Sunday 14 February 2010

Pro-Mechanica - Tips & Tricks:Free Tutorial:FEA concepts

Thanks Friends, Thanks for your over whelming support I am able to get Frequent visitors than New Visitors which is a good sign. The articles what I post on my web is making sense to everyone of you. Its really great feeling, to serve you better please rate my article and give me your feedback/request on each article and topic.

Well this time again I am going to speak about FEA segment, its quite interesting when I was searching for FEA materials and Learning Resources. Atlast I ended up in finding a beautiful webpage where Design engineers would love explore many things. This great work has been done by TsdEngineering,on-line consulting and project consulting team in FEA.

The Mission is...

"To improve the productivity of customers and the quality of their products."

Pro mechanicaTo accomplish this mission TSD Engineering promotes the integration of mechanical design simulation and optimization tools into the front of the design process. This allows designs to be optimized during the concept phase where the engineers have the most flexibility. It has been found that an investment in time up front, getting a concept that works and is optimized will save time and money with fewer changes through the completion of the project.

TSD Engineering was originally founded in 1982 by Jim Holst.Jim has used many analysis, simulation and optimization tools over the years including NASTRAN, ANSYS and COSMOS. His current tool of choice is Pro/MECHANICA by Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC). He believes this is the best and most productive tool available for use in the design process.

The thing which matters most for us is Tips And Tricks used in FEA, its so wonderful to see such topics like Modeling,Solving Solution Convergence Problems,Debugging Meshing Problems,Assemblies,Vibration,Heat Transfer and Other Useful Web Links.

On the other side when you look at the Index, there lot of technical terms involved in FEA are defined with picture and graphs to understand these terms in a much easier way. Some of them are Acoustic, Convergence,Defeaturing,Damping,FEA basics,Meshing,Fatigue etc., I am sure you will glad to see such things which are explained in a such a way that even beginner can learn FEA quickly.

CAM Programming Tools - Free Download:Free Utility

What is AutoEditNC?

AutoEditNC is a 32-bit Windows program to assist in the creation and testing of Numerical Control (NC) programs in the Fanuc/G&M-Code format. AutoEditNC is a specialized text editor with NC code creation tools. AutoEditNC will also simulate the movements of the machine tool so that the student can test his or her program for accuracy and reliability.

AutoEditNC serves as a learning tool for beginning programmers. It contains code creation windows that give a brief explanation of the code and allows the user to insert the code directly into his or her program. If you are currently using a text editor for writing NC code, you will find that AutoEditNC can increase your productivity. Intended Audience

AutoEditNC was developed primarily to serve technical college and high school manufacturing technology programs. Students and instructors will find that G&M-Code programming is much easier to learn when AutoEditNC is used to write NC code. Students often find that writing code by hand is tedious and prone to syntax errors. AutoEditNC gives the user tools that make it easy to get started and easy to remember the arcane codes used in G&M-Code programs.

Download Now..

G-Simple is a simple CAM for 3 Axis Machining Centers.

Version 1.15 includes:

  • DXF Export
  • Configurable postprocessor
  • Move, turn, mirror,scale
  • Milling parameters selectable individually for every entity
  • Text compressing/expanding
  • Text justification

Download Now..

Autodesk Inventor - Free Tutorial: Free Utilities

Friends who are all looking for Inventor Tutorials and Utilities, here are the few things for you. Tutorials cover about Part,Assembly,Detailing,External Excel Data's and Miscellaneous Tutorials. All this Tutorial are in PDF format and pretty old not updated. For updated Tutorials you have to visit Mcad Forum. I could not say nothing more than that, all you have to do is make a visit and feel the enjoyment of learning.

Next thing is about Utilities :

Animator is an add-on for Autodesk Inventor R6 & 7. It allows you to drive multiple constraints at the same time and save the motion to an AVI file. See www.sdotson.com for lots more free Inventor tools and tutorials.

iTweak is a small application that allows the users to customize some of the more hidden aspects of Inventor. Both R6 and R7 version are included in the zip file. Visit www.sdotson.com for lots more free Inventor Tools and Tutorials.

SolidWorks Macro's - Tips&Tricks:Freeware

SolidWorks Tools - these are some of my own programs and tools for SolidWorks and its environment. Most of them are shareware and you may download and tests them free of charge. Some tools requires a license for them to work properly after the test period.

This site provides you Macros and freeware's. Some of the available macros are choose density from list of predefined materials and set it in SolidWorks,macros is designed to copy SolidWorks options from one document to another,Sample sourcecode which shows the preview bitmap in Visual Basic,Clear all face colors And more..

You can submit your feedback about this site, you may even request solution for Solidworks troubleshooting. This site is maintained by Stefan Berlitz. Great work..

To Visit click here..

SolidWorks Tips&Tricks - Free Models & Examples : Freedownload

I don't think one needs intro about SolidWorks, If your are Mechanical Design Engineer. Simply because its well known and user friendly software in the industry. If you can work with AutoCAD well then in matter of time you can well verse with SolidWorks. If you would like to be master of SolidWorks then you need to Tips&Tricks, how to short cut your Modeling techniques, how to troubleshoot and so on..

I posted few articles before about Tips&Tricks,Hope you utilized it well. Again this time I found something useful on this segment. So I thought of sharing with yoy people. This is the site dedicated totally to SolidWorks users and maintained by Scott Baugh,CSWP, CSWST

He has nearly 13 years of experience behind him, especially working with SolidWorks. So he started a site where he has shared is experience for the welfare of the Design Community who are all using SolidWorks. Some of the Tips and Tricks are How to repair the imported model,Custom Weldment Profile, crop exploded view,Wrap text etc., Also in certain topics you can find example models to work upon.

