Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

Pre-Processing Phase:

CREATE A NEW FOLDER 1. Dene some parameters: ANSYS Pulldown Menu

Parameters

Scalar Parameters
LENGTH = 5.0

Selection: Accept Selection: Accept Selection: Accept Selection: Accept Close

WIDTH = 2.0

RAD = 1.0

PI = ACOS(-1.0)

2. Select an element type: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor
Add

Element Type

Add/Edit/Delete

Solid OK Options Element behavior K3 : OK Close

8node 82Plane

Plane strs w/thk

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole 3. Dene the plate thickness: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor
Add

Real Constants

Add/Edit/Delete

Type 1 PLANE82 OK Thickness THK OK Close

0.125

4. Dene material properties: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor

Material Props
Structural EX PRXY OK

Material Models
Elastic Isotropic

Linear

10.0E+06 0.3

Material

Exit

5. Create ten keypoints: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor

Modeling

Create
1

Keypoints

In Active CS

NPT Keypoint number: X, Y, Z Location in active CS: Apply NPT Keypoint number: FEG

RAD

Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole X, Y, Z Location in active CS: Apply NPT Keypoint number: X, Y, Z Location in active CS: Apply NPT Keypoint number:
RAD*COS(PI/8) RAD*SIN(PI/8) 0

3 RAD*COS(PI/4) RAD*SIN(PI/4) 0

4 0

X, Y, Z Location in active CS: RAD*COS(3/8*PI) RAD*SIN(3/8*PI) Apply NPT Keypoint number: X, Y, Z Location in active CS: Apply NPT Keypoint number: X, Y, Z Location in active CS: Apply NPT Keypoint number: X, Y, Z Location in active CS: Apply NPT Keypoint number: X, Y, Z Location in active CS: Apply NPT Keypoint number: X, Y, Z Location in active CS: FEG

5 0 RAD 0

6 0 WIDTH 0

7 WIDTH WIDTH 0

8 WIDTH 0 0

9 LENGTH 0 0

Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole Apply NPT Keypoint number:

10 LENGTH WIDTH 0

X, Y, Z Location in active CS: OK

6. Create lines: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor

Modeling

Create

Lines

Arcs

Through 3 KPs

< Pick Keypoints: 1, 3, and then 2 >

Apply
< Pick Keypoints: 3, 5, and then 4 >

OK

Preprocessor

Modeling

Create

Lines

Lines

Straight line

< Pick Keypoints: 1, and then 8 > < Pick Keypoints: 3, and then 7 > < Pick Keypoints: 5, and then 6 > < Pick Keypoints: 6, and then 7 > < Pick Keypoints: 7, and then 8 > < Pick Keypoints: 8, and then 9 > < Pick Keypoints: 9, and then 10 > < Pick Keypoints: 7, and then 10 >

Cancel

7. Show the line number: ANSYS Pulldown Menu

PlotCtrls

Numbering
on 6

LINE Line numbers : FEG

Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole OK

Plot

Lines

You should see a model similar to that in Fig. 2. In the next steps, we will create three areas; those areas are surrounded by lines, for Area 1: L2, L4, L6, L5; for Area 2: L1, L3, L7, L4; and for Area 3: L7, L8, L9, L10.

Figure 2: Model of plate with hole having line numbers turned on. 8. Create three areas: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor

Modeling

Create

Areas

Arbitrary

By Lines

< Pick lines: L2, L4, L6, and then L5 >

Apply
< Pick lines: L1, L3, L7, and then L4 >

Apply
< Pick lines: L7, L8, L9, and then L10 >

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole OK

9. Control the mesh density: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor
Lines :

Meshing
Set

MeshTool

< Pick lines: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and then 9 >

Apply NDIV No. of element divisions Apply

< Pick lines: 7 and 9 >
4

NDIV No. of element divisions Ok

10. Show the area number: ANSYS Pulldown Menu

PlotCtrls

Numbering
on

AREA Area numbers : OK

Plot

Areas

11. Mesh the model: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor
Shape : Shape : Mesh

Meshing

MeshTool

 Quad  Mapped

< Pick areas: A1, A2, and then A3 >

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

NDIV = 4

PLANE42

PLANE82

PLANE42

PLANE82

Figure 3: MeshTool of ANSYS and some of its functionality. OK

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

Figure 4: The plate with hole model having area numbers turned on.
Important note

The results, especially the stress, of a nite element analysis strongly depends on the mesh. Concerning the mesh, Nicholas M. Baran [2] suggests followings:
Mesh Transition: You can use a tringle or control the mesh spacing ratio. However,

in using the mesh spacing ratio, keep l2  2l1 and l4  2l3 .

l1 l2 l3 l4

Element Aspect Ratio: Aspect ratio (l=w) should be kept less than 3, if possible.
l w w Excessive aspect ratio

Element Skewness: Try to keep the skew angle, , less than 30 degrees. Nastran

issues a warning if the angle is greater than 30 degrees [3].

