ANSYS Manual Student

Introduction
ANSYS is a general purpose finite element modeling package for numerically

solving a wide variety of mechanical problems. These problems include:
static/dynamic structural analysis (both linear and non-linear), heat transfer
and fluid problems, as well as acoustic and electro-magnetic problems.
In general, a finite element solution may be broken into the following three
stages. This is a general guideline that can be used for setting up any finite
element analysis.
1. Preprocessing: defining the problem; the major steps in

preprocessing are given below:
o Define keypoints/lines/areas/volumes
o Define element type and material/geometric properties
o Mesh lines/areas/volumes as required
The amount of detail required will depend on the dimensionality of the

analysis (i.e. 1D, 2D, axi-symmetric, 3D).
2. Solution: assigning loads, constraints and solving; here we specify

the loads (point or pressure), constraints (translational and rotational)
and finally solve the resulting set of equations.
3. Post processing: further processing and viewing of the results; in
this stage one may wish to see:
o Lists of nodal displacements
o Element forces and moments
o Deflection plots
o Stress contour diagrams
ANSYS Environment
The ANSYS Environment for contains 2 windows: the Main Window and an
Output Window. Note that this is somewhat different from the previous version
of ANSYS which made use of 6 different windows.
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1. Main Window
Within the Main Window are 5 divisions:
a. Utility Menu
The Utility Menu contains functions that are available throughout

the ANSYS session, such as file controls, selections, graphic
controls and parameters.
b. Input Window
The Input Line shows program prompt messages and allows

you to type in commands directly.
c. Toolbar
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The Toolbar contains push buttons that execute commonly used
ANSYS commands. More push buttons can be added if desired.
d. Main Menu
The Main Menu contains the primary ANSYS functions,

organized by preprocessor, solution, general postprocessor,
design optimizer. It is from this menu that the vast majority of
modeling commands are issued. This is where you will note the
greatest change between previous versions of ANSYS and
version 7.0. However, while the versions appear different, the
menu structure has not changed.
e. Graphics Window
The Graphic Window is where graphics are shown and graphical

picking can be made. It is here where you will graphically view
the model in its various stages of construction and the ensuing
results from the analysis.
2. Output Window
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The Output Window shows text output from the program, such as
listing of data etc. It is usually positioned behind the main window and
can de put to the front if necessary.
ANSYS Files
Introduction
A large number of files are created when you run ANSYS. If you started
ANSYS without specifying a jobname, the name of all the files created will be
FILE.* where the * represents various extensions described below. If you
specified a jobname, say Frame, and then the created files will all have the file
prefix, Frame again with various extensions:
frame.db
Database file (binary). This file stores the geometry, boundary
conditions and any solutions.
frame.dbb
Backup of the database file (binary).
frame.err
Error file (text). Listing of all error and warning messages.
frame. out
Output of all ANSYS operations (text). This is what normally scrolls in
the output window during an ANSYS session.
frame.log
Logfile or listing of ANSYS commands (text). Listing of all equivalent
ANSYS command line commands used during the current session.
etc...
Depending on the operations carried out, other files may have been
written. These files may contain results, etc.
What to save?
When you want to clean up your directory, or move things from the /scratch
directory, what files do you need to save?
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If you will always be using the GUI, then you only require the .db file.
This file stores the geometry, boundary conditions and any solutions.
Once the ANSYS has started, and the jobname has been specified,
you need only activate the resume command to proceed from where
you last left off (see Saving and Restoring Jobs).
If you plan on using ANSYS command files, then you need only store
your command file and/or the log file. This file contains a complete
listing of the ANSYS commands used to get you model to its current
point. That file may be rerun as is, or edited and rerun as desired
(Command File Creation and Execution).
If you plan to use the command mode of operation, starting with an

existing log file, rename it first so that it does not get over-written or
added to, from another ANSYS run.
ANSYS: Saving and Restoring Jobs
Saving Your Job

It is good practice to save your model at various points during its creation.
Very often you will get to a point in the modeling where things have gone well
and you like to save it at the point. In that way, if you make some mistakes
later on, you will at least be able to come back to this point.
To save your model, select Utility Menu Bar -> File -> Save As Jobname.db.
Your model will be saved in a file called jobname.db, where jobname is
the name that you specified in the Launcher when you first started ANSYS.
It is a good idea to save your job at different times throughout the building and
analysis of the model to backup your work incase of a system crash or other
unforeseen problems.
Recalling or Resuming a Previously Saved Job

Frequently you want to start up ANSYS and recall and continue a previous
job. There are two methods to do this:
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1. Using the Launcher...
o In the ANSYS Launcher, select Interactive... and specify the
previously defined jobname.
o Then when you get ANSYS started, select Utility Menu -> File -
> Resume Jobname.db .
o This will restore as much of your database (geometry, loads,
solution, etc) that you previously saved.
2. Or, start ANSYS and select Utility Menu -> File -> Resume from...
and select your job from the list that appears.
FEM Convergence Testing
Introduction
A fundamental premise of using the finite element procedure is that the body
is sub-divided up into small discrete regions known as finite elements. These
elements defined by nodes and interpolation functions. Governing equations
are written for each element and these elements are assembled into a global
matrix. Loads and constraints are applied and the solution is then determined.
The Problem
The question that always arises is: How small do I need to make the elements
before I can trust the solution?
What to do about it...

In general there are no real firm answers on this. It will be necessary to
conduct convergence tests! By this we mean that you begin with a mesh
discretization and then observe and record the solution. Now repeat the
problem with a finer mesh (i.e. more elements) and then compare the results
with the previous test. If the results are nearly similar, then the first mesh is
probably good enough for that particular geometry, loading and constraints. If
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the results differ by a large amount however, it will be necessary to try a finer
mesh yet.
The Consequences
Finer meshes come with a cost however: more calculation time and large
memory requirements (both disk and RAM)! It is desired to find the minimum
number of elements that give you a converged solution.
Beam Models
For beam models, we actually only need to define a single element per line
unless we are applying a distributed load on a given frame member. When
point loads are used, specifying more that one element per line will not
change the solution, it will only slow the calculations down. For simple models
it is of no concern, but for a larger model, it is desired to minimize the number
of elements, and thus calculation time and still obtain the desired accuracy.
General Models
In general however, it is necessary to conduct convergence tests on your
finite element model to confirm that a fine enough element discretization has
been used. In a solid mechanics problem, this would be done by creating
several models with different mesh sizes and comparing the resulting
deflections and stresses, for example. In general, the stresses will converge
more slowly than the displacement, so it is not sufficient to examine the
displacement convergence.
Printing and Plotting ANSYS Results to a File
Printing Text Results to a File
ANSYS produces lists and tables of many types of results that are normally
displayed on the screen. However, it is often desired to save the results to a
file to be later analyzed or included in a report.
1. Stresses: instead of using 'Plot Results' to plot the stresses, choose

'List Results'. Select 'Elem Table Data', and choose what you want to
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list from the menu. You can pick multiple items. When the list appears
on the screen in its own window, Select 'File'/'Save As...' and give a
file name to store the results.
2. Any other solutions can be done in the same way. For example select
'Nodal Solution' from the 'List Results' menu, to get displacements.
3. Preprocessing and Solution data can be listed and saved from the 'List'
menu in the 'Utility Menu bar'. Save the resulting list in the same way
described above.
Plotting of Figures
There are two major routes to get hardcopies from ANSYS. The first is a quick
a raster-based screen dump, while the second is a scalable vector plot.
1.0 Quick Image Save

When you want to quickly save an image of the entire screen or the current
'Graphics window', select:
'Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Hard Copy ...'.

In the window that appears, you will normally want to select 'Graphics
window', 'Monochrome', 'Reverse Video', 'Landscape' and 'Save to:'.
Then enter the file name of your choice.
Press 'OK'
This raster image file may now be printed on a PostScript printer or included
in a document.
2.0 Better Quality Plots

The second method of saving a plot is much more flexible, but takes a lot
more work to set up as you'll see...
Redirection
Normally all ANSYS plots are directed to the plot window on the screen. To
save some plots to a file, to be later printed or included in a document or what
have you, you must first 'redirect' the plots to a file by issuing:
'Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Redirect Plots'/'To File...'.
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Type in a filename (e.g.: frame.pic) in the 'Selection' Window.
Now issue whatever plot commands you want within ANSYS, remembering
that the plots will not be displayed to the screen, but rather they will be written
to the selected file. You can put as many plots as you want into the plot file.
When you are finished plotting what you want to the file, redirect plots back to
the screen using:
'Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Redirect Plots'/'To Screen'.
Display and Conversion

The plot file that has been saved is stored in a proprietary file format that must
be converted into a more common graphic file format like PostScript, or HPGL
for example. This is performed by running a separate program called display.
To do this, you have a couple of options:
1. select display from the ANSYS launcher menu (if you started ANSYS
that way)
2. shut down ANSYS or open up a new terminal window and then type
display at the Unix prompt.
Either way, a large graphics window will appear. Decrease the size of this
window, because it most likely covers the window in which you will enter the
display plotting commands. Load your plot file with the following command:
file,frame,pic
if your plot file is 'plots.pic'. Note that although the file is 'plots.pic' (with a
period), Display wants 'plots,pic'(with a comma). You can display your plots to
the graphics window by issuing the command like
plot,n
where n is plot number. If you plotted 5 images to this file in ANSYS, then n
could be any number from 1 to 5.
Now that the plots have been read in, they may be saved to printer files of
various formats:
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1. Colour PostScript: To save the images to a colour postscript file,
enter the following commands in display:
2. pscr,color,2
3. /show,pscr
4. plot,n
Where n is the plot number, as above. You can plot as many images
as you want to postscript files in this manner. For subsequent plots,
you only require the plot,n command as the other options have now
been set. Each image is plotted to a postscript file such as pscrxx.grph,
where xx is a number, starting at 00.
Note: when you import a postscript file into a word processor, the
postscript image will appear as blank box. The printer information is still
present, but it can only be viewed when it's printed out to a postscript
printer.
Printing it out: Now that you've got your color postscript file, what are
you going to do with it? Take a look here for instructions on colour
postscript printing at a couple of sites on campus where you can have
your beautiful stress plot plotted to paper, overheads or even posters!
5. Black & White PostScript: The above mentioned colour postscript

files can get very large in size and may not even print out on the
postscript printer in the lab because it takes so long to transfer the files
to the printer and process them. A way around this is to print them out
in a black and white postscript format instead of colour; besides the
colour specifications don't do any good for the black and white lab
printer anyways. To do this, you set the postscript color option to '3', i.e.
and then issue the other commands as before
6. pscr,color,3
7. /show,pscr
8. plot,n
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printer.
9. HPGL: The third commonly used printer format is HPGL, which stands
for Hewlett Packard Graphics Language. This is a compact vector
format that has the advantage that when you import a file of this type
into a word processor, you can actually see the image in the word
processor! To use the HPGL format, issue the following commands:
10. /show,hpgl
11. plot,n
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EX NO: 1 ANALYSIS OF SIMPLE TRUSS
AIM:
Determine the nodal deflections, reaction forces, and stress for the
truss system.
PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
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Take Youngs Modulus E = 200GPa,
Area A = 3250mm2
Preprocessing: Defining the Problem
1. Give the Simplified Version a Title (such as 'Bridge Truss Tutorial').
In the Utility menu bar select File > Change Title:
The following window will appear:
1. Enter the title and click 'OK'. This title will appear in the bottom left
corner of the 'Graphics' Window once you begin. Note: to get the title to
appear immediately, select Utility Menu > Plot > Replot
2. Enter Keypoints
The overall geometry is defined in ANSYS using keypoints which

specify various principal coordinates to define the body. For this
example, these keypoints are the ends of each truss.
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o We are going to define 7 keypoints for the simplified structure as
given in the following table
coordinate
keypoint
x y
1 0 0
2 1800 3118
3 3600 0
4 5400 3118
5 7200 0
6 9000 3118
7 10800 0
(these keypoints are depicted by numbers in the above figure).
From the 'ANSYS Main Menu' select:

Preprocessor > Modeling > Create > Keypoints > In Active CS
o The following window will then appear:
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1.
o To define the first keypoint which has the coordinates x = 0 and
y = 0:
Enter keypoint number 1 in the appropriate box, and enter the
x,y coordinates: 0, 0 in their appropriate boxes (as shown
above).
Click 'Apply' to accept what you have typed.
o Enter the remaining keypoints using the same method.
Note: When entering the final data point, click on 'OK' to indicate
that you are finished entering keypoints. If you first press 'Apply'
and then 'OK' for the final keypoint, you will have defined it
twice!
If you did press 'Apply' for the final point, simply press 'Cancel' to
close this dialog box.
2. Units
Note the units of measure (ie mm) were not specified. It is the
responsibility of the user to ensure that a consistent set of units are
used for the problem; thus making any conversions where necessary.
3. Correcting Mistakes
When defining keypoints, lines, areas, volumes, elements, constraints
and loads you are bound to make mistakes. Fortunately these are
easily corrected so that you don't need to begin from scratch every time
an error is made! Every 'Create' menu for generating these various
entities also has a corresponding 'Delete' menu for fixing things up.
4. Form Lines
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The keypoints must now be connected
We will use the mouse to select the keypoints to form the lines.
o In the main menu select: Preprocessor > Modeling > Create >
Lines > Lines > In Active Coord. The following window will
then appear:
o Use the mouse to pick keypoint #1 (i.e. click on it). It will now be
marked by a small yellow box.
o Now move the mouse toward keypoint #2. A line will now show
on the screen joining these two points. Left click and a
permanent line will appear.
o Connect the remaining keypoints using the same method.
o When you're done, click on 'OK' in the 'Lines in Active Coord'
window, minimize the 'Lines' menu and the 'Create' menu. Your
ANSYS Graphics window should look similar to the following
figure.
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1. Disappearing Lines
Please note that any lines you have created may 'disappear'
throughout your analysis. However, they have most likely NOT been
deleted. If this occurs at any time from the Utility Menu select:
Plot > Lines
2. Define the Type of Element
It is now necessary to create elements. This is called 'meshing'.

