Ansys Tips Notes

ANSYS TIPS- Library Copy
ANSYS Tips
ANSYS Tips and ANSYS Tricks
Peter Budgell
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
These tips and comments are intended for user education purposes only. They are to be used at your own risk. The contents are
based on my experience with ANSYS 5.3 -- more recent versions may change things. The contents do not attempt to discuss all the
concepts of the finite element method that are required to obtain successful solutions. It is your responsibility to determine if you have
sufficient knowlege and understanding of finite element theory to apply the software appropriately. I have attempted to give accurate
information, but cannot accept liability for any consequences or damages, which may result from errors in this discussion. Accordingly,
I disclaim any liability for any damages including, but not limited to, injury to person or property, lost profit, data recovery charges,
attorney's fees, or any other costs or expenses.
CONTENTS:
Tip 1: Use Annotations
Tip 2: Making Room for Annotations
Tip 3: Using Parameters in Annotations
Tip 4: Use Small Annotations
Tip 5: Mathematical Functions Available
Tip 6: Start 16-Bit Applications before Starting ANSYS under Windows NT
Tip 7: Running ANSYS at Low Priority under Windows NT 4.0
Tip 8: Operating on (Scaling) Loads
Tip 9: Ramping Loads Down to Zero
Tip 10: Starting ANSYS Graphs at t=0
Tip 11: Pressure on Lines
Tip 12: Ramping Some Loads, Not Others
Tip 13: Force and Pressure on Flat Plates or Flat Shells
Tip 14: Linear and Nonlinear Buckling
Tip 15: Nonlinear Analysis and the Arc-Length Method
Tip 16: Animating Results from a Nonlinear or Other Analysis
Tip 17: Getting the Mass or Weight of a Model
Tip 18: Using Fnc Calls from Macros
Tip 19: Use ENSYM and ENORM to Turn Over Shell Elements
Tip 20: Shell Types to Try
Tip 21: Moving a Model from ANSYS Mechanical to ANSYS Linear/Plus
Tip 22: Deleting Nodes with Nodal Coupling
Tip 23: Convergence with Shell Finite Element Models in Nonlinear Analysis under ANSYS
Tip 24: Working with Load Step Files in ANSYS
Tip 25: Plotting Shell Stress -- Surface, Mid-Plane Stress, Load Paths, ESYS and RSYS
Tip 26: Nodal Coupling (CP) versus Rigid Region (CERIG)
Tip 27: Vibration Modes with Pre-stress
Tip 28: Creating New Elements by Copying or Reflecting Existing Structure
Tip 29: Adding to a Model Comprised of Elements and Nodes Only
Tip 30: Zero Mass Beam Elements Form Rigid Region
Tip 31: Turn off Symbols When Changing a Model after Solution
Tip 32: Are the "Free-Free" Vibration Modes Relevant?
Tip 33: Selecting a CAD or FEA System -- Cover Yourself
Tip 34: Creating Lines Perpendicular to, or at Angle to Existing Lines
Tip 35: Use the /UI command in Your ANSYS Toolbar to Bring up GUI Dialog Boxes
Tip 36: Reaction Force, Nodal Force, and Load Paths
Tip 37: Inputting Temperatures with BF, BFE, and TUNIF in Structural Analysis
Tip 38: ANSYS Toolbar Use
Tip 39: ANSYS Piping Element Lengths
Tip 40: Graphical Output from ANSYS
Tip 41: Check Nodal Loads at Bolts, Rivets, Spot Welds and Links
Tip 42: Use QUERY to Check Results with Picking
Tip 43: Loads on Geometric Entities Overwrite Loads on Nodes and Elements -- Easy Error to Make
Tip 44: Use Components for Load Input, and for Results Review
Tip 45: Simple Substructuring Examples -- Bottom Up and Top Down
Tip 46: Plot Applied Temperatures

Tip 47: Skipping Over Statements in an Input File
Tip 48: Static Analysis Followed by Transient Analysis
Tip 49: File Compression for Model Storage
Tip 50: Organizing Large FEA Models
Tip 51: Selecting Nodes in a Stress or Strain Range
Tip 52: Selecting Nodes that are Subjected to Nodal Coupling
Tip 53: /NOPR and /GOPR Speed Up Input Files and Macros
Tip 54: Using Commands IMMED and /UIS and /SHOW,OFF
Tip 55: What's the Bauschinger Effect? Comments on Material Yield
Tip 56: Thought Experiments
Tip 57: Control of Meshing
Tip 58: Four View Plot
Tip 59: Quick Review of Mode Shapes
Tip 60: Using ANSYS Help
Tip 61: The FEA Job Hunt
Tip 62: *VPUT and DESOL
Tip 63: How to Divide One Element Table Column by Another
Tip 64: Element Tables (ETABLE) and Arrays -- An Example
Tip 65: Error Estimation, PowerGraphics, and ERNORM
Tip 66: Concatenate and Mesh Last
Tip 67: ANSYS Output of Data to Files for Use by Other Programs
Tip 68: Writing Array Columns to Output or to Files
Tip 69: Synthesizing Parameter Names and Manipulating Jobnames and Long Strings in APDL
Tip 70: Solid Elements 95 and 92 -- Efficiency and Interconnection
Tip 1: Use Annotations:

Only a one-line title is possible on the ANSYS screen or plot. Considerably more
information can be included in annotations on the screen. The annotations are kept through
all plots until they are deleted with the command: /ANNOT,DELE or via picking with the
graphical user interface (GUI).
At the top of the Annotation dialog box, there is a list box from which the user can choose
Text, Lines, etc., on down to Controls. These selections bring up different menus. The
Controls selection offers a SNAP setting that makes it much easier to get the text aligned
nicely. (Hint: ANSYS, Inc. should put this SNAP selection up front under Text, or even on
every menu.) Activate the Snap setting, then go back to Text to enter the annotations.
Tip 2: Making Room for Annotations:
The /PLOPTS command controls what goes into the legend at the right (by default) side of
the ANSYS screen and plot. If you turn off LEG2 (the relatively useless "view"
information), you will get extra room at the bottom of the legend. This area can be used for
annotations if the number of contour levels in stress plots is not too great (the default is fine).
Tip 3: Using Parameters in Annotations:
Just as in a title created with the command /TITLE, ANSYS permits the use of a parameter
in an annotation, as discussed in the Commands Manual description of the /TLABLE
command. When typing the annotation using the GUI, include the parameter in percent signs
like this: %pname% where pname is the parameter name. The parameter can contain either
numbers or text. The value of the parameter will be plotted in the annotation string. The
ANSYS function NINT can be used to round a number the nearest integer, sometimes
improving the appearance of the annotation for large numbers in which the fractional part is
irrelevant (e.g. NINT(123.456789) = 123 ). For this, the parametric expression should be
enclosed in percent signs. Annotations are usually created in the GUI, but can be entered
with code like that shown below. Entering a single annotation line containing Result =
%pname% generates log file contents such as:
! The following commands place an annotation on the screen.
! For information only. Use at your own risk.

! In this example, "pname" is a parameter with a numerical value
such as 123.456789
/ANUM ,0, 1, 1.2303, -.74699
/TSPEC, 15, .600, 1, 0, 0
/TLAB, 1.010, -.747,Result = %pname%
The last line in the above example contains the string that the user types manually. The other
data set up the string positioning on the screen, and the properties of the characters. To apply
the NINT function to the parameter, manually enter Result = %NINT(pname)% as the
annotation:
! Type the annotation in one line, so the log file contains:
/ANUM ,0, 1, 1.2303, -.74699
/TSPEC, 15, .600, 1, 0, 0
/TLAB, 1.010, -.747,Result = %NINT(pname)%
The beauty of doing this is that if the value of the parameter pname should change, then
when the next plot command is executed, the annotation will automatically update to
reflect the new value! Try it: after creating an annotation on the screen that includes a
parameter, change the parameter's value, then do a /REPLOT. Running a macro could get
information that goes into the parameter that a /REPLOT will automatically put it on the
screen. This makes it possible to automatically include far more information than can go into
the title, and to do it for a series of automatically generated plots or graphs.
Tip 4: Use Small Annotations:
The default character size setting for an annotation is 1. The size of an annotation can be
decreased using the GUI. A size of 0.6 is quite readable and permits far more information to
be packed into a plot. Note that there is a limit to the number of characters possible on an
annotation line this is character size independent.
Tip 5: Mathematical Functions Available:
Under the Help listing for the *SET command there appears lists of mathematical functions
available in ANSYS. Another list is in the ANSYS User's Guide on APDL, Chapter 14 of the
Modeling and Meshing Guide. The commands are usable anywhere. They include:
ABS(X)
Absolute value
ACOS(X)
ArcCosine
ASIN(X)
ArcSin
ATAN(X)
ArcTangent
ATAN2(X,Y)
ArcTangent of (Y/X) with the sign of each component considered (see a

FORTRAN manual if you don't know what this means.)
COS(X)
Cosine
COSH(X)
Hyperbolic cosine
EXP(X)
Exponential
GDIS(X,Y)
Random sample of Gaussian distributions where X is the mean, and Y is the

standard deviation. Might be used in a Monte Carlo Simulation to explore the
distribution of outputs based on randomized loadings and material properties.
For an explanation, see a good modern engineering design textbook.

LOG(X)
Natural log (to base e)
LOG10(X)
Log (to base 10)
MOD(X,Y)
Modulus (X/Y), it returns the remainder of X/Y. If Y=0, returns zero (0)
NINT(X)
Nearest integer (nice for outputs of stresses to /TITLE or annotations (see Tip
3 above))
RAND(X,Y)
Random number, where X is the lower bound, and Y is the upper bound.
(Useful for Monte Carlo Simulation, etc.)
SIGN(X,Y)
Absolute value of X with sign of Y. Y=0 results in positive sign.
SIN(X)
Sine
SINH(X)
Hyperbolic sine
SQRT(X)
Square root.
TAN(X)
Tangent
TANH(X)
Hyperbolic Tangent
Note:
The function form of the *GET commands can also be used to get information from
the model -- see the APDL guide mentioned above for a listing of available functions.
The APDL guide also gives functions to retrieve the values of parameters, both
numerical and character. The *VFUN command has a list of functions that act on an
array entry. The Commands manual lists functions that act on Element Tables in the
section "POST1 Command for Element Table". Creatively used, the array and
ETABLE algebra commands can be surprisingly powerful.
Tip 6: Start 16-Bit Applications before Starting ANSYS under Windows NT:
It has been my experience that some large commercial 16-bit applications will not start
properly when ANSYS is already running. If you start them before launching ANSYS, there
will be no problem. If you intend to work with those 16 bit applications in the foreground
while the ANSYS SOLVE is running in the background, this will be a useful tip. I have seen
other applications start up very slowly (e.g. Internet Explorer) or wait until ANSYS was
done before proceeding (setup.exe for many Windows install programs).
Tip 7: Running ANSYS at Low Priority under Windows NT 4.0:
Under Windows NT 4.0 the priority level of individual processes can be user-adjusted. To do
this, bring up the Task Manager (right click on the Windows NT taskbar), and click the tab
for "Processes". Right click on the process titled "ANSYS.EXE", and "Set Priority >" comes
up. Set the priority to "Low" to help make foreground applications run more smoothly while
ANSYS is running SOLVE in the background. This may help more if you have a large RAM
in the computer.
When ANSYS has completed the SOLVE process, return the priority to "Normal" so that
ANSYS is not slowed down when you start doing plots through the GUI.
Tip 8: Operating on (Scaling) Loads:
You can operate on loads on nodes and elements in order to scale them up or down.
Unfortunately, scaling loads on geometric entities (keypoints, lines, areas and volumes)
4

