Learning outcomes

How to use 3D solid elements in ANSYS

By the end of this session, you will :

• Improve you skills with DirectModeler
• Be able to run 3D simulations
• Use new improved meshing methods
• Use mesh quality and mesh metrics
• Be able to run geometric non linear simulations

MEIE5110 2
About the beam bracket
[2] Seat plate (flange)
The bracket is designed to support a
load of 27 kN uniformly distributed
on the seat plate

Beam

Column
[1] Beam bracket

Y
[3] Web plate
Z

[5] Here, the X axis is coincident

with the back-bottom edge of the X
flange
[4] A Global coordinate system
has to be “visualised” before you
[6] The Y-axis passes even start to build the part
through the middle of
the back surface of
the web
[7] The Z-axis is defined from the right-
hand rule

3
Start up, and sketch/extrude the flange
[1] Start a new Static Structural project in
Workbench

[2] Open the Geometry, but in [4] Create a sketch like this on the XZPlane (140
DesignModeler, NOT SpaceClaim mmx180 mm)
Impose a Symmetry constraint on the two horizontal
line about the (local) X-axis
[3] Select Millimeter as the length unit

[5] Global coordinate

system
[6] Local coordinate
system
[7] Extrude the sketch: 16 mm in
the +Z (local) direction
Don’t forget to click Generate

4
Sketch/extrude the web plate
[1] Create a sketch like this on the
YZPlane

[2] Extrude the sketch

[3] Change Direction to Both - Symmetric

[4] 5 mm for Depth [5] Click Generate

5
Create rounds and fillets

[3] 5 The part should look like

[1] Crate 16mm rounds on these edges
that
Blend/Fixed radius
Don’t forget to Generate

[2] Crate 10mm fillets on these edges

(one is not visible from this side)
Blend/Fixed radius
Don’t forget to Generate

[4] Close DesignModeller

6
Set up Support and Load

[1] From Workbench, start Mechanical and

select mm-kg-N-S unit system

[3] Insert a vertical -27000 N

force on this edge.
You might want to change the
[2] Insert a Fixed force “Define by” from Vector
Support on this edge to Components

7
Set up Solution Objects

[1] Right-Click
Solution, Insert [3] Stress/Equivalent

[4] Tools/Stress Tool

or Stress Tools/Max
[2] Deformation/Total
Equivalent Stress

8
Generate Mesh and Solve

[1] Left-Click Mesh

[3] Generate Mesh

[2] Select 4 for Resolution

[5] Solve

[4] Expand Statistics

to view the mesh count 9
Results
[1] What is the maximum displacement? (make a
note of this result and of the other on this page)

[2] What is the maximum Stress (Von Mises)?

[5] Details of Stress
Tool show how the
safety factor is
[3] What is the minimum safety factor calculated

[4] Click Stress Tool

[6] What is the maximum Structural Error? (you

might have to insert another Result Object)

10
Explore Solution Information
[2] This provides a text
output

[1] Click Solution

Information

[3] Ctrl-F to open a

!
search window, and
search “element type”

Must know !!
[4] What type of element are you using?
11
Explore help, and element database

[1] Click
Help/Mechanical Help

[2] Search for summary

of element type

[3] Look for your elements(s)

and find properties
[4] The help in Mechanical is
extremely detailed, in fact it is an
assembly of books, manuals and
tutorials. It is well worth exploring

12
Improve Mesh and Solve

[1] Under Mesh,

insert a Method

[5] The model is now

meshed with all
hexahedra (“Bricks”),
which is usually more
desirable

[2] Select the body

and click Apply

[3] Select the Multizone

Method

[4] Under Mesh,

Expand Statistics to
view the mesh count

13
Results

[1] What is the maximum displacement? (compare

with the tetrahedral mesh)

[2] What is the maximum Stress (Von Mises)?

[3] What is the minimum safety factor

[4] What is the maximum Structural Error

[5] What type of element were used?

[6] In 3D simulation especially, the solution accuracy

depends not only on mesh density, but also on mesh
quality. In fact, for non-linear problems, low mesh
quality leads to longer calculations or even to lack of
solutions.
It Is not so easy to get a high mesh quality.
Multizone is powerful, and we will explore it further
on another model

14
About the pneumatic finger and Start up
[1] We have already seen the pneumatic
fingers in the first lecture, during our brief
overview of Finite Elements Analysis.

Made of compliant polymer, they deflect (a

lot!) under pressure actuation.

It might be necessary to run nonlinear

simulations due to this large deflection, in
which case it is even more important to
have a good mesh.

[2] Geometry of the finger

[4] Double click on Engineering data (or

[3] Start a new Static Structural project in
right-click/Edit) within the project box to
Workbench
open the Ansys materials data library.
15
Prepare material properties
[2] Double-Click [4] Return to the
Isotropic Elasticity Project Schematic

[1] Type PDMS to add

a new material

[3] type 2e6 (Pa) for Young’s

modulus and 0.48 for
Poisson’s Ratio

16
Sketch/extrude the finger
[3] Create a sketch like this on the
Note: This model is quite tedious in XYPlane (60 mmx5 mm)
DesignModeler. Feel free to make
it in SolidWorks instead! Or even
use another way to cut the
pockets.

[1] Open the Geometry, but in

DesignModeler, NOT SpaceClaim

[2] Select Millimeter as the length unit

[4] Extrude the sketch: 5.1 mm

Don’t forget to click Generate

17
Sketch/extrude-cut the air pockets

[1] On XYPlane create a new sketch.

Do NOT just edit your first sketch!
Draw a rectangle and a vertical line
like this.

