Lab Manual

Finite Element Methods Lab

(ANSYS Software)
Instructor Name: Engr. Adnan Rasheed

Student Name: Muhammad Mubeen

Roll #: MEEN20110102

KHWAJA FAREED
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Rahim Yar Khan OF ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION Page
TECHNOLOGY
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Lab 03 FEM Lab

Lab Session 03
Simply Supported Beam with Point Load

Objective

To find the deformation in a simply supported beam with a central point load application,
numerically and analytically

Problem Statement
To calculate the maximum deflection of 1.5 m long simply supported beam which has fixed
support at one end and roller at the other end. If this beam is loaded with uniformly distributed
load of 5000N and Young’s modulus of the material is 110000 N/mm2 while cross section of
beam is square 50mm, do simulation on ANSYS and compare results with hand calculations.

Input data
A beam is drawn in with 1.5 m length and 50 mm square cross section. (Suggest the material
name here, by your own finding)

Procedure
1. Open Static Structure Analysis form left toolbox of Analysis Systems
2. Then double click on engineering data to add a required material, i.e. mild steel.
3. Now again in work bench, open geometry in Design Modeler and draw according to
given data. Then save it and exit the modeler.
4. Now mesh the model with default mesh sizing and add named selections if required.
Then refine the mesh sizing and save the project.
5. Apply boundary conditions and then the loadings conditions as given. Then save the
project.
6. Now click on solution and select the stress, deformation, then click solve.
7. It will show the ANSYS analysis of stress and deformation in geometry window. The
minimum and maximum values will be shown on side with colors.
8. Save the images of all analysis and save the project report.

Analytical Solution
Start the ANSYS workbench in your PC. From the Analysis solution on the left side use Static
Structural Analysis and drag it to the main screen. Save the project. Select and open the
engineering data and edit it according to the data in the given statement as shown in figure
below.

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Lab 03 FEM Lab

Figure 1

Close the engineering data and open the design modeler. Firstly, set the units to MGS
(millimeter, gram, second) system. From the sketch, select rectangle and draw it. Apply equal
length constraints and dimension it 50 × 50 𝑚𝑚.

Figure 2

Use the extrude command to extrude it up to 1500mm and click generate to create it 3D.
Now, create a point at its center with the help of sketch planes and cross section as shown in
figure.

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Lab 03 FEM Lab

Figure 3

Save it and open the Mechanical APDL. After checking geometry, now generate a mesh at
default size. Now the generate the new mesh at 10mm element size with respect to the
minimum boundary thickness.

Figure 4

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Lab 03 FEM Lab

Now apply the point force at the middle point generated already with the help of sketch planes.
The magnitude of force will be 5000N. X and Z components of the force will be zero and Y
component will have the magnitude. Negative sign is used to determine the direction of the
force. One end of the beam is fixed and one has displacement in z direction. i.e., simply
supported beam.

Figure 5

From the solution tab insert, directional deformation for the solutions. And in beam tool, use
direct stress, minimum combined stress and maximum combined stress.

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Lab 03 FEM Lab

Figure 6

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Lab 03 FEM Lab

Figure 7

Numerical solution

Maximum deflection calculation

The maximum deflection of a simply supported beam subjected to a point load be calculated
using the following formula.

𝑃𝐿3
𝛿𝑚𝑎𝑥 =
48𝐸𝐼

Where:

𝛿𝑚𝑎𝑥 = maximum deflection

P = uniformly distributed load

L = length of the beam

E = Young's modulus of the material

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Lab 03 FEM Lab

I = moment of inertia of the beam's cross-section

Young's Modulus

Young's modulus is a measure of the stiffness of a material. It represents the ratio of stress to
strain within the elastic region of deformation. For the given material, the Young's modulus is
110000 N/mm².

Calculation of Maximum Deflection Using the formula mentioned above, the maximum
deflection of the beam can be calculated. Substituting the given values

W = 5000 N

L = 1500 mm

E = 110000 Mpa

Cross-section = 50 mm

The moment of inertia (I) of a square cross-section can be calculated as.

𝑏4
𝐼=
12
where b is the side length of the square cross-section.

504
𝐼=
12
𝐼 = 520833.33 𝑚𝑚4

5 × 5000 × 15004
𝛿𝑚𝑎𝑥 =
48 × 110000 × 520833.33

𝜹𝒎𝒂𝒙 = 𝟔. 𝟏𝟑𝟔𝟑 𝒎𝒎

Error

6.1363 − 6.7443
=
6.1363
𝑬𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓 = 𝟗. 𝟗𝟎%

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Lab 03 FEM Lab

Conclusions
After compare the numerical and analytical result we conclude that there is minor error in
theoretical and analytical results 9.90% this can be reduced by reducing the size of mesh.

For the maximum deflection, the calculated error of 0.48% suggests that there is less than half
a percent difference between the numerical (ANSYS) and analytical values. Similarly, for the
maximum stress, the error of indicates an even smaller deviation between the numerical and
analytical values.

These errors are within an acceptable range for many engineering applications. However, it's
essential to consider the specific requirements and tolerances of the project when evaluating
the significance of these errors. In some cases, further refinement of the analytical model or
experimental setup may be necessary to reduce errors further.

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