seems not to be available. If any load on your structure has been applied to a geometric
entity, rather than directly to elements or nodes, that load will be transferred to the elements
and nodes at solution time. The transfer will overwrite any scaling of loads that you have
applied.
So what can you do about this? Method 1: Transfer the loading from geometric entities to the
elements and nodes, then write a load step file. This records loading on elements and nodes.
Delete the loading on geometric entities, then read the load step file that was just written.
Now the loading can be scaled up or down freely. Method 2: For a faster method, see the
"LSCLEAR,SOLID" command, which will not require writing a load step file. Method 3:
Transfer the loading from geometric entities to the elements and nodes, then delete the
relationship between geometry and the FEA mesh with the MODMSH,DETA command.
Method 4: Transfer loading from geometric entities to the elements and nodes, then un-select
the geometric entities, before executing SOLVE. The element and node loading can be
scaled after it has been transferred from geometric entities. An un-selected geometric entity
will not transfer its loading to elements or nodes when SOLVE is executed. Warnings:
Method 3 ruins the relationship between geometry and the mesh. Save the model under an
appropriate file name before executing MODMSH,DETA. Method 4 is fine, as long as you
do not forget and re-select the geometric entities -- ALLSEL will do this.
Scaling displacements (nodal constraint values) is also possible. One thing that has not
worked for me is an attempt to reduce applied displacements to zero by using 0.0 as the
scaling factor. What did work for me was to use "_TINY" as a value, which multiplied
displacements by a factor of roughly 10^(-31) and reduced loads to virtually zero. Attempts
to use 0.0 as the factor resulted in NO change to the applied displacements.
Tip 9: Ramping Loads Down to Zero:
If you are ramping force, pressure, and acceleration loads up and down as part of an analysis,
you may want to return loads to zero. I do this when I want to inspect permanent deformation
that results from plastic yielding. If you delete the applied load, the loading will drop
immediately to zero, even if you have load ramping turned on. The thing to do is to set the
loading to virtually zero or the scaling factor to virtually zero, not delete the load. It is
important to appreciate that to ANSYS, reducing a load to nearly zero is not the same thing
as deleting it (zeroing it), for the purposes of ramping loads. The time substep sizes to use
will depend on your model.
Setting displacements to zero or near zero is, of course, very different from deleting
constraints.
Tip 10: Starting ANSYS Graphs at t=0
Graphs start at the first data point, which means that if you do a time-history trace, you don't
get a t=0 data point. If you leave time as 0.0 on the TIME command, you get the default 1.0
in your output. The only way to get a graph from zero that I have found is to do a first load
step with "t" extremely small, in comparison to other times in the analysis, e.g. t=0.0000001.
The load at this time must be appropriate so that the response ramps up correctly. (If your
intent was to ramp up from zero load, just leave the loads as zero.) The next load step
continues as usual.
Tip 11: Pressure on Lines:
Applying pressure on a line results in loads being applied to the nodes associated with that
line. The loads on the nodes that the FEA program applies will be appropriate given the
formulation of the elements. If you want to apply a total force to the line, you can use a
*GET command to find the length of the line, then divide the force by the length and use the
result as the pressure.
Note that pressure on a line acts in the plane of the area that is attached to the line. If two
areas are attached at 90 degrees or another angle, two loads are set up, acting in each of the

area plane directions. You can use select logic on the areas to get some interesting effects as
to the direction in which the applied forces act, but only if both areas are meshed, and the
elements are selected. If you un-select one of the areas, pressure on the line will only be
exerted in the direction of the area that is selected. The select logic must still be in place
when you SOLVE, or else your carefully crafted load case can be overwritten. As above,
transferring loads from geometric entities to nodes and elements, writing them as a load step,
deleting all the loads on geometric entities, and reading in the load step will protect your load
case, and make scaling the loads possible. Alternatively, consider the "LSCLEAR,SOLID"
command.
NOTE: Pressures on surfaces follow the deformed shape during a Large Displacement
(geometrically nonlinear) analysis. Forces on nodes maintain their orientation in space, even
under Large Displacement. This difference will govern how loads should be applied in some
models.
Tip 12: Ramping Some Loads, Not Others:
To hold some loads constant and ramp up or down others, run a first load step with all the
loads at their starting values, ramping from zero only if appropriate.
If you want, use an extremely small value on the TIME command, e.g. 0.0000001, and run
this as a first load step. Then set up a second load step, with ramping activated. Change those
loads to be ramped from their starting values to new values. Hold the other loads constant.
The TIME command can be used with a new value, such as 1.0.
An example is the application of a gravity load before other loads are to be ramped up from
zero. In some cases, this could give a more realistic assessment of nonlinear buckling caused
by applied forces other than gravity loading. (You will want to check the codes that regulate
your design work before deciding on this. Codes that I have seen were generally started
before FEA was widely available, and do not address this concept. Find out what is
considered good practice in your industry.) Applying gravity first can give much better
convergence when assessing the effect of thermal expansion moving structures across
friction contact elements, where the normal load on the contact elements is caused by
gravity.
I suspect that this is not possible with the Arc-Length method. I have not experimented with
it, but do not see how controlled ramping of only some loads could be implemented under
Arc-Length control of applied loading -- any opinions?
Tip 13: Force and Pressure on Flat Plates or Flat Shells
There is a rule of thumb, that if the out-of-plane deflection of a flat plate or shell is greater
than half the thickness, then membrane forces start to become significant in resisting the
applied load. In ANSYS, this calls for activating a Large Displacement solution (a.k.a.
geometric nonlinearity). Ignoring this can result in your design missing out on inherent
strength, OR in grossly inadequate underdesign. Know what you are doing.
Tip 14: Linear and Nonlinear Buckling:
Linear eigenvalue (classical Euler) buckling is a "quick" check on a structure, but the
ANSYS manuals go to considerable pains to point out that in many situations, a Large
Displacement solution (geometric nonlinearity) needs to be run also as a check on the
buckling adequacy of a design. As with linear buckling, nonlinear buckling may need to be
assessed with respect to a number of load cases. In some structures, a diagonal tension field
is developed in a web, and elastic buckling failure does not develop at the first eigenvalues
predicted. In other structures, buckling failure may occur before the first eigenvalue, and
only nonlinear analysis will predict this.
Linear eigenvalue buckling has to assume that gap and contact elements are either closed and
active, or open and inactive. Nonlinear analysis will follow the effects of these elements as
they go in and out of contact, when the loading is applied.

After any Large Displacement nonlinear elastic buckling analysis (if it doesn't diverge), see
whether the elastic stress limits have been exceeded (this includes the surfaces of shell
elements, and be careful that nodal averaging does not hide anything). If significantly
overstressed, the structure may not be adequate.
Combined bending and axial compression in a beam is a classic place where inadequacy in
strength can be predicted in FEA only by Large Displacement nonlinear analysis (i.e. a linear
analysis says it is OK, but a nonlinear analysis shows it is NOT). For some structures
undergoing elastic Large Displacement analysis without contact and gap elements, the user
may want to consider a Southwell plot.
If elastic stress limits are exceeded in the Large Displacement model, it may be desirable to
do a combined Large Displacement and Plastic Deformation model. If the structure is
overloaded, it may begin to collapse (perhaps only locally), and the Arc-Length method may
be needed for convergence control. A need to strengthen the structure may be predicted or
identified. The material properties to use are application domain and industry specific -- start
by talking to your co-workers, supervisor, and suppliers.
Tip 15: Nonlinear Analysis and the Arc-Length Method:
The basic way to do nonlinear analysis in ANSYS is to use NR iteration and many default
settings. At times, convergence will become a problem; I've encountered this with shell
structures under compressive stresses. The arc-length method can sometimes cope better
with nonlinear solutions, because of its ability to follow force-deflection curves that rise and
fall. Be prepared for long run times if your model is large.
My experience with the arc-length method is that in its default settings for step size
multipliers, it does not give satisfactory results when compressing some shell-based models.
What may work is to set a number of time substeps, such as 10, so that each substep is 1/10
of the load step.
Set the ArcLength maximum
multiplier
MAXARC to 1.0
so that no
substeps larger
than 1/10 of the
load step are
taken. Set the
Arc-Length
minimum
multiplier
MINARC to 0.1,
so that the
smallest load
substep is 1/100
of the full load
step. I found this
to help
considerably. You
may want to user
a larger or smaller MINARC setting, but my experience to date suggests that one should not
get greedy with MAXARC. Obviously, you may want to play with the number of time
substeps.

The solution may still diverge but it is likely that you will get more information than without
arc-length analysis. You will want to set a termination condition for the analysis if buckling
is expected to result.
I find it desirable to save the results at every time substep when doing this type of analysis (it
helps to have a large hard drive) in order to review the process. When you review the results
of a single load case run under Arc-length control, the TIME value on the ANSYS plots
shows the decimal fraction of the full load being applied to the model. As you move forward
through the plots, if the load/displacement curve for the structure is falling, the decimal
fraction will fall, even though some displacements are visibly getting larger.
As mentioned
above,
something I have
not tried is to get
the Arc-length
solution control
to ramp some
loads and not
others, by having
run a preliminary
load step. Is this
even possible? If
not, then the user
may face the
prospect of
gravity being
ramped up and
down, in addition
to other applied
loads, and the
physical realism
of the model may
be affected.
Tip 16:
Animating
Results from a
Nonlinear or Other Analysis:
It can be helpful to watch the increasing stress levels that result as a nonlinear analysis
loading is ramped up. To create an animation, first run your analysis with loads ramped up,
and a number of substeps. Have all substeps written to the results file. Do a stress plot of
interest to set the type of stress plot to be animated by the macro that will be run. Make the
ANSYS Graphics window as small as you want the animation window to appear (most
screens will have lower resolution than a CAD workstation), keeping the aspect ratio correct.
Smaller graphics windows result in smaller animation files, if size matters. Animation files
under Windows NT (AVI files) from ANSYS often compress very well for storage purposes.
Use the PlotCtrls menu selection on the Utility Menu, and choose Animate to get a sub-menu
of choices. Choose "Dynamic Results" to create an animation of your saved load substep
results with the time shown in the legend. This seems to work only for the last load step
(read the ANSYS macro). The resulting AVI file can be viewed with the media player,
distributed, put on a web site, and so on. The media player can be stepped manually for slow

viewing. It makes it easier to watch the changing stress pattern or deformation as nonlinear
effects take over the model.
In animating a changing stress or other contour plot, you may wish to specify the contour
levels before generating the animation file. View the load step or substep with the worst
results as part of deciding where to set the contour levels.
I have not found that any of the ANSYS supplied animation macros do the one simplest
thing I want. Usually I want to animate every substep of every load step stored in the results
file. The following simple macro does this for me under Windows NT. There is virtually no
error checking in this macro. Note that this simple macro does not update element table data
at each frame. Consequently it will not work properly for plots of element table data. If
stresses, strains, or other data with amplitude information are to be plotted, the user may
want to fix the contour map levels ahead of time. The user will want to set the displacement
amplitude scaling with /DSCALE in advance--automatic scaling will not be satisfactory. In
general, it may not be satisfactory to have /ZOOM,OFF active, since the view will change if
plots of significant deflection are included in the animation. Manually setting a view may
yield a better animation. Modify this macro as you wish.
This macro must be called from within /POST1. The file that contains the results must have
already been selected, and a prototype plot command executed so that calling /REPLOT will
generate the type of plot the user wants:
! ------------------------------------------------------------------! MY_ANIM.MAC A quick-and-dirty animation of all of the substeps
! ------------------------------------------------------------------! For information only. Use at your own risk.
! User must indicate how many frames are to be animated
! This macro starts with the first substep in the results file
! by using the SET,FIRST command internally
! User implicitly indicates how many times to use the SET,NEXT
command.
! The number of frames needed must exist in the RST file, else
errors.
! NOTE: This does NOT work for plots of data in an element table.
!
Plotting element table results would require a macro in
which
!
the element table results are updated at each substep.
!
! Virtually NO Error Checking Is Performed ! ! ! ! !
!
! What will be plotted is based on /REPLOT therefore, on the last
user plot executed
! before this macro is called.
! Scaling, etc. are all based on the last user plot. Only the SET
value is updated.
!
! Call with:
!
! my_anim, time_delay_for_frame, number_of_frames_including_first
!
ar11=arg1
*if,arg1,eq,0,then
ar11=0.1
*endif
*if,arg2,ne,0, then
/NOPR
/gsav,xxx,gsav,,temp
/seg,delete

