Boundary Conditions

Boundary conditions define how a system (e.g. a structure or a fluid) interacts with its environment. Fixations,
loads, known pressures, known flow velocities etc. are all examples of boundary conditions. A boundary
condition basically consists of three pieces of information:

1. Boundary condition type

May need a large set of boundary condition types for simulations. This section links to descriptions of the
available boundary condition types.

The different types of boundary conditions are listed below.

 Inertial type Boundary Conditions

 Loads type Boundary Conditions
 Supports type Boundary Conditions
 Conditions type Boundary Conditions
 Direct FE type Boundary Conditions
 Remote Boundary Conditions
 Imported Boundary Conditions

2. Boundary condition value

Depending on its type, a boundary condition may need zero, one or multiple values.

3. A list of assigned entities of the domain

A boundary condition is usually valid on a part of the domain’s boundary. That means, each boundary
condition must have at least one topological entity (i.e. nodes, edges or faces) assigned.

Inertial type Boundary Conditions:

Acceleration

The global Acceleration boundary condition defines a linear acceleration of a structure in each of the global
Cartesian axis directions.

If desired, acceleration can be used to simulate gravity (by using inertial effects) by accelerating a structure in
the direction opposite of gravity (the natural phenomenon of). That is, accelerating a structure vertically
upwards (+Y) at 9.80665 m/s2 (in metric units), applies a force on the structure in the opposite direction (-Y)
inducing gravity (pushing the structure back towards earth). Units are length/time2.

Alternatively, you can use the Standard Earth Gravity load to produce the effect of gravity. Gravity and
Acceleration are essentially the same type of load except they have opposite sign conventions and gravity has
a fixed magnitude. For applied gravity, a body tends to move in the direction of gravity and for applied
acceleration, a body tends to move in the direction opposite of the acceleration.
Acceleration as a Base Excitation

Acceleration can also be defined as a base excitation during a Mode-Superposition Transient analysis or a Mode
Superposition Harmonic Response analyses. You scope base excitations to a boundary condition. You can scope
multiple base excitations to the same boundary condition, but the base excitations cannot have same direction
specified (via the Direction property).

Acceleration is available for the following analysis types:

 Explicit Dynamics
 Harmonic Response
 Rigid Dynamics
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Standard Earth Gravity

This boundary condition simulates gravitational effects on a body in the form of an external force.

Gravity is a specific example of acceleration with an opposite sign convention and a fixed magnitude. Gravity
loads cause a body to move in the direction of gravity. Acceleration loads cause a body to move in the
direction opposite of the acceleration. Refer to the example shown under Acceleration for details.

Standard Earth Gravity is available for the following analysis types:

 Explicit Dynamics
 Rigid Dynamics
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Rotational Velocity

Rotational velocity accounts for the structural effects of a part spinning at a constant rate.

Rotational Velocity is available for the following analysis types:

 Modal Analysis
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural
Load Type Boundary Conditions:

The boundary conditions contained under the Loads heading are listed below. They are
separated into groups based on their physics and the applicable analysis types.

Pressure

 A pressure load applies a constant pressure or a varying pressure in a single direction (x, y, or z) to
one or more flat or curved faces. A positive value for pressure acts into the face, compressing the
solid body.

Pressure is available for the following analysis types:

 Harmonic Response
 Explicit Dynamics
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Pipe Pressure

Used in any structural analysis, Pipe Pressure is useful for pipe stress analysis and pipe
design. Pipe Pressure is applied only to pipes in the form of line bodies.

Analysis Types

Pipe Pressure is available for the following analysis types:

 Harmonic Response
 Explicit Dynamics
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Hydrostatic Pressure
A hydrostatic pressure load simulates pressure that occurs due to fluid weight. Hydrostatic pressure is
the pressure that is exerted by a fluid at equilibrium at a given point within the fluid, due to the force
of gravity. Hydrostatic pressure increases in proportion to depth measured from the surface because of the
increasing weight of fluid exerting downward force from above.

Hydrostatic Pressure is available for the following analysis types:

 Explicit Dynamics
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural
Force
Force is specified based on the following topologies:

 Face: Distributes a force vector across one or more flat or curved faces, resulting in uniform traction
across the face.
 Edge: Distributes a force vector along one or more straight or curved edges, resulting in uniform line
load along the edge.
 Vertex: Applies a force vector to one or more vertices.

Force is available for the following analysis types:

 Explicit Dynamics
 Harmonic Response
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Remote Force

A Remote Force is equivalent to a regular force load on a face or a force load on an

edge, plus some moment.

A Remote Force can be used as an alternative to building a rigid part and applying a
force load to it. The advantage of using a remote force load is that you can directly
specify the location in space from which the force originates.

