A Constraint Equation Primer:

How to Tie Degrees of Freedom Together

Eric Miller
Co-Owner
Principal, Simulation and
Business Technologies

04/26/2012
PADT, Inc.

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 Agenda
• Note: This presentation is being
recorded

• Introductions
• Theory and Basic Info
• The CP and CE Commands
• Internal CE’s (MPC)
• CE’s in Workbench

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Introductions

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 Upcoming Webinars
• Upcoming Webinars
– Feb 9, 2012 - 12:00 MST
Working Directly with Nodes and Elements in ANSYS Mechanical
– Feb 23, 2012 - 12:00 MST
Assembly Meshing in ANSYS R14 CANCELED
– March 8, 2012 - 12:00 MST
Intro to Workbench Framework Scripting - Controlling projects, materials, and solution execution with python
– March 22, 2012 - 12:00 MST
Mastering the Remote Solver Manager (RSM) at R14
– April 12, 2012 – 12:00 MST
A POST26 Primer: Post Processing over Multiple Time/Load Steps in Mechanical APDL
– April 27, 2012 – 12:00 MST
A Constraint Equation Primer: How to Tie Degrees of Freedom Together
– May 10, 2012 – 12:00 MST
Optimization with ANSYS DesignXplorer at R14
– May 24, 2012 – 12:00 MST
Modeling Moisture Diffusion in ANSYS
– Summer Break: June & July (maybe August)
• Primers are new:
– Oriented towards newer users or Workbench users who may not have experience with
some of the fundamentals in the ANSYS Mechanical APDL solver
• See upcoming and past webinars at:
– padtincevents.webex.com
• Click on ANSYS Webinar Series

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 About PADT
• PADT is an Engineering Services
Company
– Mechanical Engineering
– 18 Years of Growth and Happy customers
– 70’ish Employees
• 3 Business Areas
– CAE Sales & Services
• Consulting, Training, Sales, Support
– Product Development
– Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing
• Learn More: www.PADTINC.com

We Make Innovation Work

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 Cube HVPC Systems
• Balance between speed and cost
– Mini-Cluster
96 Cores / 512 GB RAM / 6 TB Disk
Mobile Rack / UPS / Monitor / Keyboard
$34,900
– Compute Server
32 Cores / 256 GB RAM / 3 TB Disk
$14,250
– Simulation Workstation (Intel)
12 Cores / 96 GB RAM / 3 TB Disk
$11,750
– Simulation Workstation (AMD)
12 Cores / 64 GB RAM / 3 TB Disk
$6,300
• www.CUBE-HVPC.com

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 PeDAL – The APDL Editor
• Side-by-side editor and help viewer layout.
• Instant help on any documented APDL command by pressing F1.
• Full syntax highlighting for ANSYS v12 Mechanical APDL.
• Auto-complete drop downs for APDL Commands.
• APDL Command argument hints while typing commands.
• Search ANSYS help phrases and keywords.
• Multiple tabs for the editor and html viewer.
• Full capability web browser built in allows for rich web experience and web
searches.

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 Connect with PADT
Facebook: Email Subscriptions:
facebook.com/padtinc www.padtinc.com/epubs

Twitter: Web:
#padtinc www.PADTINC.com

LinkedIn: ANSYS User Blog:

Search on PADT, Inc. padtinc.com/focus

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Theory and Basic
Info

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 What is a Constraint Equation
• Remember you are solving a series of linear equations:
• Structural: (F) = [K](u)
– Every node has a force (F) in each direction and a deflection (u).
– You are solving for (F) and (u)
– The deflections are called the Degrees of Freedom or DOF
• Generalized to solve many types of physics, the meaning of
(F), [K] and (u) change. But (u) is still a DOF
• Constraint equations are equations that tie the value of one
DOF to the value of one or more DOF’s
• Added into set of linear equations before solve

• We will call them CE’s most of the time

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 There are Really 3 Types
• Constraint Equations (CE)
– Equations fed to the solver that describe relations between DOF’s
– (what we will mostly talk about)
• Couples (CP)
– All DOF’s are equal
• Multipoint Constraint (MPC)
– Actually internal MPC
– No equations are written by the users, created at runtime in the matrix

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 Defined In Terms of a Sum
𝑁
• Constant = 𝐼=1(𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐼 ∗𝑈 𝐼 )
– N = number of terms in the equation
– U(I) = the DOF solution for term I

• You write equations that relate one or more DOF in linear

way:
– After a solve, the sum of the user defined coefficients times their
deflection equals some constant