ANSYS first needs to know what kind of elements to use for our
problem:
o From the Preprocessor Menu, select: Element Type >

Add/Edit/Delete. The following window will then appear:
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Click on the 'Add...' button. The following window will appear.
1.
o For this example, we will use the 2D spar element as selected in
the above figure. Select the element shown and click 'OK'. You
should see 'Type 1 LINK1' in the 'Element Types' window.
o Click on 'Close' in the 'Element Types' dialog box.
2. Define Geometric Properties
We now need to specify geometric properties for our elements:
o In the Preprocessor menu, select Real Constants >

Add/Edit/Delete
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Click Add... and select 'Type 1 LINK1' (actually it is already selected). Click on
'OK'. The following window will appear.
1.
o As shown in the window above, enter the cross-sectional area
(3250mm):
o Click on 'OK'.
o 'Set 1' now appears in the dialog box. Click on 'Close' in the
'Real Constants' window.
2. Element Material Properties
You then need to specify material properties:
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o In the 'Preprocessor' menu select Material Props > Material
Models
Double click on Structural > Linear > Elastic > Isotropic
1.
o We are going to give the properties of Steel. Enter the following
field:
1. EX = 2 e 5
o Set these properties and click on 'OK'. Note: You may obtain the
note 'PRXY will be set to 0.0'. This is poisson's ratio and is not
required for this element type. Click 'OK' on the window to
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continue. Close the "Define Material Model Behavior" by clicking
on the 'X' box in the upper right hand corner.
2. Mesh Size
The last step before meshing is to tell ANSYS what size the elements
should be. There are a variety of ways to do this but we will just deal
with one method for now.
o In the Preprocessor menu select Meshing > Size Cntrls >

ManualSize > Lines > All Lines
1.
o In the size 'NDIV' field, enter the desired number of divisions per
line. For this example we want only 1 division per line, therefore,
enter '1' and then click 'OK'. Note that we have not yet meshed
the geometry, we have simply defined the element sizes.
2. Mesh
Now the frame can be meshed.
o In the 'Preprocessor' menu select Meshing > Mesh > Lines and
click 'Pick All' in the 'Mesh Lines' Window
Your model should now appear as shown in the following window
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Plot Numbering
To show the line numbers, keypoint numbers, node numbers...
From the Utility Menu (top of screen) select PlotCtrls > Numbering...
Fill in the Window as shown below and click 'OK'
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Now you can turn numbering on or off at your discretion
Saving Your Work
Save the model at this time, so if you make some mistakes later on, you will at
least be able to come back to this point. To do this, on the Utility Menu select
File > Save as.... Select the name and location where you want to save your
file.
Solution Phase: Assigning Loads and Solving
You have now defined your model. It is now time to apply the load(s) and
constraint(s) and solve the the resulting system of equations.
Open up the 'Solution' menu (from the same 'ANSYS Main Menu').
1. Define Analysis Type
First you must tell ANSYS how you want it to solve this problem:
o From the Solution Menu, select Analysis Type > New

Analysis.
o Ensure that 'Static' is selected; i.e. you are going to do a static

analysis on the truss as opposed to a dynamic analysis, for
example.
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o Click 'OK'.
2. Apply Constraints
It is necessary to apply constraints to the model otherwise the model is

not tied down or grounded and a singular solution will result. In
mechanical structures, these constraints will typically be fixed, pinned
and roller-type connections. As shown above, the left end of the truss
bridge is pinned while the right end has a roller connection.
o In the Solution menu, select Define Loads > Apply >

Structural > Displacement > On Keypoints
o Select the left end of the bridge (Keypoint 1) by clicking on it in

the Graphics Window and click on 'OK' in the 'Apply U,ROT on
KPs' window.
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o This location is fixed which means that all translational and
rotational degrees of freedom (DOFs) are constrained.
Therefore, select 'All DOF' by clicking on it and enter '0' in the
Value field and click 'OK'.
You will see some blue triangles in the graphics window

indicating the displacement contraints.
o Using the same method, apply the roller connection to the right
end (UY constrained). Note that more than one DOF constraint
can be selected at a time in the "Apply U,ROT on KPs" window.
Therefore, you may need to 'deselect' the 'All DOF' option to
select just the 'UY' option.
3. Apply Loads
As shown in the diagram, there are four downward loads of 280kN,

210kN, 280kN, and 360kN at keypoints 1, 3, 5, and 7 respectively.
o Select Define Loads > Apply > Structural > Force/Moment >
on Keypoints.
o Select the first Keypoint (left end of the truss) and click 'OK' in
the 'Apply F/M on KPs' window.
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o Select FY in the 'Direction of force/mom'. This indicate that we
will be applying the load in the 'y' direction
o Enter a value of -280000 in the 'Force/moment value' box and
click 'OK'. Note that we are using units of N here, this is
consistent with the previous values input.
o The force will appear in the graphics window as a red arrow.
o Apply the remaining loads in the same manner.
The applied loads and constraints should now appear as shown below.
4. Solving the System
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We now tell ANSYS to find the solution:
o In the 'Solution' menu select Solve > Current LS. This indicates
that we desire the solution under the current Load Step (LS).
o The above windows will appear. Ensure that your solution

options are the same as shown above and click 'OK'.
o Once the solution is done the following window will pop up. Click
'Close' and close the /STATUS Command Window..
Postprocessing: Viewing the Results
Reaction Forces
A list of the resulting reaction forces can be obtained for this element
From the Main Menu select General Postproc > List Results >
Reaction Solu.
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Select 'All struc forc F' as shown above and click 'OK'
Deformation
o In the General Postproc menu, select Plot Results > Deformed

Shape. The following window will appear.
o Select 'Def + undef edge' and click 'OK' to view both the deformed
and the undeformed object.
o Observe the value of the maximum deflection in the upper left

hand corner
Deflection
o From the 'General Postproc' menu select Plot results > Contour
Plot > Nodal Solution. The following window will appear.
o Select 'DOF solution' and 'USUM' as shown in the above window.

Leave the other selections as the default values. Click 'OK'.
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o Looking at the scale, you may want to use more useful intervals.
From the Utility Menu select Plot Controls > Style > Contours >
Uniform Contours...
o Fill in the following window as shown and click 'OK'.
You should obtain the following.
o The deflection can also be obtained as a list as shown below.

General Postproc > List Results > Nodal Solution select 'DOF
Solution' and 'ALL DOFs' from the lists in the 'List Nodal Solution'
window and click 'OK'. This means that we want to see a listing of
all degrees of freedom from the solution.
Axial Stress
o From the General Postprocessor menu select Element Table >

Define Table
o Click on 'Add...'
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o As shown above, enter 'SAXL' in the 'Lab' box. This specifies the
name of the item you are defining. Next, in the 'Item,Comp' boxes,
select 'By sequence number' and 'LS,'. Then enter 1 after LS, in
the selection box
o Click on 'OK' and close the 'Element Table Data' window.
o Plot the Stresses by selecting Element Table > Plot Elem Table
o The following window will appear. Ensure that 'SAXL' is selected
and click 'OK'
o Because you changed the contour intervals for the Displacement
plot to "User Specified" - you need to switch this back to "Auto
calculated" to obtain new values for VMIN/VMAX.
Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Style > Contours > Uniform
Contours ...
o List the Stresses

From the 'Element Table' menu, select 'List Elem Table'
From the 'List Element Table Data' window which
appears ensure 'SAXL' is highlighted
Click 'OK'
Quitting ANSYS
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To quit ANSYS, select 'QUIT' from the ANSYS Toolbar or select Utility
Menu/File/Exit.... In the dialog box that appears, click on 'Save Everything'
(assuming that you want to) and then click on 'OK'.
RESULT:
Maximum Deflection :
Minimum Stress :
Maximum Stress :
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EX NO: 2 2D Plane Stress Bracket
AIM:
To analyse the given bracket for deflection and Stress by treating it as
plane stress condition.
This bracket is to be built from a 20 mm thick steel plate. A figure of the
plate is shown below.
This plate will be fixed at the two small holes on the left and have a load
applied to the larger hole on the right.
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Defining the Basic Geometry
We are going to create this geometry using Boolean operations. These

procedures make it easy to combine simple geometric entities to create more
complex bodies. Begin by creating a planar rectangular area and then add
other areas to modify it. Start with,
ANSYS Main Menu -> Preprocessor -> (-Modeling-) Create -> (-Areas-)
Rectangle -> By 2 Corners.
Enter the parameters in the dialog box as shown below:
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This creates a 80 by 100 rectangle with its origin at (0,0). Now create circular
end on the right hand side.
Note that it is the responsibility of the user to ensure that a

consistent set of units are used for the various parameters in any
problem. It is best to first solve a simple problem for which analytical
results are available to check that all is correct.
Close the Rectangle menu and open up the Circle Menu.

Select Solid Circle and fill it in as follows...
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Don't worry for now that the areas overlap. They will be combined to
form a single area at a later time.
Also create a second and third circle for the left hand side, using the
following dimensions:
parameter circle 2 circle 3
WP X 0 0
WP Y 20 80
radius 20 20
One more thing to define... we need a rectangle on the left hand end to
fill between the two small circles.
Create a rectangle with
WP X -20
WP Y 20
width 20
height 60
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Your screen should now look like the following...
Boolean Operations
We now want to add these five discrete areas together to form one
area.
Back up to the Preprocessor menu and select Operate.
Then select (-Booleans-) Add -> Areas. A dialogue box then appears.
Now click on all five areas. Before pressing OK in the dialogue box,
check to see that the count parameter in the dialogue box is 5
(indicating 5 selected areas). If this not the case, try again.
Once OK is pressed, some processing takes place and finally one
large area is plotted.
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The Bolt Holes
We now want to remove the bolt holes from this plate.
Back up to Preprocessor and select (-Modeling-) Create -> (-Areas-)

Circle -> Solid Circle.
We will now create three circles with the parameters given below:
parameter circle 1 circle 2 circle 3
WP X 80 0 0
WP Y 50 20 80
radius 30 10 10
Again back up to the Preprocessor menu.

Now select (-Modeling-) Operate -> (-Booleans-) Subtract -> Areas.
Notice in the ANSYS Input window, that it is instructing you to pick or
enter base areas from which to subtract.
For our example, the base area is the first large plate that we created.
Select it.
Then click OK.
Next the ANSYS Input window will prompt for the areas to be
subtracted.
The areas to be subtracted are the three circles that we just created.
Click on the three circles that you just created and enter OK.
Some processing will take place and you will end up with the following:
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Elements and Meshing
Now that the area has been defined, it is time to select the element type, its
associated properties and finally, mesh the area.
Once again, back up to the Preprocessor menu.

At the top of the menu, select Element Type -> Add/Edit/Delete...
In the dialog box that appears, hit the Add... button.
A dialog box now appears that looks like the following:
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From this dialog box, you can select from a wide range of elements that are
listed in various groups. Use the scroll bars to take a look at the groupings.
For our problem, select solid (under the Structural heading) and the
quad 82 element, as shown in the above figure. This indicates that we
will be using an eight noded quadrilateral element. It has 4 corner
nodes and 4 midside nodes and possesses a quadratic shape function.
Then press OK.
Now select the Options... button.
Under the Element Behavior K3 label, select Plane strs w/thk. This
indicates that we desire a plane stress element with thickness.
Under the Extra Element Output K5 select nodal stress.
The dialog box should now look as follows.
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We will now assign some properties to the element.
Close up the Element Types window and once again back up to the
Preprocessor menu.
Select Real Constants... and click the Add... button followed by the OK
button.
In the thickness field, enter 20 (i.e. 20 mm).
The dialog box should look like the following figure:
Click OK and close up the Real Constants window.

Now enter Material Props -> (-Constant-) Isotropic ... and click OK.
Fill in the table as shown below:
40
Click on OK when complete.
41
The Meshing Process
The element properties are now defined. It is time to mesh the region.
Back up to the Preprocessor menu.

Select (-Meshing-) Shape & Size -> Global Elem Size....
In the Size field enter the number 5. This indicates that the element
edge length is to have a nominal size of 5 mm.
Press OK.
Back up to the Preprocessor menu.
Select (-Meshing-) Mesh -> Areas ....
Once the dialog box appears, click on the plate area and then OK.
You should then get a mesh that looks like:
42
Loads and Constraints
Now that the geometry has been defined, it is time to apply the loads and
constraints to the body and finally solve the problem.
To start this next stage, we need to back up to the ANSYS Main Menu.
Select Solution -> (-Analysis Type-)New Analysis .... Make sure that
the type of analysis is set to Static.
Click on OK.
We will now apply the constraints.
Select (-Loads-) Apply -> (-Structural-) Displacement .

We will be fixing the two holes on the left side of the plate. The nodes
at these holes will be constrained in both the X and Y direction. To
facilitate the selection of the nodes, we will plot the nodes of the model.
To do this, go the the top ANSYS Utility menu and select Plot ->
Nodes.
We will now zoom on this graphic window. This is performed by going
to the PlotCtrls -> Pan, Zoom, Rotate ...
The following window appears:
43
This window is rich with function. Try playing with some of the options. In
general, you select an operation in the window and then use your mouse to
activate it in the Graph Window.
For our purpose, select Box Zoom from this window.

Now click and drag over one of the small bolt holes on the left. Include
the hole and a few surrounding nodes.
Now go back to the Displacement menu and select On nodes....
We wish to select the first ring of nodes that define the bolt hole. This
selection may be performed in many ways including Single node
44
selection or by multiple nodes using Box, Polygon or Circle. Try
whatever method you like. You can always Reset or Cancel the
operation.
In the end, you want to select the following nodes:
Press OK once the nodes are selected.

You will now be prompted to enter the value of the displacements on
these nodes. Fill out the dialog box as follows:
45
Doing this indicates that all degrees of freedom at these nodes are
fixed to zero.
Do the same with the second small hole...
To see the whole plate again, you will need to go over to the Pan Zoom
Rotate window and select Back Up.
Zoom in on the other bolt hole and constraint it in the same way.
Load Application
Zoom back out to the full view of the plate.

We now will apply a single vertical load to the large bolt hole.
In the Apply menu, select the Force/Moment -> On Nodes.
Now pick the node at the bottom central region of the large bolt hole.
Press OK.
In the dialog box that appears, select a force value in the Y direction of
-1000. This is a downward acting force.
Your screen should now look like the following:
46
Solution
Before proceeding, well will plot the elements again (Plot -> Elements
from the ANSYS Utility Menu).
From the Solution menu, select (-Solve-) Current LS. This indicates
that we want the current load step (or load condition) solved.
Click on the OK button on the dialog box that appears.
Close the /STAT window when the solution is complete.
Post-Processing: Viewing the Results

We are now ready to view the results. We will take a look at the both the
deflected shape and the stress contours.
Close the Solution menu, and enter the General PostProc menu.
47
From this, select (-Read Results-) Last Set to indicate the last set of
the results are to be made current.
We will now take a look at a deformed plot of the object.
Select Plot Results -> Deformed Shape....

Now select the Def + undeformed and then press OK.
You should now have something on the screen that looks like:
Let's take a look at some stress contours for the plate.
In the Plot Results menu, select (-Contour Plot-) Nodal Solu....

Click the Stress field and then scroll down the right hand box to find
von Mises SEQV.
The dialog box should look like the following:
48
Then press the Apply button.
Your graphic window should now look like:
49
Any other desired stress field may also be plotted by selecting the
appropriate field in the right hand box and pressing Apply.
When you are done, press OK.
At this point, you might want to go ahead and change the geometry, loads
,constraints, material properties and resolve the problem.
Quitting ANSYS
To quit ANSYS, select QUIT from the ANSYS Toolbar or select Utility Menu ->
File -> Exit... In the dialog box that appears, click on Save Everything
(assuming that you want to) and then click on OK.
RESULT:
50
Minimum Stress :
Maximum Stress :
51
EX NO: 3 CONDUCTION ANALYSIS OF A RECTANGULAR PLATE
AIM:
To analyze the given rectangular plate for temperature distribution.
Thermal conductivity of the plate, KXX=401 W/(m-K)
Preprocessing:
1. Change jobname. On the Utility Menu across the very top of the screen,
select:
File -> Change Jobname Enter platetmp, and click on OK.
2. Define element type: Preprocessor -> Element Type -> Add/Edit/Delete
52
Click on Add. The Library of Element Types menu appears, as shown.
Scroll down to highlight Thermal Solid, and Quad 4node 55 as shown.
Click on OK, then Close.
3. Define Material Properties:

Preprocessor -> Material Properties -> Material Models
A dialogue box appears:
In the dialogue box that appears, on the right hand side, choose:
Thermal -> Conductivity -> Isotropic
53
Another box appears. Enter 401 for KXX (thermal conductivity), then click on
OK.
KXX is the only material property needed for this analysis.
Close the other box (the one headed Define Material Model Behavior) by
clicking on the red X in the upper right-hand corner.
4. Create a rectangular area:

Preprocessor -> Modeling-> Create -> Areas -> Rectangle -> By Dimensions
Fill in the fields as shown, then click OK.
54
5. Specify mesh density controls.
We will specify numbers of element divisions along lines.
Choose:
Preprocessor -> -Meshing- Size Cntrls -> Manual Size -> Lines->
Picked Lines
The picking menu (below left) appears. On the graphics window, click on the
bottom horizontal line (this is one of the 10 meter lines), to highlight it. Then,
click OK in the picking menu. Then, the Element Size menu (below right)
appears. Enter 6 for NDIV, as shown, then click OK
55
Now, repeat the above process to specify 12 divisions along either of the
vertical lines. It is not necessary to specify a value for all four lines, you just
need a value for one of the horizontal lines and one of the vertical lines.
However, if you do specify a value for all four lines, make sure you use the
same number of divisions for both horizontal lines, and the same number of
divisions for both vertical lines. Of course, as specified above, the vertical and
horizontal lines do not need to have the same value. It is a problem, however,
if you specify different values for parallel lines on opposite ends of the plate.
6. Mesh the rectangle to create nodes and elements.

