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University of Sheffield
Department of Mechanical Engineering
MODELLING IN ANSYS 22
Ansys is a good pre-processing, solution and post-processing tool for finite element
modelling. The Ansys program is organised into two levels. The initial entry level is
the BEGIN level. From this level you can access the desired processors as shown
below.
Enter Ansys Exit Ansys
BEGIN LEVEL
Processor Level
The Ansys graphical user interface (GUI) is split into four main areas. the graphics
area, the utility menu, the main menu and the Ansys toolbar.
Highlighted in the figure below is the standard layout of the GUI. The different
windows that make-up the GUI can be moved around the screen at the users
discretion.
The Graphics area is the window in which the entities are displayed. The window can
be split into smaller windows. Within these windows entities can be animated,
rotated, selected, deleted and so on.
This menu contains controls for opening and saving files, selecting entities, producing
plots etc. By clicking on any of the 10 options pop-up menus under each option
appear.
This window shows program prompt messages and allows you to type in commands.
All previously typed commands also appear in this window.
The Ansys toolbar menu has options for saving and resuming models, powergraphics
and web-interfacing.
The main menu consists of nine options. Each menu topic brings up a submenu
(indicated by a > after the topic) or performs an action. The symbol on the right-hand
of the topic indicates the action.
These are.
From each of the menu bars, further menus appear. These menus can lead to further
pop-up menus, sub-menus, data entry fields and toggles.
All menus are similar to the main menu in colour and in operation. Each menu acts
like a tree to further menus all of which stay displayed until unselected.
Sub-menus
From the main menu a sub-menu will look like the one shown below.
Pop-up Menu
A pop-up menu will typically look like the one shown below. Note that the menu is
split into several areas.
Apply This applies the command and leaves the window open
A data entry field will typically look like the one shown below.
Toggle
Toggle boxes allow certain options to be set without actually typing anything. They
are typically used when Ansys want the user to choose between one option and
another.
In the toggle box shown above we are choosing to import a CAD file using the default
option and also choosing to combine (merge) coincident keypoints thus enabling us to
create a areas and volumes.
Exiting Ansys
We can leave Ansys by clicking on file from the utility menu and then exit at the
bottom of the following menu.
This menu gives the user four options for saving and exiting the model.
Importing Files
Files can be imported from different CAD programs. Using the File option from the
utility menu.
By clicking on Import a further sub-menu gives us our file options. Typically this
might be an IGES file. Finally a toggle-box will appear offering several options.
Saving Files
You can save files in Ansys using the File sub-menu as described earlier. The file will
automatically save as file.db (the default jobname). This is known as the database. A
back-up of your database has the file extension dbb. The original database is always
copied to a dbb file when a save command is executed.
To read a database into Ansys use the resume command from File sub-menu.
Exporting Files
IGES files can be exported from the File sub-menu using the export option.
Solution Files
During an analysis Ansys creates various files for storing data. These are.
The esav, emat and tri files are automatically deleted after leaving Ansys once a job
has been solved. This feature is unique to Sheffield University. There are several
other files created for different applications, which will not be dealt with in these
notes.
Results Files
For a standard structural analysis the results file has the extension .rst. Hence a
default result file is file.rst
All Ansys files can be copied renamed and saved in the appropriate operating system.
Ansys has an extremely powerful select logic. This select logic is available from the
File utility menu under select. It is tremendously useful to understand how this works.
The select sub-menu is shown below.
Entities that you can select are nodes, elements, keypoints lines, areas and volumes.
The default option is nodes.
The sub-menu is divided into three areas. The top portion allows us to toggle onto
which entities that we wish to select. The second toggle box in this portion allows us
to choose how we would like to select the entities. There are many different ways in
which we can do this. Several examples are shown in the following sub-menus.
Also in this portion of the sub-menu are buttons so that we can select everything,
invert our current selection and select none of the entities chosen.
The bottom portion of the panel is our standard Ansys area for executing our desired
commands.
The ANSYS program allows you to pan, zoom and rotate your model. There is a
special sub-menu from the utility menu for doing this under Plot Controls.
Note that this sub-menu has options for various graphics options. Through this menu
we can change the style of our graphics plot, the colours used, the number of windows
and so on. From this window we are also able to produce hardcopy. Clicking on
hardcopy will bring up the following sub-menu. By choosing graphics window only,
color and print file, the graphics window output will be printed on a colour print.
You must make sure that the print option is set to lpr –Pstgcolps for the output to be
produced at StGeorge’s IT centre. Note that the file is automatically saved as an
encapsulated postscript file. Note that only postscript can be printed directly to the
StGeorge’s printers.
The main menu bar allows access to the functionality needed for these tasks.
The pre-processor sub-menu is shown below. From only a small number of sub-
menus below this, a model can be created, meshed and loaded.
You must always choose an element type and material property before attempting to
run any analysis in Ansys.
Note that the pre-processing menu is split into several sections, modelling, attributes
meshtool and so on. The modelling section allows us to create the required geometry the first
phase of our modelling process.
The create rectangle sub-menu offers several options for producing a rectangle and is
shown below.
If we use the by-dimensions option then the following data entry box appears.
In Ansys surfaces (areas) are made up of lines. Lines are connected together by
keypoints. A plot of the lines forming a rectangle is shown in the following figure.
