ANSYS Mechanical

Tips & Tricks

Harish Radhakrishnan

1 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Material Library

Elastic Plasticity

Linear /
Multilinear Isotropic / Kinematic
hardening
Hyperelastic
Drucker Prager
Cap Model
Viscoelastic
Mullins effect
Bergstrom-Boyce model

2 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Plasticity

UTS
Failure
Yield

Hardening Necking

    
2
   
2
   6     
2 2 2 2

  eq
xx yy yy zz zz xx xy yz zx

Equivalent stress calculates Splits the stress to two components –

the distortional energy in the hydrostatic stress + deviatoric stress
material

No role!!! Causes plastic

yielding
3 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011
 Hardening

Isotropic hardening

Kinematic hardening

4 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Plasticity….Multilinear hardening

F
Required for  
true

modeling Acurrent

UTS Available from F

Failure S
experiments A
Yield 0

Hardening Necking
  S 1  e
true

  ln 1  e

NOTE: Using Engineering stress

instead of true stress will cause
instabilities!!

5 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Modeling Contact in ANSYS
Penetration occurs when contact Contact definition requires three
compatibility is not enforced. components
1. Normal behavior &Tangential
(sliding) behavior
2. Contact detection behavior
3. Formulation

6 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Penalty Method F K x
normal contact penetration

• As K   , penetration goes
contact

to zero
Integration Point
Detection
• Large values of K lead tocontact

contact chattering – change the

Normal stiffness factor

• For highly Nonlinear materials

use update stiffness

• Consider Asymmetric contact

for dissimilar materials - ratio of
Young’s modulus is large
(>100)

7 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Other Contact formulations
• In the Lagrange Method, we seek to solve for the constraint –
penetration is zero.
• Lagrange multipliers are used to enforce the constraint – result in extra
degrees of freedom (DOF)
F
• Zero penetration
• Can be computationally
expensive

• Augmented Lagrange Method uses the best of both worlds

• Less sensitive to the value of contact stiffness F  K x  pressure
normal contact pentration

• Multipoint Constraints (MPC) is for bonded contacts – ties the nodes

between the two surfaces

8 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 General Tips on Modeling Contact
• A plateau in the force convergence plot could be attributed to large
contact stiffness
• MPC method is preferred over the Penalty method for bonded
contacts
• Plot the Newton-Raphson residuals to identify problem contact regions
• For contact between dissimilar materials, consider using
– Asymmetric contact
– Modeling the stiff body as rigid

9 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Contact Tool

• Keep track of contacts with large penetration -

Consider refining mesh

• If penetration is intended consider using Add

Offset with / without ramped effects
10 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011
 For Large models…

209 parts with 450 symmetric

contact pairs

11 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Element Library in ANSYS

Continuum Solid Shells Structural

Elements Elements
2d elements Beam, Link

3d elements Shell

• Choices Pipe, elbow

– Elements with / without mid-side nodes
– Reduced / Full integration
• When do you use SOLID SHELL / SHELL elements?

12 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Lagrange and Serendipity elements

Serendipity elements
u  a  bx  cy u  a  bx  cy  dxy • Computationally more expensive
Lagrange Elements
• Mesh convergence is faster
• Computationally cheap
• Ideal for curved bodies
• Mesh convergence is slow

• Avoid using CST elements –

overly stiff

u  a  bx  cy  u  a  bx  cy  dxy 
dxy  ex  fy
2 2

ex  fy  gx y  hxy
2 2 2 2

13 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 4 points – full
Full vs Reduced Integration integration
4 3
4 3
Element Stiffness matrix
Mapped
K   B  E  BdV
vol
T

2 1 2
Integration is carried out 1 1 point – Reduced
numerically using Gauss- integration
Legendre quadrature Element Full Reduced
4 noded rectangle 2x2 1
• Value of integral is calculated 8 noded rectangle 3x3 2x2
at specific Gauss points and 8 noded brick 2x2x2 1
summed
20 noded brick 14 2x2x2
• Number of Gauss points depend
on order of equation • Accuracy in reduced integration is seldom
compromised
• Mesh convergence is rapid
14 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011 • Susceptible to hour-glassing
 Mesh Convergence
• In FEM we seek to satisfy
– Material Constitutive law Satisfied at all points