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 Example: Beam to Plane Stress Elements
• (from MAPDL help)
• If you have a beam attached to a block, the ROTZ DOF is
free, and it can spin like a hinge
• So, we know for small deflections and a rigid connection,
that ROTZ in radians is equal to the distance from the
connection to the corner nodes times the rotation in radians.
– So if it was one node, it would be a multiplier of 5, but because there
are two sharing the deflection, one up and one down, it is 10 and the
coefficients on the UY direction are 1 and -1.
– 𝑅𝑂𝑇𝑍2 = 𝑈𝑌3−𝑈𝑌1 10
– 0 = UY3 – UY1 – 10*ROTZ2

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 Example: Cyclic Symmetry
• Assumption when a disk shape is made up of a repeated
chunk of geometry.
• The DOF solution at the boundary of the repeatable chunk
are identical
• Enforced with CE’s
– In a cylindrical coordinate system
– Uaxial129 = -1*Uaxial363
Uhoop129 = -1*Uhoop363
Uradial129 = -1*Uradial363
– 0.0 = Uaxial129 + Uaxial363
0.0 = Uhoop129 + Uhoop363
0.0 = Uradial129 + Uradial363

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 All Sorts of Uses
• There are many situations where you want to relate DOF’s:
– Coupling: Setting one DOF equal to Another
– Cyclic Symmetry: forcing cyclic (and anti-cyclic) behavior at the
repeatable boundary
– Contact: contacts are CE’s that turn on and off based on proximity
– Joints: Constrain some DOF’s and leave other free
• Pin type stuff that NASTRAN users do all the time
– Gears and linkages: relate rotational DOF’s or rotation to displacment
– Connect mesh regions with more DOF’s to regions with less
– Connect Dissimilar Meshes
– Represent behavior of rigid elements

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 DOF Elimination
• One of the DOF’s in the equation needs to be “set free” and
solved for: eliminated from the equation
• It can not have any DOF value imposed on it with a
displacement, master DOF, or couples.

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 Coordinate Systems
• The DOF’s on a node are defined in that nodes coordinate
system
– Each node in an ANSYS model has a unique rotation defined relative
to the global coordinate system
• Make sure that when you define a CP or CE that the nodes
are all rotated in the same Cartesian, radial, or spherical
coordinate system
– Very important if you are using Mechanical, you may not know what
coordinate system nodes are in.
• Critical for cyclic symmetry

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 Creation
• MAPDL
– Several commands to define by hand – you enter the equation
– More commands to automatically generate between specified nodes
– Automatically created as part of contacts
• Mechanical
– Created automatically with contacts
– Created automatically with remote points
– Created automatically as part of repeatable boundary
– Defined by hand between points

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 Viewing
• Using the /PBC,ce,1
command turn on CE’s
• Any plots show the
CE’s
• Little arrows show DOF
at each node
– Way to check the
nodal rotation
• Lines connect all the
DOF’s in a CE
• Unselected nodes are
not shown
• If Mechanical is making
CE’s, put a CE plot into
your snippets to check
them.

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The CP and CE
Commands

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 Some Background
• Most CE related commands start with CE
• Each CE in a model has a unique number
– You define the number when you create the CE
– You refer to the CE number when you want to look at it, modify it,
delete it, add to it
• All Holds true for CP’s as well

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 Couples
• A constraint equation, but not treated as one
• DOF1 = DOF2
• Can be a CE: 0 = DOF1 – DOF2
• But more efficient to substitute DOF2 every place DOF1 was used
• Command:
– CP, NSET, Lab, NODE1, NODE2, NODE3, NODE4, NODE5, NODE6, NODE7,
NODE8, NODE9, NODE10, NODE11, NODE12, NODE13, NODE14, NODE15,
NODE16, NODE17
– Every node in the list will have the same value for whatever DOF you specify in Lab
– Repeat with same NSET to add even more nodes
– Supports picking (NODE1= p) and components
– Use –NODEx to remove a node from the set
• Valid Lab:
– Structural labels: UX, UY, or UZ (displacements); ROTX, ROTY, or ROTZ (rotations) (in radians); HDSP (hydrostatic
pressure).
– Thermal labels: TEMP, TBOT, TE2, TE3, . . ., TTOP (temperature).
– Fluid labels: PRES (pressure); VX, VY, or VZ (velocities).
– Electric labels: VOLT (voltage); EMF (electromotive force drop); CURR (current).
– Magnetic labels: MAG (scalar magnetic potential); AX, AY, or AZ (vector magnetic potentials); CURR (current).
– Diffusion label: CONC (concentration).
– Explicit analysis labels: UX, UY, or UZ (displacements).