Very eager to visit click here...

FEA Concepts/Basics - Free Interactive Learning Tools:FEA Software: FEA Library

I know you people would have searched for FEA materials, unless you are strong at fundamentals there is no point in saying that you are well versed with FEA software's and you can handle any analysis projects. As you know people in those days much before existence of these software's Engineers used to do mathematical calculations using pen and paper, even they were very much accurate. But as the technology as grown we have forgotten about Basics rather we were encouraged to learn software tools. Most of you would have come to the situation where you need to compare the software result with manual calculation but you don't how to proceed and how to arrive the result. That's the point I making here..

Okay lets do our best to over come these situation, First we will try to learn what is FEA, Theory behind this one,The mathematical part involved in this and so forth.

If you would like to really do this what I have said so far, this is site you have to look at Finite Element Method universal resource.

FEMur website is being established to serve the user community of the Finite Element Method. It will provide resources for educators, students, researchers, and practicing engineers.

Knowledge is of little use if it is little shared. The fundamental goal of FEMur is to make information on the finite element method (FEM) readily and comprehensively available. To this end, instructional, interactive learning guides are being developed and finite element resources on the Internet are being found and cataloged.

Interactive learning section contains Review of Linear Algebra:Matrix Algebra and Equation Solving...The Basic Finite Element Equation:One-Dimensional Spring Approach...

Do you know What is Stiffness Matrix ? Wondering heard it somewhere.. Buddy kindly you visit FEMur they explained in easy way. Not only this you can also learn about The Basic Finite Element Equation,Matrix Algebra,Matrix Definition,Gaussian Elimination,Matrix Calculus.. Click on each title to navigate to the corresponding learning page. Also you can find test problems.

I am sure you must have learnt all these topics at the college level but probably you don't what's role of all these stuff in FEA. After going through this site your confidence level would have much higher than ever before in solving FEA problems. Happy Surfing.

Solid Edge 2D Drafting (for FREE) - Free Software Download:Free Video Tutorial

Whether you are using 2D across your company or for a specific 2D design process, Solid Edge 2D Drafting will give you an immediate advantage with production-proven capabilities including drawing layout, Goal Seeking, diagramming, and dimensioning. It is fully compliant with ISO, ANSI, BSI, DIN, JIS and UNI, and it's absolutely FREE to download and use.

Solid Edge 2D Drafting eases the transition from 2D AutoCAD with import wizards, matched fonts and colour schemes, XREF support, paper/model space support and much more. Get up to speed faster with a built-in Command Finder - never look for AutoCAD equivalent command again.

Solid Edge 2D Drafting requires Windows XP or Vista and now includes the Free Solid Edge Viewer. Make sure you have Internet Explorer version 6.0 or later for the download.

To get your FREE copy of Solid Edge Free 2D Drafting, follow this link

To See Solid Edge Demo's and Videos Click here.. This segment contains What's New in Solid Edge,Design Collaboration,Digital Mockup and Detail Design,Data Management

  • Sheet Metal Design
  • Frame Design
  • Weldments
  • Piping Systems
  • Mold Design etc.,
  • Autodesk Inventor LT - Technology Preview - Free Software Download

    Autodesk® Inventor LT™ makes it easy to create, share, and edit 3D part models from different CAD systems. Inventor LT helps reduce the hassles and headaches of working in an environment with many disparate CAD systems. It allows you to quickly import, export, create, and modify 3D part models in many common file formats to meet today’s increasing need for communicating in 3D.

    Inventor LT delivers:
    • Multi-CAD translation capabilities for leading 3D file formats
    • 3D part model creation and editing
    • Automated mechanical drawings
    • Genuine DWG interoperability
    • Photorealistic rendering

    Inventor LT Technology Preview is only available as English language software and is available for download only in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Improve communication with suppliers and customers.

    Fill The Download From and right away get a copy of the software. Click here to continue..

    National Manufacturing Week 2008 - CAD/CAM and Enterprise Technology Software

    Friends Many of us love to explore new things especially if you get a chance to visit any expo, nobody would like to miss that opportunity. If that's true don't miss out this one.. Its Big For Mechanical Engineering and other related communities..

    National Manufacturing Week to be held at:

    Donald E. Stephens Convention Center
    5555 N. River Road
    Rosemont (Chicago), IL 60018

    Expo Dates

    Tuesday—Thursday
    September 23-25, 2008

    Conference Dates

    Monday—Thursday
    September 22–25, 2008

    Expo Hall Highlights are:

    CAD/CAM and Enterprise Technology Software
    The industry’s leading vendors will demonstrate their latest product offerings in CAD/CAM/CIM, design analysis software, CAE and 3-D modeling, PDM, rapid prototyping technologies, enterprise resource planning (ERP), advanced planning scheduling APS), customer relationship management (CRM), corrective and preventive action (CAPA), lean manufacturing, six-sigma, simulation and decision support, warehouse management, enterprise asset management, and e-commerce solutions.

    Plant Engineering and Maintenance
    The leading event for plant engineering professionals, operations teams, and executives responsible for the planning, specifications, installation, maintenance, efficient operation, and compliance of industrial and institutional facilities and systems.

