Workshop 19 – Bucket Excavator (Nested

Motions and DEM-FEA Coupling in Workbench)

Part B: Mechanical Coupling
R4.3

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OBJECTIVE

The main purpose of this workshop is to use ANSYS Workbench to run a one-way
coupled DEM-FEA simulation using Rocky and ANSYS Transient Structural -
Mechanical.
We will make use of the Rocky DEM results we created in Part A.
As a reminder, the scenario considered in this workshop is the analysis of how well
the bucket part of an excavator holds up to its material load after scooping particles
from a pit.

You will learn how to: And you will use these
Use Workbench to transfer DEM results programs:
from Rocky to Transient Structural - ANSYS Workbench
Mechanical ANSYS Transient Structural -
Set up and process the FEA simulation in Mechanical
Transient Structural - Mechanical
Post Process the FEA simulation in
ANSYS Mechanical
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PREREQUISITES
To complete this workshop, you are required to have a valid license for a version
of ANSYS that is supported by Rocky.
Tip: To verify which ANSYS versions are supported in Rocky, view the System
Requirements page.
IMPORTANT: This workshop also assumes that you are familiar with all of the
following programs and resources:
The ANSYS Workbench platform.
If that is not the case, please refer to the ANSYS Workbench user documentation for
basic introduction about Workbench usage before beginning this workshop.
The ANSYS Transient Structural - Mechanical program.
If this is not the case, please refer to the ANSYS Mechanical user documentation for a
basic introduction about Mechanical usage before beginning this workshop.
Also, please ensure you have a Rocky Professional license as some features
covered in this Workshop are not enabled for Rocky Designer.
Tip: If you are unsure which version of Rocky you have, ask your IT department, or
contact Rocky Support for assistance.
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WORKBENCH SETUP

If you completed Part A of this workshop, ensure that the ANSYS Workbench
project you created is open. (Part B will continue from where Part A left off.)
If you did not complete Part B, do all of the following:
Ensure that you have downloaded and extracted the workshop_19_input_files
folder that was provided along with this PDF.
Open ANSYS Workbench.
From the Workbench program, click the Open Project button, find the
workshop_19_input_files folder, and then from the workshop_19_A-rocky folder,
open the workshop_19_A-rocky.wbpj file.
With the project open in Workbench, you are now ready to begin Part B.

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WORKBENCH SETUP

From your Workbench project, on the Rocky block, right-click Results, and then
click Refresh (as shown).
This will bring the DEM results from Rocky into the ANSYS Mechanical program.
Once the Results are refreshed (you will see a green checkmark next to the
component name when it is ready), from the Transient Structural block,
double-click Model to open ANSYS Mechanical.

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DEFINING THE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

Mechanical opens with the linked

geometries already included (as
shown).
For this Workshop, we are only
interested in analyzing stresses on
the Bucket_Solid geometry so we
will disable the other geometries from
further calculations.
From the Outline panel, under
Geometry, right-click
Bucket_Solid, and then click
Suppress All Other Bodies (as
shown).

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MESH GENERATION FOR TRANSIENT STRUCTURAL CALCULATION

It is important to keep the mesh size in Mechanical as close as possible to the mesh
size in Rocky, so the pressure field exported by Rocky is better fitted to the
Mechanical mesh. Let’s adjust those parameters now.
From the Outline panel, select Mesh.
From the Details panel, under Defaults, specify Element Size (as shown).
Under Sizing, set Use Adaptive Sizing and Resolution (as shown).

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MESH GENERATION FOR TRANSIENT STRUCTURAL CALCULATION

From the Outline panel, right-click Mesh, and then click Generate Mesh.
Verify the generated mesh in the View window (as shown).

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ANALYSIS SETTINGS

Now, we will set the simulation time and the time steps to match the pressure field
output frequency exported by Rocky.
From the Outline panel, under Transient, select Analysis Settings.
From the Details panel, under Step Controls, define the Step End Time, Auto Time
Stepping and Time Step parameters (as shown).
Under Solver Controls, define the Large Deflection setting (as shown).

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REMOTE DISPLACEMENT

Now, we will set boundary conditions that represent the connection between the
excavator Arm and the Bucket.
From the Outline panel, select Transient.
From the Environment tab, click the Supports menu, and then select Remote
Displacement (as shown).

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REMOTE DISPLACEMENT

From the Details panel, define the X, Y, and Z Components and then the X and Y
Rotations (as shown).

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REMOTE DISPLACEMENT

From the Details panel, under Scope, click Geometry.

Select both upper joint faces by clicking on them while pressing the Ctrl key, and
then click Apply (as shown).
Note: By applying this Remote Displacement, we emulate that the bucket motion
against the particles were caused by Z Rotations on these faces.

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REMOTE DISPLACEMENT

From the Details panel, the X, Y and Z Coordinates are automatically updated (as
shown). Do not change these values.
The Remote Displacement we have just created appears now on the Outline panel
(as shown).