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

Figure 5: The nite element mesh of the plate with hole model.
Important note

The general guidelines are:

 Fine mesh in the area of interest  Fine mesh in the region that has high stress gradient.  Use quadratic element instead of linear element if possible.

Solution Phase:

1. Dene the analysis type: ANSYS Main Menu

Solution

Analysis Type

New Analysis

[ANTYPE] Type of analysis:

 Static

2. Apply the boundary condition: ANSYS Main Menu

Solution

Dene Loads

Apply

Structural

Displacement

Symmetry B.C

< Pick Lines: L5, L3, L8 >

OK FEG 11

Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

Important Notes

Following gures show several types of symmetry structures:

(a) Axial Symmetry

(b) Planar Symmetry

(c) Cyclic Symmetry

(d) Repetitive Symmetry

However, the symmetricalness does not only about the geometry, but also the constraints and the loading conditions. For an example, see following:

Symmetry point

Anti-symmetry point

3. Apply uniform stress: ANSYS Main Menu

Solution

Dene Loads

Apply

Structural

Pressure

On Lines

< Pick Line: L9 >.

OK VALUE Load PRES: OK -1.0

4. Solve the problem: ANSYS Main Menu

Solution

Solve

Current LS
OK

Close

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

Post Processing Phase:

1. Plot deformation: ANSYS Main Menu

General Postproc

Plot Results

Deformed Shape

KUND Items to be plotted: OK The result is shown Fig. 6.

 Def + undef edge

Figure 6: The deformation and undeformed plate with hole. 2. Plot the von Misses stress: ANSYS Main Menu

General PostProc

Plot Results

Contour Plot
Stress

Nodal Solu

Nodal Solution Undisplaced shape key: FEG

von Misses stress

Deformed shape with undeformed edge 13

Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole OK The results are shown in Fig. 7.

Figure 7: The von Misses stress in the loaded plate with hole. 3. Select the nodes along ligament: ANSYS Pulldown Menu

Plot Select

Nodes Entities
Nodes OK Select Nodes:

 Box

< Click and drag your mouse to form a box; for example, see Fig. 8. >

OK

4. List the results of stresses: ANSYS Main Menu

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

Figure 8: Nodes selection using a box.

General PostProc

List Results
Nodal Solution

Nodal Solution
Stress X-Component of stress

OK You should obtain:

NODE 2 10 12 14 16 SX 4.2351 0.67527 2.4619 1.7877 1.3116 SY 0.84957E-01 -0.74895E-02 0.43886 0.28282 0.91777E-01 SZ 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 SXY -0.19128E-01 0.15242E-01 -0.24530E-02 0.83778E-02 0.99075E-02 SYZ 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 SXZ 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000

The exact solution can be seen in Refs. [1, 4] that the stress concentration factor, K is dened as
K=

Highest value of actual stress on hole; max : Nominal stress for minimum cross section

(1)

For d=W = 0:50, where d is the hole diameter, and W is the plate width, the K is 2.169 (see Fig. 9). Meanwhile, the nominal stress for the minimum cross section is 4=2 1 psi = 2.0 psi; therefore, the highest theoretical stress is
max = 2:169 2:0 = 4:338 psi:

(2)

ANSYS provides you, at Node 2, x = 4.2351 psi, or 2.37 % lower than the exact solution.

5. In addition, you also needs those nodes locations: ANSYS Pulldown Menu

List

Nodes
Sort rst by: OK NODE Number

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

2.169

Figure 9: Stress concentration factor for a at bar with a transverse hole in axial tension [1]. You should obtain, after removing the midside nodes
NODE 2 10 12 14 16 X 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 Y 1.0000 2.0000 1.2500 1.5000 1.7500 Z 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 THXY 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 THYZ 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 THZX 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Therefore, we can now plot the stress along the ligament:

2

1.5 YAxis (in)

0.5 FEM Peterson 0 0 2 4 SX (psi) 6 8

Figure 10: The normal stress along the plate ligament. Figure 10 concludes the rst part of this module. In the second part, we will discusss the top-down approach in creating a nite element model. In addition, we also discuss about ANSYS-APDL code for the present problem.