– Compatibility
Identically satisfied at nodes
– Equilibrium
Approximate at the element edges

120000

Satisfaction of equilibrium conditions can be

Max Equivalent Stress (psi)

118000

verified by the ability to capture stress 116000

gradients – the variation of the stress in 114000

adjacent elements should be small – time 112000

consuming!!! 110000
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
Element Size (mm)

15 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Use Post Processing Tools…

Averaged
Von Mises
Stress

Nodal
difference

16 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Solid Elements Limitations
• Resist the temptation to use solid element for geometries with large
aspect ratios undergoing bending
• Solid elements perform poorly when bending is present

• Serendipity elements give good results but a good mesh requires a

very fine mesh
• Use SOLID SHELL or SHELL elements
• Solid Shells can use the existing CAD geometry (no mid surfaces)
• Can connect with other SOLID elements with no special treatment

17 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Nonlinearities
• In static problems Force
F F 0 external internal
F external

2
F internal

• Nonlinearities arise from

– Materials
1
F internal

– Contact
– Geometric
•
1 2
What is Large Deflection, and u u u 3

when do you need it? displacement

F displacements
y u, v

Deformation du/dx du/dy Finite strain

gradients – no longer • Use large deflection when in
dv/dx dv/dy doubt
small
18 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011
• Nonlinear materials
 Instabilites
Force
F external

2
F
• Newton’s Method
internal

requires a stable system F 1

internal

– Positive definite
Stiffness matrix
1 2
u u u 3

• For unstable problems displacement

use Riks method (or)
Stabilization

19 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Numerical Damping

Static solution

F
external
F
internal
F damp
0
dx
F damp
 damp
dt

Force
Stable Unstable

• Damping force is numerical – not

physical Damped
energy
• Damping is intended for system
instabilities – not for rigid body
motions displacement

20 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Some guidelines
• Perform initial runs without damping. Rule out other causes for non-
convergence
– coarse meshes
– contact chattering
– material instability
• Stabilization applies damping to the entire
model – Contact instabilities require damping
applied to a specific region – Possible in R14

• Damping cannot resolve rigid body motion

issues. Stiffness matrix is ill-conditioned and
cannot be inverted

• Avoid using the constant option in multi-step

analysis – causes divergence if stabilization
is removed in subsequent steps

21 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Solution Check
• Critically analyze results when stabilization is used
• Compare the ratio of stabilization energy to the strain energy. There is
no magic number – The smallest value of damping coefficient to obtain a
converged solution is desired.

• Use the Energy dissipation ratio or the stabilization force limit to keep track of the
magnitude of stabilization needed.

22 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Command Snippets

Enter and view your

APDL code here

IMPORTANT:
Understand where your
APDL snippet is
inserted!!!

To utilize the full breadth and scope of ANSYS

use APDL command Snippets

23 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 Inserted Command Snippet Location

Assign materials,
sections, element type

Contact algorithm,
/PREP7 details

/SOLU
Solution parameters

/POST Post processing

24 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 •Can associate an external text file,
macro with snippet *.txt, *.mac.

•Import places the text from external

file – click refresh

•Export creates a file from the text you

enter

•File name and status are shown in

detail

25 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 IMPORTANT
• Snippets work on FE model – KP, Lines, Areas, Volumes don’t exist in
Mechanical
• You can move between modules – make sure you know where you
are!!!
• Not interactive – must batch solve before status of APDL snippet is
realized

• Plotting and listing is to files only

• If you create items (nodes,

elements etc), you cannot post
process in WB

• Arguments can be WB parameters

26 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011

 User Defined Results

Can be any valid

mathematical
expression

Highlight solution
• Can be calculated on the in tree outline
fly… (unlike APDL snippets) and use to
worksheet to
• Can access element tables view the
• Can export easily to excel, variables

txt files..]
27 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011
 THANK YOU

28 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. September 8, 2011