Preprocessor -> Meshing -> Mesh -> Areas -> Mapped -> 3 or 4 Sided
A picking menu appears. Select Pick All. The rectangle will be meshed. You
will see a number of small rectangles drawn on the larger rectangular area.
Each small rectangle is a finite element. There are four nodes associated
with each individual element. The nodes are at the corners of the elements.
Solution:
7. Apply temperatures around the edges:

Solution -> Define Loads-> Apply -> Thermal-> Temperature -> On
Lines
A picking menu appears. Highlight the two vertical lines (the 20 meter lines),
which have a temperature of 100 C, then click on OK in the picking menu.
The box on the next page appears. Highlight TEMP for DOFs to be
constrained, and enter 100 for VALUE, as shown.
56
Repeat the above process to apply the 100 C temperature to the bottom
horizontal line, but in this case, choose Yes for Apply TEMP to endpoints?.
Repeat the process once more, to apply the 200 C temperature to the top
horizontal line, but in this case, choose No for Apply TEMP to endpoints?
Now, to address the fact that two corners do not have a specified
temperature, as an
approximation, we will set the temperature at these to corners to 150 C.
Solution -> Define Loads-> Apply -> Thermal-> Temperature -> On Keypoints
A picking menu appears. Note that there are four keypoints in the model,
one at each corner of the large rectangular area. Click on the upper two
corners, at the intersections of the 100 C and 200 C lines. When these corner
keypoints are highlighted, choose OK in the picking menu, and the
following box appears:
57
Click on TEMP for DOFs to be constrained and enter 150 for VALUE,
then click
OK.
Note: In some cases, when you want to repeat the same process two or more
times, you can click Apply in the box, instead of OK. That issues the
command, but leaves the box open. Clicking OK issues the command, but
leaves the box open. Sometimes, though, using the Apply option can cause
problems, if you are not careful. You might click on Apply to issue the
command, then immediately click on OK to close the box, and this issues
the command twice. Sometimes, that is not a problem, and sometimes it is.
So, in this exercise, you are just asked to click on OK in each case, and then
repeat the entire procedure. For the relatively simple modeling effort
undertaken in this exercise, this approach does not add much work, and is
probably less likely to result in errors.
8. Solve the problem:

Solution ->-Solve -> Current LS
Click OK in the Solve Current Load Step Box. Soon after clicking OK, you
should see a note in a box saying Solution is done! You may close this box.
58
Postprocessing:
9. Plot the temperature distribution:

General Postproc -> Plot Results -> Contour Plot-> Nodal Solution
The box below appears. Click on DOF solution, then Temperature, then
click OK.
In the graphics window, a plot, as shown on the following page, should appear
Temperature Distribution Color Contour Plot: Note that the temperature

values
corresponding to the colors are shown in the legend at the bottom of the plot.
59
10. Select nodes along the plate center (x=5 meters).
For comparison with the analytical solution, you will need a listing of specific
temperatures at specific locations in the plate. ANSYS has calculated a
temperature at each node. Because of our method of creating the model by
automatic meshing of the rectangle, at this time, we do not know specific
node numbers at specific locations. But, we can get a listing of node numbers,
including the locations of each node, and also a listing of temperatures by
node numbers. To keep the amount of information to a workable level, it is
probably best to include in these lists only a subset of nodes. To get such a
list, we can first select only the nodes at x=5 meters. This is a case where it is
probably easiest to just use the direct command line entry option, rather than
operate through the menus. On the command line, type nsel,s,loc,x,5, as
shown below, and hit enter:
11. List the locations of the selected nodes.

On the top Utility Menu:
Choose List -> Nodes. In the box that appears, just click on OK at the
bottom. A
listing box appears:
60
12. List the temperatures at each of these nodes.
General Postproc -> List Results -> Nodal Solution
In the box that appears, click on DOF Solution and Temperature, as
shown, then click OK.
61
A listing, as shown on the following page, should appear. The locations of the
same nodes have already been listed, in Step 11 above, so the results for
these nodes can be checked with the analytical solution.
Re-select all nodes in the model for additional plotting, or listing, as desired.
To do this, simply type, at the command line: allsel, then hit enter:
Subsequent lists and plots will include all nodes. Steps 10, 11, and 12 could
be repeated to get listings of temperatures of nodes at other locations.
62
EX No: 4 TWO DIMENSIONAL TRUSS
AIM :
To analyze the given truss for deflection, stresses and reaction force.
Problem Description
Determine the nodal deflections, reaction forces, and stress for the truss
system shown below (E = 200GPa, A = 3250mm2).
PROCEDURE:
63
Preprocessor:
1. Define element type as LINK 1

2. Define geometric properties Cross sectional area : 3250e 6
m2
3. Define element material properties
E = 2 E 11 N/m2
PRXY = 0.3
4. Enter Key points
Key point X Y
1 0 0
2 1800 3118
3 3600 0
4 5400 3118
5 7200 0
6 9000 3118
7 10800 0
5. Form lines connect the keypoints

6. Meshing Size No.of divisions per line : 1
Processor:

2. Apply Constraints.
3. Apply Loads.
Solve the System.
Post Processor:
List the Following:
a. Deformation.
64
b. Reaction forces
c. Axial Stresses.
RESULT:
Thus the given truss is analyzed and found the following results:
Reaction Forces :
Minimum Stress :
Maximum Stress :
65
EX NO: 5 Modal Analysis of a Cantilever Beam:
AIM:
To find the various modes of frequencies for the given cantilever beam.
The simple cantilever beam is used in all of the Dynamic Analysis Tutorials.
Solution: Assigning Loads and Solving
Solution > Analysis Type > New Analysis > Modal

ANTYPE,2
2. Set options for analysis type:

o Select: Solution > Analysis Type > Analysis Options..
66
The following window will appear
o As shown, select the Subspace method and enter 5 in the 'No.

of modes to extract'
o Check the box beside 'Expand mode shapes' and enter 5 in the
'No. of modes to expand'
o Click 'OK'
Note that the default mode extraction method chosen is the

Reduced Method. This is the fastest method as it reduces the
system matrices to only consider the Master Degrees of
Freedom (see below). The Subspace Method extracts modes for
all DOF's. It is therefore more exact but, it also takes longer to
compute (especially when the complex geometries).
o The following window will then appear
67
For this problem, we will use the default options so click on OK.
Solution > Define Loads > Apply > Structural > Displacement >
On Keypoints
Fix Keypoint 1 (ie all DOFs constrained).
4. Solve the System
Solution > Solve > Current LS

SOLVE
1. Verify extracted modes against theoretical predictions

o Select: General Postproc > Results Summary...
68
The following table compares the mode frequencies in Hz

predicted by theory and ANSYS.
Mode Theory ANSYS Percent Error
1 8.311 8.300 0.1
2 51.94 52.01 0.2
3 145.68 145.64 0.0
4 285.69 285.51 0.0
5 472.22 472.54 0.1
Note: To obtain accurate higher mode frequencies, this mesh

would have to be refined even more (i.e. instead of 10 elements,
we would have to model the cantilever using 15 or more
elements depending upon the highest mode frequency of
interest).
2. View Mode Shapes

o Select: General Postproc > Read Results > First Set
This selects the results for the first mode shape
69
o Select General Postproc > Plot Results > Deformed shape .
Select 'Def + undef edge'
The first mode shape will now appear in the graphics window.
o To view the next mode shape, select General Postproc > Read
Results > Next Set . As above choose General Postproc > Plot
Results > Deformed shape . Select 'Def + undef edge'.
o The first four mode shapes should look like the following:
3. Animate Mode Shapes

o Select Utility Menu (Menu at the top) > Plot Ctrls > Animate >
Mode Shape
70
o Keep the default setting and click 'OK'
o The animated mode shapes are shown below.
Mode 1
71
EX NO: 6 CONDUCTION ANALYSIS OF 2D COMPONENT
AIM:
The Simple Conduction Example is constrained as shown in the following

figure. Thermal conductivity (k) of the material is 10 W/m*C and the block is
assumed to be infinitely long.
Open preprocessor menu
ANSYS Main Menu > Preprocessor
Create geometry
Preprocessor > Modeling > Create > Areas > Rectangle > By 2
Corners > X=0, Y=0, Width=1, Height=1
72
Define the Type of Element
Preprocessor > Element Type > Add/Edit/Delete... > click 'Add' >
Select Thermal Mass Solid, Quad 4Node 55
For this example, we will use PLANE55 (Thermal Solid, Quad 4node
55). This element has 4 nodes and a single DOF (temperature) at each
node. PLANE55 can only be used for 2 dimensional steady-state or
transient thermal analysis.
Element Material Properties
Preprocessor > Material Props > Material Models > Thermal >
Conductivity > Isotropic > KXX = 10 (Thermal conductivity)
Mesh Size
Preprocessor > Meshing > Size Cntrls > ManualSize > Areas >
All Areas > 0.05
Mesh
Preprocessor > Meshing > Mesh > Areas > Free > Pick All
ANALYSIS:
Define Analysis Type
Solution > Analysis Type > New Analysis > Steady-State
Apply Constraints
For thermal problems, constraints can be in the form of Temperature,

Heat Flow, Convection, Heat Flux, Heat Generation, or Radiation. In
this example, all 4 sides of the block have fixed temperatures.
Solution > Define Loads > Apply

Note that all of the -Structural- options cannot be selected. This
is due to the type of element (PLANE55) selected.
73
Thermal > Temperature > On Nodes
Click the Box option (shown below) and draw a box around the
nodes on the top line.
Fill the window in as shown to constrain the side to a constant

temperature of 500
74
Using the same method, constrain the remaining 3 sides to a
constant value of 100
Orange triangles in the graphics window indicate the

temperature constraints.
Solve the System
RESULTS:
Results Using ANSYS
Plot Temperature
General Postproc > Plot Results > Contour Plot > Nodal Solu ...
> DOF solution, Temperature TEMP
75
EX NO: 7 TWO DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF FRAME
AIM:
To analyze the give frame model for Deflections, stress and Bending
Moment.
Problem Description:
The simplified version that will be used for this problem is that of a cantilever
beam shown in the following figure
76
Procedure:
Preprocessor.
1. Define the element types Pipe 16
2. Define Geometric Element
Outer Diameter :25
Wall Thickness :2
3. Material Properties
Isotropic
E = 700000 MPa.
PRXY = 0.33
4. Define Key Points
KEYPOINTS X Y Z
1 0 325 0
2 0 400 0
3 500 400 0
4 500 0 0
5 825 0 50
6 825 0 -50
5. Create Lines.
77
Key points UX UY UZ
1 OK OK OK
2 - - -
3 - - -
4 - - -
5 - OK OK
6 - OK OK
Apply Loads;
Key points UX UY UZ
1
2 - - -
3 - - -
4 - 600 N -
5 - 200 N -
6 - - -
Post Processor:
1. Plot Deflection, Stresses, Bending Moment Diagram.
RESULT:
Maximum Deflection:
Minimum Stress :
Maximum Stress :
Bending Moment Diagram
78
EX NO: 8 HARMONIC ANALYSIS OF CANTILEVER BEAM
AIM:
The purpose of this exercise is to explain the steps required to perform

Harmonic analysis the cantilever beam shown below.
We will now conduct a harmonic forced response test by applying a cyclic

load (harmonic) at the end of the beam. The frequency of the load will be
varied from 1 - 100 Hz. The figure below depicts the beam with the application
of the load.
79
1. Define Analysis Type (Harmonic)
Solution > Analysis Type > New Analysis > Harmonic

ANTYPE,3
2. Set options for analysis type:

o Select: Solution > Analysis Type > Analysis Options..
o As shown, select the Full Solution method, the Real +

imaginary DOF printout format and do not use lumped mass
approx.
o Click 'OK'
80
The following window will appear. Use the default settings
(shown below).
o Select Solution > Define Loads > Apply > Structural > Displacement >
On Nodes
o Constrain all DOF
4. Apply Loads:
o Select Solution > Define Loads > Apply > Structural >
Force/Moment > On Nodes
o Select the node at x=1 (far right)
o The following window will appear. Fill it in as shown to apply a
load with a real value of 100 and an imaginary value of 0 in the
positive 'y' direction
81
5. Set the frequency range
o Select Solution > Load Step Opts > Time/Frequency > Freq
and Substps...
o As shown in the window below, specify a frequency range of 0 -
100Hz, 100 substeps and stepped b.c..
By doing this we will be subjecting the beam to loads at 1 Hz, 2

Hz, 3 Hz, ..... 100 Hz. We will specify a stepped boundary
condition (KBC) as this will ensure that the same amplitude (100
N) will be applyed for each of the frequencies. The ramped
option, on the other hand, would ramp up the amplitude where
at 1 Hz the amplitude would be 1 N and at 100 Hz the amplitude
would be 100 N.
You should now have the following in the ANSYS Graphics

window
82
6. Solve the System

SOLVE
We want to observe the response at x=1 (where the load was applyed) as a
function of frequency. We cannot do this with General PostProcessing
(POST1), rather we must use TimeHist PostProcessing (POST26). POST26
is used to observe certain variables as a function of either time or frequency.
1. Open the TimeHist Processing (POST26) Menu
Select TimeHist Postpro from the ANSYS Main Menu.
2. Define Variables
In here we have to define variables that we want to see plotted. By

default, Variable 1 is assigned either Time or Frequency. In our case
it is assigned Frequency. We want to see the displacement UY at the
node at x=1, which is node #2. (To get a list of nodes and their
attributes, select Utility Menu > List > nodes).
o Select TimeHist Postpro > Variable Viewer... and the following

window should pop up.
83
o Select Add (the green '+' sign in the upper left corner) from this
window and the following window should appear
o We are interested in the Nodal Solution > DOF Solution > Y-

Component of displacement. Click OK.
84
o Graphically select node 2 when prompted and click OK. The
'Time History Variables' window should now look as follows
3. List Stored Variables

o In the 'Time History Variables' window click the 'List' button, 3
buttons to the left of 'Add'
The following window will appear listing the data:
85
4. Plot UY vs. frequency
o In the 'Time History Variables' window click the 'Plot' button, 2
buttons to the left of 'Add'
The following graph should be plotted in the main ANSYS

window.
Note that we get peaks at frequencies of approximately 8.3 and

51 Hz. This corresponds with the predicted frequencies of 8.311
and 51.94Hz.
To get a better view of the response, view the log scale of UY.
o Select Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Style > Graphs > Modify
Axis
86
o As marked by an 'A' in the above window, change the Y-axis
scale to 'Logarithmic'
o Select Utility Menu > Plot > Replot
o You should now see the following
87
This is the response at node 2 for the cyclic load applied at this
node from 0 - 100 Hz.
o For ANSYS version lower than 7.0, the 'Variable Viewer' window
is not available. Use the 'Define Variables' and 'Store Data'
functions under TimeHist Postpro. See the help file for
instructions.
88
EX NO: 9 Thermal Analysis of Stepped Bar.
89
EX NO: 10 ANALYSIS OF BEAM WITH DISTRIBUTED LOAD
AIM:
The purpose of this exercise is to explain how to apply distributed loads and
use element tables to extract data.
Problem Definition:
A distributed load of 1000 N/m (1 N/mm) will be applied to a solid steel beam
with a rectangular cross section as shown in the figure below. The cross-
section of the beam is 10mm x 10mm while the modulus of elasticity of the
steel is 200GPa.
1. Open preprocessor menu

2. Give example a Title
Utility Menu > File > Change Title ...

/title, Distributed Loading
90
3. Create Keypoints
We are going to define 2 keypoints (the beam vertices) for this

structure as given in the following table:
Keypoint Coordinates (x,y)
1 (0,0)
2 (1000,0)
4. Define Lines
Preprocessor > Modeling > Create > Lines > Lines > Straight
Line
L,K#,K#
Create a line between Keypoint 1 and Keypoint 2.
5. Define Element Types
Preprocessor > Element Type > Add/Edit/Delete...
For this problem we will use the BEAM3 element. This element
has 3 degrees of freedom (translation along the X and Y axis's,
and rotation about the Z axis). With only 3 degrees of freedom,
the BEAM3 element can only be used in 2D analysis.
6. Define Real Constants
Preprocessor > Real Constants... > Add...
In the 'Real Constants for BEAM3' window, enter the following

geometric properties:
i. Cross-sectional area AREA: 100
91
ii. Area Moment of Inertia IZZ: 833.333
iii. Total beam height HEIGHT: 10
This defines an element with a solid rectangular cross section

