Lecture 4: Transient Structural Analysis (Rigid/Flexible

Multibody Dynamics)
16.2 Release

ANSYS Mechanical Rigid Body Dynamics

1 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Lecture 4 Content
A. Introduction to transient structural analyses
B. Time stepping
C. Including nonlinearities
D. Part specification and meshing
E. Contact, joints, and springs
F. Initial conditions
G. Loads, supports, and joint conditions
H. Damping
I. Transient structural analysis settings
J. Reviewing results

2 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 A. Introduction
“Transient Structural” analysis provides users with the ability to determine the
dynamic response of the system under any type of time-varying loads.

• Unlike “Rigid Dynamics” analyses, bodies can be either rigid or flexible. For
flexible bodies, nonlinear materials can be included, and stresses and strains can
be output.

Assembly shown here is from an Autodesk Inventor sample model

3 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016
 A. Introduction
In a Transient Structural analysis, Mechanical solves the general equation of motion:

M x C x K x x  F t 

Some points of interest:
• Applied loads and joint conditions may be a functions of time.
• As seen above, inertial and damping effects are now included. Hence, the user should include density and damping among the material
properties.
• Nonlinear effects, such as geometric, material, and/or contact nonlinearities, are included by updating the stiffness matrix.

Transient Structural analyses are needed to evaluate the response of deformable bodies when inertial effects become significant.
• If inertial and damping effects can be ignored, consider performing a linear or nonlinear static analysis instead.
• If the loading is purely sinusoidal and the response is linear, a harmonic response analysis is more efficient.
• If the bodies can be assumed to be rigid and the kinematics of the system is of interest, rigid dynamic analysis is more cost-effective.
• In all other cases, Transient Structural analyses should be used, as it is the most general type of dynamic analysis.

4 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 A. Introduction
Transient Structural analysis encompasses static structural analysis and rigid dynamic analysis, and it
allows for all types of Connections, Loads, and Supports.
However, one of the important considerations of performing Transient Structural analysis is the time
step size:

• The time step should be small enough to correctly describe the time-varying loads.
• The time step size controls the accuracy of capturing the dynamic response. Hence, running a
preliminary modal analysis is suggested in Section E of Appendix-1.
• The time step size also controls the accuracy and convergence behavior of nonlinear systems.
Background information on the Newton-Raphson method is presented in Section F of Appendix-1.

5 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 B. Time Step Sizes
While Transient Structural analyses use automatic time-stepping, proper selection of the initial,
minimum, and maximum time steps is important to represent the dynamic response accurately:

• Unlike rigid dynamic analyses, which use explicit time integration, Transient Structural analyses use implicit time
integration. Hence, the time steps are usually larger for Transient Structural analyses.

• The dynamic response can be thought of as the superposition various mode shapes of the structure as being
excited by the applied loading. The initial time step should be based on the modes (or frequency content) of the
system.

• It is recommended to use automatic time-stepping (default):

– The maximum time step can be chosen based on accuracy concerns. This value can be defined as the same or
slightly larger than the initial time step
– The minimum time step can be input to prevent Workbench Simulation from solving indefinitely. This minimum
time step can be input as 1/100 or 1/1000 of the initial time step.

6 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 C. Including Nonlinearities
There are several sources of nonlinear behavior, and a Transient Structural analysis
may often include nonlinearities:

• Geometric nonlinearities: If a structure

experiences large deformations, its
changing geometric configuration can
cause nonlinear behavior.

• Material nonlinearities: A nonlinear stress-strain

relationship, such as metal plasticity shown on
the right, is another source of nonlinearities.

• Contact: Include effects of contact is a type

of “changing status” nonlinearity, where an
abrupt change in stiffness may occur when
bodies come in or out of contact with each other.

7 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 D. Part Specification
In a Transient Structural analysis, parts may be rigid or flexible:
• Under the “Geometry” branch, the “Stiffness Behavior” can be toggled from “Flexible” to
“Rigid” on a per-part basis.
• Rigid and flexible parts can co-exist in the same model.
Consideration for flexible parts are the same as in static analyses:
• Specify appropriate material properties, such as density, Young’s Modulus, and Poisson’s
ratio.
• Nonlinear materials, such as plasticity or hyperelasticity, can also be included.
For rigid parts, the following apply:
• Density is the only material property needed to
calculate mass properties. All other material
specifications will be ignored.
• An “Inertial Coordinate System” will automatically
be defined at the centroid of the part.

8 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 D. Part Specification
For flexible bodies, the mesh density is based on the following:
• The mesh should be fine enough to capture the mode shapes of the structure (dynamic response).
• If stresses and strains are of interest, the mesh should be fine enough to capture these gradients accurately.
For rigid bodies, no mesh is produced
• Rigid bodies are rigid, so no
stresses, strains, or relative
deformation is calculated.
Hence, no mesh is required
• Internally, rigid bodies are
represented as point masses
located at the center of their
“Inertial Coordinate System”

On the figure on the right, one can see Assembly shown here is from an Autodesk Inventor sample model
flexible bodies (meshed) and rigid
bodies (not meshed) in the same model.