    Contract Manufacturing and Outsourcing Services
    The industry’s leading contract manufacturers and outsourcing partners are ready to discuss your particular specifications and requirements for every facet of product development—from design through manufacturing and distribution and everything in between.

    Industrial Automation
    Setting up a new production line? Expanding current capacity? Find the full range of machinery, equipment, and services from leading suppliers to improve manufacturing efficiency and productivity at National Manufacturing Week.

    To Register Click here..

    Mechanical CAD Simulation software - Free Download:Free Tutorial:Free Video Tutorial:Models&Examples

    Dear Friends

    I have been asked to suggest a Free Simulation Software for Mechanical linkages by one of my blog reader. Even though I know few simulation software's which are available as stand alone product or comes as a add-on product with CAD package. The point is the person wants for personnel usage and want to know about simulation. So I would like to Suggest one website where you can simulation software available for free(Demo Version).

    The site name called AR-CAD, which offers four simulation software's for free of charge(certain cases Demo versions are available). They not only offer the software, also they provide Tutorials(even Video Tutorial in certain cases),with examples and Models to work upon. Their motto is to make people understand about how mechanism works based on the linkages defined by the user. Certainly this helps user to see how designed product works with virtual simulation. Isn't great ? The following are the product available:

    freeCAD is a basic 3D CAD with advanced Motion Simulation capabilities. It is suitable for anyone interested in learning 3D CAD and Motion Simulation for free before using more sophisticated packages. Educators, students and new engineers will find it ideal for the teaching and learning of geometry, kinematics, dynamics, vibrations, mechanisms, linkages, cams, machine design and physics. The program runs on Windows, Linux PC, Macintosh PPC and other Unix's. Assembly data are unchanged across platforms.

    CADSM is a basic 3D CAD with advanced Motion Simulation capabilities. It is suitable for anyone interested in learning 3D CAD and Motion Simulation inexpensively before using more sophisticated packages. Compared to freeCAD, it has the following extras: color, rendered graphics, 6DOF actuator, DXF file import for parts, faster upgrades and web support. CADSM is a commercial software with a free evaluation period of 30 days.

    StCAD' is a basic 3D CAD framework in Smalltalk (VisualWorks 7.x). It extends the GF/ST 2D drawing framework into 3D. It also include 'StGeo' which is the 3D geometric domain, 'StMath' which provides the mathematical support for 3D CAD and motion simulation computations, and 'StDoc' which is a simple word processor. 'StMath' is also suitable for engineering, scientific and business computing. The parcels are open source using Lesser GNU Public License.These parcels can be used with other private software to create 3D applications like motion simulation, FEA, CAD, scientific visualization, etc.

    Alibre MotionTM is a Motion Simulation add-on, available in Alibre Design Expert 9.1TM. It uses Multi-Body Dynamic analysis on an assembly created in 'Alibre DesignTM' for analyzing the behavior of mechanical assemblies with moving parts. Albire software is already discussed in my blog, for more details visit previous blog articles.

    I guess all these software's has unique features, can capable of predicting the results like other simulation software's. So go through the description of each software download the one which suits to your requirement.

    Pro-e WildFire 2.0 - Free Tutorial:Free Video Tutorial:Free Download: Pro-e WildFire 3.0 Updates Tutorial

    proe wf3 Well Friends, I have few things to share with you about Pro-e Tutorials. That too if something comes by Video,Learning becomes much more easy isn't it ? Yes this time Frotime has done it for us.

    FroTime was originally created by several Mechanical Engineers back in 1996. The company started by selling Pro/ENGINEER tutorials online. FroTime was in fact the first company to offer online training for Pro/ENGINEER that could be purchased and immediately downloaded for quick learning. By 2001, FroTime had over 100 customers in 10 different countries.

    FroTime's main purpose is to help its customers utilize the large amounts of engineering data they create and leverage that investment throughout the entire company. In addition, FroTime will also offer the most cost-effective Pro/ENGINEER training solution on the market developed by industry experts.

    The current direction of FroTime is to develop tools and applications to streamline and expedite the Engineering design and change process for small to medium sized companies. The current FroTools product will expand to meet the demands of multiple CAD systems and tracking the important changes of the engineering design and manufacturing process.

    PROE Their Tutorial Stats are:
    91 Tutorials
    3,784 Pages
    7,978+ Members

    The Tutorials covers versions like 2000i2, 2001, Wildfire 1.0, Wildfire 2.0 (from 1.0), Wildfire 2.0 (from 2001), More... Also Tutorials covers modules like BasicAssembly,BasicDetail,AdvancedModeling,AdvancedAssembly,AdvancedDetail,Surfacing,Cabling,SheetMetal,Mechanica,Piping,Pro/PROGRAM,Toolkit API),Manufacture,Import/Export,Behavioral Modeling etc.,

    Please keep in mind that you need to spend some money out of your pocket if you need enjoy all these Tutorials, as you know everyone works for money. But still lot to cheer up here, Free tutorials are available with models,along with documents how to do it and so on.. These Tutorial offers Advanced Modeling,Advanced Assembly,Surface modeling,Sheetmetal,Pro Toolkit,Cabling,Systems etc.,

    Apart from all, jackpot is Video Tutorial which you can watch live stream if you have enough bandwidth Internet connection. Clickhere for Video Tutorial and WildFire 3.0 Updates .. Videos are well formatted, audio accent is good so everyone can listen and understand the concept what they try to convey to you. Frotime is working on to have more Video Tutorial of all Topics, you need to wait for some more to get all of them.