/seg,multi,,ar11
set,first
/replot
*do,_iii,1,arg2-1,1
set,next
/replot
*enddo
/seg,off
anim,1,1,ar11
/gres,xxx,gsav
/gopr
*endif
An alternative to this macro could step through all substeps on the RST file by using a *GET
command of the type *GET,NTOTAL,ACTIVE,0,SOLU,NCMSS to check the number of
substeps as the SET,NEXT command is issued. The parameter NTOTAL will be re-set to 1
when the animation is complete, and the *IF and *EXIT commands can check this and break
out of a do loop -- see Tip 59 below for the example of automatically plotting all mode
shapes. The user would then not need to specify the number of substeps to plot, improving
the automation, and letting the solver use variable substep sizes without the user having to
check on the number of substeps that resulted.
Tip 17: Getting the Mass or Weight of a Model:
A reader has been helpful by pointing point out that mass (or weight, depending on your
units) of keypoints, lines, areas, or volumes in a model can be retrieved, when attributes have
been assigned to these entities, by using commands available in /PREP7. Using the graphical
user interface, enter into "PreprocessorOperateCalc Geometric Items" to see the choices: "Of
Keypoints, Of Lines, Of Areas, Of Volumes, Of Geometry". These items execute the "sum"
commands: "KSUM, LSUM, ASUM, VSUM, GSUM" respectively. If no attributes have
been assigned to the geometric entities, unit densities are assumed in reporting mass and
center of gravity information. After the execution of these commands, the *GET command
can be used to assign to a variable the implied volume of an area (based on the thickness
associated with its attributes) or the volume of a "volume". The volume of a series of areas or
"volumes" can also be retrieved with the *GET command after a "sum" command is used.
The *VGET command can also be used, where appropriate, in retrieving information made
available after one of the "sum" commands is executed.
For some unstated reason, ANSYS will not directly give the total weight or mass of a model
(retrieved from the mass matrices of the elements), except to print it to output during the
solution of a problem. The user can run a partial solve in order to get this weight or mass
printed reasonably quickly. In Imperial units, it may be desirable to convert between pounds
mass and pounds weight. There is no *GET command that directly returns the weight of
selected elements. However, the volume of an element can be returned, and the volume of a
set of elements can be put into an element table, and summed.
You can get the weight of many models into a parameter by: step through all material types,
selecting elements for each material type. Get the volume of those elements, and multiply by
the density of that material type. Sum the masses or weights of all the material types. This
will not include added mass and mass elements at nodes (check this carefully against the
output mass in the solve module) or other things that I may not have thought of.
Of course, you can get the weight (assuming you gave densities in the material definitions)
by removing all loads (don't let thermal expansion, nodal rigid region, nodal coupling,
various gap and contact elements, or loads on constrained nodes trip you up -- use the
minimal constraints needed to stabilize all bodies in 3-D), applying 1 g vertical, having
constraints on vertical motion, running SOLVE in a linear analysis, and finding the vertical
reaction force. In such a run, a combination of the FSUM (select vertically restrained nodes
10

only, with all attached elements) and *GET commands in /POST1 might help you to get the
weight into a variable. However, a partial solve will give the answer more quickly (but not
put it into a variable). Depending on your system of units, remember, you may want to
convert between weight and mass.
I base my comment, about the inability of ANSYS to directly return the weight of the model
with *GET, on comments in the manuals on Optimization. The optimization examples work
to reduce model volume, not weight.
Tip 18: Using Fnc Calls from Macros:
Before using macros for the first time, read about the *USE command in the ANSYS Help
manual, in addition to other relevant parts of the ANSYS manuals. The *USE command help
discusses the macro calling parameters and their local scope. Note a slight difference in
calling parameters AR19 and AR20 when the *USE form of a macro call is used, versus the
"unknown command" form.
There are times when calls from macros directly to the Function form of an ANSYS
command will be the only way to get the function called with picking. It may be desirable to
sent the user a message that explains why the picking has been requested. The function must
be called with the exact use of upper case and lower case characters. An example:
Fnc_ENSYM will work, whereas fnc_ENSYM will not, because the capital F is missing.
Tip 19: Use ENSYM and ENORM to Turn Over Shell Elements:
ANSYS has two commands, ENSYM and ENORM, for re-orienting shell elements so that a
set of shell elements can all have their "top" surface face the same way. This makes
application of pressure, contact elements, and review of results more feasible. This
orientation should be done before running SOLVE; the results are not re-oriented in the
database when these commands are applied, nor in the results file, so if the elements are reoriented after SOLVE, the stress results will no longer apply to the correct shell surfaces and
a meaningless mess will result. These commands work with shell elements that are attached
to areas, as well as with independent shell elements. Note: If you clear the elements attached
to an area, then re-mesh, the new elements will have the same orientation as the area. (Hint:
ANSYS ought to do this re-orientation for Areas, making it easier to pressurize the interiors
of containers defined with shell elements.)
See HELP,ENSYM for information on what this command will do. ENSYM can be used to
"flip over" a shell element so that the opposite side (Top or Bottom) is showing. To do this
would require reversing the node order in the database so that Face 1 (Bottom) and Face2
(Top) get switched.
For more powerful capabilities in re-orienting shell elements, see HELP,ENORM. This
command will search outward from a chosen element that the user considers "correct", reorienting a connected set of shell elements so that they face the "same way" (this takes some
interpretation), even working around corners. It searches elements from the selected set of
elements, until it hits the edge of the model, or until two or more elements are attached to
one element edge. The user should experiment with this command in order to understand
exactly what it does, and inspect the model thoroughly after ENORM is applied, to verify
that the results are as desired. The correct use of ENORM can make the application of
pressure or contact elements to a complex model substantially easier.
It would be very helpful if ANSYS had a special command that would plot shell elements
with the sides colored according to whether they were FACE1 or FACE2 of the element.
This command could be extended to color the (up to) six sides of solid elements, according
to their face number. A similar command for plotting areas would help, too. It could even be
done for beams displayed with /ESHAPE showing the outer envelope. At present, with
ANSYS 5.3 running on Windows NT, I get different colors for Face 1 and Face 2 of shell
elements when PowerGraphics is ON, and "No Numbering" plus "Colors" or "Colors and
11

Numbers" has been chosen under PlotCtrls,Numbering. I have not seen this documented.
This does not happen for areas, or for solid elements.
Tip 20: Shell Types to Try:
I have used Shell 63 (for Elastic), Shell 43 (for Plastic), Shell 93 (8-Node, for Elastic &
Plastic), Shell 143 (for Plastic), and Shell 181 (for Plastic). The Revision 5.4 for ANSYS
will include a bug fix for a Shell 181 problem. Shell 143 is no longer supported, but is still
embedded (hidden) in Revision 5.3 of ANSYS for compatibility reasons.
I have recently found Shell 93 to be useful in modeling some curved structures, because of
its ability to follow curved surfaces. (Shell 63 elements are flat, and can make a mess of a
general curved surface under free meshing.) Shell 93 gave me good convergence for both
elastic and plastic Large Displacement (nonlinear geometric) analysis. It does not like to
follow too large an angle of curvature with one element, so the number of elements on an
area fillet can be large. Set the angle subtended by Shell 93 elements during meshing to a
value that is small enough to avoid warning messages. Watch out for aspect ratio warnings.
(Lack of warnings is not a complete guarantee of acceptable element shapes.) If the structure
has pressurized flat surfaces, Shell 93 often converges better when stress stiffening is
activated for Large Displacement analysis. Stress stiffening for Shell 93 is activated at the
solution phase of the analysis, whereas Shell 63 is (apparently) only stress-stiffened by
setting one of the KEYOPT values. (I have obtained different Large Displacement
convergences with Shell 63 with no stress-stiffening set, with the KEYOPT stress-stiffening
set, with stress-stiffening set in /SOLU, and with stress-stiffening set in both places.) Like
Shell 63, Shell 93 also has the virtue of being supported by the Linear/Plus version of
ANSYS for Large Displacement elastic analysis, so models can be moved back and forth.
When forcing mapped meshing of curve-sided Shell 93 elements on a plane area by
concatenating perimeter lines, I have occasionally had mid-side nodes created, in the interior
of the area, such that there was too much element curvature distortion in the plane of the
element. One fix is to have the elements created with the sides straight, which is tolerable if
the elements are flat, and if it does not cause trouble on the perimeter of the plane area being
meshed. "Trouble" here means poor representation of curved boundaries--other elements on
these boundaries may need to curve to follow curved surfaces, or it may be desired to have a
curved fit to an outside edge. If flat element sides cause trouble on the perimeter, then start
by meshing areas on the other side of the perimeter with elements that have curved sides-these elements could even be triangular. Next, mesh the area of interest with the elements
sides set straight, then clear the surrounding areas, if the surrounding areas are not intended
to be meshed, or need better element shape control. This will leave the plane area of interest
meshed with elements that have straight edges in the interior, and curved edges on the
perimeter. This is illustrated by the following images of an intentionally extreme example. In
the first image, a line plot of element edges shows extreme distortion in the plane. An
intended hole is meshed with triangles. All these elements are Shell 93, having mid-side
nodes.
12
In the second image, meshing with mid-side nodes positioned on straight lines is being
chosen.
In the third image, the consequence of meshing the part with straight-sided elements is
shown. The elements at the hole have a curved side, because the hole is already meshed with
curved-sided elements.
13

