plastic compaction curve at the
intended position.

This property must be used in combination with a shear modulus to define the total
elastic stiffness of the material.

The property can only be applied to solid bodies.

The Poisson's ratio is assumed to be zero when calculating effective strain.

The input data for the porous model is as follows:

Name Symbol Units Notes

Solid Density ρs Density at zero pressure for fully compacted
material
Compaction Curve Tabular data of compaction pressure against
density
Linear Unloading Curve Tabular data of sound speed against density

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No
COMPRESSION Compression Yes No No
VISC_PRESSURE Viscous Pressure Yes No No
INT_ENERGY Internal Energy Yes No No
ALPHA Porosity (Alpha) Yes No No

6.10.3. Compaction EOS Non-Linear

This property is an extension of the Compaction EOS linear property and can provide a more accurate
representation of non-linearity when unloading a porous material.

The response of porous materials is represented via

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

• A plastic compaction path defined as a piecewise linear function of pressure versus density

• The non-linear unloading defined by means of a piecewise curve of bulk modulus versus density

For the non-linear unloading, if the current pressure is less than the current compaction pressure,
the pressure is defined by

This produces a nonlinear unloading pattern, an example of which is shown below:

Note:

It is important when using the model to ensure that the input data is such that the elastic
loading line from the initial porous density intersects the plastic compaction curve at the
intended position.

This property must be used in combination with a shear modulus to define the total
elastic stiffness of the material.

The property can only be applied to solid bodies.

The Poisson's ratio is assumed to be zero when calculating effective strain.

The input data for the porous model is as follows:

Name Symbol Units Notes

Solid Density ρs Density at zero pressure for fully compacted
material
Compaction Curve Tabular data of compaction pressure against
density

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 Porosity

Name Symbol Units Notes

Nonlinear Unloading Tabular data of bulk modulus against density
Curve

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No
COMPRESSION Compression Yes No No
VISC_PRESSURE Viscous Pressure Yes No No
INT_ENERGY Internal Energy Yes No No
ALPHA Porosity (Alpha) Yes No No

6.10.4. P-alpha EOS

Although the compaction models give good results for low stress levels and low α materials, it is very
desirable to obtain a single formulation for the modeling of a porous material which gives a good
representation over a wide stress range and variety of materials.

Such a model has been derived by Hermann (1969) [5] and this is available in explicit dynamics.

Hermann's P-alpha model uses a phenomenological approach to devising a representation which

gives the correct behavior at high stresses but at the same time provides a reasonably detailed de-
scription of the compaction process at low stress levels.

The principal assumption is that the specific internal energy is the same for a porous material as for
the same material at solid density at identical conditions of pressure and temperature. Then the
porosity, α, is given by
(6.11)

where v is the specific volume of the porous material and vs is the specific volume of the material in
the solid state and at the same pressure and temperature (note that vs is only equal to 1/ρsolid at zero
pressure). α becomes unity when the material compacts to a solid. If the equation of state of the
solid material, neglecting shear strength effects, is given by
(6.12)

then the equation of state of the porous material is simply

(6.13)

This function can be any of the equations of state which describe the compressed state of material;
in other words Linear, Polynomial and Shock, but not those describing the expanded state.

In order to complete the material description the porosity α must be specified as a function of the
thermodynamic state of the material, say,
(6.14)

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

There is not enough data usually available to determine the function g(p,e) completely but fortunately
most problems of interest involve shock compaction of the porous material, i.e. the region of interest
lies on or near the Hugoniot. On the Hugoniot, pressure and internal energy are related by the
Rankine-Hugoniot conditions so therefore along the Hugoniot equation Equation 6.14 (p. 245) can be
expressed as
(6.15)

with the variation with energy implicitly assumed. It is assumed this equation Equation 6.15 (p. 246)
remains valid in the neighborhood of the Hugoniot (tacitly assuming that the compaction strength
is insensitive to the small changes in temperature in extrapolating small distances from the Hugoniot).

The general behavior of the compacting porous material has been described earlier and the P-α
model is constructed to reproduce this behavior. The P-α variation to provide this performance is
shown schematically in the figure below. The material deforms elastically up to onset of plastic
compaction, α p, and subsequent deformation is plastic until the material is fully compacted at a
pressure ps.

Intermediate unloading and reloading is elastic up to the plastic loading curve.

The choice of a suitable function g(p) is somewhat arbitrary as long as it satisfies certain simple ana-
lytic properties enumerated by Herrmann in his original paper, and several forms have been used by
different researchers. A simple form (Butcher & Karnes 1968) [6] found adequate for porous iron is a
quadratic form, but cubic and exponential forms have also been proposed and the parameters adjusted
to fit experimental data.