    WildFire 3.0 Updates are available for free in PDF document:

    Introduction to Cabling 1
    Introduction to Cabling 2
    Introduction to Cabling 3
    Sheetmetal Subject (4)
    Surfacing Subject (6)
    Basic Modeling Subject (6)
    Drawing Basics Subject (6)

    So click here and enjoy surfing..

    Note: There are more Tutorials in the pipeline especially for CAE users so keep watching it.. Do mail me your queries. Thanks !!

    GAMBIT - Free Tutorial,CFD Concepts

    I am not much familiar with CFD but I would like to know more about it. There are many software's available in this segment. But Gambit and Fluent have taken a considerable market share. Gambit is a mesh generator, and Fluent a flow solver. You first use Gambit to make a discretization of flow domain, and then Fluent to solve the flow in it.

    Gambhit

    GAMBIT is a software package designed to help analysts and designers build and mesh models for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and other scientific applications. GAMBIT receives user input by means of its graphical user interface (GUI). The GAMBIT GUI makes the basic steps of building, meshing, and assigning zone types to a model simple and intuitive, yet it is versatile enough to accommodate a wide range of modeling applications.

    GAMBIT is Fluent’s geometry and mesh generation software. GAMBIT's single interface for geometry creation and meshing brings together most of Fluent's preprocessing technologies in one environment. Advanced tools for journaling let you edit and conveniently replay model building sessions for parametric studies. GAMBIT's combination of CAD interoperability, geometry cleanup, decomposition and meshing tools results in one of the easiest, fastest, and most straightforward preprocessing paths from CAD to quality CFD meshes.GAMBIT's range of CAD readers allow you to bring in any geometry, error free, into its meshing environment. GAMBIT also has an excellent boundary layer mesher for growing optimum grid cells off wall surfaces in your geometries for fluid flow simulation purposes. If you are enthusiastic to learn this software,here you go...

    The GAMBIT documentation suite consists of the following guides.

    User's Guide
    Instructions on how to start and run GAMBIT, including a detailed description of the GAMBIT graphical user interface (GUI)

    Modeling Guide
    Basic GAMBIT modeling geometry types. Detailed descriptions of GAMBIT geometry, mesh, zones, and tools commands and operations

    Tutorial Guide
    Tutorial examples that illustrate the use and basic operation of GAMBIT

    Command Reference Guide
    A compendium of GAMBIT keyboard commands and options

    This Tutor was user friendly, documented in HTML format provided by Fluent Inc., For better understanding snapshots are provided side by side for each of the command which makes learner to understand things in best way possible. So how many going to learn GAMBIT.

    FLUENT - Free Tutorial:CFD Concepts

    In the last article we were discussing about GAMBIT, I would like to continue with same CFD field. This time I am going to speak about FLUENT,It is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package to simulate fluid flow problems. It uses the finite-volume method to solve the governing equations for a fluid. It provides the capability to use different physical models such as incompressible or compressible, inviscid or viscous, laminar or turbulent, etc. Geometry and grid generation is done using GAMBIT which is the preprocessor bundled with FLUENT. Lets take a quick look about how we are going to learn FLUENT by a free Tutorial.

    Each tutorial begins with a problem specification. A solution can be obtained by following these nine steps:

    1. Create Geometry in GAMBIT
    2. Mesh Geometry in GAMBIT
    3. Set Boundary Types in GAMBIT
    4. Set Up Problem in FLUENT
    5. Solve!
    6. Analyze Results
    7. Refine Mesh

    These steps appear at the top of each page of the tutorial with the current step highlighted in red.

    These tutorials have been developed by the Swanson Engineering Simulation Program in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. The Swanson Engineering Simulation Program has been established with the goal of integrating computer-based simulations into the mechanical engineering curriculum. The development of these tutorials is being supported by a Faculty Innovation in Teaching award from Cornell University. You may not become a Master at this point, But its good start to learn this type of software for a beginner.

    Some of the other useful CFD resources are:

    - CFD online : CFD Books and Guides,CFD jobs,CFD Online Discussion Forum

    - The Central : CFD References,Finite Element,CFD Projects,Simulations, CFD Links

    - Predictive Engineering : LS Dyna,FEMAP,NX Nastran Free Download and Resources

    Unigraphics(NX3) - Free Video Tutorial: Free Download

    NX3 Friends I found one useful link for Unigraphics Users. Some of you may be already using NX, but people who are new or wanted to learn this software. Here is the Tutorial which help you a lot, I mean Video Tutorial. It is really quite amazing Tutor explaining commands step by step.

    This Video Tutorial was created by Kim Manner,Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Wisconsin - Madison.

    These tutorials consist of a video feed demonstrating use of the software with a voice-over commentary. When viewing these videos on a CAE network machine, one must use headphones in order to hear the voice-over commentary. Headsets may be attached to the audio output jack of the computer. If viewing on your own machine, you must install a video Codec. This codec may be downloaded free at:
    www.techsmith.com/download/codecs.asp

    Download the TSCC Codec

    Kindly install the proper Video Codec based on your Desktop Operating System. Otherwise you may not be able to run the video, if you are unable to see live stream video one of the problem may be proper Video Codec is not installed, so please be sure right codec is installed in your machine.

    On the sides of the page you will see navigation tabs for the various tutorials.

    After clicking on one of the tabs, you will be directed to a page containing the video. Click on the video once to be able to use the navigation commands(Play, Pause, Skip, etc).

