MMAN 4410_S1_2015_Finite Element Methods Wk 2

Exercise 2 A Sub-Frame Analysis

Introduction
The aim of this exercise is to analyse a very simple sub-frame within workbench. The sub-frame will consist
of two different types of sections a Square Hollow Section (SHS) and an Equal Angle (EA) section as shown
in Figure 1. The sub frame is a simple sub-frame that will need to be designed such that the 3000kg motor
can sit in between the two equal angle sections and the deflections limited within the sub frame to 4mm to
fulfill the design requirements for the structure. You will apply a point mass and gravitational force and look
at the effect it has on the structure.

Figure 1 Sub-frame Geometry

Geometry Creation
Open Workbench and instead of creating a new project click on Geometry from the Splash screen as shown
below in Figure 2

Figure 2 New Geometry

For this example you are going to first draw the geometry required for the FE model within the Design
Modeller workbench and then analyse the frame within the Simulation Workbench. To create the frame you
will draw two sketches, the first being the sketch required for the SHS and the second the sketch required for
the EA section. The sketches will need to be created on the XYPlane. To do this select the XYPlane from the
sketch toolbar and then select the new sketch button as shown in Figure 3.
Select XYPlane

Click New Sketch

Figure 3 Create Sketch

Now remember to edit the sketch you need to switch to the sketching mode by selecting the sketching tab in
the tree outline window. To change the view so that you look at the normal of the sketch plane click the Look
at button as shown in Figure 4.

Click Look At
Button

Select the sketching tab

Figure 4 Creating the Sketch

Now you can proceed to draw the geometry as shown in Figure 5 below. Make sure that when you draw the
lines try and use the constraints that are automatically calculated by ANSYS and constrain the lines to be
vertical and horizontal and that the points are constrained to the lines.

Figure 5 Frame Geometry

Before you exit the sketch you will need to split the two horizontal lines so that you can create an anchoring
point for the two EA sections to join onto. To do this you need to simply split the two lines at two points and
then constrain the distance of the points so that they are the correct distance. To split the lines use the Split
tool under the modify tab of the sketch tools and split the lines as shown in Figure 6 and dimension the newly
created lines as shown in Figure 7.

Use Split Tool

Figure 6 Split Lines for EA attachments

Dimension each Line

Figure 7 Dimensions of First Split Lines

EXIT THE SKETCH and create a new sketch on the XYPlane as you did before. Remember to create a
sketch on the XYPlane select XYPlane from the drop down list and click on the new sketch icon as in Figure
3. Draw the two lines representing the EA members making sure that the lines are coincident at the split
points of sketch 1 indicated by the P that appears when you are near the point. Once you have created the
lines follow the same procedure above to split each line twice, and dimension the new lines accordingly.
Your sketch should look the same as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8 Sketch 2 showing EA Lines and Location of Split Points

To show the Values of the dimensions instead of the labels select the dimension tab and click on the Display
item within the list as shown in Figure 9. Change the display from name to value and your dimension values
will now appear.

Check Value

Figure 9 Change Display

Now the basic sketch is finished for the sub frame. Before you can assign Beam cross sections for this
model you will need to convert the sketches into Line Bodies, which are idealisations for the beam element.
Once the line bodies are created you can create cross sections and assign the cross section to the line
bodies. To create the two line bodies you will use the Lines from Sketches tool within the concept menu.
Select this option and select Sketch 1 as the first Line Body. MAKE SURE that the Operation in the Details
Tab is Add Frozen not Add Material. This is very important for this example. Once you have set these
options shown in Figure 10 and click on Generate to generate the line body.

Highlight Sketch 1

Click Apply to Accept

Sketch 1

Add Frozen

Figure 10 Creating Line Bodies from Sketches

Repeat the above procedure for Sketch 2, again, making sure that the Add Frozen option is selected as the
operation. Your tree should now have three frozen line bodies as indicated in Figure 11. You will also notice
that if you select any of the line bodies they will all have a yellow highlighted box indicating no cross section
has been selected. This brings us to the next part.

No Cross section
selected

Figure 11 Tree Outline showing three frozen bodies

You now need to create the cross sections for each of the steel sections. First create the SHS section by
selecting Concept Cross Section Rectangular Tube from the menu.

Figure 12 Change colour of Line Bodies

Change the dimensions of the SHS cross section to that shown in Figure 13 below. Rename the cross
section to be SHS in the outline tree.