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 Couple Related Commands
• CPDELE, NSET1, NSET2, NINC, Nsel
– Delete a CP set
– If Nsel = ALL, only delete if all nodes are selected
• CPINTF, Lab, TOLER
– Puts all the nodes below a certain distance (Toler) from each other in a CP set with
DOF = LAB
– Best used for coincident, or very close to coincident nodes
• CPLGEN, NSETF, Lab1, Lab2, Lab3, Lab4, Lab5
– Makes copies of an existing couple set (NSETF) using 1 or more new DOF labels
• CPLIST, NSET1, NSET2, NINC, Nsel
– Lists out coupled sets
– Use this in a Mechanical APDL snippet to set what CP’s were made by workbench
• CPNGEN, NSET, Lab, NODE1, NODE2, NINC
– Like CP but uses node range to specify nodes
• CPSGEN, ITIME, INC, NSET1, NSET2, NINC
– Makes ITIME copies of existing CP sets, incrementing the nodes by INC

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 Couple Issues
• Only the first DOF value in the set is used in the matrix, all
others are replaced by it
– Called the prime DOF
– Don’t put displacements (D) on DOF’s that are coupled out
• CP’s on Non coincident nodes, or nodes who do not lie on
the DOF that is coupled, will induce moments.
• A DOF should never appear in more than one CP
• The set number in the CP command can be:
– n: the set number
– HIGH: use the highest number currently defined
– NEXT: use the highest number + 1 (new)
– NOTE: The default is not NEXT!, it is HIGH.

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 Making CE’s: The CE Command
• CE, NEQN, CONST, NODE1, Lab1, C1, NODE2, Lab2, C2,
NODE3, Lab3, C3
– NEQN can be: n, HIGH, or NEXT (HIGH is default!)
– CONST = the constant for the equation
– NODEn,Labn,C1 = the node, the DOF, and the multiplier.
• So, our early example:
– 𝑅𝑂𝑇𝑍2 = 𝑈𝑌3−𝑈𝑌1 10 −−→ 0 = UY3 – UY1 – 10*ROTZ2
– CE, next, 0, 3,uy,1, 1,uy,-1, 2,rotz,10

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 Making CE’s: The CE Command
• Most hand CE’s are pretty simple
– Often an anti-symmetry
– Connecting a remote mass point to your model
– Doing your own cyclicsymmetry constraints
– Connecting rotation DOF’s to axial based on distances
– Defining a joint or “gear”
• Use APDL macro to generate
• Or use Excel for fancy ones (make sure your math is right)
• These days, they are almost always made for you

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 Making Cyclic Symmetry Boundaries
• Back in “the day” you had to make your own CE’s for this…
– Kids today have it too easy
• CECYC, Lowname, Highname, Nsector, HIndex, Tolerance, Kmove,
Kpairs
– Lowname, Highname are the component names of each side of your “wedge”
– Nsector is the number of times the sector gets repeated
– Hindex is the harmonic index… no time to explain
– Tolerance specifies how close in the axial/radial/tangential+sector angle
nodes need to be to be coupled
– Kmove = 1 says you can move the high nodes to match the low (don’t use!)
– Kpairs = 1 prints out a list of pairs when it executes
• It rotates the nodes into CSYS = 1 !!!!!!!!!!
– This may not be the same axis as your model, check
– Do your won CE’s if that is true

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 Join Interfaces with CEINTF
• Use this to tie two meshes together at an interface
• Uses weighted averages of distance to smear the constraint equations
• Connects the nodes on the first surface to all the nodes on the surface
elements on the second surface
• CEINTF, TOLER, DOF1, DOF2, DOF3, DOF4, DOF5, DOF6, MoveTol
– Toler: fraction of element size, find all nodes within that fraction from element
– DOF1 – DOF6: DOF’s to write CE’s for
– MoveTo1: if not 0, move the nodes onto the surface of the elements if they
don’t sit exactly on. Value is fraction of element size
• Hints
– Use components to set up
– Nodes should be smaller and denser of the two sides
– Don’t use to attach 6DOF elements to 3DOF elements
– Use CPEINTF if the nodes line up