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

Top-down Modeling Approach

Two approachs in modeling:

Bottom-up approach: keypoints Top-down approach: primitives

lines

area

volume

meshing

boolean operations

meshing

We study the top-down approach in this section. In the next section, the APDL code also will be based on the present log le. CREATE A NEW FOLDER

Pre-Processing Phase:
1. Select element type, dene the thickness, and also dene material properties. Repeat the previous pre-processing phase, the rst four steps. 2. Create two rectangles: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor
WP X WP Y Width Height Apply WP X WP Y Width Height OK

Modeling

Create

Areas

Rectangle

By 2 Corners

0.0 0.0 WIDTH WIDTH

WIDTH 0.0 LENGTH-WIDTH WIDTH

3. Turn on the keypoint number, the area numbers and the line numbers: ANSYS Pulldown Menu

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

PlotCtrls

Numbering
On

KEYPOINT Keypoint numbers: AREA Area Numbers LINE Line numbers OK On On

4. Create a circle: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor
WP X WP Y Radius OK

Modeling

Create

Area

Circl

Solid Circle

0.0 0.0 RAD

5. Substract Area A1 to Area A3: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessing

Modeling

Operate

Booleans

Substract

Areas

< Pick Area A1 >

OK
< Pick Area A3 >

OK You should see the new area which has a number of A4

6. Merges coincident Keypoints: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessor

Numbering

Ctrls

Merge Items

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole Label Type of item to be merge OK Keypoints

7. Create a keypoint: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessing

Modeling

Create

Keypoints

In Active CS

NPT Keypoint number X, Y, Z Location in active CS

100 0.0 0.0 0.0

8. Create a line: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessing

Modeling

Create

Lines

Lines

Strainght Line

< Pick Node 100 and 8 >

OK OK

9. Cut the area into two areas: ANSYS Main Menu

Preprocessing

Modeling

Operate

Booleans

Divide

Area by Line

< Pick Area A4 >

OK
< Pick Line L1 >

OK You should obtain A1, A2, and A3 10. Merges coincident Keypoints: ANSYS Main Menu

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

Preprocessor

Numbering

Ctrls

Merge Items
Keypoints

Label Type of item to be merge OK

Figure 11: Model with the line numbers turned on. 11. Create a new parameter: ANSYS Pulldown Menu

Parameter

Scalar Parameters

Selection: OK

NOE = 4

12. Control the mesh density: ANSYS Pulldown Menu

Preprocessor
Lines

Meshing
Set

MeshTool

< Pick Lines L10, L11, L13, L14, L3, L4, L2, L6 >

Apply NDIV No. of element divisions FEG

NOE

20

Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole Apply

< Pick Lines 5, and 7 >

Apply NDIV No. of element divisions OK Shape Shape Mesh

< Pick Area A1, A2, A3 >
NOE*3/2

Quad Mapped

OK Close See the previous solution phase.

Mesh Sensitivity Study

The stress depends on the mesh in a nite element analysis; although, physically it should not. To study how the stress depend on the mesh, we perform a mesh sensitivity study. In this study, we analyse the structure for a number of the mesh-size. In short, we change NOE, and see how it aect the maximum x . The important lines from your log le are reproduced following.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

*SET,LENGTH,5 *SET,WIDTH,2 *SET,RAD,1 *SET,PI,ACOS(-1.0) /PREP7 ET,1,PLANE82 KEYOPT,1,3,3 KEYOPT,1,5,0 KEYOPT,1,6,0 R,1,0.125,

MPTEMP,,,,,,,, MPTEMP,1,0 MPDATA,EX,1,,10E6 MPDATA,PRXY,1,,0.3

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

BLC4,0,0,WIDTH,WIDTH BLC4,WIDTH,0.0,LENGTH-WIDTH,WIDTH CYL4,0.0,0.0,RAD ASBA, 1, 3

K,100,0.0,0.0,0.0, LSTR, ASBL, NUMMRG, KP *SET,NOE,4 LESIZE,_Y1, , ,NOE, , , , ,1 LESIZE,_Y1, , ,NOE*3/2, , , , ,1 MSHAPE,0,2D MSHKEY,1 AMESH,_Y1 FINISH /SOL ANTYPE,0 DL,P51X, ,SYMM SFL,P51X,PRES,-1.0, SOLVE 100, 4, 3 1