In the fourth image, the elements bordering the hole are shown, after the hole has been
cleared of elements. The element curvature at the hole is visible. The interior of the plane
area is meshed with straight-sided elements. The same problem and a similar fix can be
encountered with mid-side noded SOLID95 brick elements that have 20 nodes. The surface
areas of a volume can be meshed with 8-node SHELL93 elements with curvature, then the
volume meshed with SOLID95 elements with the sides straight, then the shell elements on
the areas removed with the ACLEAR command. This will leave the volume meshed with
SOLID95 elements that are curved on the surface areas, but with straight sides in the interior.
There are rare occasions when this will eliminate element distortion warning messages.
Tip 21: Moving a Model from ANSYS Mechanical to ANSYS Linear/Plus:

Because versions of ANSYS sell for different prices, a company may own one version to be
used for nonlinear models, and several licenses for linear work, or just for model creation
and results review. Occasionally, a model will be moved "down" from a fuller version of
ANSYS to the Linear/Plus version.
A user can run into difficulty moving a model from ANSYS Mechanical (or ANSYS
Structural, etc.) to the less expensive ANSYS Linear/Plus. The Linear/Plus version limits the
number of nodes allowed. Unfortunately, it implements this control by not allowing node
numbers that exceed a limiting value. This means that compression of node numbers (and
element numbers) may be required in order to get larger models to be accepted by ANSYS
Linear/Plus. Otherwise, the program quits without an opportunity to compress the numbering
(more recent ANSYS versions may be more tolerant, but the numbering will have to be
compressed at some point).
When the node and element numbers are compressed, coordination of loading with the
numbering expressed in load step files is lost. The way around this that I have used is to read
in the original database, read in a load step file, compress the numbering, and write the load
step file. The process, reading in the original database, must be repeated for every load case
(a macro could be written to automate this.) Finally, the original database is read in,
numbering is compressed, and the new database is written.
14

Unsupported element types cannot be used in ANSYS Linear/Plus; neither can too large a
wavefront (can the PCG solver get around this?). The unsupported elements need to be
deleted or changed before moving the model (e.g. change SHELL181 to SHELL63). Then, if
the number of entities does not exceed ANSYS Linear/Plus limitations, the database can be
moved to the other program.
The next problem in moving models to ANSYS Linear/Plus, is that nonlinear material
models must be deleted in ANSYS Mechanical (Structural, etc...) before moving the
database to ANSYS Linear/Plus. This is because the ANSYS Linear/Plus program will
complain that the material nonlinearity is included, but not accept the commands to delete it
(Hint: ANSYS should add this delete function to Linear/Plus.) Of course, I found all this out
the hard way.
On rare occasions, a model from a more recent version of ANSYS may be moved back to an
earlier ANSYS version. If IGES is not satisfactory, a user could use CDWRITE to write out
the element and node model and other model data to a file (the DB option), then manually
clean up the file so that the earlier version of ANSYS could accept it. This includes
modifying commands for element creation, after deducing what format is needed. Writing
the element data with EWRITE then cutting and pasting with the CDWRITE file may be
easier -- I haven't tried it. A user-written program can expedite cleanup for a large model.
Tip 22: Deleting Nodes that have Nodal Coupling:
When deleting a set of nodes for which some were members of coupled node sets, delete the
coupling equations BEFORE deleting the nodes. Otherwise, unwanted coupling equations
may be active if you create more nodes. The coupling equations are not automatically
deleted when the nodes are deleted--is this a bug? Select the nodes to be deleted, then delete
node coupling equations for which any nodes are selected, then delete the nodes. (You will
have had to first delete the elements.) Clearing solid model entities is the same as deleting
the elements and nodes simultaneously.
I find it very helpful to turn on the symbols for nodal coupling when checking for proper use
of these details.
Tip 23: Convergence with Shell FEA Models in Nonlinear Analysis under ANSYS:
First, remember that there are three basic kinds of nonlinearity: (1) Large Displacement
(geometrically nonlinear) analysis, and (2) Plastic Material properties are the obvious types.
In addition, nonlinear solutions occur (3) when nonlinear elements such as gap elements,
hook elements, and surface contact elements are used. Because of (3) it is clearer to refer to a
"linear" analysis as "small displacement elastic", since "linear" may be perceived as meaning
that there are no nonlinear elements present. A nonlinear analysis will take longer, usually
considerably longer, than a linear analysis. For a large finite element model, it helps to have
a computer with an extremely fast CPU, large RAM, large hard drive, and fast hard drive
data transfer (high-speed SCSI may help on PC's) for nonlinear analysis.
In ANSYS, the Shell 63 element will do Large Displacement, but is NOT capable of material
nonlinearity (plasticity). Shell 43, Shell 143, and Shell 181 are capable of both Large
Displacement and material nonlinearity. These four elements are 4-node quad elements.
ANSYS also has an 8-node shell element, Shell 93. The Shell 93 element is capable of both
Large Displacement and material nonlinearity. Shell 93 has the advantage that it can follow a
curved surface. There are also shell elements for composite materials and for P-element
solutions. I will restrict my comments to the basic shell elements: 63, 43, 143, 181, and 93.
The elements should have acceptable aspect ratios, not be ridiculously large or small, not be
pathologically deformed, and not generate warnings about being warped. If warped quad
elements are unavoidable during meshing, it may be desirable to use either small triangles, or
the Shell 93 element. Note that within the ANSYS manuals, high order elements are not
considered to be ideal for nonlinear work. However, I seem to have had some success with
15

the Shell 93 element (can't say if the results were ideally accurate). You can evaluate the
model quickly by doing a partial solve (Partial Solu in the GUI), only generating the element
matrices, and getting warnings (if any) and other information in the ANSYS Output window.
If a Large Displacement solution is chosen, some solutions are improved by setting Stress
Stiffening before running the solve process. Stress stiffening for elements 63, 43, 143, and
181 can (apparently) only be set with one of the KEYOPT values (Keyopt(2)) for the
element (see Options when using Add/Edit/Delete to add element types with the GUI). Some
beam elements are like this, too. It apparently (I find the manuals difficult to interpret on
this) can NOT be set within the Solve module, even though the GUI has a selection box for
Stress Stiffening. However, I seem to have had convergence differences with Shell 63 with
stress-stiffening set and not set in the solve module. For Shell 93, stress stiffening IS set
within the Solve module, by choosing it under Analysis Options in the GUI (SSTIF). The use
of stress stiffening for convergence improvement is contraindicated by some conditions such
as the substantial use of nodal coupling or nodal constraint equations... see the ANSYS
manuals on this. Note that SSTIF is NOT the same thing as the command PSTRES.
A second thing that helps many nonlinear solutions (both Large Displacement and plastic) to
converge when substeps are being used is to activate the Predictor (PRED) in the Solve
module. (This may be more of a hindrance than a help when gap and other nonlinear
elements will be changing status frequently.)
There are other settings that can be tried when attempts at convergence are not working. I
usually stick to letting the program decide how to use Newton-Raphson iteration and
adaptive descent in the Solve module. Under the Nonlinear settings of the GUI, the user can
modify the Convergence Criteria. I often use only convergence on forces (not moments)
when analyzing shells if I am not inputting any moments directly. I usually reduce the
number of Equilibrium Iterations to 15 when doing shell models, preferring to use smaller
substeps instead. However, in a model with gap or contact elements it may be desirable to
have a much larger number of Equilibrium Iterations. I rarely try Line Search.
Making a good choice of time substep sizes is critically important in getting models to
converge. If shell models of flat plates subjected to pressure or perpendicular forces are
included in the analysis, the shell will at first act as a flat plate in bending. Once the shell has
curved, by movement as small as half its thickness, the shell will start to carry the applied
load with membrane forces. In a model of this type, starting with very small substeps (e.g.
1/100 of the full load) may be needed to achieve convergence. I would start with a very small
first substep, but allow the largest substep to be as large a fraction as 1/4 of the applied load.
If there are no perpendicular loads but the loading is causing Large Displacement, or if
buckling is to be considered, it is likely that small timesteps will be needed toward the end of
the force application ramp. Where there is no pressure or perpendicular force on flat shells, I
would start with a substep such as 1/10 or 1/4 of the applied load, but allow a minimum
substep as small as 1/100 of the full load. If these approaches will not work, it is likely that
convergence control commands in addition to time substep size will need consideration.
If the structure is buckling or undergoing plastic failure, or "simply will not converge" it may
help to use the Arc-Length method. As I have noted elsewhere, I don't use the default ArcLength settings. I usually start with a number of substeps (NSUBST), and don't let the ArcLength solver increase the size of a step beyond my maximum substep size. I let the ArcLength solver use a minimum step size that is 1/10 or 1/100 of my substep size. I let the ArcLength solver use a maximum step size multiplier of one. The Arc-Length method can
follow a rising and falling force-displacement relationship. I find
PlotCtrls/Animate/Dynamic_Results to be useful in reviewing the behavior during an ArcLength analysis, and other nonlinear analyses. I prefer to save the results at every substep
when doing this (Output Ctrls). When using Arc-Length analysis, it is usually desirable to set
16

a criterion to stop an analysis (NCNV). I usually use maximum displacement as the criterion
for shell work.
Remember to ramp up your loads, permit automatic time stepping, and in the NSUBST
command, allow the program to bisection by setting the maximum number of substeps
greater than the minimum number of substeps.
If you are having trouble with convergence, save the results at intermediate substeps so you
can review the stress and displacements. If you are doing combined Large Displacement and
plastic deformation, and having trouble with convergence, consider a study in which you do
(1) an elastic small displacement analysis as a check on element shape, loading, and
constraints, (2) a Large Displacement elastic solution, and possibly (3) a plastic small
displacement solution. If these work without significant warning messages, you should be
making some progress. If gap or contact elements are being used, consider (4) softening the
normal and tangential stiffness values in a preliminary analysis (KN and KS). You can also
(5) try relaxing the convergence criteria on force and/or moment error. If desperate, a
coarsely meshed model may improve speed enough for you to study what helps get an
answer. These preliminary studies may help you to find what settings help you to get
convergence or discover modeling problems before you do more time-consuming accurate
analysis. If you are trying a new technique, consider testing it on a toy-sized problem, before
applying it to a large industrial-sized problem that runs for hours or days, in order to learn
the peculiarities and pitfalls of a particular time-consuming method.
If gap or contact elements are the only nonlinearities in a model, consider substructuring the
linear regions of the model. This can result in a tremendous increase in solution speed. If
only a sub-region of a model will behave in a nonlinear manner, it may reduce solution time
to substructure the region that can be regarded as acting in a linear manner. This speedup
effect or may not occur with large displacement modeling, when the substructure itself will
be undergoing large displacement -- I have done only limited testing of this technique. See
below for a brief discussion and for simple examples of substructuring.
Tip 24: Working with Load Step Files in ANSYS:
Load step files can be used to automate the application of a number of different load cases on
a structure. A load step file contains loads on elements and nodes. It does NOT contain loads
on geometric entities. Consequently, a load step file can be generated after all loads from
geometric entities have been transferred to a model. After all loading on geometric entities
has been deleted, the load step file can be read back in, recovering all applied loads.
Alternatively, consider the "LSCLEAR,SOLID" command. These loads can then be scaled.
The user needs to be careful when manipulating load step files. The load step files may
contain the KUSE instruction telling ANSYS to re-use the TRI file if the constraints have not
changed. If the user deletes a load step file, changes the order of their execution, or manually
modifies their contents, invalid analysis might result.
If the model is re-numbered after load step files are generated, the node and element numbers
in the load step file will no longer be synchronized with the model, and will be invalid. A
way around this is mentioned elsewhere in these notes (See Tip 21).
The reader should take note of the ANSYS user guides comments on the LSCLEAR
command. This deletes all loads and resets all load step options to their defaults. This can
"clean up" the load step data before using LSREAD to read a load step file for modification.
What this implies is that the load step execution process does NOT execute an LSCLEAR
command when a load step file is read in. If it did, then ANSYS would have to implement
substantial checking to see whether a TRI file was safe to re-use, under the frontal solver
(TRI file re-use saves considerable time). Load step implementation can cause havoc when
the user employs load step files in a manner for which the method was not designed. It may
help to read the contents of the LSSOLVE.MAC macro in predicting what will happen, and
17

