MECH3361 Mechanics of Solids II

Tutorial Week 2

TUTORIAL PROBLEMS
(Week 2)
Stress Tensor and Finite Element Modelling
(1) Illustrate graphically the following stress states (units MPa):
(a)
(b)
0

2
4

2
4
0

0 ,
2

3
0

3
4
0

0 .
0

Soln

(a)

(b)

(2) Write the stress tensor for the stress status

illustrated in the infinitesimal cube below (final
exam question in 2011).
20

Soln: 0
15

0
10
0

15
0
30

(3) Determine the principal stress and principal directions of the following infinitesimal
element:

Soln
Step 1: Determine convention of sectional plane in the current coordinate system (all are
negative see the figure)
xx xy xz 2 3 0

Step 2: determine the stress tensor: yx yy yz 3 2 0
zx zy zz 0 0 6

Step 3: Calculate the principal stresses

MECH3361 Mechanics of Solids II

Tutorial Week 2

zz 6 has been the principal stress since both of its shear components are zero. But we
cannot say 3 zz 6 simply from its third coordinate axis. We need to calculate other two
principal stresses and then rank them:
1,3

xx yy
xx yy
2 2 2 4 2 32

xy

Step 4: After rank these three principal stresses, we thus have

Step 5: Calculate the principal directions
There are two roots:

tan 2 p

2 p1 90

p1 45

2 p 2 270

p 2 135

2 xy

xx yy

5
1
1 6, 2 5, 3 1

23

22

(4) For the cantilever beam shown below, determine the stress state at Point A by using
Engineering beam theory (review what you learnt from Mechanics of Solids I) and
Finite element method in ANSYS.
(Hand in a short report regarding stress analysis of using these two approaches together with
your Assignment 1 in Week 4)

MECH3361 Mechanics of Solids II

Tutorial Week 2

Solution to Tutorial Question 2

Step 0: Launch Ansys in your computer Start ANSYS13.0 Mechanical APDL Product Launch
Select: (1) ANSYS from Simulation Environment window, and (2) ANSYS Academic
Teaching Advanced from the Licence window (where you can change the working
directory: in which your FE model will be saved as well) Run. Then you should see the
ANSYS window launched.
Step 1: Define Problem Type: Main Menu>Preferences>Structural>Ok
Step 2: Define Material Propertye (Mild steel: Youngs modulus E=210GPa, Poissons ratio v=0.3):
Main Menu> Preprocessor> Material Props> Material Models> Structural>
Linear>Elastic>Isotropic>EX = 210E9 (Youngs modulus)>PRXY=0.3 (Poissons
Ratio)>OK
Material>Exit
Step 3: Define element type: Main Menu> Preprocessor> Element Type> Add/Edit/Delete>
Add>Structural Solid (left column)>Solid 4 node 182(183 is also okay)
(right column)> OK> Option> Select Plane Strs w/thk >OK >Plane82>Close
Step4: Define the thickness (t=0.1m): Main Menu> Preprocessor> Define real
constants>Add>enter thickness=0.1>Ok>Close
Sep 5: Define Geometric Model of cantilever beam: Main Menu> Preprocessor>Modeling> Create>
Area> Rectangle>By two corners> WP X=0, WP Y=0, Width=5, Height=1 (in
meter)>OK
Step 6: Prescribe Material to the Rectangular Area
Main Menu> Preprocessor>Meshing>Mesh Attributes>Picked Areas>Pick the areas
of rectangle >OK
Step 7: Generate the Meshing in the domain
Main Menu> Preprocessor>Meshing>MeshTool>Smart Size = 5 >Mesh>Pick All>OK
(To make Point A a node of element, size control for manual size is
needed.)
Step 8: Define Boundary Condition (fully clumped on the left side of the rectangle)
Main Menu> Solution> Define Loads> Apply> Structural> Displacement> On
Lines>Pick left side of rectangle >OK>DOFs to be constrained = All DOF>
Displacement value = 0 > [OK] to apply the constraints
Step 9: Define Transverse Load
Main Menu> Solution> Define Loads> Apply> Structural>Force/Moment>On
keypoints>Pick a Keypoint on the top right and bottom right corners (pick
two points) OK >Fy=-1000 > OK
Step 10: Solution: Main Menu> Solution>Solve>Current LS>OK
Step 11: Postprocessing (Check the Stress States and Plot the Stress Contours)
Main Menu> General Postproc>List Results>Nodal Solution>Stress>X Component
of Stress>OK (You can see a table of stress)
Main Menu> General Postproc>Plot Results>Contour Plot>Nodal Solu> stress>X
component of Stress > OK (you can see a deformed beam with X-stress
contour)
Note:
To check the right point A, you can count the number of elements from the left end (1m) as the number in the
vertical direction (also 1m), then PlotCrtls > Numbering > Turn on NODE Node Number >
OK, you should see the node numbers in the screen, zoom in to see the nodal number of interest.

MECH3361 Mechanics of Solids II

Tutorial Week 2

To insert your results to the assignment, you can PlotCrtls > Hard Copy > To File > Select a
picture format, e.g. JPEG > Save as filename.jpeg > OK. Then you can pick this
picture file from your working directory.