The commands that need to be retouched are shown in lines 26, 27, 34, and 35. Those funny stus, Y1 and
P51X, are the problem. For the command LESIZE in lines 26 and 27, the complete command is (see manual)
LESIZE, NL1, SIZE, ANGSIZ, NDIV, SPACE, KFORC, LAYER1, LAYER2, KYNDIV

where NL1 is the line number, and NDIV is the number of elements. We modied those two commands with following commands:
LESIZE, 10, , ,NOE, , , , ,1 LESIZE, 11, , ,NOE, , , , ,1 LESIZE, 13, , ,NOE, , , , ,1 LESIZE, 14, , ,NOE, , , , ,1 LESIZE, 3, , ,NOE, , , , ,1 LESIZE, 4, , ,NOE, , , , ,1 LESIZE, 2, , ,NOE, , , , ,1

LESIZE, 5, , ,NOE*3/2, , , , ,1 LESIZE, 6, , ,NOE*3/2, , , , ,1

For the symmetry constraints, the complete command is

DL, LINE, AREA, Lab, Value1, Value2

where LINE is the line number; therefore, we rewrite line 34 with FEG

22

Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

DL, 14, ,SYMM DL, 13, ,SYMM DL, 5, ,SYMM

The last is SFL command; as you may guess, it should be replaced with
SFL, 6, PRES,-1.0,

When we put everything together, we have a working APDL code:

/clear *set, length, 5 *set, width, 2 *set, rad, 1 *set, pi, acos(-1.0) *set, NOE, 128 /prep7 et, 1, plane82 keyopt, 1, 3, 3 keyopt, 1, 5, 0 keyopt, 1, 6, 0 r, 1, 0.125, mptemp,,,,,,,, mptemp, 1, 0 mpdata, ex, 1,, 10e6 mpdata, prxy, 1,, 0.3 ! Youngs modulus ! Poissons ratio ! Thickness ! Eight-node plane element ! Plane stress with thickness

blc4, 0, 0, width, width

! Create a rectangle

blc4, width, 0.0, length-width, width ! Create a rectangle cyl4, 0.0, 0.0, rad asba, 1, 3 k, 100, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, lstr, 100, 3 asbl, 4, 1 nummrg, kp ! Create a circle ! Cut the rectangle ! Create a point ! Create a line ! Divided an area ! Merge nodes

lesize, 10, , , NOE, , , , ,1 lesize, 11, , , NOE, , , , ,1 lesize, 13, , , NOE, , , , ,1 lesize, 14, , , NOE, , , , ,1 lesize, lesize, lesize, 3, , , NOE, , , , ,1 4, , , NOE, , , , ,1 2, , , NOE, , , , ,1

! NOE along L10

lesize, lesize,

5, , , NOE*3/2, , , , ,1 6, , , NOE*3/2, , , , ,1

mshape, 0, 2d

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

mshkey, 1 amesh, 1 amesh, 2 amesh, 3 finish /sol antype, 0 dl, 14, ,symm dl, 13, ,symm dl, 5, ,symm sfl, 6, pres,-1.0, solve finish ! Static analysis ! Symmetric constraints ! ! ! Apply uniform tensile stress ! Solve ! Mesh Area 1 ! Mesh Area 2 ! Mesh Area 3

Within the miracle of APDL and a set of untold bedtime stories, following lines may save your time and may keep your laziness above everything:
/post1 xStressExact = 2.169*2.0 myNode = node(0.0, RAD, 0.0) *get, xStress, node, myNode, S, X error = ABS(xStressExact - xStress)/xStressExact*100 *cfopen, sensitivityStudyResult, dat, , append *vwrite, NOE, xStress, xStressExact, error (F15.0, 2X, E15.4, 2X, E15.5, 2X, E15.4) *cfclos finish

which produce a nice formatted data in the le:

4. 8. 16. 32. 64. 128. 0.4235E+01 0.4307E+01 0.4336E+01 0.4345E+01 0.4348E+01 0.4349E+01 0.43380E+01 0.43380E+01 0.43380E+01 0.43380E+01 0.43380E+01 0.43380E+01

sensitivityStudyResult.dat;
0.2372E+01 0.7178E+00 0.4887E-01 0.1673E+00 0.2287E+00 0.2452E+00

such as:

or graphically Finally, you know what you see, grasp the reality that ANSYS may dissappoint you.

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Linear Static Analysis of a Plate with Hole

4.36 4.34 4.32 SX (psi) 4.3 4.28 4.26 4.24 4.22 0 FE Solution Exact Solution 50 100 150 Number of elements (NOE)

Figure 12: Eect of mesh density to the maximum stress.

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