Ansys Motion in Mechanical

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ANSYS Motion ACT App

• An integration of the Ansys Motion solver technology

into the ANSYS Mechanical GUI.
• Compatible with ANSYS 2019 R3
• Provides the power of the ANSYS Workbench and
Mechanical Environments to facilitate the preprocessing
of Ansys Motion models.

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Introduction

• Comprehensive CAD to solution capabilities provided as part of the

ANSYS Workbench environment include:
‐ CAD import from all leading sources
‐ Geometry clean up to facilitate fast accurate MBD analyses
‐ Comprehensive material library and easy material assignment
‐ State of the art meshing designed to produce high quality
meshes ideally suited for flexible body simulations
‐ Automatic joint and contact creation within Mechanical
‐ Efficient parallel simulations
‐ Limited post processing
• ANSYS Motion ACT is the result of a collaborative effort between
Virtual Motion and ANSYS, Inc. The interface was created using the
ANSYS Customization Toolkit (ACT), a product of ANSYS, Inc. designed
to enable customization of the user interface of ANSYS products.

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Ansys Motion Analysis System

• After loading the extension a new Ansys

Motion system will appear in the toolbox.

• Double clicking or dragging and dropping will

insert an ANSYS Motion system into the
project schematic

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ANSYS Motion Usage

• The ANSYS Motion app has been designed to take advantage of the ease of use and automation of
ANSYS Mechanical preprocessing whilst still retaining the flexibility and terminology from the
standalone ANSYS Motion product.

• For detailed documentation on ANSYS Motion analysis concepts and the Ansys Motion Preprocessor
please refer to the Preprocessor Manual pdf file located in your main ANSYS Motion installation
folder:
‐ C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v19<X>\Motion\Document

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Features
ANSYS Motion tab in the ribbon toolbar gives access to
dedicated ANSYS Motion functionality

Model Tree follows standard

ANSYS Mechanical setup
procedures taking advantage of
rigid/flexible geometry switching,
material assignments, joints,
contacts and mesh generation

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ANSYS Motion

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Body

Body Properties Marker

Insert a Body Properties object to specify a body Insert a Marker object to be used in the
as a single superelement with the inertial and argument of a Function Expression
flexibility behavior summarized on a reduced set object for measurement.
of DOFs.

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Contact

Contact Properties

Insert a Contact Properties objects to specify

additional contact characteristic values. It can be
applied to a set of Contact Region objects whose
type is Frictional or Frictionless.

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Contact
Contact Friction Properties
Insert a Contact Friction Properties objects to
specify additional contact friction values. It can
be applied to a set of Contact Region objects
whose type is Frictional.
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Tie Properties
Insert a Tie Properties object to specify
additional tie contact values. It can be
applied to a set of Contact Region
objects whose type is Bonded or No
Separation.
Joint

Boundary Condition Coupler

Insert a Boundary Condition object to Insert a Coupler object to restrict the

restrict the relative motion of nodes on a relative motions of two or three joints
nodal flexible body with respect to another together. This relates the translational or
body. rotational motion of the joints through a
linear scaling of the relative motions.

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Joint

Joint Friction Properties

Insert a Joint Friction Properties object

Joint Load Properties to specify joint friction property values. It
can be applied to a Joint object whose
Insert a Joint Load Properties object to type is Revolute or Point On Curve.
specify joint motion and restriction values.
It can be applied to a Joint object whose
type is Revolute, Translational or
Cylindrical.

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Joint

Point on Curve Properties

Insert a Point On Curve Properties object

to specify additional constraint property. It
can be applied to a Joint object whose type
is Point On Curve.

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Force

Concentrated Load

Insert a Concentrated Load object to

specify six component forces and
torques acting on each node.

Bushing Properties

Insert a Bushing Properties object to

specify additional bushing force property
values. It can be applied to a set of Joint
objects whose type is Bushing.

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Force

Pressure Load

Insert a Pressure Load object that can

be applied to one or more flat or curved
faces by a Function Expression object. It
Matrix Properties can be applied only the bodies whose
stiffness behaviour is Flexible.
Insert a Matrix Properties object to specify
matrix force property values applied
between Reference and Mobile bodies. It
can be applied to a set of Joint objects
whose type is General.

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Force

RSpring Properties

Insert a RSpring Properties object to

specify torsional spring force property
values applied between Reference and
RScaler Properties Mobile bodies. It can be applied to a set
of Joint objects whose type is General.
Insert a RScalar Properties object to
specify rotational scalar force property
values applied between Reference and
Mobile bodies. It can be applied to a set of
Joint objects whose type is General.

