MotionView

Motion
View/MotionSolve
/MotionSolve tutorial
tutorial:
Spring mass damping
Spring-mass
By Prakash Pagadala
In this tutorial we will model a spring and mass system with and without damping and study the
damping effect using Altair HyperWorks MotionView and MotionSolve as shown below:

(image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Damped_spring.gif)

Modelling in MotionView:
Create points:
Before creating points make sure you have set the units and given gravity. Next, create two points
spring_point and mass_point with co-ordinates
ordinates (0, 0, 0) and (0, 0,-400)
400) respectively.
Create bodies:
For this
is system we need only one body. Using body panel create a body (with name say mass) and
assign a mass of 100Kgs to the body. Place the body at mass_point.

Create Graphics:
As the
he graphics are not really important in this case, create a box with any dimension (in this
example the box dimensions are 40x40x40) using Graphics panel and attach the box to the body
which we have create in the before step.

Create SpringDamper
SpringDamper:
Lets go ahead and create a spring between the mass and ground body (assuming the mass is
attached to ground via spring).
Like points, bodies, etc.. you can add SpringDamper in two ways:
1) Right click in on Model in Project browser Add Froce Entity SpringDamper
2) Right
ght click on SpringDamper icon available from Force Entity toolbar

Connect the springDamper to Ground body and mass within the SpringDamper panel as shown
below:

When you are in the same panel, go to properties to provide the stiffness and damping coefficient
for the spring:

Use the above the values for the spring and Damper. First, we will run the analysis without any
damping effect and see how the displacement varies with time.
Create Constraint:
We have to constraint the mass to move only
only in Z direction. For this use Translation joint and allow
the mass to move only in the Z direction.

Create a translational joint using joints option.

Create output:
Create an output request for displacement

Run analysis:
Go to run panel and hit run to perform the analysis. The time period used for this analysis is 15
seconds. Use simulation parameters to changes time interval and time period within the Run panel.
Before running the analysis it is always advisable to save the model.

Post-processing:
processing:
Open HyperView and load the <filename>.h3d from the working directory to check the animation.
Open HyperGraph and load the <filename>.plt file in HyperGraph to plot the results.
For X-type
type leave it to time and for Y-type
Y type select Displacement (the output request
request which was created
in MotionView) and Y-request
Y request select mass in Z direction and hit apply to plot the results:

You can see the amplitude is constant throughout the time period.
Now, go back to MotionView and change the damping coefficient in SpringD
SpringDamper
amper panel to
0.05 N-sec/mm
sec/mm and run the analysis again. After the run is complete plot the results in HyperGraph:

Plot with C= 0.1 N-sec/mm

N sec/mm

From the above graphs you can see how damping influences the system behaviour. As damping
increases, the amplitude of the system decreases.