A Remote Force is classified as a remote boundary condition. Refer to the Remote

Boundary Conditions section for a listing of all remote boundary conditions and their
characteristics.
A Remote Force can be applied to a face, edge, or vertex of a 3D model, or to an
edge or vertex of a 2D model.

Analysis Types

Remote Force is available for the following analysis types:

 Harmonic Response
 Rigid Dynamics
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Bearing Load

The Bearing Load boundary condition simulates radial forces only. It is applied on the
interior of a cylinder in the radial direction using a coordinate system. If the Mechanical
application detects a portion of the load to be in the axial direction, the solver stops the
solution and issues an appropriate error message.

Note:

 If your CAD system split the target cylinder into two or more faces, select all of
the faces when defining the Bearing Load.
 When analyzing more than one cylinder, be sure that you scope each cylinder
with its own Bearing Load boundary condition. Scoping a single Bearing Load to
multiple cylinders, as illustrated below, divides the load among the multiple
cylindrical faces by area ratio. The example shows two cylinders where the
length on the right cylinders is twice the length of the left cylinder. For the single
bearing load applied to the two cylinders, the reactions are proportional to each
cylinder's area as a fraction of the total load area. This can be seen by the
Reaction Force results 100.26N versus 204.33N).
  Although loading across multiple steps may appear as an application of tabular
loading, you cannot set the magnitude of a bearing load in terms of either
tabular or functional data. You must set a constant or ramped magnitude for
each step such that one value corresponds to each step.

Analysis Types

Bearing Load is available for the following analysis types:

 Harmonic Response
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Bolt Pretension

This boundary condition applies a pretension load to a cylindrical face, to a straight

edge of a line body, to a single body, or to multiple bodies, typically to model a bolt
under pretension.

Analysis Types

Bolt Pretension is applicable to pure structural or thermal-stress analyses:

 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Bolt Pretension

This boundary condition applies a pretension load to a cylindrical face, to a straight

edge of a line body, to a single body, or to multiple bodies, typically to model a bolt
under pretension.

Analysis Types

Bolt Pretension is applicable to pure structural or thermal-stress analyses:

 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Generalized Plane Strain

This boundary condition is used during 2D simulations involving generalized plane strain
behavior.
Analysis Types

The Generalized Plane Strain boundary condition is available for the following
analysis types:

 Modal Analysis
 Eigenvalue Buckling
 Harmonic Response
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Line Pressure
For 3D simulations, a line pressure load applies a distributed force on one edge only,
using force density loading in units of force per length. You can define the force density
on the selected edge in various ways.

If a pressurized edge enlarges due to a change in CAD parameters, the total load
applied to the edge increases, but the pressure (force per unit length) remains
constant.

Analysis Types

Line Pressure is available for the following analysis types:

 Explicit Dynamics
 Harmonic Response
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

PSD Base Excitation

PSD Base Excitation loads are used exclusively in random vibration analyses to provide
excitation in terms of spectral value vs. frequency to your choice of the supports that
were applied in the prerequisite modal analysis. The Boundary Condition setting in
the Details view includes a drop-down list where you can specify any of the following
supports for excitation that are defined in the modal analysis: Fixed
Support, Displacement, Remote Displacement, andBody-to-Ground Spring. If
multiple fixed supports or multiple remote displacements are defined in the modal
analysis, you can apply the excitation load to all fixed supports or all remote
displacements or all of both loads using one of the following options:

 All Fixed Supports

 All Remote Displacements
 All Fixed and Remote Displacements
 All Supports (including Fixed, Remote Displacement, Displacement,
and Grounded Springs)

Note:

 Only fixed degrees of freedom of the supports are valid for excitations.
 Boundary conditions defined with a local coordinate system are not supported.

You can also specify the excitation direction (X Axis, Y Axis, or Z Axis).

The user-defined PSD data table is created in the Tabular Data window. You can
create a new PSD table or import one from a library that you have created, via the fly-
out of the Load Data option in the Details view.

Note: Only positive table values can be input when defining this load.

When creating PSD loads for a Random Vibration analysis in the Mechanical application,
Workbench evaluates your entries by performing a "Goodness of Fit" to ensure that
your results will be dependable.

Click the fly-out of the Load Data option and choose Improved Fit after entering
data points for viewing the graph and updating the table. Interpolated points are
displayed if they are available from the goodness of fit approximation. Once load entries
are entered, the table provides one of the following color-code indicators per segment:

 Green: Values are considered reliable and accurate.

 Yellow: This is a warning indicator. Results produced are not considered to be
reliable and accurate.
 Red: Results produced are not considered trustworthy. If you choose to solve
the analysis, the Mechanical APDL application executes the action, however; the
results are almost certainly incorrect. It is recommended that you modify your
input PSD loads prior to the solution process.

