HyperWorks Tip/Trick # 790

Applications:
HyperWorks

Application version:
HW 8.0SR1 & above

Computer hardware:
All HW supported platform.

Computer operating systems:

All supported Windows and UNIX

Categories: Subcategories
Utility

Topic:
FBD Cross Section, Resultant Force & Moment Utility in HyperMesh

Topic details:
HyperMesh allows you to create or edit Free Body Diagrams (FBD) using several tools from the Post
(HW-9.0) and Results (HM 8.0SR1) pull down menu. This is available in OptiStruct, Radioss Linear,
Nastran and Abaqus User Profiles.

FBD Utility
Free Body Diagram (FBD) utilities facilitate the extraction and post-processing of Grid Point Force
(GPFORCE) results. FBD extractions are typically utilized where balanced "free body" sub-cases are
extracted from a coarse grid model and applied to a fine grid sub-model for eventual optimization and/or
analysis. FBD is also used to extract cross-sectional resultant forces and moments (typically at the
centroid of a cross-section) for use in traditional strength calculations.

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FBD Cross Section Manager:

This Utility creates and manages cross-section definitions that are used for the Resultant Force &
Moment utility
To define a Cross Section we need 4 entities:

Element Set that defines the group of elements along the section

Node Set that defines the section cut of group of Elements

Summation Node that defines the node in the model where one can sum the Forces and
Moments

Result System that defines the Local Co-ordinate System where we can transform the results.

Cross Section Manager

The FBD Cross-section Manager interface has two creation methods available for cross-section definition:
Manual and Semi automatic. The Advanced options under this utility section provides the means to
semi-automatically create cross-section element and node sets for beam-like structures with even rows of
elements only.
To create a Cross Section:
1. Expand Advanced option tree, Click on Elements selector and select Elements  Displayed
and click Proceed.
2. Click on Nodes and select Nodes on one of the 2 ends of the part as shown below in order to
define a node set.

Node Set creation over the length of the Beam

3. Define names for Element set prefix and Node set prefix and click Accept. Now this utility will
walk down to length of the model in this case beam (shown above) and populates element set
and node set cross section definitions as shown below.

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Advanced Option under Cross Section Manager

4. By default the Sum node is set to Centroid, so this utility calculates the average X-Y-Z
Co-ordinates for all the nodes in the cross-section and creates a temporary node at the averagely
nodded centroid in the section and sum all the forces and moments about this point.
5. Once the Cross Sections are defined we can use these data for the Resultant Force and
Moment Utility.

FBD Resultant Force and Moment:

This utility extracts grid point force (GPFORCE) data for user defined cross-sections created via the
Cross-section Manager.
It takes the OP2/ODB file which needs to have GPFORCE defined for all the nodes and elements defined
in the cross section and would generate input data for shear and moment (VMT) diagrams and/or to
perform load-case screening with Potato plots within HyperGraph.
To Generate Resultant Force and Moment:
1. Go to Post  Free Body  Resultant Force and Moment drop down, you would notice that the
Cross Section data created in the previous step gets automatically populated.
2. Now Input the OP2/ODB file which has the GPFORCE data defined and this would populate the
sub-case defined in the result file.
3. Select all the Sub-cases and Cross-Sections by clicking on
, select a local system if one and
leave the Zero tolerance value to default.
4. Check on Create load collector and Show summary table in order to visualize the moments and
forces on the cross section.
5. Check Create .csv file /.fbd file in order to export the Force and Moment details at various node
locations shown by the Summary table.
6. When you click Accept it would extract the Cross Section results for every Sub-Case provided by
the result file.
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Resultant Force and Moment Utility

Summary table

7. One can also use the FBD Results Manager to graphically review and manage the load
collectors generated from all FBD and Resultant Force and Moment utilities.
8. Finally the CSV/FBD file generated would have all the Force and Moment data which can be input
in HyperGraph in order to plot the Shear Moment/Potato Curves as shown below.

FBD Utility in HG

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Author:
Altair HyperWorks Technical Support Group (sg)

Date this entry was last reviewed:

January 2009
Keywords:
FBD, GPFORCE, Resultant Force, Moment

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