Exercise 1

Given structure: 2D steel truss beam

Geometry and loads: according to the sketch
Supports:

according to the sketch

Cross section area:

20 cm2

Material properties: E = 2.1106 daN/cm2

= 0.3
Force value:

F = 1000 daN

Element type:

LINK1

Requirements:
- Deformed shape
- List of nodal displacements
- List of reaction forces
- Axial stress diagrams along the trusses

Remark: truss elements withstand only axial force (stress); no shear or bending effects are present.
Preprocessing text file
/PREP7
!
ET,1,LINK1
R,1,20
MP,EX,1,2.1E6
MP,NUXY,1,0.3
!
N,1,0,0
N,5,400,0

FILL,1,5
N,6,100,100
N,7,200,100
N,8,300,100
!
E,1,2
EGEN,4,1,1
E,6,7
E,7,8
E,1,6
E,2,6
E,3,6
E,3,7
E,3,8
E,4,8
E,5,8
!
D,1,ALL,0
D,2,UY,0
!
F,6,FY,-1000
F,7,FY,-1000
F,8,FY,-1000
!
SAVE
FINISH
New Postprocessing commands
Assigning an element table for storing data (results) out of the results database file (file.rst):
ETAB, lab, item, comp
lab
item
comp

- user defined name for the desired result

- compulsory label for the item saved in the element table
- compulsory location of the desired result in the element table

For the compulsory labels item and comp, check the output data chapter for each element
type used in the mesh. A table with available ETAB asignements is always there. For the peculiar
case of element LINK1, the result axial stress is foiund at item = LS and comp = 1.
Ploting the diagram of the previously defind element table along the line-type element (truss or
beam):
PLLS,labi, labj
Both i and j labels shall be used (for LINK1, the axial stress is constant along the element, thus the
same label will be used twice).

Printing the previously defined element table components:

PRET,labi, labj, labk, ...

Commands sequence for postprocessing (to be typed in the GUI* command line):
/POST1
PLDI,2
PRNS,U,COMP
PRRS,F
ETAB,AXS,LS,1
PLLS,AXS,AXS
PRET,AXS

* Graphical User Interface