    In some of the videos, you will also see jump buttons for subsections of the tutorial on the left hand side of the screen. Click on one of the buttons to be taken to a specific point in the video. These video Tutorials are keep updated, so you need to keep checking this website for updated video files.

    To watch these Video Tutorial Click here..

    To Download Tutorial For NX3 in PDF file format : Click here...

    For more Unigraphics tutorial Visit this link, but you should be member of 3D CAD Tutorial to access this one.

    How Stuff Works In Video - Automobile,Computer,Electronics,Science,Engineering-Free Tutorial

    Hai Readers, Do you know How Stuff Works ?? Probably you can find documents saying this is how this thing work. But if you happen to see How Stuff Works In Video.. Its always good to know and very informative.

    It looks silly but its great fun by looking at these videos. Even though videos are available about entertainment my predominant concentration is on engineering concepts explained.. Make of full use of it friends..

    It speaks about everything right from Auto,Business&Money,Computer,Electronics,Entertainment,Food&Recipes,Health,Science,People,Travel etc., Some of them Which I liked most are How Locomotives Work, How Clutches Work,How Turbochargers Work, All these stuff in video is simply great and enjoyable..

    Go and surf How Stuff Works in Video now..

    CAR BodyDesign - Free Tutorials, Videos, 3d Models,Automotive Engineering

    Hai Buddies.. Hope you love your Design Job. I am really crazy about my Design career. Well I found useful resource for CATIA and SolidWorks users, since I am also SolidWorks User this site was very informative and shared some useful links.

    This site belongs to Department of Mechanical Engineering,Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The motto of this sponsor is to provide a comprehensive portfolio of training courses to equip our engineering students with the revolutionary tools and practices already adopted by the industrial world.

    There are Tutorials which makes user to model a product, optimize it and do the analysis. The user gets real thrill feeling of developing a own product right from scratch till drawing release. The training examples are available for both CATIA and SolidWorks. Till now they have published Four Training For each, all free downloadable.

    Also you can find FAQ's about Design Software's,Tips, Online demonstration(Video) and Useful Links contains Patran,Adams Tutorials.. Latest Tutorial is CATIA V5R16 Freeform Surfaces (Aircraft) – Rebuild P51 Mustang.

    To visit This Website Click Here...

    Thursday 11 February 2010

    Plate with a Hole

    Problem Specification

    Consider the square plate of uniform thickness with a circular hole with dimensions shown in the figure below. The thickness of the plate is 1 mm. The Young's modulus E =107 MPa and the Poisson ratio is 0.3. A uniform pressure p=1 MPa acts on the boundary of the hole. Assume that plane stress conditions prevail. The stress and displacement fields are to be determined using ANSYS. This problem is taken from section 6.14, p. 240-244 of Cook et al.

    Plate Problem Specification


    Step 1: Start-up and preliminary set-up

    Create a folder

    Create a folder called plate at a convenient location. We'll use this folder to store files created during the ANSYS session.

    Start ANSYS

    Start > Programs > Lab Apps > ANSYS 10.0 > ANSYS Product Launcher

    In the window that comes up, enter the location of the folder you just created as your Working directory by browsing to it. All files generated during the ANSYS run will be stored in this directory.

    Specify plate as your Initial jobname. The jobname is the prefix used for all files generated during the ANSYS session. For example, when you perform a save operation in ANSYS, it'll store your work in a file called plate.db in your working directory.

    For this tutorial, we'll use the default values for the other fields. Click on Run. For this tutorial, we'll use the default values for the other fields. Click on Run. This brings up the ANSYS interface. To make best use of screen real estate, move the windows around and resize them so that you approximate this screen arrangement. This way you can read instructions in the browser window and implement them in ANSYS.

    You can resize the text in the browser window to your taste and comfort.

    In Internet Explorer: Menubar > View > Text Size, then choose the appropriate font size.

    In Netscape: Menubar > View > Increase Font or Menubar > View > Decrease Font.

    Set Preferences

    As before, we'll more or less work our way down the Main Menu.

    Main Menu > Preferences

    In the Preferences for GUI Filtering dialog box, click on the box next to Structural so that a tick mark appears in the box. Click OK.

    Preferences for GUI Filtering Dialog box

    Recall that this is an optional step that customizes the graphical user interface so that only menu options valid for structural problems are made available during the ANSYS session.

    Enter Parameters

    For convenience, we'll create scalar parameters corresponding to the plate half-width a, hole radius r, pressure p, and material properties E and v.

    Utility Menu > Parameters > Scalar Parameters

    Enter the parameter value for a:
    a=10e-3
    Click
    Accept.

    Similarly, enter the other parameter values and click Accept after each.

    r=7e-3
    p=1e6
    E=1e13
    nu=0.3

    Enter Scalar Parameters

    Close the Scalar Parameters window.

    We can now enter these variable names instead of the corresponding values as we set up the problem in ANSYS. This is also helpful in carrying out parametric studies where one looks at the effect of changing a parameter.

    Main Menu > Preprocessor> Element Type > Add/Edit/Delete > Add...

    Pick Structural Solid in the left field and Quad 4 node 42 in the right field. Click OK to select this element.

    Select Element Type

    You'll now see the Element Types menu with PLANE42 as the only defined element type.

    Element Types

    Let's take a look at the online help pages to learn about the properties of this element.