The following choices for the plastic compaction curve are available:

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 Porosity

Standard
This is the default option, whereby the plastic compaction curve is defined by the solid compaction
pressure, ps, at full compaction, the initial compaction pressure, pe, at porous compaction, α i, and
the compaction exponent n.

Alpha Plastic (AUTODYN component system only)

The plastic compaction curve is defined by the solid compaction pressure, ps, at full compaction, the
initial compaction pressure, pe, at the onset of plastic compaction, α p, and the compaction exponent
n.

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Carroll & Holt (1972) [7] modified the equation of state of the porous material to give
(6.16)

where the factor 1/α was included to allow for their argument that the pressure in the porous mater-
ial is more nearly 1/α times the average pressure in the matrix material. It is this form of the model
that is available in explicit dynamics.

Note:

The solid equation of state must be defined using one of the following properties

Bulk modulus
Polynomial EOS
Shock EOS Linear
Shock EOS Bilinear

This property must be used in combination with a shear modulus to define the total
elastic stiffness of the material.

The property can only be applied to solid bodies.

The Poisson's ratio is assumed to be zero when calculating effective strain.

Table 6.17: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Solid Density ρsolid Density
Porous Soundspeed Velocity
Initial Compaction Pressure Pe Stress
Solid Compaction Pressure Ps Stress
Compaction Exponent n None

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
DENSITY Density Yes No No
COMPRESSION Compression Yes No No
VISC_PRESSURE Viscous Pressure Yes No No
INT_ENERGY Internal Energy Yes No No
ALPHA Porosity (Alpha) Yes No No

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 Failure

6.11. Failure

Background
Materials are not able to withstand tensile stresses which exceed the material's local tensile strength.
The computation of the dynamic motion of materials assuming that they always remain continuous,
even if the predicted local stresses reach very large values, will lead to unphysical solutions.

A model has to be constructed to recognize when tensile limits are reached to modify the computation
to deal with this and to describe the properties of the material after this formulation has been applied.

Several different modes of failure initiation can be represented in the explicit dynamics system.

Element failure in the explicit dynamics system has two components:

Failure initiation
A number of mechanisms are available to initiate failure in a material (see properties Plastic Strain
Failure, Principal Stress Failure, Principal Strain Failure, Tensile Pressure Failure, Johnson-Cook Failure,
Grady Spall Failure). When specified criteria are met within an element, a post failure response is activated.

Failure initiation can be identified in the model via the custom result MAT_STATUS. The following key
is used.

MAT_STATUS Meaning
1 Material is currently undergoing elastic deformation, or no deformation
2 The plastic strain in the material increased during the last time increment
3 The material has failed due to isotropic (bulk) criteria
4 The material has failed due to isotropic (bulk) criteria
5 The material has failed in tension due to principal value 1
6 The material has failed in tension due to principal value 2
7 The material has failed in tension due to principal value 3

Post failure response

After failure initiation in an element, the subsequent strength characteristics of the element will change
depending on the type of failure model

• Instantaneous Failure

Upon failure initiation, the element deviatoric stress will be immediately set to zero and retained at
this level. Subsequently, the element will only be able to support compressive pressures.

• Gradual Failure (Damage)

After failure initiation, the element stress is limited by a damage evolution law. Usually this results
in a gradual reduction in an elements capability to carry deviatoric and/or pressure stresses.

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

By default, tensile failure models will produce an instantaneous post failure response. Inserting the crack
softening failure property, in addition to other failure initiation properties results in a gradual failure
response.

The following Failure models are discussed in this section:

6.11.1. Plastic Strain Failure
6.11.2. Principal Stress Failure
6.11.3. Principal Strain Failure
6.11.4. Stochastic Failure
6.11.5.Tensile Pressure Failure
6.11.6. Crack Softening Failure
6.11.7. Johnson-Cook Failure
6.11.8. Grady Spall Failure

6.11.1. Plastic Strain Failure

Plastic strain failure can be used to model ductile failure in materials. Failure initiation is based on
the effective plastic strain in the material. The user inputs a maximum plastic strain value.

If the material effective plastic strain is greater than the user defined maximum, failure initiation occurs.
The material instantaneously fails.

Note:

This failure model must be used in conjunction with a plasticity or brittle strength model.

Name Symbol Units Notes

max
Maximum Equivalent Plastic Strain Epl None Input data > zero

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

EFF_PL_STN Effective Plastic Strain Yes Yes Yes
STATUS Material Status** Yes No No

**Material status indicators (1 = elastic, 2 = plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4= bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

6.11.2. Principal Stress Failure

Principal stress failure can be used to represent brittle failure in materials.