to see what LSSOLVE does to avoid trouble. The LSSOLVE.MAC macro at ANSYS 5.3
includes some undocumented commands including DMARK, FMARD, SMARK, BMARK,
and a *GET command that retrieves the error number in the /SOLU process. It also uses an
"LSCLEAR,SOLID" command that removes loads on geometric entities before reading in
load step files. It selects all DOF labels, sets xCUM labels to "replace", and does a few other
things. I do not consider the manuals to pursue this topic adequately -- a user ought to read
the macro.
The ANSYS manual comments on the LSREAD command. The command does NOT clear
ALL current loads on the model when it reads in a new load step file (it does clear some...
read the manual).
When using load step files: If loads on nodes and elements are set with BF and BFE
commands (for example applying temperatures for a thermal deformation stress analysis),
then if you set up a subsequent load step, if these temperatures are to be returned to ambient
it may be necessary to use the BF and BFE command to set the nodes and elements to the
reference temperature (by default 0) rather than just deleting the loads using BFDELE and
BFEDELE and using BFUNIF to input the uniform temperature. It may help to use
commands such as "nsel,s,bf,temp,-999,99999" and "esel,s,bfe,temp,-999,99999" to select all
of the nodes or elements to which temperatures have been applied, if you are going to change
them. Be very careful with the BFE command. If you set the value of the temperature at, for
example, four locations on an element with BFE, and in a later load step set the value at only
two locations within an element, the temperature at the other two locations will still be
"hanging around" at the previous value. It is very easy to make this mistake when running a
series of load step files. (Another thing I found out the hard way, in a model where both
piping creation commands and beam elements were used.)
If the user is deleting displacement constraints using DDELE, and then writing an additional
load step file, the old constraint may still be present when the series of load step files is read
in under LSREAD; check for this in your results. Be careful with this. It may compromise
the use of load step files, or require some intervention like writing an input file that calls load
step files in using LSREAD, implementing fix-up commands as needed -- be careful that a
TRI file is not re-used because a load step file contains "KUSE,1" when your changes to
constraints mean that a new TRI file should be generated. Statements in the LSSOLVE.MAC
macro can provide guidance on using LSREAD effectively. You may need to look inside the
load step files with a text editor. Be warned that changing the contents of load step files with
a text editor can be tricky because of unintended side-effects.
In general the user will have to be careful that the "residue" from the loads and
displacements from one load step do not appear inappropriately in later load steps. This is
true when generating the load step files in the first place, and may apply when reading in
load step files with LSREAD. As noted, LSSOLVE.MAC uses cleanup statements.
The user will have to be careful to change loads between load steps in a manner consistent
with getting smooth ramping of loads and displacements, for those cases when this is
desired, either for transient analysis, or for good nonlinear analysis convergence, or when
intermediate results are desired at in-between loads.
Before reading in load step files to solve with LSREAD, ensure that loads on geometric
entities and elements and nodes have been deleted, unless you are keeping them intentionally
(as noted, loads on geometric entities overwrite loads on elements and nodes). As noted,
LSSOLVE.MAC in ANSYS 5.3 contains the command "LSCLEAR,SOLID" to remove the
solid model loads on the model before proceeding.
If Large Displacement analysis is going to be used in analyses run by load step files, the
NLGEOM flag must be set in the first load step file. There will be no NLGEOM command
generated in subsequent load step files. Because ANSYS does not permit the kind of analysis
18

to be changed
when applying
a series of load
steps, error
messages will
be result if the
user changes
the value of
NLGEOM in
the middle of a
set of load step files.
Tip 25: Plotting Shell Stresses -- Surface, Mid-Plane Stress, Load Paths, ESYS and
RSYS:
In the ANSYS database, shell stresses (and strains) for the basic shell elements (63, 43, 143,
181, and 93) are reported at the top and bottom surfaces of the shell element. The user can
has four options in ANSYS 5.3 for plotting shell stresses (and strains). Three of them are
selected with the commands: "SHELL,TOP" , "SHELL,MID" or "SHELL,BOT". These will
cause plotting of shell stresses (and strains) to be based on the values at the top surface, midplane, or bottom surface of each shell element. This is a bit misleading. The mid-plane stress
is based on the average of the stresses at the top and bottom (this may not be correct, at least
for some elements, considering Section 2.3.4 of the Theory manual, which refers to stress on
the mid-plane of a shell element separately from the top and bottom, and forms the force per
linear unit from a weighted average of top surface, mid-plane, and bottom surface stress -what's going on here?). What constitutes the top and bottom of a shell element depends on
the element's orientation when it was defined (see elsewhere in these pages). It is possible to
have adjacent elements, one with a "top" surface pointing upward, and its neighbour with the
"top" surface pointing downward. In complex structures it happens all the time. If nodal
averaged plots are done, for example with "PLNSOL,S,EQV", when either top surface or
bottom surface plotting is chosen, then with such adjacent elements, the plotted top surface
and bottom surface results will get blended, causing a misleading mess to be displayed. (See
Tip 19 for commands that can re-orient shell elements.)
More insight into the flow of stress in a model can be gained by plotting the stress vectors,
using the "PLVECT,S" command. With shells, these vectors will be plotted for the midplane principle stress components. At times you will want to use vector graphics with no
hidden surface removal, to give the best view of these vectors. If there is local compression,
the vectors point inward. These vectors can give insight into load paths in a structure.
Where there are intersections of planes of shell elements, e.g. corners or "Tee" intersections,
or where elements of differing thickness meet, the averaging of node stresses can render
local stress plot information meaningless at the intersection. This is true of both surface and
mid-plane stress plots. This is one way in which excessive stresses will be unintentionally
missed.
Any time that nodal averaged plotting is done, it is possible for the averaging to "wash out"
local stresses that may be important, yet it is common to do nodal averaged plots because of
their much cleaner appearance (I do them myself). The fourth option in plotting shell stresses
is to switch on the ANSYS Powergraphics feature. This causes shell results to be displayed,
even averaged, for the visible surface. Options activated with the AVRES and /EFACET
commands can refine the way the results are plotted under Powergraphics (look them up).
Powergraphics has the options to discontinue the averaging of stress contours where there
are certain discontinuities in the material or geometry in the model. I'm going into this detail,
19

because a high stress that is washed out by nodal averaging could be a stress that causes
serious fatigue or other damage, such as cracking, or a weld being torn apart.
The only shortcoming is that Powergraphics will not work with mid-plane stress. The user
has few options here. Sometimes it is important to select only regions of a model when doing
nodal averaged mid-plane stress plots (using "SHELL,MID", without Powergraphics) so that
the averaging does not wash anything out. A mid-plane stress plot without Powergraphics
can be done for element stresses, using a command like "PLESOL,S,EQV". This will look
messy, but at least it doesn't hide an extreme stress. An alternative I used is discussed
elsewhere in these pages: I wrote a macro to get the mid-plane averaged stress (all
components) at every node of every element (a given node has different results with
reference to each of the elements to which it is attached, so a given node will be looked up as
many times as the number of elements to which it is attached), and transfer it to the top and
bottom surfaces, so that Powergraphics would plot mid-plane averaged stress neatly, with
discontinuities. CAUTION: This ruins the results database. The macro is extremely slow
to run. The method (under Powergraphics) does, however, give far better looking plots than
using the "PLESOL,S,EQV" command to plot mid-plane element stresses without nodal
averaging (without Powergraphics).
LOAD PATHS: The macro I mention above could be modified to multiply the mid-plane
averaged stress components by the local shell element thickness at each node. The resulting
values would yield a contour plot of force per linear inch (or other dimensional unit)
"averaged" at the mid-plane of the shell -- this could help to make load paths visible in a
complex shell structure. "PLVECT,S" plots that would now show arrows corresponding to
the load-per-unit-length on the mid-plane and show the principal directions in which it
points, helping to illustrate the load paths. This macro would also ruin the database for any
other use. Before plotting "load-per-unit-length" data, the user needs to decide how to orient
the results data coordinate systems with RSYS for information such as Sx or Sy that contains
direction information (stress and strain with EQV does not contain direction information).
Note: The Output Data section on Shell63, Shell43, and Shell93 includes In-plane element X,
Y, and XY forces called TX, TY, and TXY. Consequently, shell "force per unit length" data
can be obtained directly in an Element Table very quickly, though with a resolution of one
value per element. (For Shell63, 43, and 93, use SMISC setting 1, 2, or 3 when generating
the element table data.) The Theory Manual uses the term In-plane forces per unit length
20

while the elements manual refers to just forces as above -- a simple test I ran shows the data
to be force per unit length. The elements manual ought to clarify this. The Element Table
data can be contour plotted, but there are no principal stress style vector plots of table data.
(Clarification: PLVECT can plot vector arrows based on 3 ETABLE columns, but not the
double-headed arrows for an ETABLE as in a principal stress vector plot.) The Elements
manual shows the TX, TY, and TXY values not being available under "Miscellaneous
Element Output" at every node, only at the centroid. The Elements manual does not
explicitly show that S,EQV or S,INT stress information can be extracted at the mid-plane.
Their value is extracted with the component name method. Brief experimentation shows that
if the command "SHELL,MID" is followed by "ETABLE,SEQVMID,S,EQV" that the
column called SEQVMID will contain an average SEQV value for the mid-plane. If
"SHELL,TOP" or "SHELL,BOT" is called, the ETABLE value of SEQV will change if the
update command "ETABLE,REFL" is executed. Warning: When plotting ETABLE shell
element element table data with PLETAB the plot information legend will read TOP, MID,
or BOT according to the current setting of the SHELL command. This bit of information
DOES NOT reflect the SHELL surface setting conditions in effect when the ETABLE data
was stored, and could be misleading. For this reason, the label used for the column should
indicate the shell layer setting in use when the element table data was loaded, as with
"SEQVMID" above. Doing an element table update with ETABLE,REFL will re-fill
columns with results data. A change of the SHELL layer setting can change stress results that
are loaded in an update. Consequently, loading shell element data must be handled very
carefully in order that the layer choice is controlled. Element table data from the CALC
module (adding columns etc.) is NOT updated and has to be explicitly re-calculated.
NOTE Also: The direction of the element table load-per-unit-length TX, TY, and TXY is as
taken from the element in Element Coordinates. Unlike SX or SY, the values of TX, TY, and
TXY appear to be insensitive to the RSYS setting. The Element Coordinate System will vary
orientation from element to element, particularly under free meshing, and affects the
usefulness of TX, TY, and TXY data. The element table data can be processed by the user to
yield a new table column containing the "load-per-unit-length intensity" in the sense of a
Mohr's circle, giving rapid if somewhat coarse plots of load path information along the shell
mid-plane. The plots will usually be more informative without nodal averaging. Section 2.3.4
of the ANSYS Theory manual discusses Forces and Moments per unit length on shell
elements -- the suggestion is that internally, at least for some shell elements, the mid-plane
stress is NOT simply the average of the top and bottom stresses. The way around the
problem of element coordinate systems being arbitrarily oriented is to define local coordinate
systems before meshing areas (or otherwise generating shell elements) and use ESYS to get
all shell elements oriented with the local coordinate systems. ESYS assigned to elements can
be modified after the fact but before SOLVE, by using the EMODIF command in /PREP7. It
may be desirable to have a local coordinate system aligned with each flat area to be meshed
with shell elements so that all shell element coordinate systems can be aligned in the plane of
the area -- a time consuming process unless a macro is used. Curved surfaces would be
difficult.
The problem of orienting coordinate systems in the plotting of results is illustrated by the
images below. The first shows 3 elements that were created during free meshing. The
elements are plotted using vector graphics, with the element coordinate systems shown. Each
element has its coordinate system oriented differently. The image below it lists the elements
and their node numbers. Look at the sequence of node numbers for the three elements to see
why the element coordinate systems point in such different directions.
21
The next two images show a plot of TX done from an element table. The element table was
filled by the TX values for the elements (this is the load-per-unit-length in the element
coordinate system X direction). The values differ so much from element to element because
of the difference in the element coordinate systems. The plot consequently tells us too little.
The following element plot of Sx shows the stress in the X direction. The results are shown
in the global coordinate system.
22
The final images in this section show a group of Shell63 elements that have had their
element coordinate systems aligned with local coordinate systems at the time of the creation
of the elements, by the use of the ESYS command. This will permit element table results TX,
TY, and TXY to be aligned in a known manner. This also permits Sx, Sy, and Sxy to be
aligned in the plane of the elements creation if RSYS,SOLU is active when plotting stress
results. Knowlege of the alignment of the loads and stresses can make plots more useful in
23

