MM413_LABORATORYWORK

2_DBEAMPROBLEM

Geometry: length l =90 mm, height h=5 mm, thickness b=10mm

Material: mild steel having Youngs modulus E =210 GPa and Poissons ratio =0.3.
Boundary conditions: The beam is clamped to a rigid wall at the left end and loaded
at x =80mm by a point load of P =100 N.

REVIEW OF THE SOLUTIONS OBTAINED BY THE ELEMENTARY

BEAM THEORY
Before proceeding to the FEM analysis of the beam, let us review the solutions to the
example problem obtained by the elementary beam theory. The maximum deflection
of the beam max can be calculated by the following equation:

max =

PL31 3L1

1 +
3EI
L 2

where l1 (=80mm) is the distance of the application point of the load from the rigid
wall and l2 =l l1.
The maximum tensile stress max(x) at x in the longitudinal direction appears at
the upper surface of the beam in a cross section at x from the wall;

 max

P(L1 x ) h

=
I
2
0

0 x L1

0 x

where l (=90mm) is the length, h (=5mm) the height, b (=10mm) the thickness,
E (=210 GPa) Youngs modulus and I the area moment of inertia of the cross section
of the beam. For a beam having a rectangular cross section of a height h by a thickness
b, the value of I can be calculated by the following equation:

I=

1
bh 3
12

Here we will analyze a rectangular slender beam of 5mm (0.005 m) in height by

90mm (0.09 m) in length by 10mm (0.01 m) in width as illustrated in Figure 1.
(1) Click [A] Preprocessor to open its sub-menus in ANSYSMainMenu window.
(2) Click [B] Modeling to open its sub-menus and select Create menu.
(3) Click [C] Areas to open its sub-menus and select Rectangle menu.
(4) Click to select [D] By 2 corners menu.
(1) Input two 0s into [1] WP X and [2] WP Y to determine the lower left corner
point of the beam on the Cartesian coordinates of the working plane.
(2) Input 0.09 and 0.005 (m) into [3] Width and [4] Height, respectively to
determine the shape of the beam model.
(3) Click [5] OK button to create the rectangular area, or beam on the ANSYS
Graphics window as shown in Figure 3.7.
ANSYSMainMenuPreprocessorMaterial PropsMaterialModels
Define Material Model Behavior
(1) Double-click [1] Structural, Linear, Elastic, and Isotropic buttons one after
another.
(2) Input the value of Youngs modulus, 2.1e11 (Pa), and that of Poissons ratio, 0.3,
into [2] EX and [3] PRXY boxes, and click [D]OK button of the Linear Isotropic
Properties forMaterial Number 1
EX=2.1E+11,PRXY=0.3
ANSYSMainMenuPreprocessorElement TypeAdd/ Edit/Delete
Then the Element Types window opens:
(1) Click [1] Add . . .button toopen the Library of Element Types window and select the element type to use.
(2) To select the 8-node isoparametric element, select [2] StructuralMass Solid.
(3) Select [3] Quad 8node 82 and click [4] OK button to choose the 8-node
isoparametric element.
(4) Click [5] Options . . . button in the Element Types window
to open the PLANE82 element type options window as depicted in screen.
Select [6] Plane strs w/thk item in the Element behavior box and
click [7] OK button to return to the Element Types window. Click [8] Close
button to close the window.

Input of the element thickness

ANSYSMainMenuPreprocessorReal Constants
Select Real Constants in the ANSYS Main Menu
(1) Click [1] Add/Edit/Delete button to open the Real Constants window
and click [2] Addbutton.
(2) Then the Element Type for Real Constants window opens. Click
[3] OK button.
(3) The Element Type for Real Constants window vanishes and the Real Constants
Set Number 1. for PLANE82
Input a plate thickness of 0.01 (m) in [4] Thickness box and click [5] OK button.

F Real Constants window after setting the element thickness.