Failure initiation is based on one of two criteria

• Maximum principal tensile stress

• Maximum shear stress (derived from the maximum difference in the principal stresses)

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 Failure

Failure is initiated when either of the above criteria is met. The material instantaneously fails.

If this model is used in conjunction with a plasticity model, it is often recommended to deactivate
the Maximum Shear stress criteria by specifying a large value. In this case the shear response will be
handled by the plasticity model.

Note:

The crack softening failure property can be combined with this property to invoke fracture
energy based softening.

Name Symbol Units Notes

Maximum Tensile Stress Stress User must input a
positive value.
Default = +1e+20
Maximum Shear Stress Stress User must input a
positive value.
Default = +1e+20

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

STATUS Material Status** Yes No No

**Material status indicators (1 = elastic, 2 = plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4= bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

6.11.3. Principal Strain Failure

Principal strain failure can be used to represent brittle or ductile failure in materials.

Failure initiation is based on one of two criteria

• Maximum principal tensile strain

• Maximum shear strain (derived from the maximum difference in the principal strains)

Failure is initiated when either of the above criteria is met. The material instantaneously fails.

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

If this model is used in conjunction with a plasticity model, it is often recommended to deactivate
the maximum shear strain criteria by specifying a large value. In this case the shear response will be
treated by the plasticity model.

Note:

The crack softening failure property can be combined with this property to invoke fracture
energy based softening.

Table 6.18: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Maximum Principal Strain None User must input a
positive value. Default =
+1e+20
Maximum Shear Strain None User must input a
positive value. Default =
+1e+20

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

STATUS Material Status** Yes No No

**Material status indicators (1 = elastic, 2 = plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4= bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

6.11.4. Stochastic Failure

To model fragmentation for symmetric loading and geometry it is necessary to impose some material
heterogeneity. Real materials have inherent microscopic flaws, which cause failures and cracking to
initiate. An approach to reproducing this numerically is to randomize the failure stress or strain for
the material. Using this property, a Mott distribution is used to define the variance in failure stress or
strain. Each element is allocated a value, determined by the Mott distribution, where a value of one
is equivalent to the failure stress or strain of the material.

The Mott distribution takes the form

where

P is the probability of fracture

ε is the strain
C and γ are material constants

For the implementation in explicit dynamics, the fracture value of 1 is forced to be at a probability
of 50%; therefore, you need only specify a gamma value and the constant C is derived from this.

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 Failure

Figure 6.14: Mott Distribution for Varying Values of Gamma

The stochastic failure option may be used in conjunction with many of the failure properties, including
hydro (Pmin), plastic strain, principal stress and/or strain. It can also be used in conjunction with the
RHT concrete model.

You must specify a value of the stochastic variance, γ, and also the distribution seed type. If the
"random" option is selected every time a simulation is performed a new distribution will be calculated.
If the "fixed" option is selected the same distribution will be used for each solve. However, this fixed
distribution may also change when the model is run in one release compared to when it is run in a
later release

Table 6.19: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Distribution Type Option List:

Random

Fixed (default)
Stochastic Variance γ None
Minimum Fail Fraction None Default = 0.1

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

STATUS Material Status** Yes No No
STOCH_FACT Stochastic Factor Yes No No

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

**Material status indicators (1 = elastic, 2 = plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4= bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

6.11.5. Tensile Pressure Failure

The tensile pressure failure model allows a maximum hydrodynamic tensile limit to be specified. This
is used to represent a dynamic spall (or cavitation) strength of the material. The algorithm simply
limits the maximum tensile pressure in the material as

If the material pressure P becomes less than the defined maximum tensile pressure, failure initiation
occurs. The material instantaneously fails.

If the material definition contains a damage evolution law, the user defined maximum tensile pressure
is scaled down as the damage increases from 0.0 to 1.0.

Note:

The property can only be applied to solid bodies.

The crack softening failure property can be combined with this property to invoke fracture
energy based softening.

Table 6.20: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Maximum Tensile Pressure Stress User must input a
negative value. Default
= –1e+20

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

PRESSURE Pressure Yes No No
STATUS Material Status** Yes No No

**Material status indicators (1 = elastic, 2 = plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4= bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

6.11.6. Crack Softening Failure

The tensile crack softening model is fracture energy based damage model which can be used with
many different types of failure initiation models to provide a gradual reduction in the ability of an
element to carry tensile stress. The model is primarily used for investigating failure of brittle materials,
but has been applied to other materials to reduce mesh dependency effects.