understanding load paths, reduce the total number of plots required in model assessment, and
help facilitate an evaluation of loading on welds. The first plot with vector graphics shows
the elements with their element coordinate systems. Note that they are aligned. There are two
local coordinate systems at work in this example -- they are numbered 11 and 12 and their
symbols are plotted. Elements have been created aligned with number 11 in one plane, and
aligned with number 12 in the other plane of elements. A line pressure has been applied in
the global -Y direction. The second plot with raster graphics is of Sx at the shell mid-plane.
Because RSYS,SOLU was active when the Sx plot was generated, there are Sx values shown
in all elements. If RSYS,0 were active when the Sx plot was done, the plane of elements that
is perpendicular to the global X axis would show zero stress in the X direction in this
example.
24
There is an alternative to using ESYS and RSYS,SOLU to align element coordinate systems
for the purposes of stress plots like Sx, Sy, and Sxy. During postprocessing in /POST1, a
local coordinate system can be aligned with the plane of shell elements of interest, and RSYS
set to that local coordinate system, before plotting Sx, Sy, or Sxy. However, this would do
nothing for TX, TY, and TXY which depend on the element coordinate system and are
generated in an Element Table.
I leave the topic of whether to plot surface or mid-plane shell stresses to the reader to
determine. Too much is industry or application domain specific. Hint: Check mid-plane plus
both shell surface stresses. Surface stresses and strains can cause local bending, cracking,
breaking of protective coatings, fatigue, and imply possible overload or prying of welds and
fasteners, and can highlight other troubles.
Tip 26: Nodal Coupling (CP) versus Rigid Region (CERIG):
I have seen analysts mistakenly use nodal coupling where rigid region constraint equations
should have been employed. (The nodes concerned were not at the same location in space.)
Rigid region constraint locks together a selected set of nodes so that they translate AND
rotate in space as if they were locked together by an infinitely stiff structure. Nodal coupling
locks together selected degrees of freedom (translation and/or rotation) individually, so that
the same degree of freedom value will result for the nodes in the coupled set. Nodal coupling
will not combine the rotations and translations that are necessary to imply rotation as a rigid
body in space.
25

Note that rigid region constraint may not be appropriate for Large Displacement, when the
displacement rotations are significant (sin(theta) differing from theta, etc.). This is because
ANSYS uses a linear approximation to the rigid body rotation matrix. A rigid region
grouping can be implied by tying nodes together with extremely stiff beam elements (zeromass beam elements a few orders of magnitude stiffer than the structure to which they are
attached.) The beam elements should have the advantage that they work under Large
Displacement. The beam elements should not be too stiff, or ill-conditioned matrices could
result. If the beams are of very widely varying lengths, then some may be too stiff, others too
flexible -- remember that flexibility is proportional to length cubed.
I ran a model in which about one thousand beam elements were used to position gap
elements. These beam elements would ideally have been infinitely stiff. I needed elements,
instead of nodal coupling or constraint equations, because of thermal expansion
considerations. The beam elements were widely varying in length. This created solver
trouble, until I wrote a macro that assigned each beam element a unique REAL value, which
set values for each BEAM4's Ixx, Iyy, Izz, and Area as a function of the element's length. I
found it sufficient to set their stiffness a couple of orders of magnitude stiffer that contact
stiffness for the gap elements.
Turning on the symbols for nodal coupling and for nodal constraint equations is very helpful
in reviewing the correctness of a model.
Tip 27: Vibration Modes with Pre-stress:
Calculation of natural frequencies and modes of vibration CAN be done with pre-stressing of
the structure under ANSYS. There is a "PRESTRESS" flag to set under modal analysis. This
is available in the dialog box for Modal Analysis Options. First, do a static analysis with the
prestress flag set. Exit Solution (click Finish or enter "/fini"). Re-enter Solution, and do a
modal analysis with the prestress flag set again. This does not seem to work when the stress
run is done with Large Displacement activated.
I leave the question of how a performer plays music with a hand saw and a violin bow as an
"exercise for the reader" :-)
Tip 28: Creating New Elements by Copying or Reflecting Existing Structure:
In order to create new elements by reflecting or copying existing elements, there are a few
things to do. First, select the elements to be copied and get their nodes with NSLE. Copy or
reflect the nodes, noting the nodal number offset that will be used -- write it down. Copy or
reflect the elements, using the nodal offset number that you wrote down. ANSYS should
default to a nodal offset number equal to your highest numbered node. If you make it
smaller, you run the risk of changing the location of nodes that already exist, resulting in a
lovely mess. If you are running something like ANSYS/ED you may want to compress your
node numbers first, for if a node number results that exceeds the ANSYS/ED limit, the
program will terminate immediately (the more recent ANSYS revisions may give a non-fatal
warning message and quit some time later if you don't clean up). You could compress the
node numbers, and then make the offset number equal one plus the difference between the
maximum node number of the whole model and the lowest node number of those nodes to be
copied or reflected. You can find these node numbers with *GET commands. (Remember
that compressing node or element numbers will destroy synchronization with Load Step
files.)
The same nodal offset number will need to be used if nodal coupling is to be copied as well.
In order to copy nodal coupling, use "Generate Coupled DOF Sets with same DOF" for
which you will need the same nodal offset number. Do a replot to see the newly created
nodal coupling. Caution: Be sure that if nodes were deleted earlier, that nodal coupling
equations that in the past included those deleted nodes were also deleted. If you forget, you
may get a pretty mess.
26

Remember that if there are nodes on the plane of reflection, new nodes will overlay them.
Merge commands may be wanted for the nodes on the reflection plane. Now the tricky part:
elements lying in the reflection plane (shell elements will do this) get generated with the
node order reversed, because of the mirror imaging. They Will Not Merge with the element
from which they were reflected. They may have to be deleted, depending on what you are
trying to accomplish. Alternatively, do not select elements that lie in the plane of reflection
when reflecting the structure. You still need to reflect the nodes on the plane of reflection, in
order to reflect the elements that will join them to the remainder of the reflected structure, so
the nodal merge will still be needed.
Tip 29: Adding to a Model Comprised of Elements and Nodes Only:
It may happen that a model that consists of nodes and elements only has to have a section
replaced, or requires the addition of more structure. The way to attach new geometry onto
existing nodes and elements is to: (1) Place keypoints on the nodes onto which new
geometry is to be built (i.e. grafted). (2) Join these keypoints with lines. (3) Set mesh density
along these lines to only one element. (4) Build new geometry outward from these keypoints
and lines. This gets messy if you are building solids. (5) Mesh the new geometry. (6) Select
the nodes (new and old) along the interface between the old nodes and the nodes of the new
geometry. (7) Merge ONLY these nodes along the interface using the NUMMRG,NODE
command. Alternatively (much more work unless a macro is written or the CPINTF
command is used correctly), fully couple the PAIRS of nodes with the CP command. In the
event of elements with mid-side nodes, lines will have to be created curved so that a single
line spans three keypoints placed on the three nodes along the edge of an element. It is
probably advisable to connect elements with mid-side nodes to other elements with mid-side
nodes.
This attaches the new geometry and mesh to the old elements and nodes. Be sure to double
check that the merging has been done correctly and according to your intentions -- I have
found this to be a surprisingly error-prone operation.
Tip 30: Zero Mass Beam Elements Form Rigid Region:
An analyst could use very stiff beam elements (a few orders of magnitude stiffer than the
surrounding structure) in order imply a rigid region grouping of nodes, which works under
Large Displacement (a CERIG group does not work with large displacement). This is an old
FEA trick -- it is not perfect. A separate material should be created for these beams, and be
given zero mass (set the material density to zero) so that no gravitational or other inertial
load acts on the material. A thermal expansion coefficient should be input if appropriate -- it
would usually be identical to the coefficient value for the structure that it approximates.
I wrote a macro to create a rigid region using beam elements. It is called after the set of
nodes to be connected is selected. The lowest numbered of the set of nodes is attached to
each of the other nodes in the set by a beam element. The beam element to use has to be set
up in advance, and the appropriate MAT, REAL, and TYPE set by the user. A macro like
this is very fast to run. Caution: Such a macro would become complex if it checked for
duplicate nodes at the first node location (ANSYS can't use zero length beams), and checked
for widely varying beam lengths. This is not a guaranteed method.
Tip 31: Turn off Symbols When Changing a Model after Solution:
If you have run SOLVE, the results database will be full of data. If you then change a model,
and create anything that plots a symbol, all symbols become active, and plots become
extremely slow. Turn off symbols with /PBC,ALL,,0 to speed things up. I put this command
in the Toolbox for convenience. I have found that plotting can become slow with very large
models when loads have been applied, and even when applied and deleted. Presumably
ANSYS is checking to see if any symbols should be shown. The plotting speeded up
27