    Select the Search tab, type in pictorial summary as the keyword and click List Topics. You should see Pictorial Summary as one of the topics listed; double-click on this. This brings up the Pictorial Summary of Element Types help page. Scroll down to Plane42 under Structural 2-D Solid. Note that the PLANE42 element is defined by four nodes with two degrees of freedom at each node: translations UX and UY in the (nodal) x and y-directions.

    Click on the PLANE42 box to bring up the help page for this element. Read the Element Description and take a look at the figure of the element. Think about why this element is appropriate for the problem at hand. Minimize the help window.

    If you actually read the Element Description for PLANE42, you'd have noticed that this element can also be used for axisymmetric problems also. In the axisymmetric case, you would choose Options for the element in the Element Types menu. Note that in the PLANE42 element type options menu that comes up, under Element behavior, you have the option of Axisymmetric. For the current problem, we'll of course use the default of Plane stress. Click Cancel to exit the PLANE42 element type options menu retaining the defaults.

    Close the Element Types menu.

    This brings up the Element Type for Real Constants menu with a list of the element types defined in the previous step. We have only one element type and it is automatically selected.

    Real Constant Window

    Click OK.

    You should get a note saying "Please check and change keyopt setting for element PLANE42 before proceeding." Close the yellow warning window and the Real Constants menu. To see what this message implies, let's again take a look at the help pages for PLANE42.

    PLANE42 Help Window

    Under PLANE42 Input Summary, the documentation says that there are no real constants for this element when KEYOPT(3)=0, 1, 2.

    To see what the value of KEYOPT(3) is, bring up the Element Type menu again:

    K3 i.e. KEYOPT(3) is set to Plane stress. In the help page, under PLANE42 Input Summary, you can check that plane stress corresponds to KEYOPT(3)=0. Thus, there are no real constants to be specified. That's why we got the "Please check and change keyopt settings..." warning message. Of course, the ANSYS warning could have been less cryptic but what fun would that be.

    Cancel the PLANE42 element type options menu, Close the Element Types menu and close the Element Type sticky menu.

    Save your work

    Toolbar > SAVE_DB

    Step 3: Specify material properties

    Main Menu > Preprocessor >Material Props > Material Models ....

    In the Define Material Model Behavior menu, double-click on Structural, Linear, Elastic, and Isotropic.

    Define Material Model Behavior windwow

    We'll use the previously defined parameter names while specifying the material properties. Enter E for Young's modulus EX, nu for Poisson's Ratio PRXY. Click OK.

    Specify Material Properties Window

    To double-check the material property values, double-click on Linear Isotropic under Material Model Number 1 in the Define Material Model Behavior menu. This will show you the current values for EX and PRXY. Cancel the Linear Isotropic Properties window.

    Define Model Behavior

    When you enter parameter names, ANSYS substitutes the corresponding parameter values as soon as you click OK or Apply.

    This completes the specification of Material Model Number 1. When we mesh the geometry later on, we'll use the reference no. 1 to assign this material model. Close the Define Material Model Behavior menu.

    Save your work

    Toolbar > SAVE_DB

    Step 4: Specify geometry

    Since the geometry, material properties and loading are all symmetric with respect to the horizontal and vertical centerlines, we need to model only a quarter of the plate. We will take the origin of the coordinate system to be at the center of the hole and model only the top right quadrant. We'll create the geometry by creating a square area of side a and subtracting the circular sector of radius r from it.

    Create the Square

    X1 and X2 are the x-coordinates of the left and right edges of the square, respectively. Enter 0 for X1, a for X2.

    Y1 and Y2 are the y-coordinates of the bottom and top edges of the square, respectively. Enter 0 for Y1, a for Y2.

    Create Square

    Click OK. You should see a square appear in the graphics window.

    Create the Circular Sector

    WP X and WP Y are the x- and y-coordinates of the center of the circular arc. So enter 0 for both WP X and WP Y. (WP refers to the Working Plane which by default coincides with the global Cartesian coordinate system. We won't have to worry about the working plane in this friendly example.)

    Rad-1 is the radius of the inner circular arc. We want to create a solid rather than an annular arc. Enter 0 for Rad-1 to create a solid arc.

    Rad-2 is the (outer) radius of the arc. Since we had defined the hole radius as parameter r earlier, enter r for Rad-2.

    Theta-1 and Theta-2 are the starting and ending angles of the arc, respectively. These angles need to be specified in degrees. Enter 0 for Theta-1 and 90 for Theta-2. Click OK.

    Create Circle

    This will create and draw the circular sector. You'll see a white line denoting the circular sector.

    Subtract Circular Sector from Square

    In the Input window, ANSYS tells you to "pick or enter base areas from which to subtract". So we pick the square area as follows: Hold down the left mouse button, move the cursor over the areas until the square is selected (it will change color) and release the left mouse button. Click OK.

    Boolean Subtract

    In the Input window, ANSYS now tells you to "pick or enter areas to be subtracted". So select the circular sector by holding down and releasing the left mouse button. Click OK.

    Boolean Subtract

    If you did this correctly, you will see that the circular sector has been subtracted out from the square area.

    Boolean Subtract

    You can also select areas during the Boolean subtract operation by simply clicking on them but it becomes difficult to select areas (and other components) in this fashion in more complicated geometries. That's why I made you use the "holding-down-the-mouse-and-releasing" technique.

    If you picked an area incorrectly, you can unpick it by clicking the right mouse button and selecting the area. The cursor changes to a downward arrow during an unpick operation. Right-click to return to pick mode.