10mm x 10mm.
7. Define Element Material Properties
Preprocessor > Material Props > Material Models > Structural >
Linear > Elastic > Isotropic
In the window that appears, enter the following geometric

properties for steel:
i. Young's modulus EX: 200000

ii. Poisson's Ratio PRXY: 0.3
iii.
8. Define Mesh Size
Preprocessor > Meshing > Size Cntrls > ManualSize > Lines >
All Lines...
For this example we will use an element length of 100mm.
9. Mesh the frame
Preprocessor > Meshing > Mesh > Lines > click 'Pick All'
10. Plot Elements
Utility Menu > Plot > Elements
You may also wish to turn on element numbering and turn off keypoint
numbering
Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Numbering ...
92
Solution > Analysis Type > New Analysis > Static

ANTYPE,0
Solution > Define Loads > Apply > Structural > Displacement >
On Keypoints
Pin Keypoint 1 (ie UX and UY constrained) and fix Keypoint 2 in

the y direction (UY constrained).
3. Apply Loads
We will apply a distributed load, of 1000 N/m or 1 N/mm, over the

entire length of the beam.
o Select Solution > Define Loads > Apply > Structural >
Pressure > On Beams
o Click 'Pick All' in the 'Apply F/M' window.
o As shown in the following figure, enter a value of 1 in the field
'VALI Pressure value at node I' then click 'OK'.
93
The applied loads and constraints should now appear as shown in the
figure below.
Note:
To have the constraints and loads appear each time you select
'Replot' you must change some settings. Select Utility Menu >
PlotCtrls > Symbols.... In the window that appears, select
'Pressures' in the pull down menu of the 'Surface Load Symbols'
section.
94
4. Solve the System

SOLVE
Plot Deformed Shape
General Postproc > Plot Results > Deformed Shape

PLDISP.2
1. Plot Principle stress distribution
As shown previously, we need to use element tables to obtain principle

stresses for line elements.
1. Select General Postproc > Element Table > Define Table

2. Click 'Add...'
3. In the window that appears
a. enter 'SMAXI' in the 'User Label for Item' section
b. In the first window in the 'Results Data Item' section scroll
down and select 'By sequence num'
c. In the second window of the same section, select
'NMISC, '
95
d. In the third window enter '1' anywhere after the comma
4. click 'Apply'
5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 but change 'SMAXI' to 'SMAXJ' in step 3a
and change '1' to '3' in step 3d.
6. Click 'OK'. The 'Element Table Data' window should now have
two variables in it.
7. Click 'Close' in the 'Element Table Data' window.
8. Select: General Postproc > Plot Results > Line Elem Res...
9. Select 'SMAXI' from the 'LabI' pull down menu and 'SMAXJ' from
the 'LabJ' pull down menu
RESULT:
Element Stress results are:
96
EX NO: 11 Thermal Analysis of a long Bar.
Introduction:
In this example you will learn to model a 2D block subjected to varying

boundary conditions. Using ANSYS will allow you to output the temperature
distribution in an extremely simple and accurate way. By using any
combination of these boundary conditions one can model almost any 2D heat
transfer situation.
AIM:
To determine the nodal temperature distribution and create contour
plot.
Problem Description:
We assume that our block is a rectangle made entirely of steel.

All units are S.I.
Boundary Conditions:
1) The top is insulated.
2) The right side has a constant temperature of 100K.
3) The left side has constant heat flux into the block of 50 W/m^2.
4) The bottom side is exposed to a convective boundary layer.
5) Heat is uniformly generated in the bock at a rate of 20 W/m^2.
Material Properties: (Steel)
h = 50 W/(m^2*K)
k = 20 W/m K
97
Basic Outline of the Problem:
Preprocessing:
1. Start ANSYS.
2. Create areas.
3. Define the material properties.
4. Define element type. (Quad 8node 77 element, which is a 2-D element for
heat transfer analysis.)
5. Specify meshing controls / Mesh the areas to create nodes and elements.
Solution:
6. Specify boundary conditions.
7. Solve.
Postprocessing:
8. Plot the temperature distribution.
Exit:
9. Exit the ANSYS program, saving all data.
98
Preprocessor:
Preprocessor>Modeling>Create>Areas>Rectangle>2 Corners.
The following window comes up:
Enter the values as shown and click OK.

Now you have created the rectangle. If at any time you cannot see the
complete Workplace then go to Utility Menu>Plot Controls>Pan
Zoom Rotate and zoom out to see the entire Workplace. If you want to
see the grid itself, go to
Utility Menu>Workplane>Display Working Plane
The model should look like this now: (note, you have a black
background)
99
Material Properties:
Now that we have built the model, material properties need to be

defined such that ANSYS understands how heat travels through this
steel solid.
Go to the ANSYS Main Menu
Click Preprocessor>Material Props>Material Models.
Thermal>Conductivity>Isotropic. (Double click Isotropic).

Fill in 20 for Thermal conductivity. Click OK.
Now exit the Define Material Model Behavior Window
Element Properties:
Click Preprocessor>Element Type>Add/Edit/Delete... In the 'Element

Types' window that opens click on Add:
Type 1 in the Element Type reference number.

Click on Thermal Mass Solid and select Quad 8node 77. Click OK.
Close the 'Element types' window.
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Now we have selected Element Type 1 to be a Thermal Solid 8node
Element. This finishes the section defining how the part is to be
analyzed.
Meshing:
This section is responsible for telling ANSYS how to divide the block
such that it has enough nodes, or points, to analyze to make an
accurate enough analysis.
Go to Preprocessor>Meshing>Size Controls>Manual
Size>Lines>All Lines. In the menu that comes up type 0.1 in the field
for Element edge length.
Click on OK. Now when you mesh the figure ANSYS will automatically
create square meshes that have an edge length of 0. 1m along the
lines you selected.
Now go to Preprocessor>Meshing>Mesh Attributes>Default

Attributes. The window is shown below:
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This window appears such that the program knows you are sure
that you have selected the right material to mesh (selected by the
Element Type Number), and the right Material Number (1, as
defined in the Material Properties section). Once this has been
verified, Click OK and proceed to
Preprocessor>Meshing>Mesh>Areas>Free
A popup window will appear on the left hand side of the screen.
This window allows you to select the area to be meshed.
Click anywhere within the blue rectangle you created to select the
area and then click OK in the pop-up window.
Boundary Conditions and Constraints:
Now that we have modeled the block and defined how ANSYS is to
analyze the block we will apply the appropriate Boundary
Conditions.
Go to Preprocessor>Loads>Define Loads>Apply>Thermal (from
here one can apply any of the loads, or Boundary Conditions,
offered by ANSYS.)
Apply Convection (Base)
First well apply the Convection Boundary layer at the base of the plate.
For this click Convection>On Lines within the Thermal Load category.
A popup window will appear on the left hand side of the screen. This
window allows you to select the line you wish the load to be applied.
Select the base of the plate and click OK. The following window will
appear:
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Fill in the h value in the Film Coefficient blank and the Air
temperature in the Bulk Temperature blank. Click OK when
finished.
Apply Constant Temperature (Right side)
Now well apply the given temperature boundary condition on the

right side of the block.
This time, within the Thermal Load category select
Temperature>On Lines.
A popup window will appear on the left hand side of the screen.
This window allows you to select the line you wish the load to be
applied.
Click the right side of the block and then OK.
Enter 100 in the popup window as the set temperature for the right
side:
103

Apply Heat Flux (Left Side)
Now to apply the Heat Flux into the left side of the plate...
Within the Thermal Load category again, select Heat Flux>On Lines
and click OK. Then enter 50 into the blank and Click OK.
Insulated Surface (Top)
Since the top of the block is insulated we dont need to define a specific
boundary condition for the top, so we add uniform heat generation to the block
as a whole and
were done.
Apply Heat Generation
The next step is to add the constraint of heat generation.

Preprocessor>Loads>Define Loads>Apply>Thermal>Heat
Generat>On Areas. (Heat Generated is just short for Heat
Generation). You select Areas this time because you have to apply
this condition uniformly across the block.
Click anywhere within the area to select it and then click OK.
Enter 20 as the heat generation value in the pop-up window that
appears:
104
Now we have applied all the necessary boundary conditions so we
move on to the Solution.
Solution:
Go to ANSYS Main Menu>Solution>Analysis Type>New Analysis.

Select Steady State and click on OK.
Go to Solution>Solve>Current LS.
An error window may appear. Click OK on that window and ignore it.
Wait for ANSYS to solve the problem.
Click on OK and close the 'Information' window.
Post-Processing:
This section is designed so that one can list the results of their analysis
as a nodal solution
Go to the ANSYS Main Menu. Click
General Postprocessing>List Results>Nodal Solution.
Select DOF solution and Temperature. Click on OK.
105
Modification / Plotting the Results:
First go to General Postprocessing>Plot Results>Contour Plot>Nodal

Solution. The following window will come up:
Select DOF solution and Temperature to be plotted and click OK.

The output will be like this:
RESULT:
106
EX NO: 12 ANALYSIS OF CORNER BRACKET
AIM:
A simple static analysis of the corner bracket to control, if the bracket will yield
under loading.
PROBLEM DECRIPTION:
The dimensions of the corner bracket are given below. The bracket is made of
steel with a Young's modulus of E=205 GPa (GPa = 109 N/m2) and the
Poisson's ratio of 0.27 and a yield stress, including a safety factor, of 400
MPa.
107
We will assume plane state of stress, (plane stress is a state of stress in
which the normal and shear stress perpendicular to the plane is assumed to
be zero).
Preferences:
Select Structural
Preprocessing
Define element types and options
Main menu: Preprocessor - Element Type - Add/Edit/Delete..
Add.. an element type
Select Structural Solid family Quad 8 node 82 element and press OK
In the element type dialog now select options to specify
Plane stress w/thk (with thickness)
OK to close the Element type options dialog
108
Close the Element type dialog
Defining real constants
Main menu: Preprocessor - Real Constant
Add a real set

OK for PLANE82
Enter 0.01 for THK ( 10 mm thickness)
Press Close to finish the definition of the real constant dialog
Define material properties
Main menu: Preprocessor - Material Props - Constant - Isotropic
OK to define material set 1
Enter 205.e9 for EX (Young's modulus)
Enter 0.27 for NUXY (Poisson's ratio)
Press OK to define and close material set 1
Define rectangles
Main menu: Preprocessor - Modeling - Create - Areas - Rectangle - By

dimensions
Enter 0, 0.15, -0.025, 0.025 for X1,X2,Y1 and Y2 (Tab key between
entries)
Apply to define the first rectangle
109
Enter 0.1, 0.15, -0.025, -0.075 for X1,X2,Y1 and Y2 for the second
rectangle
OK to define the second rectangle and close the dialog
Change plot controls and replot
To clearly distinguish between the areas just created we will turn on the area
numbers and color control is turned on. This is done from the utility menu:
Utility menu: PlotCtrls - Numbering
Turn on area numbering and press OK to close and replot
110
Change working plane to polar and create first circle
Utility menu: PlotCtrls - Pan, Zoom, Rotate
Click on the small dot (.) to zoom out
111
Let the Pan, Zoom, Rotate dialog be open you'll need it later
Utility menu: Workplane - Display Working Plane (toggle on)
The WP origin will now be visible on top of the global origin. Next, change the
WP to polar, snap on, snap increment and display grid spacing to 0.005, the
polar radius to 0.025 and the tolerance to 0.001.
Utility menu: Workplane - WP settings
Set the parameters according to the display and click OK when

finished
112
The next step is to create the first circle using the picking function in ANSYS.
You can at this point use the Pan,Zoom,Rotate dialog to zoom in the polar
WP coordinate system. Use the big dot to zoom in and the to pan.
Main menu: Preprocessor - Modeling - Create - Areas - Circle - Solid Circle
Pick center point (left mouse button) at WP polar system (0,0). (Note
the message in the Input window)
Move the mouse to 0.025 radius and click left mouse button
OK to close picking menu
Move working plane and create second circle
First we will move the WP origin to the center of the other circle. Then we will
create the other circle in the same manner as the first one. The simplest way
113
to move the WP without entering the number offset is to pick the average of
two keypoints at the lower end of the other rectangle.
Utility menu: Workplane - Offset WP to - Keypoints
Pick keypoint 1 at lower left corner of rectangle

Pick keypoint 2 at lower right corner of rectangle
OK to finish picking offset WP
Pick center point (left mouse button) at WP polar system (0,0).
114
Toolbar: SAVE_DB
Add areas
We need to add the different areas together to get one continuous area. This
is done with the boolean operation: Add areas
Main menu: Preprocessor - Modeling - Operate - Boolean - Add - Areas
Click on Pick All in the Add areas dialog

OK to add all areas together
Toolbar: SAVE_DB
Create line fillet
We need to fill in the radius between the intersection of the two rectangles.
But first we turn off the line numbers and turn off the display of the working
plane.
115
Utility menu: PlotCtrls - Numbering
Turn on line numbering and press OK to close and replot
Utility menu: Workplane - Display Working Plane (toggle off)
Your graphic display should now look something like:
Main menu: Preprocessor - Modeling - Create - Lines - Line Fillet
Pick line 17 and 8

Enter 0.01 (10 mm) as fillet radius
OK to create fillet and close dialog box
116
Create fillet area
The next step is to create a fillet area that can be added to the rest of the
bracket. Before you continue to create a fillet area of the lines you just creates
use the Pan, Zoom, Rotate dialog under Utility menu: PlotCtrls to zoom in
the fillet radius as shown above.
Main menu: Preprocessor - Modeling - Create - Areas - Arbitrary - By Lines
Pick lines L4, L5, L1

OK to create area and close dialog
Use the Pan, Zoom, Rotate dialog again and click on Fit and plot the areas
under
Utility Menu: Plot - Areas
Your plot should now look like:
117
Add areas together
Now add the fillet area to the bracket area. Use the same procedure as in
step 10.
Main menu: Preprocessor - Modeling - Operate - Boolean - Add - Areas
Click on Pick All in the Add areas dialog

OK to add all areas together
118
Create first bolt hole
The holes have a radius of 12.5 mm so we need to change the WP snap and
display increment to 2.5mm if we want to pick the circle origin and radius
when we create the holes.
Utility menu: Workplane - Display Working Plane (toggle on)

Utility menu: Workplane - WP settings
Change the snap incr and display spacing to 0.0025 and click OK
when finished
Now create the first hole:
119
Move working plane and create the second bolt hole
First we move WP back to the global origin:
Utility menu: Workplane - Offset WP to - Global origin
Then we create the other hole

To view the result so far we plot all lines (plotting areas can result in that
some areas hidden by others):
Utility menu: Plot - Lines
120
Toolbar: SAVE_DB
Subtract the bolt holes from the bracket
To finalize the model we only have to subtract the bolt areas from the bracket
to create holes.
Main menu: Preprocessor - Modeling - Operate - Booleans - Subtract -

Areas
Pick bracket as base area from which to subtract

Apply (in picking dialog, Not OK!)
Pick both bolt holes as areas to be subtracted
OK to subtract and close the picking menu
Final model of the corner bracket
Toolbar: SAVE_DB
Mesh the area
We will specify a global element size to control overall mesh density:
Main Menu: Preprocessor - Meshing- Shape & Size - Global Elem Size
Type 0.01 in the SIZE Element edge length

OK to close dialog
121
Finish the preprocessing by meshing the bracket
Main Menu: Preprocessor - Meshing - Mesh - Areas
Pick the bracket area