9 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 E. Contact, Joints, and Springs
Contact, joints, and springs can be defined under the “Connections” branch in Transient Structural
analyses.

• Contact is only defined between 2D or 3D flexible bodies. Contact is used when parts can come in and out of
contact or if frictional effects are important.

– Nonlinear contact (rough, frictionless, frictional) is only available for faces of 3D bodies or edges of 2D bodies.

• Joints can be defined between two bodies or from one body to ground. Joints are meant to model mechanisms
where the parts are always touching but relative motion is possible.
– Joints are defined only on faces of 3D bodies.

• Springs are defined for 3D rigid or flexible bodies. Springs provide longitudinal stiffness and damping for the scoped
regions, meant to represent stiffness/damping effects of parts not explicitly modeled.
– Springs can be defined on vertices, edges, or faces of 3D bodies.
– Defined springs cannot have zero length.

10 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 E. Contact, Joints, and Springs
In contact, parts are prevented from penetrating into each other. The different type of contact
describe behavior in the separation and sliding directions:

Normal Direction Tangential Direction

Contact Type Separate Slide
Bonded no no
No Separation no yes
Rough yes no
Frictionless yes yes
Frictional yes yes (when Ft ≥mN)

11 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 E. Contact, Joints, and Springs
Different contact formulations allow for establishing the mathematical relationship between contacting
solid bodies:

• For bonded and no separation contact, the contacting areas are known beforehand based on the
geometry and pinball region.
– The recommended contact formulation to use is either “Pure Penalty” (default) or “MPC.”

• For rough, frictionless, and frictional contact,

the actual contacting areas are not known
a priori, so an iterative approach is required.
– The recommended contact formulation to use
is “Augmented Lagrange.”

12 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 E. Contact, Joints, and Springs
Joints can be defined between bodies or from a body to ground:
• Joints define the allowed motion (kinematic constraint) on surface(s).
• Various types of joints can be defined for flexible or rigid bodies:
– Fixed, Revolute, Cylindrical, Translational, Slot, Universal, Spherical, Planar, or General Joints
• Definition and configuration of joints was covered in an earlier section.
• Unlike rigid dynamic analysis, the actual—not relative—degrees of freedom are specified.

The animation on the right shows an

assembly using cylindrical and revolute
joints

Assembly shown here is from an Autodesk Inventor sample model

13 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016
 E. Contact, Joints, and Springs
In Transient Structural analyses, the user has an additional option of specifying the behavior of the
joint:

• “Rigid” (default) behavior means that the scoped surface(s) will not deform but be treated as rigid
surface(s). This means, for example, that a scoped cylindrical surface will remain cylindrical
throughout the analysis.

• “Deformable” behavior means that while the

joint constraint is satisfied, the scoped
surface(s) are free to deform. This means that
a scoped cylindrical surface may not remain
cylindrical throughout the analysis.

14 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 E. Contact, Joints, and Springs
Springs can be defined between bodies or from body to ground:
• Springs define the stiffness and/or damping of surface(s).
– Refer to Section H for additional details on damping.
• Springs can be defined for rigid or flexible bodies.
• These are longitudinal springs, so the stiffness or damping is related to the change in length of the
spring.
– The spring must not have zero length.
– Springs can be defined on vertices, edges, or surfaces.

15 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 F. Initial Conditions

• Initial displacement = 0, initial velocity ≠ 0

– Ramp a very small displacement value over a small time interval to produce the desired
initial velocity. Deactivate it for Step 2.

• Initial displacement ≠ 0, initial velocity ≠ 0

– Ramp the desired initial displacement over a time interval to produce the desired initial
velocity. Deactivate it for Step 2.

• Initial displacement ≠ 0, initial velocity = 0

– Step apply the desired initial displacement over a time interval to ensure that initial velocity
is zero. Deactivate it for Step 2, if necessary.

16 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 G. Loads, Supports, and Joint Conditions
For rigid bodies, just as in a rigid dynamic analysis, only inertial loads and joint conditions are supported.

• Rigid bodies do not deform, so structural and thermal loads do not apply.

For deformable bodies, any type of load can be used :

• Inertial and structural loads

– PSD Base Excitation load is only applicable to Random Vibration Analysis, so that is not an
applicable structural loading in RDB analysis.
• Structural supports
• Joints (for defined joints) and thermal conditions

17 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 G. Loads, Supports, and Joint Conditions
Structural loads and joint conditions can be input as time-dependent load histories.
• When adding a Load or Joint Condition, the
magnitude can be defined as a constant,
tabular value, or function.
• The values can be entered directly in the
Mechanical GUI or entered in
the Engineering Data application.