• Failure initiation is based on any of the standard tensile failure models; for example, Hydro, Principal
Stress/Strain

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 Failure

• On failure initiation, the current maximum principal tensile stress in the element is stored (custom
result FAIL.STRES)

• A linear softening slope (custom result SOFT.SLOPE) is then defined to reduce the maximum possible
principal tensile stress in the material as a function of crack strain. This softening slope is defined
as a function of the local element size and a material parameter, the fracture energy Gf.

Lf t2
Slope =
2G f

Area = G f /L

Total Frac ture

The extent of damage in a material can be inspected by using the custom result DAMAGE. The
damage is defined to be 0.0 for an intact element and 1.0 for a fully failed element.

• After failure initiation, a maximum principal tensile stress failure surface is defined to limit the
maximum principal tensile stress in the element and a flow rule is used to return to this surface
and accumulate the crack strain

There are currently three options in relation to the crack softening plastic return algorithm:

– Radial Return — Non-associative in π– and meridian planes

– No-Bulking — Associative in π– plane only (Default)

– Bulking — Associative in π– and meridian planes

The default setting has been selected based on practical experiences of using the model to simulate
impacts onto brittle materials such as glass, ceramics, and concrete.

• The recompression behavior after crack softening and failure can be modified. When one of the
failure criteria (for instance principal stress, hydro (Pmin), or RHT concrete) has been set and Crack
Softening is set to Yes, the Onset Compression after failure option can be used to change the
compression criterion at which pressure can build up again in failed elements.

The effects of different values in this field are as follows:

– Onset compression = 0.0 (default) — Pressure can only build up if the material is in compression.

– Onset compression < 0 — For large negative values, the material will be able to immediately
build up pressure after tensional failure when fractured material resists compression. For real-
world applications, you should determine a value for this field which is less than or equal to zero
and appropriate for the material in the analysis.

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

The crack softening algorithm can only be used with solid elements. It can be used in combination
with any solid equation of state, plasticity model or brittle strength model.

When used in conjunction with a plasticity/brittle strength model, the return algorithm will return to
the surface giving the minimum resulting effective stress, J2.

Meridian Plane
Trial Elastic Stresses
Rankine Failure
Surface
J2

Associate flow
in Meridional Yield Surface (Strength Model)
Plane(Option)

Non-associative flow-in
Meridional Plane (Default)

Pressure

Rankine Plasticity Yielding

(Te nsile Cracking)

π- space

Note:

The property can only be applied to solid bodies.

Table 6.21: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Fracture Energy Gf Energy/Area
Flow rule Option List:

Radial Return

No Bulking (Default)

Bulking (Associative)

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 Failure

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

DAMAGE Current damage level Yes No No
FAIL.STRES Principal tensile failure Yes No No
stress
SOFT.SLOPE Softening slope Yes No No

6.11.7. Johnson-Cook Failure

The Johnson-Cook failure model can be used to model ductile failure of materials experiencing large
pressures, strain rates and temperatures.

This model is constructed in a similar way to the Johnson-Cook plasticity model in that it consists of
three independent terms that define the dynamic fracture strain as a function of pressure, strain rate
and temperature:

The ratio of the incremental effective plastic strain and effective fracture strain for the element con-
ditions is incremented and stored in custom results variable, DAMAGE. The material is assumed to
be intact until DAMAGE = 1.0. At this point failure is initiated in the element. An instantaneous post
failure response is used.

Note:

The property can only be applied to solid bodies.

Table 6.22: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Damage Constant D1 D1 None
Damage Constant D2 D2 None
Damage Constant D3 D3 None
Damage Constant D4 D4 None
Damage Constant D5 D5 None
Melting Temperature Temperature

Custom results variables available for this model:

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

DAMAGE Damage Yes No No

**Material status indicators (1 = elastic, 2 = plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4= bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

6.11.8. Grady Spall Failure

The Grady Spall model can be used to model dynamic spallation of metals under shock loading. The
critical spall stress for a ductile material can be calculated according to:

where:

ρ is the density

c is the bulk sound speed

Y is the yield stress at EPS = 0

ε cis a critical strain value, usually set to 0.15

This critical spall stress is calculated for each element in the model at each time step and compared
with local maximum principal tensile stress. If the maximum element principal tensile stress exceeds
the critical spall stress, instantaneous failure of the element is initiated.

A typical value for the critical strain is 0.15 for aluminum.

Note:

The property can only be applied to Lagrangian solid bodies.

The property must be used in conjunction with a plasticity model.