considerably when symbols were turned off with "/PBC,ALL,,0" even though there were, in
fact, no symbols to be plotted.
Tip 32: Are the "Free-Free" Vibration Modes Relevant?:
Simple supports on a structure may be appropriate for static analysis and gravity loading,
since the structure will "sink" until the simple support reacts enough to withstand the applied
load. If a modal vibration is excited, small amplitude vibrations
may result in very little response from the support, and vibration
similar to a structure that is free in space may result (this is
obviously very problem dependent). If so, it may be desirable to
run a modal vibration analysis with no constraints. More than six
modes must be requested, since the first 6 represent the free
translation and rotation, and give Zero eigenvalues. A better
approach would be to characterize the flexibility of the constraint
points. With some structures, you may get a few surprises, as
torsional and other vibration modes appear.
Tip 33: Selecting a CAD or FEA System -- Cover Yourself
It is common to evaluate a few CAD or FEA packages when trying to make the right choice
for a purchase. Watch out for this stunt: (I've seen it done, and been threatened with it once
(I laughed at her).) A losing vendor writes a letter to your boss, or even to the head of your
company, claiming that the engineers are incompetent (stupid, uninformed, can't spell, and so
on) and making a huge mistake. If the boss is not an engineer and cannot understand the
issues, this could get awkward. (Certain Dilbert cartoons come to mind.) Warn your boss(es)
in advance that a few vendors pull this move and that you and your group will evaluate the
products in a thorough manner. Write down some criteria and your assessments. Also, be
careful that you cannot be accused of leaking information unfairly from one vendor to
another -- date your correspondence carefully, and work through your purchasing department
if that is appropriate at your firm. Some sales-types are very greedy for their commissions,
and petulant when they lose. (Names will not be mentioned, to protect the guilty. If you've
been around the block a couple of times, perhaps you can make a few guesses.)
(The ANSYS vendor I've dealt with has been very professional.)
Tip 34: Creating Lines Perpendicular to, or at Angle to Existing Lines
When creating structures in the /PREP7 portion of ANSYS, I find that the commands that
create lines that are perpendicular to existing lines, or at an angle to existing lines, are
extremely useful. Look at the commands LANG, LTAN, L2ANG, as well as the others.
These commands break lines where new lines intersect, even though the original lines are
already attached to areas. Since I often model shells that are to act as if they are welded
together, I need the lines to be shared where areas contact each other. These commands give
the connectivity I need.
The command that meets another line at an angle may do better if it is entered manually,
with the first guess of the contact point set at 0.0, 0.5, or 1.0, depending on your intention.
This often succeeds when the interface command fails.
Tip 35: Use the /UI command in Your ANSYS Toolbar to Bring up GUI Dialog Boxes
Take a look at the /UI command in ANSYS. You can use it in your Toolbar to activate
certain GUI dialog boxes with one-click simplicity, instead of finding your way though the
menu system. I sometimes get odd results from the Hard Copy command when I do this -- I
have no idea why.
Tip 36: Reaction Force, Nodal Force, and Load Paths
I worked on a model subject to aerodynamic pressure and gravity load. We needed to know
the load that the structure would apply to its foundations. Printing the Reaction Force would
28

give this value, however the +/- sign is in the direction of the force that the constrained node
(or nodes) applies TO the structure. If nodes are selected with the three commands
NSEL,S,D,UX $ NSEL,A,D,UY $ NSEL,A,D,UZ the Nodal Force at the constrained nodes
can be printed. This is the force with which the nodes press on the supports. (NOTE: You
may need to include nodes where there are constraints on rotation, depending on what you
are modeling.)
WARNING: A number of things can go wrong with this approach.
1. If you ask for nodal forces without limiting the node selection to nodes where there
are constraints, you will get nodal forces wherever forces and pressures have been
applied to your structure. (For the curious, printing nodal forces when only pressure
has been applied to shell and high order elements will illustrate that FEA software
inputs a complex set of forces and moments because of how the elements are derived
from first principles. What is being printed is the force with which the nodes react to
the forces input from outside -- if a moment is input, a nodal "force" moment is
output in reaction.)
2. If an input force has been applied to a constrained node, the nodal force and the
reaction force magnitudes will differ. When I tested this, the reaction force that
ANSYS listed was modified by the presence of a force applied directly to a
constrained node, whereas the nodal force (that is based only on element
deformation) was not affected.
3. IMPORTANT: All the elements to which the selected node is attached must be
selected in order to get the total force with which the node pushes on the outside
world (use ESLN after selecting the nodes). The generation of Nodal Force (and
Reaction Force, if I remember correctly) is determined from the deformation and
stiffness of attached elements. If elements attached to a node of interest are not
selected, then the contribution of those elements to the force at the node is not
included and will be missing.
4. Caution: If you have used a rigid region with the node of interest, the lack of element
deformation means that you will NOT get the Nodal Force or Reaction correctly -you may need to work from the set of nodes where the rigid region attaches to the
flexible part of the structure. I'm not sure what kind of effects nodal coupling would
have.
There are various other uses to which you can put Nodal Force. You can plot the Nodal
Force vectors along with your model (see the /PBC command), after SOLVE, giving visual
cues during your review. You can use NODAL FORCE to find out about the load being
carried in certain Load Paths:
Determine where to position a "cut" in the model. Locate it where you want to
determine the force carried across the cut. The "cut" should follow a path along the
edge of a set of adjoining elements. Select all the elements on ONE side of the "cut".
Select the nodes on the "cut" side of those elements.
Printing the Nodal Force (forces only) will tell you about the forces that your selected
elements apply to those nodes. The sum that is printed tells you the total force carried
across the "cut" in the X, Y, Z directions, based on the selected elements.
Caution: Getting the moment across the cut is not so easy, because moment is
determined with respect to an axis. You would have to do extra work to pursue
moment across a cut, determining your "neutral" axis, and using other commands.
See, for example, ANSYS manuals information on the SPOINT command.
Note my earlier comment Tip 25 on making load paths visible in shell models. For further
information, read the ANSYS manuals on the FSUM and NFORCE commands.
29

Tip 37: Inputting Temperatures with BF, BFE, and TUNIF in Structural Analysis
As discussed by ANSYS in Chapter 2.6 of the Elements Manual, Body Loads (temperatures
for structural analysis that cause thermal strains and affect temperature dependent material
properties) may be input in a nodal format or an element format. "Either the nodal or the
element loading format may be used for an element, with the element format taking
precedence. Body Loads are designated in the "Input Summary" of each element." This
means that if both BFE and BF are applied to an element and its nodes, and the inputs differ,
the BFE setting will govern. If temperature is input on a nodal basis, the temperature input at
a node will influence all the attached elements. If temperature is input on an element basis,
the temperature(s) input will influence only the element to which it was applied. The
commands TUNIF and BFUNIF can be used to set all nodes to one default temperature that
differs from the reference temperature. Then, BF or BFE commands can to used on specific
regions of the model to put in other temperatures.
If you use piping commands to create pipe elements, and have applied temperatures, ANSYS
will apply the temperatures on an element basis (to check this, generate a Load Step file and
inspect its contents, or use the BFLIST and BFELIST commands). For the user applying
temperatures directly, it can be a little simpler to apply temperatures on a nodal basis with
BF, since the nodes can be selected by location. Inputting temperatures on an element basis
with BFE permits control of things such as temperature differences between the inside and
outside of pipe elements, or between the top and bottom of beam elements. The element
listing in the Elements Manual should be consulted before applying temperatures with BFE.
As I discussed elsewhere, if you change temperatures that were previously set with BFE, the
temperatures have to be changed at all the locations within each element to which
temperatures were applied. Otherwise, the old temperatures will still be there. You may want
to clean up with a BFEDELE or other cleanup command before starting. The BFDELE and
BFEDELE commands only act on selected nodes and elements -- if you want to remove all
temperature application, select the full model first. Be wary of what happens when you use
Load Step files.
Tip 38: ANSYS Toolbar Use
The ANSYS Toolbar can be very helpful in giving "one click"

access to frequently used commands. Toolbar buttons can also
call macros, or the function form of commands, for example
Fnc_Pl_Symbols to bring up the dialog box for setting symbols.
If you want to get fancy, a toolbar button could be used to
activate an alternative toolbar.
In the toolbar shown here, a variety of buttons have been
enabled. Some of the captions are a little cryptic; this is because
the captions are limited to only 8 characters. The command that
gets executed cannot include the $ sign. Consequently, only one
command can be executed, however, a macro can be called in
order to perform a complex set of instructions. The toolbar
editing is brought up from the menu item "MenuCtrls". In the
example toolbar shown here, the buttons are not in a highly
30

logical order. In order to modify the button sequence, save the toolbar (I suggest the
unimaginative file name "toolbar") and re-order the lines in that file with a text editor. Keep
the eventual sizing of your toolbar in mind. The example here is sized for six rows deep, and
seven columns wide. Use the "Save Menu Layout" menu selection to save the layout of all of
your ANSYS windows including the toolbar shape. (This setting is destroyed if you modify
the "GUI configuration" under your ANSYS Interactive startup dialog box.) When you are
happy with the layout of your toolbar, you can append the toolbar file's contents to the end of
the "Start.ans" file located in the ANSYS "DOCU" subdirectory.
Tip 39: ANSYS Piping Elements
The use of ANSYS piping elements, Pipe16 and Pipe18, can simplify the work required to
create models of piping systems that will satisfy certain code requirements. Piping
commands can be used in /PREP7 to directly create models of piping. In using piping
creation commands, a user works out the intersection points of the runs of piping as if there
are sharp angle bends. Each run of pipe is entered as dx, dy, dz, creating Pipe16 elements,
and then a radius of curvature at the previous intersection can be applied, creating Pipe18
elements. The Pipe18 elements are taken out of the two Pipe16 elements that met at the last
corner intersection. If these two Pipe16 elements are too small to encompass the Pipe18 bend
elements, difficulties will result. If the user is defining U-bends, it is easy to have zero-length
Pipe16 elements generated. My approach to this is to inspect the model for zero-length
Pipe16 elements, and delete them, after I make sure that all pipe nodes are merged. I use a
macro to inspect the model and do the deletions. Checks are included in the macro, because
Pipe18 elements always return a zero length. I have also seen users do a U-bend with a small
extra space so that a very small Pipe16 element will remain between the two 90 degree bends
that make up the 180 degree U-bend, avoiding a zero-length element problem.
To list or plot useful stress information from the piping model usually requires putting
selected results data into element data tables, and the use of appropriate PLLS commands.
Fortunately, ANSYS includes many output possibilities for the two piping element types, so
typical piping code requirements can be met. See the element manual for these elements for
information on the available output data.
For obvious reasons, I leave proper use of design codes within piping analysis as an
"exercise for the reader." :-)
Piping creation in ANSYS includes the possibility of added mass due to fluid in the pipes,
and from insulation added to the piping. The insulation addition is simple -- the user can
input thickness and density. This lets the added mass presence of heat exchanger fins be
easily faked by inputting the product of fin_thickness x fins_per_inch x fin_material_density
as the "insulation" density, and fin height as the "insulation" thickness. (Substitute the
appropriate dimension for fins_per_inch, etc. for your system of units.)
The deflection behavior of pipe elements is based on ANSYS beam elements. If accurate
vibration behavior is to be modeled, at least several pipe elements will be needed between
supports. If accurate gravity-induced deflections and stress are wanted, better results will
come from the use of a consistent mass matrix, if element density between supports is low.
Developing an understanding of the function of the ANSYS element creation commands
(BRANCH, RUN, BEND, and so on) will require creating some elements with material and
dimensional information, then reviewing what element TYPE and REAL data has been
created in the model database. Model review is enhanced by plotting the elements with the
/ESHAPE option active.
Where piping is connected with sliding supports to the outside world, the use of gap
elements may be needed if sliding friction is to be included in the model. ANSYS does not
differentiate between static friction and sliding friction coefficients, so a reasonable and
conservative value for coefficient of friction (as well as contact stiffness of the gap element)
31