18 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 H. Damping

Damping is an energy-dissipation mechanism that causes vibrations to diminish over time and
eventually stop.
– e.g. vibrational energy that is converted to heat or sound

In damping, the energy of the vibrating system is dissipated by various mechanisms, and often
more than one mechanism may be present at the same time.

The amount of damping may depend on the material, the velocity of motion, the frequency of
vibration and/or many other factors.

19 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 H. Damping
As noted in Section A, the equations solved for in Transient Structural analyses also include a damping
term.
There are three different types of damping available:
• Material damping
– This is damping specified on a per-material basis.
• Element damping
– A Spring connection can include a dampening effect on scoped entities.
• Global damping
– This is damping that affects the entire model.
The effect of damping is cumulative. Hence, if 2% material damping and 3% system damping are
defined, that part will have 5% damping.
Note: for more background on Damping, please refer to the Appendix at the end of this chapter.

20 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 I. Analysis Settings
Besides damping, there are various other options the user can set
under the “Analysis Settings” branch.

It is important that the user specify the solution times in the “Step
Controls” section.
• The “Number of Steps” controls how the load history is divided. One
can impose initial conditions with multiple load steps—use “Time
Integration” to toggle whether inertial effects are active for that
step.
• The “Step End Time” is the actual simulation ending time for the
“Current Step Number.”
• The initial, minimum, and maximum timesteps should be defined as
noted in previous Sections.

21 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 I. Analysis Settings
The “Solver Controls” section allows the user to choose the
equation solver, use of weak springs, and use of large
deflection effects.

• Transient Structural analyses may typically involve large

deformations, so “Large Deflection: On” should be used (default
behavior). Also, in the case of large deflection, one would usually
turn on weak springs.

• “Output Controls” allows users to control how frequently data is

saved to the ANSYS results file. For multistep analyses, one can
save results only for the end of the step. Also, one can save
results at intervals that are as evenly-spaced as possible
(depending on automatic time-stepping).

22 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 J. Reviewing Results
After completion of the solution, reviewing Transient Structural analysis results typically involves the
following output:
• Contour plots and animations
• Probe plots and charts
Generating contour plots and animations is similar to other structural analyses.
• Note that the displaced position of rigid
bodies will be shown in the contour result,
but the rigid bodies will not show any
contour result for deformation, stress, or
strain since they are rigid entities.
• Typically, animations are generated using
the actual result sets, not distributed sets.

23 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 J. Reviewing Results
Probes are useful in generating time-history charts
to understand the transient response of the system.
Some useful probe results are as follows:
• Deformation, stresses, strains, velocities, accelerations
• Force and moment reactions
• Joint, spring, and bolt pretension results
Chart objects, based on probes, can also be added
to include in reports or as independent figures.

24 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 J. Reviewing Results—Probes
• Probes can be inserted into the Solution branch, allowing results to be extracted
for specific locations or connections.
• Probes are scoped using joints, geometry (including bodies), or coordinate systems
• A shortcut for setting up joint and spring Probes is to drag and drop the item onto
the Solution branch.

Drag and Drop

25 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 J. Reviewing Results
Rigid results are presented in graphical, tabular, or animation formats.
Only result objects under “Deformation” and “Probe” are used.

26 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 J. Reviewing Results—Animation Controller

Start/Stop Number of Animation

Frames Speed

Results Save .avi

Distribution animation file

• Animation results may be distributed evenly over the entire result or actual result points can be
used for the animation.
– The more frames used the smoother the animation, but time to display animation is
increased.

27 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 J. Reviewing Results—User Defined Results
User defined results can be obtained from
the Worksheet or can be entered using the
“User Defined Result “ toolbar button.

28 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Workshop 6: Simulation of Engine Assembly

29 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Appendix: Damping

30 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Appendix: Damping
Damping can be classified as:

• Viscous damping (e.g. dashpot, shock absorber)

• Material / Solid / Hysteretic damping (e.g. internal friction)

• Coulomb or dry-friction damping (e.g. sliding friction)

• Numerical damping (artificial damping)

31 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 General Equation of Motion
• The non-linear governing equation for the Transient Dynamic Analysis is:

F F
F  damping
inertia
  Fstiffness
   
applied

M u C u K (u )u  F t 

[M]: is structural mass matrix uሷ : is nodal acceleration vector

[C]: is structural damping matrix uሶ : is nodal velocity vector
[K]: is structural stiffness matrix {u}: is nodal displacement vector
{F}: is the load vector (t): is time

32 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Viscous damping in Single-DOF Vibration
Equation of motion for a SDOF system with damping,
under free vibration

mu  cu  k u  0
u  2 nu  n2u  0

where: 𝑛 = 𝑘Τ is the un-damped natural frequency

𝑚

𝑐𝑐 = 2 𝑘𝑚 is the critical damping

(threshold between oscillatory and non-oscillatory behavior).
 = 𝑐 Τ𝑐𝑐 is the damping ratio
(ratio of the damping in a system to the critical damping)
𝑑 = 𝑛 1 − 𝜉 2 is the frequency of damped oscillation.

