NAS122 Cheatsheet E-mail to: swen.thompson@ngc.com; bogdan@wabash.ca; dipak.naik@ngc.com; Rachel.d.paden@nasa.gov; brian.philpot@ngc.com; jdangelo@ll.mit.edu; Robert.underwood@ngc.com; paul.kastle@mscsoftware.

com Units using Dynamics Length Mass SI Meter Kg English Ft Slug US In Lbm Engineering In Slug*12= inch slugs, slinches, snails, Sec Lbf 1.0

Time Force Param wtmass

Sec

kg m N, sec 2 1.0

Sec Lb 1.0

Sec Lbf .00259

Bold units are primary units. In the SI system, Newtons 2nd law works: F=ma Therefore: W=mg 1 kg * 9.8 m/s2 =9.8N (One kilogram weight 9.8N on Earth.) The English works the same way. 1 slug * 32.2 ft/sec2 = 32.2 lb In the US system of units, Newton second law fails: 1 LBM weights 1 LBF by definition. So if w =mg 1 LBM * 386.4 in/sec2 = 1 Lbf. This doesnt doesnt work, unless youre an accountant for the US Govt/Enron. A correction factor is used: F=c m a, where C is correction factor to get everything to work.

W = c m g- 1 Lbf= .00259 * 1 Lbm * 386.4

What to do if your Modes dont match test:

1. Natural frequencies for most structures go something like
k , comparing your m

modes to test, if the modes are off: a. Stiffness is too low or mass is too high. For the mass, check the grid point weight generator. i. The grid point weight generator is activated if you have param, grdpnt in your .bdf file. (To activate it from a Patran menu, see screen capture below. (For more information on the grid point weight generator, look in Appendix I of the Basic dynamic analysis userss guide. ii. Param, grdpnt is used to control the summation point for total load and total constraint moments in Nastran. (OLOAD and SPCFORCE) iii. Doesnt hurt to point out that in static analysis, many users look at OLOAD and the SPCFORCE as a model checkout. OLOAD is the total load and should be something that doesnt surprise the user. If it does either the load doesnt work the way the users thinks it does or there is a units error. Total SPCFORCE should be the same magnitude as OLOAD but in the opposite direction. If OLOAD Resultant+Total SPCFORCE does not equal 0, there could be a grounding problem from springs or MPCs. b. Adjust either density or nonstructural mass to get the FEA models mass to match the test structures mass. c. Another possibility is the stiffness is too low. i. First thing to check is plate thicknesses/bar thickness. It could be due to manufacturing tolerances that the fea model is thicker or thinner than the real life structure. ii. FEA models tend to ignore fillets and chamfers which may affect stiffness and mass. iii. Plate structures tend to be EXTREMELY flexible. Biggest reason for this is that the plates dont have stiffness in the RZ direction. d. Your FEA modes results may not include the effect of load, or pre-loads. It could be preload from bolts, fasteners, and theoretically it could come from weight. This can be compensated by increasing the stiffness of springs or using a STATSUB if theres a pressure load that may be affecting modal results.

Element strain energy for Normal Modes:

Areas with high element strain energy are the sensitive areas in a normal modes and dynamic environment. These are the areas that give the biggest effect for changes in the

model. If you need to bring your modes up or down, modify the areas with high strain energy first. Note that it will vary from mode to mode, so its possible that one area of high strain energy is not a critical area for another mode.

Pre-Stiffened Normal Modes:

To do pre-stiffened normal modes entirely in Patran, create a linear static subcase. Once a linear static subcase is created, THEN switch the solution type to normal modes and create the normal modes run with STATSUB. The steps required are: 1) Set the solution type to linear static. 2) Create a subcase. a. Go to the subcases menu, click on a subcase at the top, under Available Subcases, and click the apply button. (Patran is already prepped to make a subcase.) 3) Set the solution type back to normal modes. 4) Go to the subcases menu and set your option for normal modes. 5) When you go to subcase select, there should be a subcase called (preload)<subcase name>. Select the pre-load subcase and then the subcase for normal modes of the same name. Hint: A similar procedure is used to do buckling with a pre-load.

Types of Commonly Performed Dynamic Analysis:

1) Normal Modes, (SOL103 2) Transient-Modal and Direct (109 & 112) 3) Frequency Response Analysis (108 & 111) Hint: SOL 101 is linear static analysis and can activated with the line SOL SESTATIC instead. SOL 103 is normal modes, and can be activated with the line SOL SEMODES instead. Buckling is SEBUCKLE, Transient is SEMTRANS or SEDTRANS. Frequency response is SEMFREQ or SEDFREQ. From these analysis, the other dynamic analyses are done. For example: 1) Applying a Shock Response Spectra is actually an add on step from Normal Modes. 2) Calculating a response spectra is actually an additional step derived from Transient Response.

3) Random Vibration (applying a PSD) analysis is actually a post processing step done after Frequency Response. Calculating the PSD is a combination of Fourier and statistical analysis of test data from accelerometers or other sensors.

Exporting Graphs from MSC.Patran to Excel:

There are two ways to get a graph made in MSC.Patran out of Patran and into other programs. 1) This route requires no shareware and creates a space delimited text file. First get the graph on-screen a. Go to the XY Plot menu, and set the action to modify, object to curve. b. Select your curve from the list. If you want multiple curves, youll have to select them on at a time. c. Click on the Data from Keyboard button. d. Look on the spreadsheet on the form to make sure the information is correct. e. Check the XYDATA to file toggle. f. Click OK and Patran will ask you for a location and name for the file. 2) The other method let you decide the delimiter for each column. As before, get the graph on-screen a. Using shareware, go to Utilities/Fields/Field from XY Curve. b. Go to the fields menu, set the action to modify and edit one of the curves. c. Click on the Import/Export button to get the data out of the fields menu and into a text file.