Table 6.23: Input Data

Name Symbol Units Notes

Critical Strain εc None
Value

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

STATUS Material Status Yes No No

**Material status indicators (1 = elastic, 2 = plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4= bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

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 Thermal Specific Heat

6.12. Strength
The following table summarizes the applicable strength-limit constants for each failure criterion:

Strength Limit Orthotropic Orthotropic Tsai-Wu

Constant Stress Limit Strain Limit Constants
Tensile Y Y Y
X-Direction
Tensile Y Y Y
Y-Direction
Tensile Y Y
Z-Direction
Compressive X Y
Compressive Y Y
Compressive Z
Shear XY Y Y Y
Shear YZ Y Y
Shear XZ Y Y
Coupling
Coefficient XY
Coupling
Coefficient YZ
Coupling
Coefficient XZ

Tsai-Wu Constants must be used in conjunction with Orthotropic Stress Limit. Tsai-Wu Constants used
in conjunction with Orthotropic Strain Limit are not supported.

The TSai-Wu coefficients are always reset to -1 in an Explicit solve. The Tsai-Wu Constants property
changes how the Explicit Dynamics solver uses the data from the Orthotropic Stress Limit property.
Without the Tsai-Wu Constants property, the Explicit Dynamics solver uses all three tensile stress and
all three shear stress constants from the Orthotropic Stress Limit. With the Tsai-Wu Constants property,
the Explicit Dynamics solver uses the tensile and compressive stress constants in the X and Y direction
only (not Z) and the XY shear stress constant (not YZ and XZ shears).

6.13. Thermal Specific Heat

Specific heat is the amount of heat per mass required to raise the temperature of a material.

Custom results variables available for this model:

Name Description Solids Shells Beams

TEMPERATURE Temperature Yes Yes Yes

**Material status indicators (1 = elastic, 2 = plastic, 3 = bulk failure, 4= bulk failure, 5 = failed principal
direction1, 6 = failed principal direction 2, 7 = failed principal direction 3)

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Material Models Used in Explicit Dynamics Analysis

6.14. Rigid Materials

Rigid materials can be modeled in an explicit dynamics system by selecting geometry, "Stiffness beha-
vior = rigid" on a body. In such cases only the density property of the material associated with the body
will be used.

For explicit dynamics systems all rigid bodies must be discretized with a full mesh. This will be specified
by default for the explicit meshing physics preference.

The mass and inertia of the rigid body will be derived from the elements and material density for each
body.

By default, a kinematic rigid body is defined in explicit dynamics and its motion will depend on the
resultant forces and moments applied to it through interaction with other parts of the model. Elements
filled with rigid materials can interact with other regions via contact.

Constraints can only be applied to an entire rigid body. For example, a fixed displacement cannot be
applied to one edge of a rigid body; it must be applied to the whole body.

6.15. References
The following references are cited in this section:

1. Johnson G. R. & Holmquist T. J. (1993). An Improved Computational Constitutive Model for Brittle
Materials, Joint AIRA/APS Conference, Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 1993.

2. Riedel W., Thoma K., Hiermaier S., Schmolinske E.: Penetration of Reinforced Concrete by BETA-B-
500, Numerical Analysis using a New Macroscopic Concrete Model for Hydrocodes. Proc. (CD-ROM)
9. Internationales Symposium, Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures, Berlin Strausberg,
03.-07. Mai 1999, pp 315 - 322

3. W. Riedel, Beton unter dynamischen Lasten: Meso- und makromechanische Modelle und ihre Para-
meter, Ed.: Fraunhofer-Institut für Kurzzeitdynamik, Ernst-Mach-Institut EMI, Freiburg/Brsg., Fraunhofer
IRB Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-8167-6340-5, http://www.irbdirekt.de/irbbuch/

4. Werner Riedel, Nobuaki Kawai and Ken-ichi Kondo, Numerical Assessment for Impact Strength
Measurements in Concrete Materials, International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009), pp. 283-
293 DOI information: 10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2007.12.012

5. Herrmann, W (1969). "Constitutive Equation for the Dynamic Compaction of Ductile Porous Materials",
J. Appl. Phys., 40, 6, pp 2490-2499, May 1969

6. Butcher, B M, & Karnes, C H (1968). Sandia Labs. Res Rep. SC-RR-67-3040, Sandia Laboratory, Al-
buquerque, NM, April 1968

7. Carroll, M M, & Holt, A C (1972). "Static and Dynamic Pore Collapse Relations for Ductile Porous
Materials." J. Appl.Phys., 43, 4, pp1626 et seq., 1972

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Chapter 7: Using the Drop Test Wizard
7.1. What is the Drop Test Wizard
The Drop Test Wizard allows a fully automated setup of a drop test analysis within an Explicit Dynamics
analysis. You need only supply a file containing the geometry of the object to be dropped in the ana-
lysis.