[2] Select 4 segments in this sketch (leave the

leftmost side of the rectangle) and Replicate (or Cut
and Paste) 13 times. Make sure you use the upper-
left point as the paste handle (try to right-click). You
probably will need to turn on Selection Filter:
Points (Only paste if the handle give a P constraint)

18
Sketch/extrude-cut the air pockets

[1] Trim away the unwanted segment

[2] Extrude-cut the

sketch: 4 mm.
Don’t forget to click
Generate

19
Assign Material

[1] Start Mechanical

Select mm-kg-N-s units there

[2] Highlight (left-click)

Solid

[3] Select the material

PDMS

20
Set up Boundary conditions (constraints)

[1] Set up a Fixed Support here

[2] Set up a Frictionless

Support on this face. It will
also act a s a plane of
symmetry, but without the
element/nodes overhead

21
Set up the pressure

[1] Apply a pressure of .18 MPa on

ALL the inner faces (14x5=70 in
total).
A neat trick consists in selecting ALL
faces and then removing the outer
ones from the selection. Again, try to
right-click.

[2] The environment

conditions should look like
that

22
Mesh with default settings – Check Skewness

[1] Left-Click Mesh and select

Mesh/Generate Mesh

[2] Select Skewness for

Mesh Metric

[3] Skewness is a measure of mesh

quality and is calculated for each
element. It essentially depends on
the geometry/shape of the element.
The values varies from 0 to 1, the
smaller, the better. A rule of thumb is
that it should not be higher then 0.95
23
Improve mesh quality
[1] Select 5 for Resolution

[2] Generate
Mesh

[3] The mesh quality

is improved, a little bit.

24
Improve mesh quality, again
[1] Select 6 for Resolution

[2] Generate
Mesh

[3] The mesh quality is improved again,

although not spectacular. In general, the
finer the mesh, the better the quality, but
there are exceptions

25
Improve mesh quality, again and again
[1] Type 7 for Resolution. This
is the finest mesh we can get
by adjusting Resolution. We
could improve further by
switching other parameters
here, but we can do much
better with other methods (try
multizone for example)

[2] Generate
Mesh

[3] The maximum skewness

is still rather poor. And we
now have more then 16000
elements.

[4] Only few elements have a bad

skewness though

26
Set up a solution branch and solve (linear)

[2] We want the

displacement in
the Y direction

[1] Insert a Directional Deformation

[3] Solve
[4] Select
True Scale

[5] The maximum deflection is 14.7 mm down, at the tip. It

probably isn’t very accurate as we used a linear solution for this
large displacement.
However, it is always good practice to start with a linear solution
27
Solve (nonlinear)

[6] Left-Click Solution

Information
[1] Left-Click Analysis Settings

[2] Turn on Auto [7] Select

Time sleeping Displacement
Convergence

[3] Select
Time
[8] Solve.
[4] Type 0.05 (s) for Initial Time Step,
It will take
0.01 (s) for Minimum Time Step, and
some
0.05 (s) for Maximum Time Step.
time…

[5] Turn on Large Deflection. The simulation

becomes Geometrically nonlinear.
28
Results (nonlinear)
[1] We’ll discuss the meaning of
these in the last lecture

[2] 25 iterations to
convergence

[5] The maximum deformation is now 21.7 mm.

Much larger than the linear simulation, which
does rather justify the use of nonlinear
simulation here..
29
Remesh with the Hex Dominant method
[1] Under Mesh, insert a Method

[2] Select the solid Body and

select Hex Dominant for Method
Ignore the warning if any

[3] Generate
Mesh

[3] The mesh metrics

is rather poor

30
Attempt to remesh with the Sweep method

[1Right-Click Mesh, and select

Show/Sweepable Bodies.
If there were sweepable bodies,
they would be highlighted. Here
there are no sweepable bodies.

So this method would not work

31
Remesh with the Multizone method
[1] Left-Click the Method under
Mesh

[2] Select Multizone

[3] Generate
Mesh

[4] The mesh metrics

is much improved!

32
Solve again (nonlinear)

[1] Keep the same parameters

as in page 27

[2] The maximum deformation is now 21.531 mm.

33
Debriefing: Meshing, back to the 70s,
and geometric nonlinearities
You have done quite a lot today. To recap the most important points:

On meshing
There are many ways to mesh, and many methods. Multizone is powerful and works well for
3D models in general, but is perhaps too automatic. It is sometimes necessary to do things
more manually, with sweeps.

On Exploring the text output

Workbench is a fancy(ish) modern(ish) interface that sits on top of what is basically a 1970s
software. In the old days, everything was done though text input files. Mercifully, things have
changed, but Workbench does not always show you some important information easily (in fact it
also prevents you from using some basic elements, more on that later). The type and code of
the elements you are using is one such information that is hidden in the retro output. A good
analyst should be aware of the kind of elements the model is using, and know how to find them.

On Large Deflections
It is often prudent to run a non-linear simulation at the end of a campaign, just to check that the
linear assumption that ANSYS makes is valid.
This is an example of what I call “hidden assumptions” (By the way, there is a good reason than
ANSYS assumes linearity: non-linear simulations are much more time consuming). The good
analyst should be aware of these.
34
What next

[1] Keep exploring the interfaces (DesignModeler and Mechanical)

[2] Carry out mesh convergence studies for the bracket and the pneumatic
fingers (only with the best meshes –multizone here- ). Comments?

Ansys Student support

http://www.ansys.com/academic/free-student-products/support-resources

The SimCafe at Cornell has a list of good Ansys tutorials.

https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/SIMULATION/Home