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REMOTE DISPLACEMENT

Now, repeat the process to apply another Remote Displacement to the lower joint
faces:
From the Outline panel, select Transient.
From the Environment tab, click the Supports menu, and then select Remote
Displacement (as shown).

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REMOTE DISPLACEMENT

From the Details panel, define the X, Y, and Z Components and then the X and Y
Rotations (as shown).

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REMOTE DISPLACEMENT

From the Details panel, under Scope, click Geometry.

Select both lower joint faces by clicking on them while pressing the Ctrl key, and
then click Apply (as shown).
Note: By applying this Remote Displacement to this second pair of joint faces, we emulate that
the bucket motion against the particles were caused by two different Z Rotations: one in the
upper joints (applied in a previous step) and another in these lower joints.

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REMOTE DISPLACEMENT

From the Details panel, the X, Y and Z Coordinates are automatically updated (as
shown). Do not change these values.
The Remote Displacement 2 we have just created appears now on the Outline
panel (as shown).

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IMPORTED LOAD

Now, we will import the loads exported by Rocky and apply them as boundary
conditions.
From the Outline panel, under Transient, right-click Imported Load (A4), point to
Insert, and then select Pressure (as shown).

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IMPORTED LOAD

From the Details panel, under Definition define the Apply To, Tabular Loading, and
Defined By settings (as shown).
Under Scope, click Geometry.
From the 3D View, select all the geometry faces by clicking in the view and then pressing
Ctrl+A. All the faces will be highlighted in green (as shown).
From the Details panel, next to Geometry click Apply (as shown).
All the faces will turn red.

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IMPORTED LOAD - TABULAR LOADING

Now, the pressure data’s components at each timestep must be imported.

This data was exported by Rocky into the folder
[path_to_project]/[project_name]_files/dp0/RockyEx/Rocky.
Each timestep has its own *.csv file containing the pressure field components (as
shown).
The loadref.csv file is a reference table that links each timestep index to its time in
seconds. We will use this file to define the pressure components using copy and paste.
(Explained on next slide.)

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DEFINING THE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

In the directory to which you have saved your Workbench files, go to

/dp0/RockyEx/Rocky.
Open with notepad the loadref.csv file (as shown), select all of the content, and copy it.
Return to ANSYS Mechanical, and then from the Data View panel, on the first column
and row of the Imported Pressure table, paste all the information you copied.
The table is filled with the information you pasted (as shown).

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IMPORTED LOAD - TABULAR LOADING

After filling the table, right-click Imported Pressure (under Imported Load (A4))
and then click Import Load. This will interpolate all the pressure loads from Rocky
onto the structural Mesh.

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STARTING THE SOLUTION

In this Workshop, we will evaluate both the Total Deformation and Equivalent
Stress on the Bucket geometry.
From the Outline panel, right-click Solution (B6), point to Insert, point to
Deformation, and then select Total (as shown).

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STARTING THE SOLUTION

From the Outline panel, right-click Solution (B6), point to Insert, point to Stress,
and then select Equivalent (von-Mises) (as shown).

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STARTING THE SOLUTION

To run the simulation, from the Outline panel, right-click Solution (B6) and click
Solve.

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POST PROCESSING – VON MISES STRESSES

Using the Graph panel, we can analyze the time dependent results.
To show how the Total Deformation changes over time, from the Outline panel,
select Total Deformation (as shown).

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POST PROCESSING – VON MISES STRESSES
The Graph shows that the highest total deformation occurs around 5.75 s.
Note: Your results might differ slightly from the ones shown in this workshop.
Drag the Graph cursor (black vertical line) to 5.75 s (as shown).
From the Outline panel, right-click Total Deformation and click Retrieve This
Result (as shown).

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POST PROCESSING – VON MISES STRESSES

The 3D View of the Geometry shows that the highest deformations occur in the
bucket excavator teeth.

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POST PROCESSING – VON MISES STRESSES
Now, we can analyze the Equivalent Stresses on the bucket.
From the Outline panel, select Equivalent Stress.
The Graph shows the Equivalent Stress over time, with the highest stress occurring
around 5.6 s.
Note: Your results might differ slightly from the ones shown in this workshop.
Drag the Graph cursor to 5.6 s (as shown).

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POST PROCESSING – VON MISES STRESSES

From the Outline panel, right-click Equivalent Stress and then click Retrieve This
Result.
The 3D View of the geometry shows that the highest stresses occur next to the joint
corners.

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HELP

This completes Part B.

For further information about ANSYS Workbench and/or ANSYS Transient
Structural - Mechanical, please refer to the ANSYS user documentation.

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CONCLUSION

Through ANSYS Workbench, ANSYS Transient Structural - Mechanical was

used to set up and run a FEA simulation with the DEM loads obtained by Rocky.
During this workshop, it was possible to:
Make the Rocky DEM results available to ANSYS Mechanical
Set up and process the FEA simulation in ANSYS Mechanical
Post Process the simulation results in ANSYS Mechanical
What’s Next? If you completed this part successfully, then you are ready to
move on to the next workshop.

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