(4) The Real Constants window returns with the display of the Defined Real
Constants Sets box changed to Set 1 Click [6]
Close button, which makes the operation of setting the plate thickness completed.
Sizing of the elements

ANSYSMainMenuPreprocessorMeshingSize
The Global Element Sizes window Opens.
(1) Input 0.002 (m) in [1] SIZE box and
click [2] OK button.
By the operations above the element size of 0.002, i.e., 0.002 m, or 2mm is specified
and the beam of 5mm by 90mm is divided into rectangular finite-elements with
one side 2mm and the other side 3mm in length.
Meshing
ANSYSMainMenuPreprocessorMeshingMeshAreasFree
(1) An upward arrow () appears in the ANSYS Graphics window. Move this arrow
to the beam area and click this area to mesh.
(2) The color of the area turns from light blue into pink. Click [1] OK button to see
the area meshed by 8-node rectangular isoparametric finite elements.
ANSYSMainMenuSolutionDefine
LoadsApplyStructural
DisplacementOn Nodes
The Apply U. ROT on Nodes window opens.
(1) Select [1] Box button and drag the mouse in the ANSYS Graphics window so as to enclose
the nodes on the left edge of the beam area with the yellow rectangular.
The Box button is selected to pick multiple nodes at once, whereas [2]
the Single button is chosen to pick a single
node.
(2) After confirming that only the nodes to impose constraints on are selected, i.e., the
nodes on the left edge of the beam area, click
[3] OK button.
Imposing constraint conditions on nodes
The Apply U. ROT on Nodes window opens after clicking OK
button in the procedure (2) in the subsection Selection of nodes above.
(1) In case of selecting [1] ALL DOF, the nodes are to be clamped, i.e., the displacements
are set to zero in the directions of the x- and y-axes. Similarly, the selection
of UX makes the displacement in the x-direction equal to zero and the selection
of UY makes the displacement in the y-direction equal to zero.
(2) Click [2] OK button and blue triangular symbols, which denote the clamping
conditions, appear in the ANSYS Graphics window.
The upright triangles indicate that each node to which the triangular symbol is
attached is fixed in the y-direction, whereas the tilted triangles indicate the fixed
condition in the x-direction.
Imposing boundary conditions on nodes
Before imposing load conditions, click Fit button in the Pan-Zoom-Rotate window
to get the whole view of the area and then zoom in the right end of the beam area for ease of the following
operations.
Selection of the nodes

(1) Pick the node at a point where x =0.08m and y =0.005m for this purpose, click
ANSYS UtilityMenuPlotCtrlsNumbering . . .
Plot Numbering Controls window.

(2) Click [A] NODE Off box to change it to On box.

(3) Click [B] OK button to display node numbers adjacent to corresponding nodes
in the ANSYS Graphics window.

(4) To delete the node numbers, click NODE On box again to change it to Off box.
(5) Execute the following commands:
ANSYS UtilityMenuListNodes . . .
and the Sort NODE Listing window opens. Select [1] Coordinates
only button and then click [2] OK button.
(6) TheNLISTCommandwindow opens. Find the number of the node having the coordinates x =0.08m and y
=0.005 m, namely node #108

(7) Execute the following commands:

ANSYSMainMenuSolutionDefine LoadsApplyStructuralForce/MomentOn Nodes
to open the Apply F/M on Nodes window

(8) Pick only the #108 node having the coordinates x =0.08m and y =0.005m with
the upward arrow.
(9) After confirming that only the #108 node is enclosed with the yellow frame, click OK button in the Apply
F/M on Nodes window.
Imposing load conditions on nodes
Click [1] OK in the Apply F/M on Nodes window to open another Apply F/M on
Nodes window.
(1) Choose [1] FY in the Lab Direction of force/mom box and input [2] 100
(N) in the VALUE box. A positive value for load indicates load in the upward or
rightward direction, whereas a negative value load in the downward or leftward
direction.
(2) Click [3] OK button to display the red downward arrow attached to the #108
node indicating the downward load applied to that point as shown in.

SOLUTION PROCEDURES
ANSYSMainMenuSolutionSolveCurrent LS
The Solve Current Load Step and /STATUS Command

GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE RESULTS