The wizard allows you to change the initial orientation of the geometry, and automatically creates a
rigid, fixed target geometry within Mechanical which can also be oriented at an angle. The wizard applies
impact velocity and standard earth gravity boundary conditions to the dropped geometry and defines
contact behavior between the geometry and the target.

7.2. Loading and Opening the Drop Test Wizard

The Drop Test Wizard must be first loaded into Mechanical, then opened using the icon in the Environ-
ment Context tab.

1. After starting Workbench, select Extensions Manage Extensions...

2. In the Extensions Manager window, select the check box next to MechanicalDropTest, then click
Close.

3. Add an Explicit Dynamics analysis system to the project.

4. Using the Geometry cell, either create a new geometry or import a file containing the geometry of
the object to be dropped during the analysis.

5. Once the geometry is specified, launch Mechanical by selecting Edit... from the Model cell of the
analysis system in Workbench.

6. Ensure that the geometry is suitable to be used with the Drop Test Wizard (see Preparing the Geo-
metry for Use in the Drop Test Wizard (p. 261)).

7. Select the Explicit Dynamics object in the outline. Launch the wizard by clicking on the
Context tab.

7.3. Preparing the Geometry for Use in the Drop Test Wizard
Ensure that your geometry meets the following criteria in order for it to work properly with the Drop
Test Wizard.

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Using the Drop Test Wizard

• Before running the Drop Test Wizard, the geometry must be up-to-date. Therefore, all bodies need
to have a material assigned and all shell bodies need to have a thickness assigned.

• The geometry should not contain construction geometries, as construction geometries will not rotate
with the remaining user geometry.

• Any point or distributed masses, and connections such as joints and springs defined on the user
geometry need to be defined on associative coordinate systems (see for more information). Otherwise,
these objects will not rotate with the user geometry when any rotations are defined using the Drop
Test Wizard or the Rotate Geometry object.

• It is important to ensure that the mesh is not in a Read Only state. This means that the Drop Test
Wizard is not supported for geometries with imported thicknesses from ACP.

7.4. Setting up the Drop Parameters

The Drop Test Wizard works by creating a rigid target geometry within Mechanical at the automatically
detected first point of contact, making the target plane a fixed support and adding a Drop Height initial
condition to the system. The analysis begins with the contact point of the geometry just touching the
target, with an initial velocity determined from the specified drop height.

You can choose to change the orientation of both the geometry and the automatically generated target
plane. The Drop Test Wizard always creates an analysis simulating a dropped object in the -Y direction.
The dropped geometry should therefore be oriented accordingly.

The first page of the wizard shows the following input fields:

Field Description
Target Rotation (X) Enter the angle at which to rotate the target plane geometry about the global X
axis.
Drop Rotation (X) Enter the angle at which to rotate the dropped geometry about its center of mass.
Drop Rotation (Y) Enter the angle at which to rotate the dropped geometry about its center of mass.
Drop Rotation (Z) Enter the angle at which to rotate the dropped geometry about its center of mass.
Define By Define the impact magnitude by Drop Height or by Impact Velocity.
Drop Height If you chose to define the drop test by drop height, enter the drop height value.
Impact Velocity If you chose to define the drop test by impact velocity, enter the velocity value.

The target plane is automatically created if a non-zero angle is input into Target Rotation (X).

The rotations are immediately updated on the dropped geometry in the graphical window when you
enter the values, which allows you to inspect the setup of the model visually. The rotations are always
applied in the order X, Y, Z irrespective of the order of entry into the Drop Rotation input fields.

If you entered a drop height value, it is converted into an impact velocity with the relationship as shown
below.

With the energy balance:

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 Setting up the Drop Parameters

The impact velocity is derived by:

If you choose to define the drop test by impact velocity, the drop height is calculated as follows:

Note:

Air resistance is not taken into account in determining impact velocity, which means the
conversion is only valid for drop heights of approximately 5 meters. When going beyond
this height, it is recommended that experimental data containing impact velocity be used
to define the impact conditions.

Once you have set all of these fields to your desired values, click Next to continue. This will display the
second page of the wizard and initiate the creation of the objects associated with the fields on the first
page of the wizard:

• The rotations are stored in a Part Transform object.

• The size of the target geometry is calculated as 2.5 times the longest side of the dropped geometry’s
bounding box, which gives the geometry room to deform or exhibit sliding behavior. The target is
then added to the Geometry using a Construction Geometry object.

• The target geometry is positioned such that no separation exists between the geometry to be dropped
and the target geometry. Note that if there are shells in the model the target will be offset by the
shell thickness to allow you to use shell thickness in contact.

• A Drop Height initial condition is added to the analysis, scoped to the dropped geometry with the
fields matching those in the wizard. The Drop Height initial condition is fully parameterizable.