OK to mesh and close the picking menu
Solution
Apply displacement constraints
The upper bolt hole is constrained, e.g. we have to lock the displacements
(set them to zero) of the nodes on the circumference. Since we have not
explicitely defined where the nodes on the circumference are located,
(ANSYS automatically did that), we'll lock the 4 keypoints on the
circumference and tell ANSYS the all nodes located along the lines between
the keypoints will also be locked.
122
Main Menu: Solution - Loads - Apply - Structural - Displacement - On
Keypoints
Pick the four keypoints around the upper left-hand hole

OK to complete in the picking menu
Click on All DOF (Degree Of Freedom)
Click to yes to expand displacement constraints to nodes
OK to set constraint and close dialog
Toolbar: SAVE_DB
Apply pressure load
We'll now apply the tapered (linearly varying) pressure to the bottom right bolt
hole. In ANSYS a hole is made of four lines defining the perimeter (omkrets).
We will apply the pressure to the two lines making up the lower part of the
circle. Since the total load Fy is 10 kN we need to calculate the maximum
pressure pm in the middle of the lower half.
Main menu: Solution - Apply - Loads - Structural - Pressure - On Lines
Pick the line defining the bottom left part of the circle (line L6)
Apply in the picking menu
Enter 0 for VALI and 62.83e6 for VALJ
123
Apply in the PRES on Lines menu
Pick the line defining the bottom right part of the circle (line L7)
Apply in the picking menu
Enter 62.83e6 for VALI and 0 for VALJ
OK in the PRES on Lines menu
Solve
Main menu: Solution - Solve - Current LS
Review the information in the status window and close the window (File
- Close)
OK to begin the solution in the Solve current load step dialog
Close the information dialog when the solution is done
Postprocessing
Postprocessing is where you review the result of the analysis. The general
postprocessor is used to review the result at one loadstep (time step). Over
the entire model. The time-history postprocessor is used to review results at
specific points in the model over all time steps.
Enter the general postprocessor and read in the results
Main menu: General postprocessor - Read results - First Set
Plot the deformed shape
Main menu: General Postproc - Plot results - Deformed shape
Choose Def(ormed) - undeformed

OK
124
Plot the von Mises equivalent stress
Main menu: General Postproc - Plot results - Contour plot - Nodal Solu
Choose stress item and scroll down to select von Mises (SEQV)
OK
List reaction solution
Main menu: General Postproc - List results - Reaction Solu
OK to list all items in the List Reaction Solution dialog

Scroll down in the PRESOL window and check the total values
When finished File-Close
There are many other options available for reviewing results in the general
postprocessor. You have now finished the analysis and we exit the program.
Exit the ANSYS program
ANSYS Toolbar: QUIT
Select Quit - No Save! in the Exit ANSYS dialog

OK
125
EXNO: 13 ANALYSIS OF CANTILEVER BEAM
AIM:
The problem that is modeled is a classic cantilever beam: fixed at one end
and a vertical load applied to the other end.
The beam has the following dimensions and properties
Length = 2m
Depth = 10cm
Width = 5cm
Load = 10,000N
E = 200 GPa (steel)
The problem that we are going to solve will be defined by a number of

variables. These may be entered by on of two approaches.
1. The quickest way is to enter them in the ANSYS Input window. Move
your mouse to the lower half of the window and then left click. Then
type in each of the following lines. Each one is completed by hitting
Enter or Return. All lengths are given in mm.
2. length=2000
3. depth=100
4. width=50
5. xsect=depth*width
126
6. inertiaz=(width*depth**3)/12
Notice that by using variables like this, it is very easy to set up a

parametric description of your model.
7. Alternatively, these variables my be entered in the 'Utility menu bar'/

'Paramaters'/'Scalar Parameters...' menu. This brings up a dialog box
in which these parameters can be entered. Note that you must click on
'Accept' to save your changes before you click on 'Close'.
The overall geometry is defined in ANSYS using keypoints which simply

specify various principal coordinates to outline the body. For this beam
example, these keypoints will be the two ends of the beam!
Start the Prep7 preprocessor by selecting 'Preprocessor' in the 'ANSYS

Main Menu'.
From the 'Preprocessor' menu, select 'Create' (under the '-Modeling-'
title).
Then select 'Keypoints' from this 'Create' menu.
Select 'In Active CS...' on the 'Keypoints' menu. This permits you to
define keypoints in the active Coordinate System.
In the window that appears, enter keypoint number '1' in the
appropriate box, and enter the x,y,z coordinates: 0,0,0 in their
appropriate boxes.
Enter the second keypoint by typing '2' and length,0,0 in the their
appropriate boxes.
Click on 'OK' to indicate that you are finished entering keypoints.
You can now list the entered keypoints to make sure you have done this step
correctly, by selecting 'Utility menu bar'/'List'/'Keypoints'. There are two
options here; selecting either one will give you the coordinates of the
keypoints you have entered (these are 0,0 and 2000,0 since length=2000).
127
1. In the 'Utility menu bar', select 'PlotCtrls' menu, then 'Numbering...'
Click on the button beside 'Keypoint numbers' so that it changes
colour, and says 'On' beside it. Click on 'OK' and the box will close and
the keypoints will be plotted with their numbers. (for this example, the
first one may be hidden in the triad symbol at 0,0,0.) To replot at any
time, select 'Utility menu bar'/'Plot'/'replot'.
You must now connect the two keypoints together to form a line:
First close the last menu that were used to create the keypoints by double
clicking in the upper left-hand corner of the menu. This will return you
to the 'Create menu'.
Select the 'Lines' item (under '-Lines-') in this menu.
Select 'Straight Line'.
Use the mouse to pick the two keypoints in the graphics window. They will
be marked by a small yellow box when picked. Click on 'OK' in the
'Create Straight Line' window when you have picked the two keypoints.
Now close the 'Lines' and 'Create' menus as earlier described.
It is now necessary to create some elements nn this line. This is called

'Meshing'. ANSYS first needs to know what kind of elements to use for our
problem:
Select 'Element Type' in the 'Preprocessor' menu.

Select 'Add/Edit/Delete...'
Click on the 'Add...' button in the 'Element Types' window.
Select 'Beam', '2D elastic' and click on 'OK'. You should see 'Type 1
BEAM3' in the 'Element Types' window.
Click on 'Options...'
In the 'BEAM3 element type options' window, click on the top button
(K6), and select 'Include Output'.
Click on 'OK'.
128
Click on 'Close' in the 'Element Types' window.
Close the 'Element Type' menu.
You need to specify geometric properties for your elements:
Select 'Real Constants...' in the 'Preprocessor' menu.

Click on 'Add...'
Select 'Type 1 BEAM3' and click on 'OK'.
In the 'Real Constants for BEAM3' window, enter the following
geometric properties (using parameters that were entered at the
beginning of our example):
AREA: xsect
IZZ: inertiaz
HEIGHT: depth
Click on 'OK'
Click on 'Close' in the 'Real Constants' window.
Select 'Material Props' in the 'Preprocessor' menu.

Select 'Isotropic...' under '-Constant-'
Click 'OK' in the 'Isotropic Material Properties' window to select material
number 1.
In the window that appears, there are many properties that may be
specified. The ones of concern are:
EX: 200000
NUXY: 0.3
Set these properties and click on 'OK'.
Close the 'Material Props' menu.
The last step before meshing is to tell ANSYS how big the elements should
be. Let's make the element length 20cm to begin with:
Select 'Shape & Size' under '-Meshing-' in the 'Preprocessor' menu.

In the 'Shape & Size' menu, select 'Global Elem Size...'
129
Give a 'SIZE' of 200 and click on OK.
Close the 'Shape & Size' menu.
Now you can tell ANSYS to mesh the beam:
Select 'Mesh' under '-Meshing-' in the 'Preprocessor' menu.
Select 'Lines' in the 'Mesh' menu.
Use the mouse to pick the line in the graphics window. It will be
surrounded by a yellow box when picked.
Click on 'OK' in the 'Mesh Lines' Box.
Close the 'Mesh' menu.
Plot your elements by:
Select 'Numbering' in the 'PlotCtrls' Menu.
Turn off Keypoint numbering so that the plot does not become confusing.
Click on the 'Elem & Attrib numbering' box, and select 'Element numbers'.
Click on 'OK'.
From the 'Plot' menu, select 'Elements' and you will then see the elements
plotted in multiple colours, with their element numbers.
Since many of the results will be given by node, it would be a good idea to
look at how the nodes are numbered:
Select 'Numbering' from the 'PlotCtrls' menu, and turn on node

numbering. You will see that the plot becomes very cluttered with
numbers.
To see the nodes and node numbers plotted by themselves, select
'Nodes' from the 'Plot' menu and you will be able to see how the nodes
130
are numbered. Notice that they are not necessarily numbered from left
to right.
Save the model at this time, so if you make some mistakes later on, you will
be able to come back to this point:
Select 'Utility Menu Bar'/'File'/'Save As...'.

At the top of the window that appears, you will see *.db, preceeded by
a directory name. Change the * to whatever name you want, say
'model1' so that the box now contains 'model1.db' preceeded by a full
directory name. (The .db is important, so make sure you include it.)
Click on 'OK'.
constraint(s) and solve the resulting system of equations.
Close the 'Preprocessor' menu and open up the 'Solution' menu (from the
same 'ANSYS Main Menu').
First you must tell ANSYS how you want it to solve this problem: Select 'New
Analysis' and ensure that 'Static' is selected, and click 'OK'; i.e. you are going
to do a static analysis on the beam as apposed to a dynamic analysis, for
example.
Now you must apply some loads and constraints:
Select 'Apply' under '-Loads-' title.

We will start with constraints, so select 'Displacement >'
Select 'On Nodes'
Use the mouse to pick the node at 0,0 in the graphics window.
Click on 'OK' in the 'Apply U,ROT' window.
131
Choose what degrees of freedom are to be constrained. In this case,
you have a cantilevered beam, so all DOF's are constrained at this
end.
Select 'All DOF' and click on 'OK'. (You will see some triangles in the
graphics window indicating the constraints. The rotation constraint is
marked in orange, and the displacement constraints are in blue. You
may not be able to see the rotation constraint because of the angle of
view.)
Let's get a better look at the situation before we apply a load:
Turn off the node numbering ('Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Numbering').

Plot the elements ('Utility menu bar'/'Plot'/'Elements')
We will rotate the picture to an isometric view: Select 'Utility menu
bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Pan, Zoom, Rotate...' In the window that appears, you
have many controls. Try experimenting with them. By turning on the
dynamic mode (click on the button beside 'Dynamic Mode' so that it
turns yellow) you can use the mouse to drag the image, translating and
rotating it on all three axes.
To get an isometric view, click on 'Iso' (at the top right). You can either
leave the 'Pan, Zoom, Rotate' window open and move it to an empty
area on the screen, or close it if your screen in already cluttered.
You may find that the triad symbol at the origin (in the graphics
window) is confusing the picture. You can turn it off, or move it to
another location. Select:
o 'Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Window Controls'/'Window
Options...'
o Click on the button by '/TRIAD' to adjust the location of triad
symbol. Its default location is at the origin, but it can be moved
to another location on the screen (note that it will then not mark
the location of the axes, but only their direction) or turned off.
132
You can also try adjusting the other parameters in the 'Window
Options' box. Click on 'Apply' to have your changes take effect without
closing the window. Click on 'OK' when you are done.
It's time to apply the load:
If you still have the 'Apply' menu open, select 'Force/Moment >'. (If you
don't have 'Apply' open, its under '-Loads-' in the 'Solution' menu.)
Choose 'On Nodes'
Pick the node at the end of the beam with the mouse.
Click on 'OK' in the 'Apply F/M' window.
In the next window to appear:
Click on the button at the top and select FY. This indicate that we
Enter a value of -10000 in the box below.
Click on 'OK'.
The force will appear in the graphics window as a red arrow.
Close all open 'Apply' menus.
Solution:
In the 'Solution' menu under the '-Solve-' title, select 'Current LS' this
indicates that we desire the solution under the current Load Step (LS).
Click on 'OK' in the window that comes up after a few seconds. You
may close the solution '/STAT window' that has appeared from the
solution phase.
133
You will now want to view the results. To do this you must enter the post-
processor:
Close the 'Solution' menu.

Select 'General Postprocessor' from the 'ANSYS Main Menu'.
Read the results by selecting 'By Load Step...' under '-Read Results-'. Select
Load Step 1 in the window that appears, and click on OK.
Plot your results:
Select 'Plot Results' in the 'General Postprocessor' menu.

Select 'Deformed Shape...'
Select what you want to plot (e.g. 'Def+ undeformed') and click on 'OK'.
You will notice in the legend in the graphics window that there is the text
'DSCA=12.5'. This refers to the displacement scaling. In other words, the
displacements in the figure look 12.5 times larger than they really are. You
can adjust the displacement scaling by selecting 'Utility Menu
Bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Style'/'Displacement Scaling...'.
You probably want to know the actual displacements of the beam:
Close the 'Plot Results' menu.

Select 'List Results' on the 'General Postprocessor' menu.
Select 'Sort Nodes...'
Set 'ORDER' to 'Ascending Order'
Leave 'NUMB' blank.
In the leftmost of the lists beside 'Item,Comp' select 'geometry'.
In the right list select 'Node loc X'.
Click on 'OK'.
Select 'Nodal Solution...' from the 'General Postprocessor' menu.
Choose 'DOF Solution' and 'ALL DOFs' from the lists in the 'List Nodal
Solution' window.
134
Click on 'OK'.
How do these numbers compare with expected analytical results?
The nodal results will be displayed. Node 2 will be displayed after 1 & 3-11.
This is due to the way that ANSYS numbers the nodes. Node 2 is at the end
of the beam (at x=2000). If you had not sorted the nodes before displaying the
nodal solution, the results would have been displayed in order of node from 1-
11, which does not correspond to the actual physical location of the nodes.
Look now at the forces in the elements:
Select 'Element Solution...' from the 'General Postprocessor' menu.

Select 'Nodal force data' and 'All forces' from the lists displayed.
Click on 'OK'.
For each of the 10 elements, the force/moment values at each of the
two nodes per element will be displayed.
You probably want some information about stresses in the beam:
Close the 'List Results' menu if it is still open.

Select 'Element Table' from the 'General Postprocessor' menu.
Select 'Define Table...'
Click on 'Add...'
In the 'Lab' box, type 'axiali'
In the 'Selection' box, type 'ls,1'
Click on 'Apply'.
Similarly, define two more items:
o Lab: 'bendingi'; Selection: 'ls,3' (click on 'Apply')
o Lab: 'bendingj'; Selection: 'ls,6' (click on 'OK')
Close the 'Element Table Data' window. (click on 'Close')
Select 'List Elem Table...' in the 'Element Table' menu.
In the box that appears, select AXIALI, BENDINGI, and BENDINGJ,
and click on 'OK'.
135
A list of stresses will appear. The axial stresses (AXIALI) are zero throughout,
as we would expect. The other two (BENDINGI & BENDINGJ) refer to the
bending stresses at each end of each element.
Let's get a plot of the bending stresses:
Close the 'Element Table' Menu.

