Impact Analysis Using LS-Dyna

Tutorial

1 Ravishankar Subbaramaiah
 Problem Definition
 Primary requirement for the impact / drop test are
 Boundary condition
 Initial Velocity
 Contact Definition based on element strategy.

 Main Steps involved in setting up a simulation

 Import Geometry
 Define Element Type, Material, Section Properties (Real Constants)
 Meshing
 Boundary Condition and Initial Condition
 Solution Setting
 Output Controls.
 Post Processing

 I have given a brief introduction to various option in the interface followed

by a step by step procedure for an example from page 14

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 Starting LS-Dyna using Ansys
 Using Ansys Product Launcher.
 Set License to Ansys Academic Research LS-Dyna

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 Geometry
 Import geometry through various cad translators using menu
shown below.
 Catia, Pro-e or Parasolid

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 Material Models in LS-Dyna
 Material input GUI consistent and similar to implicit interface.

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II

III

IV

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 Mesh and Element Type
 LS-Dyna Element type in Ansys pre-post are 16x series element.
 LINK160: 3-D explicit pin-jointed truss (similar to LINK8)
 BEAM161: 3-D explicit beam (similar to BEAM4)
 PLANE162: 2-D explicit planar solid (similar to PLANE42)
 SHELL163: 3-D explicit thin shell (similar to SHELL181)
 SOLID164: 3-D explicit brick (similar to SOLID185)
 COMBI165: 3-D explicit spring or damper (similar to COMBIN14)
 MASS166: 3-D explicit structural mass (similar to MASS21)
 LINK167: 3-D explicit cable (similar to LINK10)
 Meshing is similar to Ansys Implicit, mesh tool is highlighted in the image
3.0
 Volume mesh (Hex and Tet), Area mesh (mapped and free) and Line mesh (
discrete and beam element)
 Mesh size has a high influence on the solution time, as ∆t=l/c
 Δt is the time needed for the wave to propagate through the rod of length l.

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 Defining Contact
 There are various contact families in LS-Dyna
 Single Surface Contact Algorithm
 Nodes-to-Surface Contact Algorithm
 Surface-to-Surface Contact Algorithm
 General (Basic) Contact Family
 Automatic Contact Family
 Rigid Contact Family
 Tied Contact Family
 Tiebreak Contact Family
 Eroding Contact
 Image 4.0 Shows contact
setup module.

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 Boundary Condition
 Apply boundary condition in the Constraints module, it
includes fixed condition for immovable parts like floor or
wall.

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 Boundary Condition
 Initial velocity is most commonly used input for a
impact/drop test.
 Initial Velocities are applied on node components.

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 Solution- Ls Dyna Solver
 The termination time is the actual time for which the
simulation of physical process is run (often in ms).

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 Output request and frequency
 Specify how often results for the entire model are written.
 can output a series of LS-DYNA ASCII output files that
contain specialized information

GLSTAT - Global statistics data

BNDOUT - Boundary condition forces and energy
RWFORC - Rigid wall forces
DEFORC - Discrete element forces
MATSUM - Material energies summary
NCFORC - Nodal interface forces
RCFORC - Resultant interface forces
DEFGEO - Deformed geometry data
SPCFORC - Single point constraint reaction forces
SWFORC - Nodal constraint reaction forces
RBDOUT - Rigid body data
GCEOUT - Geometry contact entities
SLEOUT - Sliding interface energies data
JNTFORC - Joint force data
11 NODOUT - Node data
ELOUT - Element data
 Post Processing
 POST1, the ANSYS General Postprocessor
 Animation
 Deformation, Stresses

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 Post Processing : Time History
 POST26 Time History Postprocessor
 Plot time-history curves, plot acceleration, velocity, displacement vs time .
 Access LS Dyna Ascii output files.

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 Example Plate impacting Plate

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 Definition
 A Shell Elements drop and rebounds from a elastic plate.
 Plate measure 40*40*1 mm3 (16 elements)
 Dropped shell has 10mm side length and 2 mm thickness.
 Drop height is 10mm
 Element formulation is Belutschko-Tsay
 Define a surface to surface contact with 2 way detection.
 Define the elastic plate as Master and impacting shell as slave.
 Initial Velocity is 100,000 mm/sec vertically
 End Time is 0.0002 sec.

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 Set-Up
 For model setup we use various option in the preprocessor tab.
 Create 2 areas with required dimension as shown below (Preprocessor-Modeling-create-).
 Transform drop shell to required drop height.

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 Meshing
 Define Element Type 163 (Preprocessor-Element type-add/edit/delete-)
 Part should be defined using right combination of material , real contact ,
element type. Before meshing this has set and can be confirmed at status bar.

Part Material Element Type Real constant

1 1 1 1
2 1 1 2

Status Bar
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 Meshing cont…
 Define Real Constant to assign section properties or
thicknesses. For each thickness there should be one real
constant. (Preprocessor-Real Constants)

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 Meshing Cont…Material Properties
 Define material properties for various parts using option shown
below. (Preprocessor-Material Props-Material Models)

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 Creating Parts
 Assign the correct material, section properties and element type to create
parts.
 For LS-Dyna to recognize a part, its should be a group of elements that have the
same combination of element type, real constant set, and material reference
numbers
 Repeat this to all area/components (Preprocessor-Meshing – Mesh Attributes)

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 Revisiting Meshing
 Set line seeding or element size. (Preprocessor-Meshing-Mesh tool-Set)
 Mesh Volume ,Areas and lines to generate solid, shell or beam elements.
 Refer images below to access the meshing tool.

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 Creating Components
 We need to create node and elements components for
 Adding Constrains to a group of nodes
 Defining Velocity to a part (part nodes need to be grouped)
 Defining a master surface and node surface (associated nodes of surface need
to be grouped)
 To request output for required parts/region of interest.
 In this model create node and element component for both the areas you
could name them for example as plate_e and plate_n for element and node
components. Refer images below to access the menu options.

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 Adding Constrains to Model
 The plate is fixed at its boundaries (Preprocessor-LS-DYNA-Constraints-On Nodes)
 Create a node component or select the desired nodes to apply the constrains.
 Refer images below to access the menu options to add constrain.

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 Defining contacts
 In this model we will create a Automatic Surface to Surface Contact.
Choose the moving plate as contact surface and fixed plate as target
surface. (Preprocessor-LS-DYNA-Contact-DefineContact)

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 Initial Velocity
 The moving plate has initial velocity of 100,000 mm/s in vertical direction.
 Initial velocity can be applied using option under LS-Dyna Option tab as show
below. (Preprocessor-LS-DYNA-Initial Velocity-w/Nodal Rotate)

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 Solution Setting
 As per problem definition end time is 0.0002 sec, remember that most
of impact problem occur over a time of ms.
 We now use option in the solution tab (Solution – Time Controls –
Solution Time)

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 Output Controls
 In output controls we
 Request for both Ansys and LS-Dyna Result formats
 Set the frequency at which result files are written
 Request for Special Ascii files which has information on system energies, Nodal and Elemental results.
 Select the components for which Time-History results has to be written.

You could request for 10 Ascii files at a

time the most frequent used are
Global statistics data
Boundary condition forces and energy
Material energies summary
Geometry contact entities
Node data

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 Solution and Results
 Click on the Solve option in run the simulation (Solution – Solve)

 As Discussed before this example Post processing option are

 General Post Proc
 Time History Post Pro
 Attached is the animation of the solved problem.
 Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Animate > Over Results

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 Time- History Post Processing
 TimeHist Postpro > Variable Viewer > File > Open >
Explicit Dynamics Results (*.his) > Jobname.his

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