We can similarly create three-dimensional shapes using the same process. In Ansys
these three-dimensional shapes are known as volumes.
A volume is shown below.
Meshing
The second phase of our modelling process is the element creation. From the pre-
processor menu we can see that one of the sub-sections is labelled Meshing. By
clicking on mesh, the following sub-menu appears.
This menu allows us to free or map mesh areas or volumes. Free meshing means the
surface will be meshed with quadrilateral and triangular elements. Mapped
meshing means the surface will be only meshed with quadrilateral elements. Only
certain geometry’s can be map meshed.
From this menu element size can be set, the mesh can be refined and so on.
We can apply forces on nodes or keypoints. Choosing nodes our standard pop-up
menu appears. After picking the nodes on which we want to apply the force, the
following data entry box appears.
Highlighting ALL DOF and making the value of the displacement zero fully
constrains the selected nodes.
Blue arrows represent tranlational degrees of freedom and brown arrows rotational
degrees of freedom.
Solving of analysis
We enter the solution processor from the main menu as shown below.
The default stress output is for the mid surface of the shell element. To select the top
or bottom surface, type top or bottom in the input menu before plotting the stress.
In this tutorial we create a bracket using the dimensions defined by each users
individual problem. The tutorial should be used in conjunction with the Modelling in
Ansys guide. The general dimensions of the bracket are shown below.
Centre Line
Applied loads
on this edge
300 mm 100 mm
Offset
1000 mm
Before starting to create the geometry don’t forget to set the element type, real
constant and material property. The element type we are going to use is SHELL63.
This is a four noded elastic shell element. Remember that real constants are element
dependent properties. For SHELL63 elements the real constant applies thickness to
the element.
We can choose this information from the preprocessor menu. Clicking on element
type brings up the following sub-menu.
The element library menu contains all the Ansys element types. Highlighting the
required type and clicking on OK will define a particular type.
Once element types have been defined, element dependent properties or real
constants must also be defined. Again from our preprocessor menu, clicking on Real
Constants brings up the following menu.
The next menu prompts us for what element type we wish to attach the real constant
to.
In this tutorial the element type we want to attach the real constant to is SHELL63.
In this tutorial we only need to entry the Shell thickness at node I. After you have
defined the real constant click on OK.
If you have problems finding the close button on the Real Constants menu stretch the
menu downwards and click on close.
Material properties are also defined from the preprocessor menu. Note that the
material we wish to define is isotropic. The material property is defined using the
data entry menu shown in the Ansys user interface guide.
There are several ways in which we can tackle a problem like this in Ansys. One way
is to create our plate from rectangular areas, create an area for the ‘hole’ and then
subtract our ‘hole’ from the plate.
The plate should be split into three sections. Each section should be the same length
and height. The reason for doing this is so that there will be node points at the correct
positions where we would like to put the load
This brings up the following sub-menu giving us options for how we create our
rectangle.
By clicking on the By Dimensions option the following data entry box appears.
Instead of creating lots of rectangles we could use the preprocessor copy or reflect
commands. The logic of how to copy entities is explained next.
Once we have created our first rectangle geometry, we can copy the areas, lines and
keypoints to create the three rectangles forming the plate. Using the preprocessing
menu and the clicking on copy brings up the following sub-menu.
Once you have selected your areas click on apply (or OK depending on your
preference).
The following data entry box should appear.
Select the ‘hole’ area and click on OK. Plot the lines. You might get a yellow
warning box like the one shown below when you try and select this area.
We can use the OK, Prev or Next buttons to toggle between the selections as shown
below.
Eventually we should create an object that looks like the one shown in the figure
below.
Click on the lines in-turn and click-on OK. Ansys cannot create the area unless the
lines are connected. If this is a problem, use the nummrg command outlined earlier.
Once we have created the area, select all the entities using the Utility menu. We are
now going to use boolean operations the preprocessor operate menu. Boolean
Click on operate from the preprocessor sub-menu. Using the add option add the
three original areas together. You will be prompted with a pop-up menu asking you
what areas you want to add.
Once you have done this click on the subtract option and subtract the ‘hole’ from the
areas you have just added together. You may get the yellow warning box again whilst
doing this operation. Toggle between the options as described earlier. When you try
and subtract the area you will be first prompted with a pop-up menu asking you which
area do you want to subtract from (the base area). Click on the larger area and then
apply. You will then be prompted for which area you want to subtract. Click on the
‘hole’ area and OK.
Eventually if you plot the lines you should get something similar to that shown below.
We must now mesh the geometry. Using the preprocessor mesh option the following
sub-menu appears.
Loads and constraints can be applied as described in the Modelling in Ansys tutorial.
The loads should be applied at nodes on the right-hand edge of the plate. The nodes
are 100 mm apart and equidistant around the centre line of the plate. The loading
condition is 250 N at each node and perpendicular to the plane of the plate.
10 mm
P
100 mm
Solving of analysis
The analysis can be solved from the solution processor using solve current ls option
in the solution processor.
In analysing the structural integrity of this bracket we need to know the maximum
principal stress and the minimum principal stress on the plate and the Von Mises
stress.
Select the element surface you wish to look at by typing top or bottom before
plotting the stresses in the plate.