• The analysis settings Type Analysis Settings Preference Type called ‘Drop Test’

• Sets the analysis end time to a value equal to the time it would take for the geometry to move 10%
of its own length in the -Y direction traveling at the impact velocity. If there is more than one step
in the analysis, the End Time of the final step is set to this value.

On the second page of the wizard, the following fields are available:

Field Description
Frictional Behavior Specify whether the body interaction will be Frictional or Frictionless in the
simulation.
Friction Coefficient Set a value for μ, the coefficient of friction for the body interaction.
Dynamic Coeffi- Set the value of the dynamic coefficient of friction for the body interaction.
cient

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Using the Drop Test Wizard

These fields are used to specify a global body interaction defining the contact behavior between the
dropped geometry and the target.

When you click Finish, the wizard does the following:

• Creates the Body Interaction.

• Creates the Standard Earth Gravity boundary condition and scopes it to the dropped geometry.

• Creates a mesh for all the geometry and performs a check to see if any point on the mesh of the
dropped geometry is penetrating the mesh of the target. If this is the case, a new target is created
in a corrected location and a new mesh is generated. If mesh penetration occurs, a warning message
will be displayed in the Messages panel.

• Creates a Fixed Support boundary condition and scopes it to the target.

• Adds three result objects to the tree: Total Deformation, Equivalent Plastic Strain, and Total Ac-
celeration.

Once all of these steps are completed, the wizard will close.

Note:

You can return from page 2 of the wizard to page 1 using the Back button, and also Exit
the wizard entirely from both pages, but note that any actions that the wizard has performed
such as geometry rotations and object creation will not be undone.

7.5. Complete the Analysis

Once the wizard has run to completion, the analysis is ready to be solved. However, you may wish to
refine the default mesh generated and review contact definitions if the model contains multiple parts.
You may also want to specify materials for the dropped geometry at this point. The target does not
need a material specification as it is rigid and fully constrained.

If you modify the Part Transform object after running the wizard, the target will move accordingly.
This is only the case with a target created through the drop test wizard; rotations can lead to mesh
penetration in a custom geometry.

7.6. Notes on Usage and Current Limitations

The following are known limitations of the Drop Test Wizard and the features it uses:

• With the exception of the Part Transform object, there is no synchronization of data between objects
in the project tree and the Drop Test Wizard when the wizard is open. Therefore, if you modify the
Drop Height or the rotation angle in the Collision Point coordinate system, these changes will not
be reflected in the wizard unless the wizard is restarted.

• The Drop Test Wizard can only be used for a 3D analysis.

• You cannot use an implicit system to pre-stress the geometry when using the Drop Test Wizard.

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 Notes on Usage and Current Limitations

• When a geometry object is added in Mechanical using the Construction Geometry object, the entire
mesh present in the analysis system will be cleared and the mesh will have to be generated again.

• Mesh penetration is only tested at the end of the wizard execution. It will not be tested if you
modify the Part Transform angles or if you regenerate the mesh.

• Note that when the dropped geometry orientation is modified by updating the fields in the Part
Transform object rather than using the Drop Test Wizard, the analysis end time will not be updated,
and mesh penetrations will not be checked.

• If you modify the geometry after having run the Drop Test Wizard, only the original geometry will
be scoped to the Part Transform object. You will need to manually scope any new geometry to the
Part Transform object for it to be rotated by any subsequent runs of the Drop Test Wizard.

• At release 2020 R1, the Rotate Geometry object is no longer supported and the rotation of the
geometry is achieved using a Part Transform object. For projects created using the Drop Test Wizard
in versions 2019 R3 or earlier that are loaded into the current version, the Rotate Geometry ob-
ject will still remain in the project but will be in a read-only state. The Rotate Geometry object can
be converted to a Part Transform object by launching the Drop Test Wizard.

• The Drop Test Wizard is not available on Linux. The Drop Height initial condition may be added
manually to an analysis on Linux.

• If you modify the thickness of any Surface Bodies after the wizard has been run, there is no check to
ensure that the change in thickness has resulted in any penetrations of the geometry with the Drop
Test Ground Plane.

• You are advised not to rename any of the objects created by the Drop Test Wizard as any subsequent
runs of the Drop Test Wizard may result in undesired behavior.

• If you have multiple Explicit Dynamics systems in one project that share the Model cell, then the
Drop Test Wizard can only be used on the first Explicit Dynamics system that appears in the project
tree in Mechanical.

• The Drop Test Wizard can only be run on projects in Mechanical where the Mesh is editable. This
means that the Drop Test Wizard cannot be run on geometries with composite shell layups defined
in ACP because for such geometries the Mesh is Read Only.