    Save Your Work

    Step 5: Mesh geometry

    Bring up the MeshTool:

    Main Menu > Preprocessor > MeshTool

    The MeshTool is used to control and generate the mesh.

    Set Meshing Parameters

    We'll now specify the element type, real constant set and material property set to be used in the meshing. Since we have only one of each, we can assign them to the entire geometry using the Global option under Element Attributes.

    Make sure Global is selected under Element Attributes and click on Set.

    Mesh Tool

    This brings up the Meshing Attributes menu. You will see that the correct element type and material number are already selected since we have only one of each. Recall that no real constants need to be defined for PLANE42 element type with the plane stress keyoption.

    Mesh Attributes

    Click OK. ANSYS now knows what element type and material type to use for the mesh.

    Set Mesh Size

    Instead of setting the mesh size at each boundary, we'll use the SmartSize option which enables automatic element sizing. Click on the SmartSize checkbox so that a tickmark appears in it.

    SmartSize

    The only input necessary for the SmartSize option is the overall element size level for meshing. The element size level determines the fineness of the mesh. Its value is controlled by the slider shown in the above picture. Change the setting for the overall element size level to 5 by moving the slider under SmartSize to the left.

    Mesh Areas

    In the MeshTool, make sure Areas is selected in the drop-down list next to Mesh. This means the geometry components to be meshed are areas (as opposed to lines or volumes). We'll use quadrilateral elements. So make sure the default option of Quad is selected under Shape. We'll also use the default of Free meshing.

    Click on the Mesh button. This brings up the pick menu.

    Pick All

    In the Input window, ANSYS tells you to "pick or enter areas to be meshed". Since we have only one area to be meshed, click on Pick All. The geometry has been meshed and the elements are plotted in the Graphics window. Close the MeshTool.

    The mesh statistics are reported in the Output window (usually hiding behind the Graphics window):

    ** AREA 3 MESHED WITH 79 QUADRILATERALS, 0 TRIANGLES **
    ** Meshing of area 3 completed ** 79 elements.
    NUMBER OF AREAS MESHED = 1
    MAXIMUM NODE NUMBER = 104
    MAXIMUM ELEMENT NUMBER = 79

    Save Your Work

    Step 6: Specify boundary conditions

    Next, we step up to the plate to define the displacement constraints and loads. Recall that in ANSYS terminology, the displacement constraints are also "loads". As in the truss tutorial, we'll apply the loads to the geometry rather than the mesh. That way we won't have to reapply the loads on changing the mesh.

    Apply Symmetry Boundary Conditions

    ANSYS provides the option of applying a "symmetry boundary condition" along lines of symmetry.

    Main Menu > Preprocessor > Loads > Define Loads > Apply > Structural > Displacement > Symmetry B.C. > On Lines

    Select the straight lines corresponding to the left and bottom edges (which are the lines of symmetry for this problem) by clicking on them. Click OK in the pick menu. The symbol s appears along these lines indicating that the symmetry B.C. is applied along these lines.

    Apply Symmetry

    Apply Pressure

    Select the circular arc and click OK. This brings up the Apply Pressure on Lines menu. Enter p for Value and click OK. A single red arrow denotes the pressure and the direction in which it is acting.

    Apply Pressure

    Check Loads

    Let's check that the displacement constraints have been applied correctly.

    Utility Menu > List > Loads > DOF constraints > On All Lines

    DLLIS Command

    Symmetry BCs are applied on lines 8 and 9. Turn on line numbering:

    Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Numbering

    Turn on Line numbers and click OK. Are lines L8 and L9 the ones on which you want the symmetry BCs?

    Similarly, check that the pressure is applied correctly using Utility Menu > List > Loads > Surface Loads > On All Lines. Note that VALI and VALJ would be different if the applied pressure were linearly varying along the line.

    Turn off line numbering: Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Numbering. Turn off Line numbers and click OK.

    Save Your Work

    Toolbar > SAVE_DB

    Step 7: Solve!

    Enter solution module:

    Main Menu > Solution

    Enter check in the Input window and press Enter.

    If the problem has been set up correctly, there will be no errors or warnings reported. If you look in the Output window, you should see the message: The analysis data was checked and no warnings or errors were found.

    Main Menu > Solution > Solve > Current LS

    Recall from the truss tutorial that this solves the current load step (LS) i. e. the current loading conditions. In this problem also, there is only one load step.

    Review the information in the /STATUS Command window. Close this window.

    Click OK in Solve Current Load Step menu.

    Solve Current Load setup

    ANSYS performs the solution and a yellow window should pop up saying "Solution is done!". Congratulations! Close the yellow window.

    Verify that ANSYS has created a file called plate.rst in your working directory. This file contains the results of the (previous) solve.

    Step 8: Postprocess the Results

    Enter the postprocessing module to analyze the solution.

    Main Menu > General Postproc

    Plot Deformed Shape

    Select Def + undeformed and click OK.

    This plots the deformed and undeformed shapes in the Graphics window. The maximum deformation DMX is 0.232E-08m as reported in the Graphics window. Note that the deformation is magnified in the plot so as to be visible.

    The deformation would be better visible if the foreground and background were not of the same color. Turn off the background:

    To get the background back, you just have to select this again.

    Deformation Plot in Graphics Window

    Animate the deformation:

    Select Def + undeformed and click OK. Select Forward Only in the Animation Controller.