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 CEINTF Example: Joining Two Blocks
finish
/clear
/prep7
blc4,-1,-1,2,2,2
vatt,2
blc4,-3,-2,6,4,-2
et,1,185

esize,.9
vmesh,all
vsel,s,,,1
nslv,s,1
nsel,r,loc,z,0

vsel,s,,,2
nslv,s,1
nsel,r,loc,z,0
esln,s

allsel
/pnum,mat,1
/number,1
/view,1,1,1,1
/vup,1,z
/triad,lbot,1
eplot

ceintf,5,ux,uy,uz

nsle,a
/pbc,ce,1
eplot

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 Looking at one CE in our CEITNF
CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 1 HAS 5 TERMS.
CONSTANT= 0.000000
NODE= 2 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT= -1.000000
NODE= 141 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT= 0.5000000
NODE= 145 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT= 0.2500000
NODE= 146 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT= 0.8333333E-01
NODE= 142 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT= 0.1666667

• Connects node 2 to
all the corner nodes
of the element it sits
on.
• Coefficients are
distance to node 2
divided by sum of all
the distances.

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 Create Rigid Regions CERIG
• Make a bunch of nodes all have the same DOF response for
connecting 6DOF nodes
• CERIG, MASTE, SLAVE, Ldof, Ldof2, Ldof3, Ldof4, Ldof5
– MASTE is the node that drives the motion. All nodes will move like
MASTE
– SLAVE is the node(s) that will be linked to MASTE.
• Use ALL to slave all selected nodes
– LDOF-LDOF5 are the degrees of freedom to fix
• ALL, UXYZ, RXYZ, UX,UY,UZ,ROTX,ROTY,ROTZ
• Assumes that the master node is a 6DOF node
– Otherwise, just use a CP
• No CE number, it assigns the next number
• Mostly replaced by contact elements

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 CERIG Example
nsel,s,,,1000
cmsel,a,nb1
cerig,1000,all,uz

CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 1 HAS 4 TERMS. CONSTANT=

0.000000
NODE= 113 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
NODE= 1000 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT= -1.000000
NODE= 1000 DIR= ROTX COEFFICIENT= 2.000000
NODE= 1000 DIR= ROTY COEFFICIENT= -3.000000

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 NASTRAN Connections: RBE3
• Added for NASTRAN users who wanted their RBE3
• The motion of the master is the average of the motion of the
slaves
• RBE3, Master, DOF, Slaves, Wtfact
– Master is your 6 DOF node
– DOF is what DOF’s you want to connect (usually all)
– Slaves is ALL or an array with node numbers (?!?!)
– Wtfact is a weighting factor you can apply to any slave node to
“lesson” the effect of that node.
• Does average (1/num_nodes) for translational
• Does distance average for rotational (distn/total_dist)
• Not rigid. Distributes forces and moments

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 RBE3 Example
• Connect a beam to 4 nodes LIST ALL SETS FOR CONSTRAINT EQUATIONS WITH ANY
NODES SELECTED

CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 1 HAS 5 TERMS.

CONSTANT= 0.000000
NODE= 1000 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
NODE= 146 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 147 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
nsel,s,,,1000 NODE=
NODE=
150 DIR=
151 DIR=
UX
UX
COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000

cmsel,a,nn1 CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 2 HAS 5 TERMS.

CONSTANT= 0.000000
rbe3,1000,all,all NODE=
NODE=
1000 DIR=
146 DIR=
UY
UY
COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 147 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 150 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 151 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000

CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 3 HAS 5 TERMS.

CONSTANT= 0.000000
NODE= 1000 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
NODE= 146 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 147 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 150 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 151 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000

CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 4 HAS 5 TERMS.

CONSTANT= 0.000000
NODE= 1000 DIR= ROTX COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
NODE= 146 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT= 0.6250000
NODE= 147 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.6250000
NODE= 150 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT= 0.6250000
NODE= 151 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.6250000

CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 5 HAS 5 TERMS.

CONSTANT= 0.000000
NODE= 1000 DIR= ROTY COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
NODE= 146 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.5833333
NODE= 147 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.5833333
NODE= 150 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT= 0.5833333
NODE= 151 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT= 0.5833333

CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 6 HAS 9 TERMS.

CONSTANT= 0.000000
NODE= 1000 DIR= ROTZ COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
NODE= 146 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT=-0.2909739
NODE= 146 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT= 0.3117577
NODE= 147 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT= 0.2909739
NODE= 147 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT= 0.3117577
NODE= 150 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT=-0.2909739
NODE= 150 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT=-0.3117577
NODE= 151 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT= 0.2909739
NODE= 151 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT=-0.3117577
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MAXIMUM CONSTRAINT EQUATION NUMBER= 6 34
 CE Utility Commands
• CELIST, NEQN1, NEQN2, NINC, Option
– Lists the CE’s
– Option is:
• ANY – list if any of the nodes in the CE are selected
• ALL – list of all of the nodes in the CE are selected
• INTE – List internal CE’s created as MPC’s (solu only)
• CONV – conert internal to external (solu only)
• CEDELE, NEQN1, NEQN2, NINC, Nsel
– Deletes CE’s
– Nsel is ANY or ALL
• CESGEN, ITIME, INC, NSET1, NSET2, NINC
– Generates CE’s from a previous set
– Increments node numbers
– (used before automatic meshing…)

