Introduction to ANSYS Workbench

16.0 Release

Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical

1 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 A: About ANSYS Inc.

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 Breadth of Technologies

Fluid Mechanics: To Multiphase

From Single-Phase Flows Combustion

Structural Mechanics:
To High-Speed Impact
From Linear Statics

Electromagnetics: From To High-Frequency

Low-Frequency Windings Field Analysis

Systems: To Multi-Domain
From Data Sharing System Analysis

3 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

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 … Geometry
Solid bodies are geometrically and spatially 3D or 2D:
• 3D solids are meshed by default with higher-order tetrahedral or hexahedral solid elements with
quadratic shape functions.

• Each node in a 3D element has three translational degrees of freedom (DOF) for structural or one
temperature DOF for thermal.

3D Solids 3D Element Hex Element Tet Element

5 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 … Geometry
• 2D solids are meshed by default with higher order trianglular or quadrilateral solid elements with quadratic
shape functions.
– The “2D” switch must be set on the Project page prior to importing geometry.
• Each node in a 2D element has two translational degrees of freedom (UX and UY) for structural or one
temperature DOF for thermal.
• 2D solids are used to represent three types of 3D geometry, “Axisymmetric”, “Plane stress” and “Plane strain”.

Plane strain cross section

2D Solids
Axisymmetric cross 2D Solids
Plane stress cross section section

6 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 … Geometry
Surface bodies are geometrically 2D but spatially 3D:
• Surface bodies represent structures which are thin in one dimension (through the thickness). Thickness is not
modeled but supplied as an input value.
• Surface bodies are meshed with shell elements having six DOF (UX, UY, UZ, ROTX, ROTY, ROTZ).
Line bodies are geometrically 1D but spatially 3D:
• Line bodies represent structures which are thin in two dimensions. The cross-section is not modeled, it is
mapped on to the line body.
• Line bodies are modeled with beam elements having six DOF (UX, UY, UZ, ROTX, ROTY, ROTZ).

Line Body
Surface Body
7 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016
 Meshing Methods
• Meshing Methods available for 3D bodies
– Automatic
– Tetrahedrons
• Patch Conforming
• Patch Independent
– MultiZone
• Mainly hexahedral elements
– Hex dominant
– Sweep

• Meshing Methods available for 2D bodies

– Automatic Method (Quad Dominant)
– Triangles
– Uniform Quad/Tri Triangle (Tri) Quadrilateral (Quad)
– Uniform Quad

8 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 …Mesh Quality Criteria
Users can use display style option in details of mesh. This option able to display
mesh in color by quality metrics

9 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 …Mesh Quality Criteria

Example of mesh metric : Element Quality :

This metric is based on the ratio of the volume to the edge length for a given
element

0 1
Bad Perfect

Note : more information on other mesh metrics are in appendix

10 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 Other Mesh Quality Criteria

Aspect Ratio : Lengthening of element

1 5-10 20 ∞
Perfect Bad
11 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016
 Other Mesh Quality Criteria

Jacobian Ratio :

1 10 30 ∞
Perfect Bad

12 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 Other Mesh Quality Criteria

Warping Ratio :

0 0.1 1 ∞ 0 0.2 0.4 ∞

Perfect Bad Perfect Bad

13 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 Other Mesh Quality Criteria

Parallel Deviation :

0 170
Perfect Bad

14 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 Other Mesh Quality Criteria

Maximum Corner Deviation :

60 165 90 180
Perfect Bad Perfect Bad

15 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 Other Mesh Quality Criteria

Skewness

 max
 min

0 0.75 1
Perfect Bad

16 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 Other Mesh Quality Criteria

Orthogonal Quality :

0 1
Bad Perfect

17 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016

 . . . Contact
Contact regions are automatically created between parts during assembly import.
• Contacts are contained in the Connections branch and can be grouped in multiple “Contacts”
folders.
– Contact detection tolerance controls are available (low = loose tolerance; high = tight
tolerance).

Loose Tight
18 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016
 . . . Contact
Five contact behaviors are available:
Contact Type Iterations Normal Behavior (Separation) Tangential Behavior (Sliding)
Bonded 1 No Gaps No Sliding
No Separation 1 No Gaps Sliding Allowed
Frictionless Multiple Gaps Allowed Sliding Allowed
Rough Multiple Gaps Allowed No Sliding
Frictional Multiple Gaps Allowed Sliding Allowed

• Bonded and No Separation contact are linear and require only 1 iteration.
– Bonded: surfaces are fixed to one another so no gaps can open and no
sliding takes place.
– No Separation: no gaps can open however small sliding can take place.

• Frictionless, Rough and Frictional contact are nonlinear and require

multiple iterations. These contact types will be introduced here but
detailed fully in the ANSYS Mechanical Structural Nonlinearities training
course.

19 © 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 15, 2016