    The left and bottom edges move parallel to themselves which means that the full deformed plate is also symmetric about these edges. This shows that the symmetry boundary condition at these edges is imposed correctly. The circular edge of the hole moves outward which is what one would expect from the outward pressure acting along it. Thus, the deformation of the structure agrees with the applied boundary conditions and matches with what one would expect from intuition.

    Close the Animation Controller.

    Plot Nodal Solution of von Mises Stress

    To display the von Mises stress distribution as continuous contours, select

    Select Nodal Solution > Stress > von Mises stress and click OK.

    Nodal Solution Plot
    (Click picture for larger image)

    The contour plot will show you the locations of the maximum and minimum values with the labels MX and MN, respectively. Are these locations where you expect them? SMX and SMN values reported in the Graphics window are the corresponding maximum and minimum stress values.

    The diagonal is an additional line of symmetry. How symmetric is your result about the diagonal?

    Save this plot to a file:

    Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Hard Copy > To File

    Select the file format you want and type in a filename of your choice under Save to: and click OK. Check that the file has been created in your working directory.

    When you plot the "Nodal Solution", ANSYS obtains a continuous distribution as follows:
    1. It determines the average at each node of the values of all elements connected to the node.
    2. Within each element, it linearly interpolates the average nodal value obtained in the previous step.

    Plot Element Solution of von Mises Stress

    To obtain results without nodal averaging, select

    Select Element Solution > Stress > von Mises stress and click OK. This displays the von Mises stress results as discontinuous element contours.

    Element Solution Plot
    (Click picture for larger image)

    Save this plot to a file: Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Hard Copy > To File

    Element solution contours are determined by linear interpolation within each element but no nodal averaging is performed. The discontinuity between contours of adjacent elements is an indication of the gradient across elements. The inter-element discontinuities in our solution are relatively small compared to the stress levels. This indicates that the mesh resolution is reasonably good.

    Query Results

    To determine the value of the first principal stress sigma1 at a selected location, select

    This brings up the Query Subgrid Solution Data menu. Select Stress from the left list, 1st principal S1 from the right list and click OK.

    This brings up the pick menu. You can click on any location in the geometry and ANSYS will print the sigma1pick menu. value at that location. Try querying the values at a few locations. Note that the coordinates of the picked location and the corresponding solution value are reported in the

    Cancel the pick menu.

    Step 9: Validate the results

    It is very important that you take the time to check the validity of your solution. This section leads you through some of the steps you can take to validate your solution.

    Simple Checks

    Does the deformed shape look reasonable and agree with the applied boundary conditions? We checked this in step 8.

    Do the reactions at the supports balance the applied forces for static equilibrium? To check this, select

    Main Menu > General Postproc > List Results > Reaction Solu

    Select All struc forc F for Item to be listed and click OK.

    The total reaction force in the x-direction is -7000 N.

    Applied force = (pressure) x (projected distance in x-direction of the line along which the constant pressure acts) = (p) (r) = 7000 N in positive x-direction.

    So the reaction cancels out the applied force in the x-direction. Similarly, you can check that this is true in the y-direction also.

    Refine Mesh

    Let's repeat the calculations on a mesh with overall element size level under SmartSize set to 4 instead of 5 and compare the results on the two meshes. Delete the current mesh:

    Select Clear under Mesh: and Pick All in the pick menu. The mesh is deleted.

    Set the overall element size level under SmartSize to 4 by dragging the slider to the left. Click on Mesh and Pick All.

    In the Output window, check how many elements are contained in this mesh? Your new mesh should have 276 quadrilateral elements.

    Obtain a new solution: Main Menu > Solution > Solve > Current LS

    Plot nodal solution of the von Mises stress:

    Main Menu > General Postproc > Plot results > Contour Plot > Nodal Solu

    Select Nodal Solution > Stress > von Mises stress and click OK.

    Nodal Solution Plot

    Compare this with the von Mises contours for the previous mesh:

    von Mises Contours Plot

    The two results compare well with the finer mesh contours being smoother as expected. Compare the maximum stress and displacement values:

    .

    Coarser Mesh

    Finer Mesh

    DMX

    0.232e-8m

    0.234e-8m

    SMX

    3.64MPa

    3.74MPa

    The maximum displacement value changes by less than 1% and the maximum von Mises stress value by less than 3%. This indicates that the meshes used provide adequate resolution.

    Exit ANSYS

    Utility Menu > File > Exit

    Select
    Save Everything and click OK.

    Reference

    Cook, R.D., Malkus, D.S., Plesha, M.E., and Witt, R.J., Concepts and Applications of Finite Element Analysis, Fourth Edition, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2002.

    Problem Statement

    We used a 4-node quad element (PLANE42) in the tutorial. ANSYS also offers a 8-node quad element (PLANE82). Re-solve the tutorial problem using the PLANE82 element. Compare plots of the nodal and element solution of the von Mises stress for the two cases. You may use either mesh for this problem (although the final results presented here are done using the coarser mesh).

    Hints

    Look at the steps and think about which ones you have to change.

    When you remesh the object, notice the following changes:

    The number of nodes has increased!

    To see why, do:

    Click OK. Then on the Multi-Plotting Window that comes up, deselect everything but Nodes and Elements.

    Click OK.

    In the Graphics Window, you will now see the nodes in between the lines. There are 8 points for each quadrilateral area instead of the four we had before!

    Final Result

    Here are the Nodal and Element Solutions you should have gotten:

    Nodal Solution

    (Click picture for larger image)

    Element Solution

    (Click picture for larger image)