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Internal CE’s:
MPC’s

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 Bonded Contact
• Use with CONTA171/172/173/174/175/176/177
• Advantages
– No elimination of DOF’s
– Works with large deflection
– Automatically generates equations at solve
– Does force distribution based on shape functions, more accurate
– Uses less memory than CE’s
• Does Rigid or Force Distributed

• Very detailed info in

– Mechanical APDL // Contact Technology Guide // 9. Multipoint
Constraints and Assemblies

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 Just Like any Contact Definition
• First, you tell it your want MPC: KEYOPT(2) = 2
• Usually you also want bonded always: KEYOPT(12) = 5
– But works with no separation (4) or bonded, initial contact (6)
– So much more flexible then CE’s
• Use KEYOPT(4) to control what DOF’s to use
– 0 is typical, all that make sense
– 1 is no rotational
– 2 is all 6 DOF’s
• Handles connecting Beams/Shells/Solids to each other

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 Example: Block on Block

et,11,170
et,12,175
r,11
real,11

keyopt,12,2,2 ! MPC
keyopt,12,12,5 ! Bonded

cmsel,s,nb1
type,11
esln,s,0
Esurf

cmsel,s,nt1
type,12
esln,s,0
Esurf

allsel

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 CELIST,all,,,conv

LIST ALL SETS FOR CONSTRAINT EQUATIONS WITH ANY NODES SELECTED

CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 1 HAS 5 TERMS. CONSTANT= 0.000000

NODE= 1 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
NODE= 463 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT=-0.1666667
NODE= 467 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT=-0.8333333E-01
NODE= 468 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 464 DIR= UX COEFFICIENT=-0.5000000

CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 2 HAS 5 TERMS. CONSTANT= 0.000000

NODE= 1 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
NODE= 463 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT=-0.1666667
NODE= 467 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT=-0.8333333E-01
NODE= 468 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 464 DIR= UY COEFFICIENT=-0.5000000

CONSTRAINT EQUATION NO. 3 HAS 5 TERMS. CONSTANT= 0.000000

NODE= 1 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT= 1.000000
NODE= 463 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.1666667
NODE= 467 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.8333333E-01
NODE= 468 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.2500000
NODE= 464 DIR= UZ COEFFICIENT=-0.5000000

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 Why Use CE’s?
• For most cases where you are gluing meshes together, use
MPC’s
• Use CE’s:
– If you need to control the equations
– Joints, gears, symmetry, etc…
– You want to view the connections
– Where nodal rotations play a role
– You are working with DOF’s other than UXYZ/ROTXYZ

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CE’s In Workbench

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 Mostly Hidden from User
• When you make MPC bonded contact, it does internal CE’s
• Some commands make CE’s or CP’s
– View the *.inp file to see what it does
– But dominant method is with MPC’s

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 Two Ways to Make Your Own
• APDL Commands in Code Snippet
– Use named selections to grab the nodes you need
– You need to know how CE’s work and the APDL commands
• Insert into your model tree
– Considered Loads
– CP’s only available in modal analysis
• Between geometry
– CE’s available between remote points and/or joints

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 CE’s in Workbench
• First, make your remote points
• Then RMB on environment object and select Constraint
Equation
• You get a Worksheet
– Define your constant
– Then add lines for each remote point in the equation

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 Displaying CE’s in Workbench
• After you solve you can see an CE’s you made, or that
Workbench made
• Click on the Solution Information Object
• Set the FE Connection Visibility to show CE’s
• Also shows beams and springs

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Thoughts

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 Understand CE’s
• As time goes by, the need to create your own CE’s goes
down
– That is good
• But you need to understand what the program is doing
– Under/over constraint can screw things up
• As always, read the help!
• If you need to do your own, crawl, walk, run
– Do a single CE, then move up to the whole model.

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 Thank You…
• PADT Enjoys doing these webinars…
• Please consider us as your partner
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• CUBE HVPC Systems
• Product Development
– High-end engineering with practical, real world application
• Rapid Prototyping
– SLA, SLS, FDM, PolyJet, CNC, Soft Tooling,
Injection Molding
• Help us by letting us Help you

DX R13: 02/17/2011
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