Figure 13 SHS Dimensions

Next repeat the same procedure and create a new L section and dimension it as shown in Figure 14.
Rename the section to EASection or similar so you can easily identify it.

Figure 14 EA Section Dimensions

Finally before you can switch to the simulation mode you need to assign the correct cross sections to the
correct lines, the model should look that shown in Figure 15. You may notice that you need to change the
alignment of the some of the cross sections. To view the 3D representation turn on Cross Section Solids
from the View Menu, for the time being make sure you leave Cross section alignments turned on as you will
need to check these in the next few steps.

Figure 15 Model with Cross sections applied

In this example you will need to rotate one of the EA sections by 90 degrees so that the motor can mount to
the equal angle. To change the cross section alignments you need to select the lines (Remember that the
Line Selection Tool needs to be selected) that you want to change and once selected, the alignment options
will appear in the Details Tab. Change the alignment of the three line bodies by rotating them 90 degrees as
shown below in Figure 16.

1. Select the Line Select Tool

2. Select these 3 Lines

3. Change Rotate to 90
Figure 16 Cross Section Alignments of EA Sections
At this point it is handy to note the importance of creating the two sketches and the importance of adding
frozen bodies instead of adding material.

1. Some Simple Concepts

Lets deal firstly with the two sketches. In order to create a frame consisting of two different materials you
need to create separate line bodies to assign the cross sections to. You will have noticed that when you
create line bodies from sketches it creates one line body per set of joined lines. Now if you were to draw the
entire sub frame in one sketch you would only get one line body and hence only one valid cross section can
be applied.
Secondly the concept of Frozen Bodies is important to understand and will help you use the design modeller
more efficiently. A body in DesignModeler can have 1 of 2 statuses;

Active

Frozen
The basic difference is that 2 Active bodies that are intersecting will be merged to form 1 body. Also some
operations require a body be frozen. For example the slice command requires a body be frozen. If you were
to slice an active body the 2 new parts would be intersecting & being active they would be merged together.
In Figure we have 2 frozen bodies that have been created by extruding 2 sketches as Add Frozen bodies
and not Add Material (Similar to the Line Bodies in this tutorial). The bodies are a transparent & we can see
from the tree that they are separate bodies. This is because frozen bodies can coexist regardless of any
intersecting geometry.

Figure 17 Frozen Bodies

Now to prove this point, if you were to unfreeze both of these bodies DesignModeler would recognise that
the two boxes are joined at one face and as a result would merge the two bodies and create one resulting
body as shown in Figure 18.

Figure 18 Unfrozen bodies resulting geometry

Simulation Environment
Now that you have finished creating your geometry for your simulation you can create a new simulation
using this geometry.

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Figure 19 New Simulation from Sub Frame Geometry

Before we apply any boundary conditions for this model we are going to add the mass of the motor to the
simulation. This will be our applied load. ANSYS can apply masses within a model by using the Point Mass
Tool. This allows you to add the weight of an object to certain geometry. In this case it will be added to the
small split section of the EA cross sections. To apply the Point mass Select the Geometry item in the outline
tree to activate the geometry toolbar, then click on Point Mass and select the two middle sections of the EA
cross sections as shown in Figure 20. Make sure that you click on edge selection tool. Click Apply to accept
these two sections, and then add a weight of 3000kg as the mass in the details tab, also shown in Figure 20.
Make sure you change the location of the Point Mass x=170,y=525,z=150.

Select the two middle sections of the

EA cross sections
Select Point Mass

Click Apply to
accept geometry
X = 170mm
Y = 525mm
Z = 150mm
Add 3000kg mass
Rigid Behaviour

Figure 20 Adding Point Mass to model

Next you need to set up the loads and boundary conditions or supports. Insert as shown in Figure 21.

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Boundary Conditions

Figure 21 Insert Static Structural Analysis

The supports you will use for this example are the simply supported type support. The simply supported
vertex will restrict displacements in all directions but will free to rotate in any direction. To set supports
change to the vertex select tool in the toolbar and select the four edge points of the sub frame. Right click at
one of the points and select Insert Simply Supported as shown in Figure 22.

Vertex Select Tool

Select the 4 points

Insert Simply
Supported

Figure 22 Adding a Simply Supported point

Now add in the Gravitational Force into the model. It is important to keep in your mind that the FEA
environment is set out in the idealised environment where zero friction and zero gravity is assumed, that is
that you will need to set gravity forces if you want the effect of self weight into the model. Add a Standard
Earth Gravity Force into the model by right clicking on the model and selecting Standard Earth Gravity as

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shown in Figure 23. Make sure that the gravitational Force is set to -9.8ms in the Z-Direction as shown
inset of Figure 23.