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Force

TSpring Properties

Insert a TSpring Properties object to

specify longitudinal spring force property
values applied between Reference and
TScaler Properties Mobile bodies. It can be applied to a set
of Joint objects whose type is General.
Insert a TScalar Properties object to
specify translational scalar force property
values applied between Reference and
Mobile bodies. It can be applied to a set of
Joint objects whose type is General.

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Force
Vector Properties

Insert a Vector Properties object to specify

vector force property values applied
between Reference and Mobile bodies. It
can be applied to a set of Joint objects
whose type is General.

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Force
Function Expression
Insert a Function Expression object to
specify a formula. It can be used in the
formulation of a force or motions and
measurement of displacement, velocity,
acceleration and force between several
Marker objects.
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Spline
Insert a Spline object. It represents
discrete data that can be interpolated. It
can be used in the argument of a
Function Expression object with AKISPL
and LININT functions. It can also be
used as a property value directly instead
of a coefficient in some objects.
Force

Variable Equation

Insert a Variable Equation object. It

represents a variable in terms of a scalar
algebraic equation.

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Co-simulation

Signal Input and output

Insert a Signal Input object. It is used to

interface a variable which is calculated
CoSimulator from other programs.
Insert a Co-Simulator object. It is used to
export files for interfacing between other
simulation tool and ANSYS Motion using
Matlab or FMI standard.

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Export and Postprocessor

Export DFG, DFR and DFM files in the Run ANSYS Motion Postprocessing for
specified directory. These files are used in further result analysis.
ANSYS Motion Postprocessor.

Export DFSXML file in the specified

directory. This file is used in ANSYS
Motion Standalone Solver Manager.

Export DFS and SSC files in the specified

directory. These files are used in ANSYS
Motion Standalone Solver Manager.

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 Limitations

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Result Animation

• Results should be visualized at calculated times not interpolated between two steps.
• Also result animation must be performed over “Result Sets”

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Naming Rules
• ANSYS Motion does not allow duplicate names. When starting and analysis the ID of the object is
added after the duplicate name internally.
E.g. If two maker names are the same
Marker -> Marker[ID]
Marker -> Marker[ID]
• Spaces or disallowed special characters are replaced with '_’. ( Allow - [, ], _, !, ~, %, ^, &, = )
E.g. Function Expression#DM
➔Function_Expression_DM
Translational Joint
• Different direction between ANSYS Motion and
ANSYS.
• Direction of Translational is X-axis in ANSYS.
• Direction of Translational is Z-axis in ANSYS Motion .
• In ACT, the axis of the joint is defined the X direction
and then automatically transposed in the solver to the
Z direction.
General Joint

• To use force, user should create a General Joint.

Bushing
• To use the stiffness of the bushing as a spline, user must
define the bushing properties.
Springs
• Springs can be modeled in two ways
- Native object and Custom load.
• To use the stiffness of the spring as a spline, user
must define the spring properties.
Matrix Force
• Stiffness of Matrix Force can not do unit converting.
• Currently implemented as Tabular.
• The unit is “MMKS” unit.
Modal
• Remote point is only available when Scoping
Method is Geometry Selection
• TIE, BC and PTCV do not support modal body.
• Can't connect directly to different remote points.
Contact
• In ACT, Contact is Base Geometry and ANSYS Motion SA ANSYS Motion ACT
Target is Action Geometry. Base (Contact) Rigid (Faceset) Flexible Behavior
• When creating a contact with Rigid and FE, Action (Target) FE (Patchset) Rigid Behavior
FE should be selected as the Contact Body
and Rigid as the Target Body.
• If user does not create Contact Properties,
the parameters are set to default values.
 Contact
Contact Properties Select Body Surface Type

Rigid + Rigid Multi-Point

• The contact method changes depending on General Contact FE + Rigid Multi-Point

the surface type and body type. FE + FE Multi-Point
• If Surface Type is selected as Surface, and RTR 3D Rigid + Rigid Surface
the contact is Rigid and FE, the base and
action are flipped internally during analysis. FTR 3D FE + Rigid Surface

• There is no way to select Contacts as a FTF 3D FE + FE Surface

group
Units
• The default parameter is to fix the MMKS unit.
• User chooses whether to follow the Mechanical unit
system or the default unit of ANSYS Motion.
• The feature affects the units of Function Expressions
and the results of the analysis.
• When set to Mechanical, there is no way of knowing
which unit is used in analysis result in AM
Postprocessor.
• E.g. After finish the analysis, change the unit in
Mechanical.
• When set to Motion-specific, the user cannot see the
results in the desired units on the AM Postprocessor.
• E.g. The user is modeled in US units, but the result is
MMKS.
Function Expression
• Defined as Function Expression is not
converted according to changes in unit
system.
• Only unit is changed.