Four types of base excitation are supported:

 PSD Acceleration
 PSD G Acceleration
 PSD Velocity
 PSD Displacement

The direction of the PSD base excitation is defined in the nodal coordinate of the
excitation points.
Multiple PSD excitations (uncorrelated) can be applied. Typical usage is to apply three
different PSDs in the X, Y, and Z directions. Correlation between PSD excitations is not
supported.

RS Base Excitation

RS Base Excitation loads are used exclusively in response spectrum analyses to provide
excitation in terms of a spectrum. For each spectrum value, there is one corresponding
frequency. Use the Boundary Condition setting in the Details view to apply an
excitation to all of the fixed supports that were applied in the prerequisite modal
analysis.

Note: Only fixed DOFs of the supports are valid for excitations.

You can also specify the excitation in a given direction (X Axis, Y Axis, or Z Axis).

The user-defined RS data table is created in the Tabular Data window. You can create
a new RS table or import one from a library that you have created, via the fly-out of
the Load Data option in the Details view.

Note: Only positive table values can be used when defining this load.

Three types of base excitation are supported:

 RS Acceleration
 RS Velocity
 RS Displacement

You should specify the direction of the RS base excitation in the global Cartesian
system.

Multiple RS excitations (uncorrelated) can be applied. Typical usage is to apply 3

different RS excitations in the X, Y, and Z directions. Correlation between RS excitations
is not supported.

The following additional settings are included in the Details view of an RS Base
Excitation load:

 Scale Factor: Scales the entire table of input excitation spectrum for a Single
Point response spectrum. The factor must be greater than 0.0. The default is
1.0.
 Missing Mass Effect: Set to Yes to include the contribution of high frequency
modes in the total response calculation. Including these modes is normally
required for nuclear power plant design.

The responses contributed by frequency modes higher than those of rigid

responses, specifically frequency modes beyond Zero Period Acceleration (ZPA)
are called residual rigid responses. The frequency modes beyond ZPA are defined
 as frequency modes at which the spectral acceleration returns to the Zero Period
Acceleration. In some applications, especially in the nuclear power plant industry,
it is critical and required to include the residual rigid responses to the total
responses. Ignoring the residual rigid responses will result in an underestimation
of responses in the vicinity of supports. There are two methods available to
calculate residual rigid responses: the Missing Mass and Static ZPA methods. The
Missing Mass method is named based on the fact that the mass associated with
the frequency modes higher than that of ZPA are missing from the analysis. As a
result, the residual rigid responses are sometimes referred to missing mass
responses. When set to Yes, the Missing Mass Effect is used in a response
spectrum analysis.

 Rigid Response Effect: Set to Yes to include rigid responses to the total
response calculation. Rigid responses normally occur in the frequency range that
is lower than that of missing mass responses, but higher than that of periodic
responses.

In many cases, it is impractical and difficult to accurately calculate all natural

frequencies and mode shapes for use in the response spectrum evaluation. For
high-frequency modes, rigid responses basically predominate. To compensate for
the contribution of higher modes to the responses, the rigid responses are
combined algebraically to the periodic responses, which occur in the low-
frequency modes that are calculated using one the methods above. The most
widely adopted methods to calculate the rigid responses are the Gupta and
Lindley-Yow methods. These two methods are available for a response spectrum
analysis under Rigid Response Effect Type when Rigid Response Effect is
set to Yes.

Joint Load

When you are using joints in a Transient Structural or Rigid Dynamics analysis,
you use a Joint Load object to apply a kinematic driving condition to a single degree
of freedom on a Joint object. Joint Load objects are applicable to all joint
types except fixed, general, universal, and spherical joints. For translation degrees of
freedom, the Joint Load can apply a displacement, velocity, acceleration, or force. For
rotation degrees of freedom, the Joint Load can apply a rotation, angular velocity,
angular acceleration, or moment. The directions of the degrees of freedom are based
on the reference coordinate system of the joint and not on the mobile coordinate
system.

A positive joint load will tend to cause the mobile body to move in the positive degree
of freedom direction with respect to the reference body, assuming the mobile body is
free to move. If the mobile body is not free to move then the reference body will tend
to move in the negative degree of freedom direction for the Joint Load. One way to
learn how the mechanism will behave is to use the Configure feature. For the joint with
the applied Joint Load, dragging the mouse will indicate the nature of the
reference/mobile definition in terms of positive and negative motion.