You could also insert it through

the inertial toolbar

Figure 23 Gravitational Forces

That concludes the Loads and Supports definition. The next step is to set up some results that you want to
retrieve from the database. As this is a beam model, we will be using specific beam result tools to view
results. You are now going to add in a beam tool from the Solutions Toolbar and then add some deformation
results and stress results. First insert a beam tool under the solution heading. Remember to select Solution
to activate the solution toolbar or you can right click on the Solution Item in the outline tree and select insert
beam tool beam tool as shown in Figure 24.

Figure 24 Insert Beam Tool into Solution Heading

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Once you have inserted the beam tool you can insert specific results relating to the beam analysis. To
achieve this right click on the Beam Tool in your outline tree and select Insert Beam Tool Deformation
Total as shown below in Figure 25.

Figure 25 Insert Total Deformation Beam Tool result

Now solve the model and check for errors in the message window as shown in Figure 26. You should get
some errors here about Solver Pivot Warnings and internal magnitude limit exceeded. This has been done
deliberately, as these errors are very common with incorrectly setup geometry. Most of the time it is due to
contact related issues, that is that the contact conditions are not correctly defined within the model.

Figure 26 Errors displayed after solving

DO NOT CLOSE YOUR MODEL DOWN

In this example the problem is that there are no contact conditions applied to define the behaviour of the line
bodies with respect to each other. Seeing as though this model would be constructed in real life by welding
the beams together to form one part, that is what we will simulate within the model. In the DesignModeler
workbench you can form a part from a selection of bodies. By doing this you will be assuming that the parts
are permanently joined together to form one complete part, such as welding.
The thing you must keep in mind is that if you are particularly concerned with the behaviour of the joint, then
you would have to define separate bodies and use contact conditions to retrieve specific results about the
joint.

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So lets fix the model and obtain our results. Firstly select the DesignModeler Tab to switch to the
DesignModeler workbench. To form a new part simply select the three bodies in the tree, right click and
select Form new part as shown in Figure 27. You will then see a Part body appear and underneath that Part
body are the three line bodies. These three parts will now behave as one complete part.

Figure 27 Form new part

Now go back to the main workbench page. Next to model you wil see a refresh sign, double click on model
and click yes on the pop up which is asking would you like to update, such as shown in Figure 28.

Figure 28 Update Geometry

Solution Item and selecting solve, as shown in Figure 29

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Figure 29 Solve Model

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Solution and Results

Now that the model has solved and you have fixed any errors or warnings that may have appeared you are
ready to view the results and interpret them.
Ask yourselves if these results show a satisfactory structure? Does it meet the requirements for the design; If
not what do you suggest you need to do to make it comply with the requirements or limits of the material?
larger beam members, lighter motor, stronger material? Or is it simply that you have set a constraint
incorrectly or incorrectly assumed the loading condition? Check the Hand Calculations if you are unsure of
the results.

1. Hand Calculations
To get a feel for the magnitude of the displacement it is useful to use linear beam theory. The deflection of
the model will be the same order of magnitude as a simply supported beam similar to that shown in Figure
30.

Figure 30 Simply Supported Beam with Point Load at Centre

Lets look at one Equal Angle Section to verify the deflections. The equation for max deflection for this
scenario is shown in Equation 1.

PL3
48EI

Equation 1 Deflection of Simply Supported Beam

So lets plug some values in and check our results. You can retrieve the I value for the EA section within
ANSYS through the details tab of that particular part as shown in Figure 31.
2

P= 1.5 Ton x 9810 mm/s (Load shared between 2 EA Sections)

L= 450 mm (Length of Equal Angle Sections)
E= 200,000 MPa
I= 55,615 mm4 (See Figure 31)
= 1.5 x 9810 x 4503 / (48 x 200,000 x 55,615)
= 2.51mm

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Figure 31 Section Properties Retrieval

View through the rest of the results and check that the model is working correctly. Again check the
deformation and see if this is how you would expect it to deform with the given loads. Add in a result to view
the deformation of the beams in the z direction only by using the direction deformation. Look in the ANSYS
Workbench Help file for a description of each of the different stress types available within the Beam Tool.

Figure 32 Direct Stress

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Figure 33 Minimum Combination Stress

Figure 34 Maximum Combined Stress

Figure 35 Total Deformation

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Figure 36 Deformation in the z direction only

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