Select 'Plot Results' from the 'General Postprocessing' menu.
Select 'Line Elem Res..'
In the window that appears, set LabI to BENDINGI and LabJ to
BENDINGJ.
Click on 'OK'.
MATLAB INTRODUCTION:
Overview of the MATLAB Environment
The MATLAB high-performance language for technical computing integrates

computation, visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use environment
where problems and solutions are expressed in familiar mathematical
notation. Typical uses include
Math and computation
Algorithm development
Data acquisition
Modeling, simulation, and prototyping
Data analysis, exploration, and visualization
Scientific and engineering graphics
Application development,
136
Including graphical user interface building MATLAB is an interactive system
whose basic data element is an array that does not require dimensioning. It
allows you to solve many technical computing problems, especially those with
matrix and vector formulations, in a fraction of the time it would take to write a
program in a scalar noninteractive language such as C or FORTRAN.
The name MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory. MATLAB was originally
written to provide easy access to matrix software developed by the LINPACK
and EISPACK projects. Today, MATLAB engines incorporate the LAPACK
and BLAS libraries, embedding the state of the art in software for matrix
computation.
SIMULINK INTRODUCTION:
Simulink is a graphical extension to MATLAB for modeling and
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simulation of systems. In Simulink, systems are drawn on screen as block
diagrams. Many elements of block diagrams are available, such as transfer
functions, summing junctions, etc., as well as virtual input and output devices
such as function generators and oscilloscopes. Simulink is integrated with
MATLAB and data can be easily transferred between the programs. In these
tutorials, we will apply Simulink to the examples from the MATLAB tutorials to
model the systems, build controllers, and simulate the systems. Simulink is
supported on Unix, Macintosh, and Windows environments; and is included in
the student version of MATLAB for personal computers.
The idea behind these tutorials is that you can view them in one window while
running Simulink in another window. System model files can be downloaded
from the tutorials and opened in Simulink. You will modify and extend these
system while learning to use Simulink for system modeling, control, and
simulation. Do not confuse the windows, icons, and menus in the tutorials for
your actual Simulink windows. Most images in these tutorials are not live -
they simply display what you should see in your own Simulink windows. All
Simulink operations should be done in your Simulink windows.
1. Starting Simulink
2. Model Files
3. Basic Elements
4. Running Simulations
5. Building Systems
Starting Simulink
Simulink is started from the MATLAB command prompt by entering the

following command:
>> Simulink
Alternatively, you can hit the Simulink button at the top of the MATLAB
window as shown below:
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When it starts, Simulink brings up the Simulink Library browser.
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Open the modeling window with New then Model from the File menu on the
Simulink Library Browser as shown above.
This will bring up a new untitiled modeling window shown below.
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Model Files
In Simulink, a model is a collection of blocks which, in general, represents a

system. In addition to drawing a model into a blank model window, previously
saved model files can be loaded either from the File menu or from the
MATLAB command prompt.
You can open saved files in Simulink by entering the following command in
the MATLAB command window. (Alternatively, you can load a file using the
Open option in the File menu in Simulink, or by hitting Ctrl+O in Simulink.)
>> filename
The following is an example model window.
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A new model can be created by selecting New from the File menu in any
Simulink window (or by hitting Ctrl+N).
Basic Elements
There are two major classes of items in Simulink: blocks and lines. Blocks are
used to generate, modify, combine, output, and display signals. Lines are
used to transfer signals from one block to another.
Blocks
There are several general classes of blocks:
Continuous
Dis continuous
Dis cre te
Look-Up Tables
Ma th Ope ra tions
Mode l Ve rifica tion
Mode -l Wide Utilities
P orts & S ubs ys te m s
S igna l Attribute s
S igna l Routing
S inks : Us e d to output or dis pla y s igna ls
S ource s : Used to generate various signals
Us e r-Defined Functions
Dis cre te : Line a r, dis cre te-time system elements (transfer functions, state-
space models, etc.)
Line a r: Line a r, continuous-time system elements and connections
(summing junctions, gains, etc.)
Nonline a r: Nonline a r ope ra tors (a rbitra ry functions , s a tura tion, de la y, e tc.)
Conne ctions : Multiple x, De m ultiple x, S ys te m Ma cros , e tc.
Blocks have zero to several input terminals and zero to several output
terminals. Unused input terminals are indicated by a small open triangle.
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Unused output terminals are indicated by a small triangular point. The block
shown below has an unused input terminal on the left and an unused output
terminal on the right.
Lines
Lines transmit signals in the direction indicated by the arrow. Lines must
always transmit signals from the output terminal of one block to the input
terminal of another block. One exception to this is a line can tap off of another
line, splitting the signal to each of two destination blocks, as shown below.
Lines can never inject a signal into another line; lines must be combined
through the use of a block such as a summing junction.
A signal can be either a scalar signal or a vector signal. For Single-Input,

Single-Output systems, scalar signals are generally used. For Multi-Input,
Multi-Output systems, vector signals are often used, consisting of two or more
scalar signals. The lines used to transmit scalar and vector signals are
identical. The type of signal carried by a line is determined by the blocks on
either end of the line.
Simple Example
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The simple model (from the model files section) consists of three blocks: Step,
Transfer Fcn, and Scope. The Step is a source block from which a step input
signal originates. This signal is transferred through the line in the direction
indicated by the arrow to the Transfer Function linear block. The Transfer
Function modifies its input signal and outputs a new signal on a line to the
Scope. The Scope is a sink block used to display a signal much like an
oscilloscope.
There are many more types of blocks available in Simulink, some of which will
be discussed later. Right now, we will examine just the three we have used in
the simple model.
Modifying Blocks
A block can be modified by double-clicking on it. For example, if you double-

click on the "Transfer Fcn" block in the simple model, you will see the
following dialog box.
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This dialog box contains fields for the numerator and the denominator of the
block's transfer function. By entering a vector containing the coefficients of the
desired numerator or denominator polynomial, the desired transfer function
can be entered. For example, to change the denominator to s^2+2s+1, enter
the following into the denominator field:
[1 2 1]
and hit the close button, the model window will change to the following:
which reflects the change in the denominator of the transfer function.
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The "step" block can also be double-clicked, bringing up the following dialog
box.
The default parameters in this dialog box generate a step function occurring at
time=1 sec, from an initial level of zero to a level of 1. (in other words, a unit
step at t=1). Each of these parameters can be changed. Close this dialog
before continuing.
The most complicated of these three blocks is the "Scope" block. Double
clicking on this brings up a blank oscilloscope screen.
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When a simulation is performed, the signal which feeds into the scope will be
displayed in this window. Detailed operation of the scope will not be covered
in this tutorial. The only function we will use is the autoscale button, which
appears as a pair of binoculars in the upper portion of the window.
Running Simulations
To run a simulation, we will work with the following model file:
simple2.mdl
Download and open this file in Simulink following the previous instructions for
this file. You should see the following model window.
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Before running a simulation of this system, first open the scope window by
double-clicking on the scope block. Then, to start the simulation, either select
Start from the Simulation menu (as shown below) or hit Ctrl-T in the model
window.
The simulation should run very quickly and the scope window will appear as
shown below. If it doesn't, just double click on the block labeled "scope."
Note that the simulation output (shown in yellow) is at a very low level relative
to the axes of the scope. To fix this, hit the autoscale button (binoculars),
which will rescale the axes as shown below.
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Note that the step response does not begin until t=1. This can be changed by
double-clicking on the "step" block. Now, we will change the parameters of the
system and simulate the system again. Double-click on the "Transfer Fcn"
block in the model window and change the denominator to
[1 20 400]
Re-run the simulation (hit Ctrl-T) and you should see what appears as a flat
line in the scope window. Hit the autoscale button, and you should see the
following in the scope window.
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Notice that the autoscale button only changes the vertical axis. Since the new
transfer function has a very fast response, it compressed into a very narrow
part of the scope window. This is not really a problem with the scope, but with
the simulation itself. Simulink simulated the system for a full ten seconds even
though the system had reached steady state shortly after one second.
To correct this, you need to change the parameters of the simulation itself. In
the model window, select Parameters from the Simulation menu. You will see
the following dialog box.
There are many simulation parameter options; we will only be concerned with
the start and stop times, which tell Simulink over what time period to perform
the simulation. Change Start time from 0.0 to 0.8 (since the step doesn't occur
until t=1.0. Change Stop time from 10.0 to 2.0, which should be only shortly
after the system settles. Close the dialog box and rerun the simulation. After
hitting the autoscale button, the scope window should provide a much better
display of the step response as shown below.
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Building Systems
In this section, you will learn how to build systems in Simulink using the
building blocks in Simulink's Block Libraries. You will build the following
system.
First you will gather all the necessary blocks from the block libraries. Then you
will modify the blocks so they correspond to the blocks in the desired model.
Finally, you will connect the blocks with lines to form the complete system.
After this, you will simulate the complete system to verify that it works.
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Gathering Blocks
Follow the steps below to collect the necessary blocks:
Cre a te a ne w m ode l (Ne w from the File m e nu or Ctrl-N). You will get a
blank model window.
Click on the Libra ry Brows e r button to open the Simulink Library

Browser. Click on the Sources option under the expanded Simulink title to
reveal possible sources for the model.
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Dra g the S te p block from the s ource s window into the le ft s ide of your
model window.
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From the S im ulink Libra ry Brows e r, dra g the S um a nd G a in from "Ma th
Operations" option found under the Simulink title.
S witch to the "Continuous " option a nd dra g two ins ta nce s of the Tra ns fe r
Fcn (drag it two times) into your model window arranged approximately as
shown below. The exact alignment is not important since it can be changed
later. Just try to get the correct relative positions. Notice that the second
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Transfer Function block has a 1 after its name. Since no two blocks may have
the same name, Simulink automatically appends numbers following the
names of blocks to differentiate between them.
Click on the "S inks " option the n dra g ove r the "S cope " icon
Modify Blocks
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Follow these steps to properly modify the blocks in your model.
Double-click your Sum block. Since you will want the second input to be
subtracted, enter +- into the list of signs field. Close the dialog box.
Double-click your Gain block. Change the gain to 2.5 and close the dialog
box.
Double-click the leftmost Transfer Function block. Change the numerator to
[1 2] and the denominator to [1 0]. Close the dialog box.
Double-click the rightmost Transfer Function block. Leave the numerator
[1], but change the denominator to [1 2 4]. Close the dialog box. Your model
should appear as:
Cha nge the na m e of the firs t Tra ns fe r Function block by clicking on the
words "Transfer Fcn". A box and an editing cursor will appear on the block's
name as shown below. Use the keyboard (the mouse is also useful) to delete
the existing name and type in the new name, "PI Controller". Click anywhere
outside the name box to finish editing.
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S im ila rly, cha nge the na m e of the s e cond Tra ns fe r Function block from
"Transfer Fcn1" to "Plant". Now, all the blocks are entered properly. Your
model should appear as:
Connecting Blocks with Lines
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Now that the blocks are properly laid out, you will now connect them together.
Follow these steps.
Dra g the m ous e from the output te rm ina l of the S te p block to the uppe r
(positive) input of the Sum block. Let go of the mouse button only when the
mouse is right on the input terminal. Do not worry about the path you follow
while dragging, the line will route itself. You should see the following.
The resulting line should have a filled arrowhead. If the arrowhead is open, as
shown below, it means it is not connected to anything.
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You can continue the partial line you just drew by treating the open arrowhead
as an output terminal and drawing just as before. Alternatively, if you want to
redraw the line, or if the line connected to the wrong terminal, you should
delete the line and redraw it. To delete a line (or any other object), simply click
on it to select it, and hit the delete key.
Dra w a line conne cting the S um block output to the G a in input. Als o dra w a
line from the Gain to the PI Controller, a line from the PI Controller to the
Plant, and a line from the Plant to the Scope. You should now have the
following.
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The line re m a ining to be dra wn is the fe e dba ck s igna l conne cting the
output of the Plant to the negative input of the Sum block. This line is different
in two ways. First, since this line loops around and does not simply follow the
shortest (right-angled) route so it needs to be drawn in several stages.
Second, there is no output terminal to start from, so the line has to tap off of
an existing line.
To tap off the output line, hold the Ctrl key while dragging the mouse from the
point on the existing line where you want to tap off. In this case, start just to
the right of the Plant. Drag until you get to the lower left corner of the desired
feedback signal line as shown below.
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Now, the open arrowhead of this partial line can be treated as an output
terminal. Draw a line from it to the negative terminal of the Sum block in the
usual manner.
Now, you will a lign the blocks with e a ch othe r for a ne a te r a ppe a ra nce .
Once connected, the actual positions of the blocks does not matter, but it is
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easier to read if they are aligned. To move each block, drag it with the mouse.
The lines will stay connected and re-route themselves. The middles and
corners of lines can also be dragged to different locations. Starting at the left,
drag each block so that the lines connecting them are purely horizontal. Also,
adjust the spacing between blocks to leave room for signal labels. You should
have something like:
Fina lly, you will pla ce la be ls in your m ode l to ide ntify the s igna ls . To pla ce
a label anywhere in your model, double click at the point you want the label to
be. Start by double clicking above the line leading from the Step block. You
will get a blank text box with an editing cursor as shown below
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Type an r in this box, labeling the reference signal and click outside it to end
editing.
La be l the e rror (e ) signal, the control (u) signal, and the output (y) signal in
the same manner. Your final model should appear as:
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To s a ve your m ode l, s e le ct S a ve As in the File menu and type in any
desired model name.
Simulation
Now that the model is complete, you can simulate the model. Select Start
from the Simulation menu to run the simulation. Double-click on the Scope
block to view its output. Hit the autoscale button (binoculars) and you should
see the following.
Taking Variables from MATLAB
In some cases, parameters, such as gain, may be calculated in MATLAB to

be used in a Simulink model. If this is the case, it is not necessary to enter the
result of the MATLAB calculation directly into Simulink. For example, suppose
we calculated the gain in MATLAB in the variable K. Emulate this by entering
the following command at the MATLAB command prompt.
K=2.5
This variable can now be used in the Simulink Gain block. In your Simulink
model, double-click on the Gain block and enter the following in the Gain field.
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K
Close this dialog box. Notice now that the Gain block in the Simulink model
shows the variable K rather than a number.
Now, you can re-run the simulation and view the output on the Scope. The
result should be the same as before.
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Now, if any calculations are done in MATLAB to change any of the variables
used in the Simulink model, the simulation will use the new values the next
time it is run. To try this, in MATLAB, change the gain, K, by entering the
following at the command prompt.
K=5
Start the Simulink simulation again, bring up the Scope window, and hit the
autoscale button. You will see the following output which reflects the new,
higher gain.
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Besides variables, signals and even entire systems can be exchanged
between MATLAB and Simulink
Simulation using MAT LAB:
ExNo : 15 Simulation of Spring Mass System
Writing Matlab Functions: Damped spring system
In this example, we will create a Simulink model for a mass attached to a

spring with a linear damping force.
A mass on a spring with a velocity-dependant damping force and a time-

dependant force acting upon it will behave according to the following
equation:
The model will be formed around this equation. In this equation, 'm' is the
equivalent mass of the system; 'c' is the damping constant; and 'k' is the
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constant for the stiffness of the spring. First we want to rearrange the above
equation so that it is in terms of acceleration; then we will integrate to get the
expressions for velocity and position. Rearranging the equation to accomplish
this, we get:
To build the model, we start with a 'step' block and a 'gain' block. The gain
block represents the mass, which we will be equal to 5. We also know that we
will need to integrate twice, that we will need to add these equations together,
and that there are two more constants to consider. The damping constant 'c'
will act on the velocity, that is, after the first integration, and the constant 'k'
will act on the position, or after the second integration. Let c = 0.35 and let k =
0.5. Laying all these block out to get an idea of how to put them together, we
get:
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By looking at the equation in terms of acceleration, it is clear that the damping
term and spring term are summed negatively, while the mass term is still
positive. To add places and change signs of terms being summed, double-
click on the sum function block and edit the list of signs:
Once we have added places and corrected the signs for the sum block, we
need only connect the lines to their appropriate places. To be able to see
what is happening with this spring system, we add a 'scope' block and add it
as follows:
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The values of 'm', 'c' and 'k' can be altered to test cases of under-damping,
critical-damping and over-damping. To accurately use the scope, right-click
the graph and select "Autoscale".
The mdl-file can now be saved. The following is a sample output when the
model is run for 30 iterations.
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ExNO:16 Simulation of Air-conditioning of a house
Air Conditioning of a House: Simulation of Room Heater

