UsingtheNXNastran Cbush SpringElement 1 /9

Springs versus CBUSH

SpringsversusCBUSH
Thereisnoversus,theonlyspringelementthatIuseistheCBUSH.Why?Takea
lookatthenotebelowwrittenbyawellrespectedNastran architect(TedRose).For
example,ifyouusethestandardNXNastran
l if h d d NX N springelementbetweennoncoincident
i l b i id
nodes,youhavethepotentialtosuckforceoutofyourmodel;thatis,yourOLOAD
wontmatchyourSPCFORCEintheF06fileandyourmodelcouldbeoutofwhack.
ImadethismistakeonceandwasschooledbysenioranalystatNavistarwhenshe
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noticedthatmymodelhadsomestrangestresses.Inshort,themodelwasgarbage.
ti d th t d lh d t t I h t th d l b
ThecorrectionwastosimplyswapouttheCELASforCBUSHelements.

TheCBUSHelementdoes accountforanyoffsetbetweenGRIDpoints,soifyouusethis,itisacceptabletohave
offsetGRIDpoints.IfyouuseCELASi elements(regularNXNastran springs),youare"addingtermsdirectlyinto
th tiff t i " d th i ff t b t th GRID i t Th t i th f th d ti
thestiffnessmatrix"andthereisnooffsetbetweentheGRIDpoints.Thatisthereasonfortherecommendation
intheCommonQ&AthattheGRIDpointsbecoincident.Mostpreprocessorsallowspringelementsbetween
noncoincident points.Inthiscase,ifthespringdoesnotactalongthelineconnectingthepoints,youhavea
"springtoground".Thespringwillnotallowrigidbodyrotation.
 UsingtheNXNastran Cbush SpringElement 2 /9

CBUSH Usage:
CBUSHUsage:
Femap hasseveralgoodlittlesectionsonhowtocreatetheCBUSHelement
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 UsingtheNXNastran Cbush SpringElement 3 /9

CBUSH Usage:
CBUSHUsage:
Femap hasseveralgoodlittlesectionsonhowtocreatetheCBUSHelement
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 UsingtheNXNastran Cbush SpringElement 4 /9

CBUSH Usage:
CBUSHUsage:
TheNXNastran ElementLibrarySection6.2givesyouthemathematicalbackground
thatyouwillneed:
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 UsingtheNXNastran Cbush SpringElement 5 /9

CBUSH Example with Solid Elements:

CBUSHExamplewithSolidElements:

Ahexedsphereissuspendedbyfour
CBUSH elements The constraints
CBUSHelements.Theconstraints
createtheminimalsetforstability.

TheCBUSHshouldbetreatedlikea
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delicatebeamelement.Eachnode
has6DOF.Whenattachedtoasolid
elementwith3DOF,therotational
DOF need to be constrained or the
DOFneedtobeconstrainedorthe
modelwillbeunstable.

AtthefreeendoftheCBUSHelement,
therotationalDOFarefixed(456)and
theverticalDOF(2).
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CBUSH Example with Solid Elements:

CBUSHExamplewithSolidElements:

TheCBUSHelementisselectedas
a Spring/Damper
aSpring/Damper.

Then,andthisisthestepthat
mostpeoplemiss,isthatone
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needstochangetheFormulation.

WhenyoupresstheFormulation
button you have another screen
button,youhaveanotherscreen
whereyoucanchangethe
Nastran typeto1.CBUSH
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CBUSH Example with Solid Elements:

CBUSHExamplewithSolidElements:

CBUSHrequiresanorientationvector
for creation (like a beam element)
forcreation(likeabeamelement).
However,thespringconstantscanbe
setupintheCBUSHcoordinatesystem
orthatoftheOrientationCSys.For
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thisexample,thelatterapproachis
used.

Forstability,smallvaluesareusedto
For stability small values are used to
keeptherotationalDOFstable.Thisis
necessarywhenthe6DOFCBUSHis
attachedtoa3DOFelement.
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CBUSH Example with Solid Elements:

CBUSHExamplewithSolidElements:

ConstrainingtheCBUSHisthebiggest
challenge to its use To get the
challengetoitsuse.Togetthe
constraintsrightyoumustusethe
constraintsetandtheCBUSHcard
together.
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WhentheCBUSHisattachedtosolid
elements,DOF123areautomatically
constrainedbutnotDOF456.
To create a full constraint set for the
Tocreateafullconstraintsetforthe
CBUSH,weneedtoconstrainall6
DOFadequately.Thetranslational
(123)arecoveredbythesolidelement
butrotational(456)areproblematic.
Onesolutionistofixoneend(456)
andthenusesmallrotationalvaluesin
the CBUSH formulation.
theCBUSHformulation.
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CBUSH Example with Plate Elements:

CBUSHExamplewithPlateElements:

Thedifferencewithattachedto6DOF
elements is that the CBUSH has
elementsisthattheCBUSHhas
somethingtoanchortoforall6DOF
(123456).Todemonstratethis,the
modelwillrunwithonlythevertical
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DOFconstrained.

Themodelsusedinthisexampleare
available with this note at the website
availablewiththisnoteatthewebsite.