• The Drop Test Wizard should not be run when construction geometries form part of the user geometry.
In such cases, the construction geometry parts will not rotate with the remaining user geometry.

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 crushable foam, 240
Index
D
Symbols decay coefficient for body interaction object, 33
2–parameter mooney-rivlin model, 205 density, 201
3–parameter mooney-rivlin model, 205 detonation point, 93
5–parameter mooney-rivlin model, 205 display options for result tracker graphs, 108
9–parameter mooney-rivlin model, 206 dynamic coefficient for body interaction object, 33

A E
analysis settings edge on edge contact for body interactions, 32
for explicit dynamics analyses, 62 element self contact for body interactions, 31
analysis types Equation of state, 194
explicit dynamics, 15 equations of state, 231
applying pre-stress effects, 149 ideal gas, 232
eroded nodes, 112
B Explicit Dynamics
body interaction types, 32 detonation point, 93
bonded, 34 impedance boundary, 88
frictional, 33 explicit dynamics analysis settings, 62
frictionless, 33 explicit dynamics analysis type, 15
reinforcement, 38 Explicit Dynamics system
body interactions folder properties analysis settings, 174
body self contact, 30 body scoped result tracker, 106
contact detection, 24 boundary scoped result tracker, 109
edge on edge contact, 32 elastic waves, 159
element self contact, 31 erosion controls, 188
formulation, 26 Euler (Virtual) solutions, 163
limiting time step velocity, 32 Euler-Lagrange Coupling, 171
listing, 24 Eulerian reference frame, 161
pinball factor, 31 explicit time integration, 157
shell thickness, 27 force reaction result tracker, 109
time step safety factor, 32 implicit time integration, 156
tolerance, 31 Lagrangian reference frame, 161
body interactions in explicit dynamics analyses mass scaling, 159
connections, 22 material properties, 168
body scoped result tracker, 106 moment reaction result tracker, 109
body self contact for body interactions, 30 multiple material transport, 168
bonded body interaction type, 34 operation of , 154
boundary scoped result tracker, 109 plastic waves, 160
breakable setting for body interaction object, 34 point scoped result tracker, 103, 109
brittle strength, 218 shell coupling, 173
shock waves, 160
solver controls, 180
C sub-cycling, 173
compaction EOS linear, 242
theory, 153
compaction EOS nonlinear, 243
wave propagation, 159
contact detection for body interactions, 24
Explicit Material Library, 195
contact scoped result tracker, 109
explicit transient dynamic analysis, 156
cowper symonds strength, 213
crack softening, 254

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Index

F normal stress exponent for body interaction object, 34

failure, 249 normal stress limit for body interaction object, 34
Grady Spall, 258
Johnson cook, 257 O
plastic strain, 250 ogden, 208
post, 249 orthotropic elasticity, 202
principal strain, 251
principal stress, 250 P
stochastic, 252 p-alpha EOS, 245
tensile pressure, 254 pinball factor for body interactions, 31
filtering result tracker graphs, 108 plasticity, 209
formulation for body interactions, 26 point scoped result tracker, 103
friction coefficient for body interaction object, 33 polynomial, 206
frictional body interaction type, 33 polynomial EOS, 233
frictionless body interaction type, 33 porous collapse damage, 228
porous materials, 241
I
impedance boundary R
description, 88 reinforcement body interaction type, 38
implicit transient dynamic analysis, 155 result tracker
isotropic elasticity, 202 explicit dynamics, 103
resume capability for explicit dynamics, 100
J RHT concrete strength, 225
Johnson cook strength, 212 rigid materials, 260
Johnson-holmquist strength, 221
S
L shear damage, 227
Library shear stress exponent for body interaction object, 34
Explicit Material, 195 shear stress limit for body interaction object, 34
limiting time step velocity for body interactions, 32 shell thickness for body interactions, 27
Linear Elastic, 201 shock EOS linear, 235
ls-dyna analyses , 15 State
Equation of, 194
M steinberg guinan strength, 215
material properties strain hardening, 227
nonlinear, 204 strain rate effects, 228
maximum offset for body interaction object , 34 symmetry
MO granular strength, 230 defining in explicit dynamics, 51
Model
Material failure, 194 T
Material strength, 194 tensile failure, 229
mooney-rivlin model, 204 test data, 204
2–parameter, 205 thermal specific heat, 259
3–parameter, 205 time step safety factor for body interactions, 32
5–parameter, 205 tolerance for body interactions, 31
9–parameter, 206
multilinear kinematic hardening, 211 V
Viscoelastic, 203
N
neo-hookean, 204

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Y
yeoh, 206

Z
zerilli armstrong, 216

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 Release 2021 R2 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
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