This illustrates how we can use Simulink to create the Air
Conditioning of a house - Room Heater. This system depends on the
outdoor environment, the thermal characteristics of the house, and the house
heating system. The air_condition1.m file initializes data in the model
workspace. To make changes, we can edit the model workspace directly or
edit the m-file and re-load the model workspace.
Opening the Model
In the MATLAB window, load the model by executing the following code
(select the code and press F9 to evaluate selection).
mdl=air_condition01;
open_system(mdl);
The House Heating Model
Model Initialization
When the model is opened, it loads the information about the house
from the air_condition1.m file. The M-file does the following:
Defines the house geometry (size, number of windows)
Specifies the thermal properties of house materials
Calculates the thermal resistance of the house
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Provides the heater characteristics (temperature of the hot air, flow-
rate)
Defines the cost of electricity (Rs.4.00/kWhr)
Specifies the initial room temperature (10 deg. Celsius = 50 deg.
Fahrenheit)
Note: Time is given in units of hours. Certain quantities, like air flow-
rate, are expressed per hour (not per second).
Model Components
Set Point
"Set Point" is a constant block. It specifies the temperature that must be
maintained indoors. It is set at 86 degrees Fahrenheit which is equal to 30
degrees Centigrade.
By default. Temperatures are given in Fahrenheit, but then are
converted to Celsius to perform the calculations.
Thermostat
"Thermostat" is a subsystem that contains a Relay block. The
thermostat allows fluctuations of 5 degrees Fahrenheit above or below the
desired room temperature. If air temperature drops below 81 degrees
Fahrenheit, the thermostat turns on the heater.
We can see the Thermostat subsystem by the following command in
MATLAB Command window.
open_system([mdl,'/Thermostat']);
Heater
"Heater" is a subsystem that has a constant air flow rate, "Mdot", which
is specified in the air_condition.m M-file. The thermostat signal turns the
heater on or off. When the heater is on, it blows hot air at temperature
THeater
(50 degrees Celsius = 122 degrees Fahrenheit by default) at a
constant flow rate of Mdot (1kg/sec = 3600kg/hr by default).
The heat flow into the room is expressed by the Equation 1.
Equation 1: (dQ/dt) = (T heater Troom)*Mdot*c
where c is the heat capacity of air at constant pressure.
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We can see the Heater subsystem by the following command in
MATLAB Command window.
open_system([mdl,'/Heater']);
Cost Calculator
"Cost Calculator" is a Gain block. "Cost Calculator" integrates the heat
flow over time and multiplies it by the energy cost.
The cost of heating is plotted in the "PlotResults" scope.
House
"House" is a subsystem that calculates room temperature variations. It
takes into consideration the heat flow from the heater and heat losses to the
environment. Heat losses and the temperature time derivative are expressed
by Equation 2.
Equation 2
(dQ/dt)losses =(Troom Tout) / Req where Req is the equivalent thermal
resistance of the house.
We can see the House subsystem by the following command in MATLAB
Command window.
open_system([mdl,'/House']);
Modeling the Environment
We model the environment as a heat sink with infinite heat capacity and
time varying temperature Tout. The constant block "Avg Outdoor Temp"
specifies the average air temperature outdoors. The "Daily Temp Variation"
Sine Wave block generates daily temperature fluctuations of outdoor
temperature. We can vary these parameters and see how they affect the
heating costs.
Running the Simulation and Visualizing the Results
We can run the simulation and visualize the results.
Open the "PlotResults" scope to visualize the results. The heat cost and
indoor versus outdoor temperatures are plotted on the scope. The
temperature outdoor varies sinusoidally, whereas the indoors temperature is
maintained within 5 degrees Fahrenheit of "Set Point". Time axis is labeled in
hours.
evalc('sim(mdl)');
open_system([mdl '/PlotResults']),
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Remarks
This particular model is designed to calculate the heating costs only. If
the temperature of the outside air is higher than the room temperature, the
room temperature will exceed the desired "Set Point.
ExNO: 17 CAM and FOLLOWER SYSTEM
A cam and follower system is system/mechanism that uses a cam and

follower to create a specific motion. The cam is in most cases merely a flat
piece of metal that has had an unusual shape or profile machined onto it.
This cam is attached to a shaft which enables it to be turned by applying a
turning action to the shaft. As the cam rotates it is the profile or shape of the
cam that causes the follower to move in a particular way. The movement of
the follower is then transmitted to another mechanism or another part of the
mechanism.
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Examining the diagram shown above we can see that as some external
turning force is applied to the shaft (for example: by motor or by hand) the
cam rotates with it. The follower is free to move in the Y plane but is unable to
move in the other two so as the lobe of the cam passes the edge of the
follower it causes the follower to move up. Then some external downward
force (usually a spring and gravity) pushes the follower down making it keep
contact with the cam. This external force is needed to keep the follower in
contact with the cam profile.
Displacement Diagrams:
Displacement diagrams are merely a plot of two different displacements

(distances). These two dispalcements are:
1. the distance travelled up or down by the follower and

2. the angular displacement (distance) rotated by the cam
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In the diagram shown opposite we can
see the two different displacements
represented by the two different arrows.
The green arrow representing the
displacement of the follower i.e. the
distance travelled up or down by the
follower. The mustard arrow (curved
arrow) shows the angular displacement
travelled by the cam.
Note: Angular displacement is the angle through which the cam has rotated.
If we examine the diagram shown below we can see the relationship between
a displacement diagram and the actual profile of the cam. Note only half of
the displacement diagram is drawn because the second half of the diagram is
the same as the first. The diagram is correct from a theoretical point of view
but would have to changed slightly if the cam was to be actually made and
used. We will consider this a little more in the the following section - Uniform
Velocity.
Uniform Velocity:
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Uniform Velocity means travelling at a constant speed in a fixed direction and
as long as the speed or direction don't change then its uniform velocity. In
relation to cam and follower systems, uniform velocity refers to the motion of
the follower.
Now let's consider a typical displacement diagram which is merely a plot of

two different displacements (distances). These two displacements are:
1. the distance travelled up or down by the follower and

2. the angular displacement (distance) of the cam
Let us consider the case of a cam imparting a uniform velocity on a follower

over a displacement of 30mm for the first half of its cycle.
We shall take the cycle in steps. Firstly if the cam has to impart a
displacement of 30mm on follower over half its cycle then it must impart a
displacement of 30mm180 for every 1 turned by the cam i.e. it must move
the follower 0.167mm per degree turn. This distance is to much to small to
draw on a displacement diagram so we will consider the displacement of the
follower at the start, at the end of the half cycle, the end of the full cycle and at
certain other intervals (these intervals or the
length of these intervals will be decided on later).
Angle the cam has Distance moved by the

rotated through follower
Start of the Cycle 0 0mm
End of first Half of the

180 30mm
Cycle
End of the Full Cycle 360 0mm
We shall consider this in terms of a displacement diagram:
First we will plot the graph. Before doing this we must first consider the
increments that we will use. We will use millimeters for the follower
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displacement increments and because 1 is too small we will use increments
of 30 for the angular displacement.
Once this is done then we can draw the displacement diagram as shown
below. Note a straight line from the displacement of the follower at the start of
the motion to the displacement of the follower at the end of the motion
represents uniform velocity.
Displacement Diagram for Uniform Velocity
Simple Harmonic Motion:
For this type of motion the follower displacement does not change at a
constant rate. In other words the follower doesn't travel at constant speed.
The best way to understand this non-uniform motion is to imagine a simple
pendulum swinging.
Uniform Acceleration and Retardation:
This motion is used where the follower is required to rise or fall with uniform
acceleration, that is its velocity is changing at a constant rate.
To conclude this:
A cam can impart three types of motion on its follower:
Uniform acceleration and

Uniform velocity Simple harmonic motion
retardation
Each of these motions can be represented by a displacement diagram.
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and fluid problems, as well as acoustic and electro-magnetic problems.
In general, a finite element solution may be broken into the following three
stages. This is a general guideline that can be used for setting up any finite
element analysis.
4. Preprocessing: defining the problem; the major steps in

preprocessing are given below:
o Define keypoints/lines/areas/volumes
o Define element type and material/geometric properties
o Mesh lines/areas/volumes as required
The amount of detail required will depend on the dimensionality of the

analysis (i.e. 1D, 2D, axi-symmetric, 3D).
5. Solution: assigning loads, constraints and solving; here we specify

the loads (point or pressure), constraints (translational and rotational)
and finally solve the resulting set of equations.
6. Post processing: further processing and viewing of the results; in
this stage one may wish to see:
o Lists of nodal displacements
o Element forces and moments
o Deflection plots
o Stress contour diagrams
ANSYS Environment
The ANSYS Environment for contains 2 windows: the Main Window and an
Output Window. Note that this is somewhat different from the previous version
of ANSYS which made use of 6 different windows.
3. Main Window
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Within the Main Window are 5 divisions:
a. Utility Menu
The Utility Menu contains functions that are available throughout

the ANSYS session, such as file controls, selections, graphic
controls and parameters.
b. Input Window
The Input Line shows program prompt messages and allows

you to type in commands directly.
c. Toolbar
The Toolbar contains push buttons that execute commonly used

ANSYS commands. More push buttons can be added if desired.
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d. Main Menu
The Main Menu contains the primary ANSYS functions,

organized by preprocessor, solution, general postprocessor,
design optimizer. It is from this menu that the vast majority of
modeling commands are issued. This is where you will note the
greatest change between previous versions of ANSYS and
version 7.0. However, while the versions appear different, the
menu structure has not changed.
e. Graphics Window
The Graphic Window is where graphics are shown and graphical

picking can be made. It is here where you will graphically view
the model in its various stages of construction and the ensuing
results from the analysis.
4. Output Window
The Output Window shows text output from the program, such as
listing of data etc. It is usually positioned behind the main window and
can de put to the front if necessary.
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ANSYS Files
Introduction
A large number of files are created when you run ANSYS. If you started
ANSYS without specifying a jobname, the name of all the files created will be
FILE.* where the * represents various extensions described below. If you
specified a jobname, say Frame, and then the created files will all have the file
prefix, Frame again with various extensions:
frame.db
Database file (binary). This file stores the geometry, boundary
conditions and any solutions.
frame.dbb
Backup of the database file (binary).
frame.err
Error file (text). Listing of all error and warning messages.
frame. out
Output of all ANSYS operations (text). This is what normally scrolls in
the output window during an ANSYS session.
frame.log
Logfile or listing of ANSYS commands (text). Listing of all equivalent
ANSYS command line commands used during the current session.
etc...
Depending on the operations carried out, other files may have been
written. These files may contain results, etc.
What to save?
When you want to clean up your directory, or move things from the /scratch
directory, what files do you need to save?
If you will always be using the GUI, then you only require the .db file.
This file stores the geometry, boundary conditions and any solutions.
Once the ANSYS has started, and the jobname has been specified,
183
you need only activate the resume command to proceed from where
you last left off (see Saving and Restoring Jobs).
If you plan on using ANSYS command files, then you need only store
your command file and/or the log file. This file contains a complete
listing of the ANSYS commands used to get you model to its current
point. That file may be rerun as is, or edited and rerun as desired
(Command File Creation and Execution).
If you plan to use the command mode of operation, starting with an

existing log file, rename it first so that it does not get over-written or
added to, from another ANSYS run.
ANSYS: Saving and Restoring Jobs
Saving Your Job

It is good practice to save your model at various points during its creation.
Very often you will get to a point in the modeling where things have gone well
and you like to save it at the point. In that way, if you make some mistakes
later on, you will at least be able to come back to this point.
To save your model, select Utility Menu Bar -> File -> Save As Jobname.db.
Your model will be saved in a file called jobname.db, where jobname is
the name that you specified in the Launcher when you first started ANSYS.
It is a good idea to save your job at different times throughout the building and
analysis of the model to backup your work incase of a system crash or other
unforeseen problems.
Recalling or Resuming a Previously Saved Job

Frequently you want to start up ANSYS and recall and continue a previous
job. There are two methods to do this:
3. Using the Launcher...
184
o In the ANSYS Launcher, select Interactive... and specify the
previously defined jobname.
o Then when you get ANSYS started, select Utility Menu -> File -
> Resume Jobname.db .
o This will restore as much of your database (geometry, loads,
solution, etc) that you previously saved.
4. Or, start ANSYS and select Utility Menu -> File -> Resume from...
and select your job from the list that appears.
FEM Convergence Testing
Introduction
A fundamental premise of using the finite element procedure is that the body
is sub-divided up into small discrete regions known as finite elements. These
elements defined by nodes and interpolation functions. Governing equations
are written for each element and these elements are assembled into a global
matrix. Loads and constraints are applied and the solution is then determined.
The Problem
The question that always arises is: How small do I need to make the elements
before I can trust the solution?
What to do about it...

In general there are no real firm answers on this. It will be necessary to
conduct convergence tests! By this we mean that you begin with a mesh
discretization and then observe and record the solution. Now repeat the
problem with a finer mesh (i.e. more elements) and then compare the results
with the previous test. If the results are nearly similar, then the first mesh is
probably good enough for that particular geometry, loading and constraints. If
185
the results differ by a large amount however, it will be necessary to try a finer
mesh yet.
The Consequences
Finer meshes come with a cost however: more calculation time and large
memory requirements (both disk and RAM)! It is desired to find the minimum
number of elements that give you a converged solution.
Beam Models
For beam models, we actually only need to define a single element per line
unless we are applying a distributed load on a given frame member. When
point loads are used, specifying more that one element per line will not
change the solution, it will only slow the calculations down. For simple models
it is of no concern, but for a larger model, it is desired to minimize the number
of elements, and thus calculation time and still obtain the desired accuracy.
General Models
In general however, it is necessary to conduct convergence tests on your
finite element model to confirm that a fine enough element discretization has
been used. In a solid mechanics problem, this would be done by creating
several models with different mesh sizes and comparing the resulting
deflections and stresses, for example. In general, the stresses will converge
more slowly than the displacement, so it is not sufficient to examine the
displacement convergence.
Printing and Plotting ANSYS Results to a File
Printing Text Results to a File
ANSYS produces lists and tables of many types of results that are normally
displayed on the screen. However, it is often desired to save the results to a
file to be later analyzed or included in a report.
4. Stresses: instead of using 'Plot Results' to plot the stresses, choose

'List Results'. Select 'Elem Table Data', and choose what you want to
186
list from the menu. You can pick multiple items. When the list appears
on the screen in its own window, Select 'File'/'Save As...' and give a
file name to store the results.
5. Any other solutions can be done in the same way. For example select
'Nodal Solution' from the 'List Results' menu, to get displacements.
6. Preprocessing and Solution data can be listed and saved from the 'List'
menu in the 'Utility Menu bar'. Save the resulting list in the same way
described above.
Plotting of Figures
There are two major routes to get hardcopies from ANSYS. The first is a quick
a raster-based screen dump, while the second is a scalable vector plot.
1.0 Quick Image Save

When you want to quickly save an image of the entire screen or the current
'Graphics window', select:
'Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Hard Copy ...'.