To apply a Joint Load:

1. Highlight the Transient environment object and insert a Joint Load from the
right mouse button context menu or from the Loads drop down menu in
the Environment toolbar.
2. From the Joint drop down list in the Details view of the Joint Load, select the
particular Joint object that you would like to apply to the Joint Load. You
should apply a Joint Load to the mobile bodies of the joint. It is therefore
important to carefully select the reference and mobile bodies while defining the
joint.
3. Select the unconstrained degree of freedom for applying the Joint Load, based
on the type of joint. You make this selection from the DOF drop down list. For
joint types that allow multiple unconstrained degrees of freedom, a
separate Joint Load is necessary to drive each one. Further limitations apply as
outlined under Joint Load Limitations below. Joint Load objects that include
velocity, acceleration, rotational velocity or rotational acceleration are not
applicable to static structural analyses.
4. Select the type of Joint Load from the Type drop down list. The list is filtered
with choices of Displacement,Velocity, Acceleration, and Force if you
selected a translational DOF in step 3. The choices are Rotation,Rotational
Velocity, Rotational Acceleration, and Moment if you selected a
rotational DOF.
5. Specify the magnitude of the Joint Load type selected in step 4 as a constant,
in tabular format, or as a function of time using the same procedure as is done
for most loads in the Mechanical application. Refer to Defining Boundary
Condition Magnitude for further information.

Tip: On Windows platforms, an alternative and more convenient way to

accomplish steps 1 and 2 above is to drag and drop the Joint object of interest
from under the Connections object folder to the Transient object folder. When
you highlight the new Joint Load object, the Joint field is already completed
and you can continue at step 3 with DOF selection.

6. As applicable, specify the load step at which you want to lock the joint load by
entering the value of the step in theLock at Load Step field. The default value
for this option is zero (0) and is displayed as Never. This feature immobilizes
movement of the joint’s DOFs. For example, this option is beneficial when you
want to tighten a bolt to an initial torque value (via a Moment Joint Driver on a
Revolute Joint) and then lock that joint during a subsequent load step.

Note: MAPDL References:

This feature makes use of the %_FIX% parameter on the DJ command.

When a joint driver with a force or moment load is deactivated, then the lock constraint on
the joint is also deleted using the DJDELE command. This happens if the locking occurs
before the deactivation.
Joint Load Limitations

Some joint types have limitations on the unconstrained degrees of freedom that allow
the application of joint loads as illustrated in the following table:

Joint Type Unconstrained Degrees of Freedom Allowable Degrees of Freedom for

Applying Joint Loads

Fixed None Not applicable

Revolute ROTZ ROTZ

Cylindrical UZ, ROTZ UZ, ROTZ

Translational UX UX

Slot UX, ROTX, ROTY, ROTZ UX

Universal ROTX, ROTZ None

Spherical ROTX, ROTY, ROTZ None

Planar UX, UY, ROTZ UX, UY, ROTZ

General UX, UY and UZ, Free X, Free Y, Free Z, All unconstrained degrees of freedom
and Free All

Bushing UX, UY, UZ, ROTX, ROTY, ROTZ All unconstrained degrees of freedom

Point on UX UX
Curve

Note: Where applicable, you must define all three rotations for a Joint Load before
proceeding to a solve.

Thermal Condition

You can insert a known temperature (not from data transfer) boundary condition in an
analysis by inserting a Thermal Condition object and specifying the value of the
temperature in the Details view under the Magnitude property. If the load is applied
to a surface body, by default the temperature is applied to both the top and bottom
surface body faces. You do have the option to apply different temperatures to the top
and bottom faces by adjusting the Shell Face entry in the details view. When you
apply a thermal condition load to a solid body, the Shell Face property is not available in
the Details view. You can add the thermal condition load as time-dependent or spatially
varying.
Note:

 When a Thermal Condition is specified on the Top or Bottom shell face of a

surface body, the opposite face defaults to the environment temperature unless
it is otherwise specified from another load object.
 For an assembly of bodies with different topologies (solid body, line, shell,
beam), you must define a separate Thermal Condition load for each topology,
that is, you must define one load scoped to line bodies, define a second load
scoped to surface bodies, and so on.
 For each load step, if an Imported Body temperature load and a Thermal
Condition load are applied on common geometry selections, the Imported Body
temperature load takes precedence. See Activation/Deactivation of Loads for
additional rules when multiple load objects of the same type exist on common
geometry selections.
 If the Thermal Condition is applied to a shell face that has a Layered
Section applied to it, you must set Shell Face to Both in order to solve the
analysis.

Analysis Types

Thermal Condition is available for the following analysis types:

 Eigenvalue Buckling
 Electric Analysis
 Modal
 Static Structural
 Transient Structural

Pipe Temperature

For 3D structural analyses, a pipe temperature load applies a constant, tabular, or

functional variation of temperature to one or more line bodies which are set to be
pipes. You can select it to be internal pipe temperature or external pipe temperature
from the Details view.

Analysis Types

Pipe Temperature is available for the following analysis types:

 Static Structural
 Transient Structural
Fixed support

The fixed support constraint restricts all degrees of freedom of the assigned entities to zero. It is equivalent to
a fixed value constraint where all components are explicitly set to be pre-described as zero.

In most cases it is used to represent a fixation to the ground or an un deformable support.