33 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Viscous damping in Single-DOF Vibration

• The value of [C] can be input directly as element damping when a

spring element is used (Details section of Spring connection).

34 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices

1. Transient (FULL) Analysis and Damped Modal Analysis

• The complete expression for the structural damping matrix, [C], is

Mass
 damping
 Structural damping
   
C    M     M i    K     jm K j 
N ma N mb
m
i
i 1 j 1
Element Gyroscopic
damping
 
damping

Ne Ng

 C    G 
k 1
k
l 1
l

35 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices—Structural Damping Matrix [C]

Alpha damping and Beta damping are used to define Rayleigh damping
constants α and β. The damping matrix [C] is calculated by using these
constants to multiply the mass matrix [M] and stiffness matrix [K]:

C    M   K 

 i
i  
2i 2

36 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices—Structural Damping Matrix [C]
In many practical structural problems, alpha damping (or mass damping) may be ignored (α = 0). In
such cases, you can evaluate β from known values of i and ωi, as

 2
 or  
2 
with a given value of β damping, the damping ratio  is directly proportional to frequency, i.e., lower
frequencies will be damped less and higher frequencies will be damped more (rigid body damping is
ignored).

37 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices—Structural Damping Matrix [C]

with a given value of α damping, the damping ratio  is inversely proportional

to frequency, i.e., lower frequencies will be damped more and higher
frequencies will be damped less

 or   2 
2

38 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices—Structural Damping Matrix [C]

To specify both α and β for a given damping ratio , it is commonly assumed

that the sum of the α and β terms is nearly constant over a range of
frequencies. Therefore, given  and a frequency range ω1 to ω2, two
simultaneous equations can be solved for α and β:

𝜶 𝝎𝟏
+𝜷 =
𝟐𝝎𝟏 𝟐
𝜶 𝝎𝟐   i
+𝜷 =  
𝟐𝝎𝟐 𝟐 2i 2
𝝎𝟏 𝝎𝟐
𝜶 = 𝟐
𝝎𝟏 + 𝝎𝟐
𝟐
𝜷=
𝝎𝟏 + 𝝎𝟐 
1
2

39 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices—Structural Damping Matrix [C]

The value of  and  can be input using the following:

[1] Material-dependent damping value
(Mass-Matrix Damping Multiplier, and k-Matrix Damping Multiplier)

  i
C     im M i     jm K j 
N ma N mb
Equivalent damping i  
i 1 j 1 2i 2

40 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices—Structural Damping Matrix [C]

[2] Directly as global damping value

(Details section of Analysis Settings)
  i
C    M    K  Equivalent damping i  
2i 2
Damped Modal Full Transient

41 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices—Structural Damping Matrix [C]

• The complete expression for the structural damping matrix, [C], is

Mass
 damping
 
N ma
C    M     im M i 
i 1

Structural damping

 1   
 
N mb
    g K      jm  m j  g Ej  K j
2 1
   j 1    
Element Gyroscopic Viscoelastic
damping
  damping
damping
 
Ne Ng Nv
  Ck    Gl    Cm 
1
k 1 l 1 l 1 

• g is constant damping.

42 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices—Structural Damping Matrix [C]

The value of g,  and  can be input using the following:

[1] Material-dependent damping value
(Mass-Matrix Damping Multiplier, and k-Matrix Damping Multiplier)

  i
C     im M i      jm  1 g j K j 
N ma N mb
Equivalent damping i   g
i 1 j 1    2i 2

43 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Matrices—Structural Damping Matrix [C]

[2] Directly as global damping value

(Details section of Analysis Settings)

  i
C    M      1 g K  Equivalent damping i   g
   2i 2

44 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016

 Damping Summary
In summary, Workbench allows the following four inputs for damping:
• Alpha  and Beta  damping
– Global or material-dependent.
– Defines the mass matrix multiplier  and stiffness matrix multiplier  for damping.
• Element damping (viscous)
– Defines the damping coefficients (c) directly.
• Damping ratio g (solid)
– Global or material-dependent.
– Available only in Full harmonic analysis, and mode-sup analyses (harmonic, transient, spectrum)
– Defines the ratio of actual damping to critical damping.
– Does not affect the frequency of damped oscillation d.
• Numerical damping (artificial)
– Defines the amplitude decay factor obtained through a modification of the time-integration scheme.
– Available only in transient analysis.

NOTE: The effects are cumulative if set in conjunction.

45 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. March 14, 2016