In the window that appears, you will normally want to select 'Graphics
window', 'Monochrome', 'Reverse Video', 'Landscape' and 'Save to:'.
Then enter the file name of your choice.
Press 'OK'
This raster image file may now be printed on a PostScript printer or included
in a document.
2.0 Better Quality Plots

The second method of saving a plot is much more flexible, but takes a lot
more work to set up as you'll see...
Redirection
Normally all ANSYS plots are directed to the plot window on the screen. To
save some plots to a file, to be later printed or included in a document or what
have you, you must first 'redirect' the plots to a file by issuing:
'Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Redirect Plots'/'To File...'.
187
Type in a filename (e.g.: frame.pic) in the 'Selection' Window.
Now issue whatever plot commands you want within ANSYS, remembering
that the plots will not be displayed to the screen, but rather they will be written
to the selected file. You can put as many plots as you want into the plot file.
When you are finished plotting what you want to the file, redirect plots back to
the screen using:
'Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Redirect Plots'/'To Screen'.
Display and Conversion

The plot file that has been saved is stored in a proprietary file format that must
be converted into a more common graphic file format like PostScript, or HPGL
for example. This is performed by running a separate program called display.
To do this, you have a couple of options:
3. select display from the ANSYS launcher menu (if you started ANSYS
that way)
4. shut down ANSYS or open up a new terminal window and then type
display at the Unix prompt.
Either way, a large graphics window will appear. Decrease the size of this
window, because it most likely covers the window in which you will enter the
display plotting commands. Load your plot file with the following command:
file,frame,pic
if your plot file is 'plots.pic'. Note that although the file is 'plots.pic' (with a
period), Display wants 'plots,pic'(with a comma). You can display your plots to
the graphics window by issuing the command like
plot,n
where n is plot number. If you plotted 5 images to this file in ANSYS, then n
could be any number from 1 to 5.
Now that the plots have been read in, they may be saved to printer files of
various formats:
188
12. Colour PostScript: To save the images to a colour postscript file,
enter the following commands in display:
13. pscr,color,2
14. /show,pscr
15. plot,n
Where n is the plot number, as above. You can plot as many images
as you want to postscript files in this manner. For subsequent plots,
you only require the plot,n command as the other options have now
been set. Each image is plotted to a postscript file such as pscrxx.grph,
where xx is a number, starting at 00.
printer.
Printing it out: Now that you've got your color postscript file, what are
you going to do with it? Take a look here for instructions on colour
postscript printing at a couple of sites on campus where you can have
your beautiful stress plot plotted to paper, overheads or even posters!
16. Black & White PostScript: The above mentioned colour postscript
files can get very large in size and may not even print out on the
postscript printer in the lab because it takes so long to transfer the files
to the printer and process them. A way around this is to print them out
in a black and white postscript format instead of colour; besides the
colour specifications don't do any good for the black and white lab
printer anyways. To do this, you set the postscript color option to '3', i.e.
and then issue the other commands as before
17. pscr,color,3
18. /show,pscr
19. plot,n
189
printer.
20. HPGL: The third commonly used printer format is HPGL, which stands
for Hewlett Packard Graphics Language. This is a compact vector
format that has the advantage that when you import a file of this type
into a word processor, you can actually see the image in the word
processor! To use the HPGL format, issue the following commands:
21. /show,hpgl
22. plot,n
190
EX NO: 1 ANALYSIS OF SIMPLE TRUSS
AIM:
Determine the nodal deflections, reaction forces, and stress for the
truss system.
Take Youngs Modulus E = 200GPa,

Area A = 3250mm2
2. Give the Simplified Version a Title (such as 'Bridge Truss Tutorial').
In the Utility menu bar select File > Change Title:
191
3. Enter the title and click 'OK'. This title will appear in the bottom left
corner of the 'Graphics' Window once you begin. Note: to get the title to
appear immediately, select Utility Menu > Plot > Replot
4. Enter Keypoints
The overall geometry is defined in ANSYS using keypoints which

specify various principal coordinates to define the body. For this
example, these keypoints are the ends of each truss.
o We are going to define 7 keypoints for the simplified structure as

given in the following table
coordinate
keypoint
x y
1 0 0
2 1800 3118
3 3600 0
4 5400 3118
5 7200 0
6 9000 3118
7 10800 0
(these keypoints are depicted by numbers in the above figure).
From the 'ANSYS Main Menu' select:

192
o The following window will then appear:
5.
o To define the first keypoint which has the coordinates x = 0 and
y = 0:
Enter keypoint number 1 in the appropriate box, and enter the
x,y coordinates: 0, 0 in their appropriate boxes (as shown
above).
o Enter the remaining keypoints using the same method.
Note: When entering the final data point, click on 'OK' to indicate
that you are finished entering keypoints. If you first press 'Apply'
and then 'OK' for the final keypoint, you will have defined it
193
twice!
If you did press 'Apply' for the final point, simply press 'Cancel' to
close this dialog box.
6. Units
Note the units of measure (ie mm) were not specified. It is the
responsibility of the user to ensure that a consistent set of units are
used for the problem; thus making any conversions where necessary.
7. Correcting Mistakes
When defining keypoints, lines, areas, volumes, elements, constraints
and loads you are bound to make mistakes. Fortunately these are
easily corrected so that you don't need to begin from scratch every time
an error is made! Every 'Create' menu for generating these various
entities also has a corresponding 'Delete' menu for fixing things up.
8. Form Lines
The keypoints must now be connected
We will use the mouse to select the keypoints to form the lines.
o In the main menu select: Preprocessor > Modeling > Create >
Lines > Lines > In Active Coord. The following window will
then appear:
194
o Use the mouse to pick keypoint #1 (i.e. click on it). It will now be
marked by a small yellow box.
o Now move the mouse toward keypoint #2. A line will now show
on the screen joining these two points. Left click and a
permanent line will appear.
o Connect the remaining keypoints using the same method.
o When you're done, click on 'OK' in the 'Lines in Active Coord'
window, minimize the 'Lines' menu and the 'Create' menu. Your
ANSYS Graphics window should look similar to the following
figure.
195
3. Disappearing Lines
Please note that any lines you have created may 'disappear'
throughout your analysis. However, they have most likely NOT been
deleted. If this occurs at any time from the Utility Menu select:
Plot > Lines
4. Define the Type of Element
It is now necessary to create elements. This is called 'meshing'.

ANSYS first needs to know what kind of elements to use for our
problem:
o From the Preprocessor Menu, select: Element Type >

Add/Edit/Delete. The following window will then appear:
196
Click on the 'Add...' button. The following window will appear.
3.
o For this example, we will use the 2D spar element as selected in
the above figure. Select the element shown and click 'OK'. You
should see 'Type 1 LINK1' in the 'Element Types' window.
o Click on 'Close' in the 'Element Types' dialog box.
4. Define Geometric Properties
We now need to specify geometric properties for our elements:
o In the Preprocessor menu, select Real Constants >

Add/Edit/Delete
197
Click Add... and select 'Type 1 LINK1' (actually it is already selected). Click on
'OK'. The following window will appear.
3.
o As shown in the window above, enter the cross-sectional area
(3250mm):
o Click on 'OK'.
o 'Set 1' now appears in the dialog box. Click on 'Close' in the
'Real Constants' window.
4. Element Material Properties
198
o In the 'Preprocessor' menu select Material Props > Material
Models
Double click on Structural > Linear > Elastic > Isotropic
3.
o We are going to give the properties of Steel. Enter the following
field:
1. EX = 2 e 5
o Set these properties and click on 'OK'. Note: You may obtain the
note 'PRXY will be set to 0.0'. This is poisson's ratio and is not
required for this element type. Click 'OK' on the window to
199
continue. Close the "Define Material Model Behavior" by clicking
on the 'X' box in the upper right hand corner.
4. Mesh Size
The last step before meshing is to tell ANSYS what size the elements
should be. There are a variety of ways to do this but we will just deal
with one method for now.
o In the Preprocessor menu select Meshing > Size Cntrls >

ManualSize > Lines > All Lines
3.
o In the size 'NDIV' field, enter the desired number of divisions per
line. For this example we want only 1 division per line, therefore,
enter '1' and then click 'OK'. Note that we have not yet meshed
the geometry, we have simply defined the element sizes.
4. Mesh
Now the frame can be meshed.
o In the 'Preprocessor' menu select Meshing > Mesh > Lines and
click 'Pick All' in the 'Mesh Lines' Window
Your model should now appear as shown in the following window
200
Plot Numbering
To show the line numbers, keypoint numbers, node numbers...
From the Utility Menu (top of screen) select PlotCtrls > Numbering...
Fill in the Window as shown below and click 'OK'
201
Now you can turn numbering on or off at your discretion
Saving Your Work
Save the model at this time, so if you make some mistakes later on, you will at
least be able to come back to this point. To do this, on the Utility Menu select
File > Save as.... Select the name and location where you want to save your
file.
constraint(s) and solve the the resulting system of equations.
Open up the 'Solution' menu (from the same 'ANSYS Main Menu').
First you must tell ANSYS how you want it to solve this problem:
o From the Solution Menu, select Analysis Type > New

Analysis.
o Ensure that 'Static' is selected; i.e. you are going to do a static

analysis on the truss as opposed to a dynamic analysis, for
example.
202
o Click 'OK'.
It is necessary to apply constraints to the model otherwise the model is

not tied down or grounded and a singular solution will result. In
mechanical structures, these constraints will typically be fixed, pinned
and roller-type connections. As shown above, the left end of the truss
bridge is pinned while the right end has a roller connection.
o In the Solution menu, select Define Loads > Apply >

Structural > Displacement > On Keypoints
o Select the left end of the bridge (Keypoint 1) by clicking on it in

the Graphics Window and click on 'OK' in the 'Apply U,ROT on
KPs' window.
203
o This location is fixed which means that all translational and
rotational degrees of freedom (DOFs) are constrained.
Therefore, select 'All DOF' by clicking on it and enter '0' in the
Value field and click 'OK'.
You will see some blue triangles in the graphics window

indicating the displacement contraints.
o Using the same method, apply the roller connection to the right
end (UY constrained). Note that more than one DOF constraint
can be selected at a time in the "Apply U,ROT on KPs" window.
Therefore, you may need to 'deselect' the 'All DOF' option to
select just the 'UY' option.
7. Apply Loads
As shown in the diagram, there are four downward loads of 280kN,

210kN, 280kN, and 360kN at keypoints 1, 3, 5, and 7 respectively.
o Select Define Loads > Apply > Structural > Force/Moment >
on Keypoints.
o Select the first Keypoint (left end of the truss) and click 'OK' in
the 'Apply F/M on KPs' window.
204
o Select FY in the 'Direction of force/mom'. This indicate that we
o Enter a value of -280000 in the 'Force/moment value' box and
click 'OK'. Note that we are using units of N here, this is
consistent with the previous values input.
o The force will appear in the graphics window as a red arrow.
o Apply the remaining loads in the same manner.
The applied loads and constraints should now appear as shown below.
8. Solving the System
205
We now tell ANSYS to find the solution:
o In the 'Solution' menu select Solve > Current LS. This indicates
that we desire the solution under the current Load Step (LS).
o The above windows will appear. Ensure that your solution

options are the same as shown above and click 'OK'.
o Once the solution is done the following window will pop up. Click
'Close' and close the /STATUS Command Window..
2. Hand Calculations
We will first calculate the forces and stress in element 1 (as labeled in
the problem description).
206
3. Results Using ANSYS
Reaction Forces
A list of the resulting reaction forces can be obtained for this element
o from the Main Menu select General Postproc > List Results >
Reaction Solu.
o Select 'All struc forc F' as shown above and click 'OK'
207
These values agree with the reaction forces calculated by hand
above.
Deformation
o In the General Postproc menu, select Plot Results > Deformed

Shape. The following window will appear.
o Select 'Def + undef edge' and click 'OK' to view both the deformed
and the undeformed object.
208
o Observe the value of the maximum deflection in the upper left
hand corner (DMX=7.409). One should also observe that the
constrained degrees of freedom appear to have a deflection of 0
(as expected!)
Deflection
For a more detailed version of the deflection of the beam,
o From the 'General Postproc' menu select Plot results > Contour
Plot > Nodal Solution. The following window will appear.
209
o Select 'DOF solution' and 'USUM' as shown in the above window.
Leave the other selections as the default values. Click 'OK'.
210
o Looking at the scale, you may want to use more useful intervals.
From the Utility Menu select Plot Controls > Style > Contours >
Uniform Contours...
o Fill in the following window as shown and click 'OK'.
You should obtain the following.
211
o The deflection can also be obtained as a list as shown below.
General Postproc > List Results > Nodal Solution select 'DOF
Solution' and 'ALL DOFs' from the lists in the 'List Nodal Solution'
window and click 'OK'. This means that we want to see a listing of
all degrees of freedom from the solution.
o Are these results what you expected? Note that all the degrees of
freedom were constrained to zero at node 1, while UY was
constrained to zero at node 7.
o If you wanted to save these results to a file, select 'File' within the
results window (at the upper left-hand corner of this list window)
and select 'Save as'.
Axial Stress
For line elements (ie links, beams, spars, and pipes) you will often
need to use the Element Table to gain access to derived data (ie
stresses, strains). For this example we should obtain axial stress to
compare with the hand calculations. The Element Table is different for
each element, therefore, we need to look at the help file for LINK1
(Type help link1 into the Input Line). From Table 1.2 in the Help file,
we can see that SAXL can be obtained through the ETABLE, using the
item 'LS,1'
212
o From the General Postprocessor menu select Element Table >
Define Table
o Click on 'Add...'
o As shown above, enter 'SAXL' in the 'Lab' box. This specifies the
name of the item you are defining. Next, in the 'Item,Comp' boxes,
select 'By sequence number' and 'LS,'. Then enter 1 after LS, in
the selection box
o Click on 'OK' and close the 'Element Table Data' window.
o Plot the Stresses by selecting Element Table > Plot Elem Table
o The following window will appear. Ensure that 'SAXL' is selected
and click 'OK'
o Because you changed the contour intervals for the Displacement

plot to "User Specified" - you need to switch this back to "Auto
calculated" to obtain new values for VMIN/VMAX.
Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Style > Contours > Uniform
Contours ...
213
Again, you may wish to select more appropriate intervals for the
contour plot
o List the Stresses

From the 'Element Table' menu, select 'List Elem Table'
From the 'List Element Table Data' window which
appears ensure 'SAXL' is highlighted
Click 'OK'
214
Note that the axial stress in Element 1 is 82.9MPa as predicted
analytically.
Quitting ANSYS
To quit ANSYS, select 'QUIT' from the ANSYS Toolbar or select Utility
Menu/File/Exit.... In the dialog box that appears, click on 'Save Everything'
(assuming that you want to) and then click on 'OK'.
RESULT:
Maximum Deflection:
Minimum Stress :
Maximum Stress :
215

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Introduction

ANSYS is a general purpose finite element modeling package for numerically

1. Preprocessing: defining the problem; the major steps in

The amount of detail required will depend on the dimensionality of the

2. Solution: assigning loads, constraints and solving; here we specify

Within the Main Window are 5 divisions:

The Utility Menu contains functions that are available throughout

The Input Line shows program prompt messages and allows

The Main Menu contains the primary ANSYS functions,

The Graphic Window is where graphics are shown and graphical

If you plan to use the command mode of operation, starting with an

ANSYS: Saving and Restoring Jobs

Saving Your Job

Recalling or Resuming a Previously Saved Job

FEM Convergence Testing

What to do about it...

Printing and Plotting ANSYS Results to a File

Printing Text Results to a File

1. Stresses: instead of using 'Plot Results' to plot the stresses, choose

1.0 Quick Image Save

'Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Hard Copy ...'.

2.0 Better Quality Plots

'Utility menu bar'/'PlotCtrls'/'Redirect Plots'/'To Screen'.

Display and Conversion

5. Black & White PostScript: The above mentioned colour postscript

Preprocessing: Defining the Problem

1. Give the Simplified Version a Title (such as 'Bridge Truss Tutorial').

In the Utility menu bar select File > Change Title:

The following window will appear:

The overall geometry is defined in ANSYS using keypoints which

From the 'ANSYS Main Menu' select:

o The following window will then appear:

Plot > Lines

2. Define the Type of Element

It is now necessary to create elements. This is called 'meshing'.

o From the Preprocessor Menu, select: Element Type >

We now need to specify geometric properties for our elements:

o In the Preprocessor menu, select Real Constants >

You then need to specify material properties:

Double click on Structural > Linear > Elastic > Isotropic

o In the Preprocessor menu select Meshing > Size Cntrls >

Now the frame can be meshed.

Your model should now appear as shown in the following window

Saving Your Work

Solution Phase: Assigning Loads and Solving

1. Define Analysis Type

o From the Solution Menu, select Analysis Type > New

o Ensure that 'Static' is selected; i.e. you are going to do a static

It is necessary to apply constraints to the model otherwise the model is

o In the Solution menu, select Define Loads > Apply >

o Select the left end of the bridge (Keypoint 1) by clicking on it in

You will see some blue triangles in the graphics window

As shown in the diagram, there are four downward loads of 280kN,

4. Solving the System

o The above windows will appear. Ensure that your solution

Postprocessing: Viewing the Results

o In the General Postproc menu, select Plot Results > Deformed

o Observe the value of the maximum deflection in the upper left

o Select 'DOF solution' and 'USUM' as shown in the above window.

You should obtain the following.

o The deflection can also be obtained as a list as shown below.

o From the General Postprocessor menu select Element Table >

o List the Stresses

We are going to create this geometry using Boolean operations. These