will have to be determined by the analyst. If there are thermal expansions in the piping,
stresses predicted by the model will usually be reduced if the gaps in the support structure
are included in the model (depending on the nature of the structure) rather than having
"tight" fits at the sliding connections.
Tip 40: Graphical Output from ANSYS
If you start up ANSYS under Windows NT with "win32" selected for graphics, the stress
plots will be shaded. If you select "win32c" for the graphics, the stress plots will not be
shaded, and will usually look better when plotted to paper, especially when plotted from
ANSYS with HardCopy to ink jet printers. They can be selected with the commands
/SHOW,WIN32 and /SHOW,WIN32C when using the GUI.
Plotting to the screen window with Z-buffering as the hidden surface control can give very
satisfactory and often quicker results. Hard copies of these Z-buffer plots, however, will look
"pixelated", being limited to a coarse resolution. Better looking hard copies to paper will
usually result if the screen is set to "Precise Hidden" or even to Centroidal hidden surface
control. This is usually true of plots sent to a file, for subsequent processing with the ANSYS
DISPLAY program.
Plots can be redirected to files by using the /SHOW command. This permits the DISPLAY
program to do various things with the results, including the generation of animations. Under
Windows NT, an animation can be generated as an AVI file.
I occasionally find it helpful to generate an animation file based on a single stress plot of a
load step, in which I spin the model about the screen X or Y axis. You can use the /ANGLE
command and the /REPLOT command to accomplish this. A simple macro does /REPLOT
calls with the model set at a series of angles from 0 to 360 degrees. You can even execute
this command on one line using the "$" symbol to separate the commands. The command
"*DO,III,0,355,5$/ANGLE,ALL,III,YS,0$/REPLOT$*ENDDO" will achieve this for you.
The scaling of the display should NOT be set with /ZOOM,OFF or else the image will
"move in and out" in order to fill the screen as the view is rotated -- set the zoom level
manually with picking; you may want to move out so that the model fits in all views. You
may need to experiment. Node plots without symbols are a quick way to assess the behavior
while testing. If the plots have been re-directed to a file when this command is executed, the
plots in the file can be animated by the ANSYS DISPLAY program.
AT the ANSYS 5.3 level, and presumably above, you can do a /SHOW,VRML plot to get a
3-D VRML file produced of a 3-D model plot. This could be a stress contour plot of a 3-D
model. With the right options activated for a good VRML viewer plugged into a Web
browser, the stresses on the 3-D model can be reviewed at any viewing angle with the
positioning control a VRML viewer. This ought to be particularly interesting on a computer
with a fast 3-D graphics accelerator.
There are utilities that can convert a Postscript output file from the ANSYS DISPLAY
program into a bitmap image file. A free conversion program is Ghostscript, once you figure
out how to use it. The user should get a front end for the Ghostscript program, for ease of
use.
Under Windows NT, the Alt/PrintScreen key combination will copy a window to the
Clipboard. This can be used to capture an ANSYS graphics window for pasting into a word
processor document, or into an image processing program for conversion to a GIF or other
bitmap file. GIF files can be used in WEB pages to show the results of ANSYS work. I
recommend GIF over JPEG files for images from ANSYS, because GIF files precisely
reproduce 256, 16, and 2 color images (you have to reduce the colors to 256 or fewer levels
in the image processing program, or accept the default color reduction used when the GIF
file is generated.) Before capturing the Graphics window of ANSYS, set its size to your
satisfaction. Bitmap image size changes in an image processing program are not satisfactory
32

with this type of graphical output. If you want to get really fancy, generate a GIF file that
contains an animation of a ANSYS model. (Animated GIF files can be generated from
individual images with software that you can find on the Web or purchase.)
Re-sizing of the ANSYS graphics window under Windows NT is painful if a model has been
plotted, because ANSYS wants to keep re-plotting the image as the window edge or corner is
dragged. This problem goes away if you set the Windows NT Display Properties to NOT
show window contents while dragging. I keep my PC permanently set this way for this
reason.
Tip 41: Check Nodal Loads at Bolts, Rivets, Spot Welds and Links
Wherever connection by bolts, rivets, or spot welds has been represented by various
simplifications or representations in an ANSYS model, the load on those connections should
be checked, and compared with allowables. Spot weld review may require assessment of
moments (especially about an axis perpendicular to the sheets that are spot welded together),
as well as assessment of forces. One way to do this is to select the appropriate node(s) at the
connection, select elements on "one side" of the node(s), and check nodal loads. The
connection devices should not be overloaded. The hole in which a bolt or rivet is placed must
not be overloaded or too near an outside edge of a sheet or plate, either. Additionally,
building codes usually forbid or substantially limit "prying" loads on bolted and riveted
connections. If the FEA model has good detail, including gap or contact elements, a high
prying load can be demonstrated in some models (never assume your FEA model will
automatically show you all trouble spots).
Similarly, links or "spars" that are loaded should be checked for stress, and be checked for
buckling. Since a link will be represented by one element that is pin connected at the ends,
and only cross section area is entered, ANSYS will not generate buckling information about
the link, not even in a Large Displacement analysis. The user must do some work to compare
compressive load with critical buckling load (use a good margin of safety). A user could
write a macro to step through all link elements, identifying the compressive stress and force,
and calculating buckling information. The ANSYS Link10 element supports a tension-only
and a compression-only capability. Where it is not known in advance whether all links will
remain in tension, and the links are slender, this element could be used to imply that no link
can support compression for what may be a "worst case" evaluation of some models. An
example would be the stays that support the mast on a sailboat, with pre-tensioning implied
with initial strain. (If the stays are woven rope or steel cable, getting a representative
crossection for the link elements will require some extra work.)
Spot weld representation in large structures is usually an inexact science in FEA modeling.
Spot welds will be found, for example, in many automobile body structures. Plug welds are a
stronger alternative, applicable to thicker steel sheets and plates. The crudest and quickest
representation of spot welds is to merge coincident nodes from the two joined layers where
nodes have been intentionally created coincident at the spot weld. Alternatively, the nodes
can be fully coupled with the CP command if they are coincident. They can be joined as a
rigid region with CERIG if the nodes are close but not touching as when shell elements are
kept at the mid-plane position of two sheets that are spot welded together. (Remember that
CERIG is valid only in small displacement analysis -- coupling with zero-mass stiff beam
elements could be substituted if large displacements were needed.) The shell nodes can be
joined with a beam element that has properties that reflect the diameter of the spot weld. The
roughest approximation will merge or couple just one node pair. If nodal coupling is used,
rotations should be coupled as well as translations, for spot weld representation. NOTE:
With shell elements, read the "drilling mode" comments in the ANSYS Elements Manual -it may be necessary to set a KEYOPT value to transmit rotation and torque about an axis
perpendicular to the shell elements when a spot weld is crudely represented by single node
33

pair coupling, merging, CERIG, or beam elements. Contact elements between the joined
shells or materials may want consideration. Exactly what to do for spot weld representation
is very problem, industry, and material dependent. These very approximate techniques tell us
little or nothing about stress, fatigue, or fracture possibilities near or at the weld. More
elaborate modeling (more nodes and elements, and special element types) of each spot weld
could give more information about local stresses, when local stresses matter. Studying the
"crack" that is hidden between the sheet metal layers in a spot weld is an "advanced topic" -discuss this with an expert or consultant. I doubt that you would find many spot welds used
with aluminum, not only because of the difficulty of welding aluminum, but also because of
the fatigue considerations -- consider how commonly aircraft use rivets and modern
adhesives.
I have never worked in aerospace, but I recently had a look inside an old helicopter that was
on public display. In addition to rivets, what was either a caulking or an adhesive appeared to
have been used between some ribs and the outer shell. This may prevent corrosion in the gap,
and help reduce vibration and fretting or galling. If it is purely a soft caulking, it might be
ignored in FEA, but if it functions as an adhesive, the load on the rivets is probably reduced.
Presumably the manufacturer has standards for this type of design.
Tip 42: Use QUERY to Check Results with Picking
In /POST1 the "Query Results" capability applied to nodes makes it easy to check on results
(stresses, strains, deflections, etc.) by picking nodes. For the shell element illustrated, the
result will be reported for the Top, Middle, or Bottom, according to how the SHELL
command was issued (the usual rules as to what constitutes the Top and Bottom of a shell
element apply). It will do this even if PowerGraphics is active for the plot on the screen.
Note that the nodal stresses are based on averages if more than one element that is connected
to a node is selected. You can inspect the consequence of element selection on nodal stress
easily with this feature. The element query returns only data on energy and error estimation.
Tip 43: Loads on Geometric Entities Overwrite Loads on Nodes and Elements -- Easy
Error to Make
My "dumb move of the week" was to retrieve an old model of a beam with redundant
supports, change the load on a node, and re-run the model. I then updated the element table
results, and used PLLS to plot the result, as shown below. This is a plot of top surface
bending stress, with gravity loading included. Both applied point loads and reactions are
shown as colored arrows. Stress colors have been gray scaled for printing to a black and
white laser printer. Upon inspection by a co-worker, he noticed that the results were the same
as the results the last time the model was run, under different loading, a month before. What
was wrong?
The model database file had been saved with the original loading and results. The original
model had the load applied to the keypoints. I changed the load on a node. When I ran
SOLVE, the load on the keypoint OVERWROTE the load on the node, and I got the old
result. When I listed the applied forces with FLIST before running SOLVE, I saw my
modified loads. When I listed the applied forces with FLIST after running SOLVE, I got the
OLD loads on the nodes. The same principle applies to loads on lines, areas, and volumes.
Presumably, it happens with applied displacements, also. Since loads on geometric entities
cannot be scaled, there may be little reason to keep the loads on geometric entities after these
loads have been transferred to nodes and elements, EXCEPT when meshing may be changed
in the future. The use of components is an alternative way to select parts of the model for
loading.
34
Suggestion: The user should add a warning annotation stating that loading is on geometric
entities, before archiving a model. Should ANSYS add a warning message about SOLVE
transferring loads from geometric entities, which requires user acknowledgment?
A potentially dangerous mistake -- watch for it!
Tip 44: Use Components for Load Input, and for Results Review
A user-written input file could be used to apply loads to components that the user has
defined. An even more convenient use for components is for reviewing stresses due to a
load. The components can be called up and stresses plotted without the need to do manual
selection over and over for each load case. I wrote a macro that automatically steps through
all components, plotting the stresses for each component from a couple of viewpoints, for
each load case. When the plots were diverted to a plot file, the file could be used in ANSYS
DISPLAY to plot stresses for all components for all load cases. Statements in the macro
would put the component name and weight (based on volume only) in an annotation; the title
already contained the load case name.
Tip 45: Simple Substructuring Examples-- Bottom Up and Top Down
ANSYS/ED is capable of only a small number of Master Degrees of Freedom (50 the last
time I looked), so any use of substructuring in ANSYS/ED will have to be done with a very
small number of nodes for master degree of freedom use. A 2-D element such as PLANE42
may be best for many substructure experiments with ANSYS/ED. In Large Displacement
substructuring, rotational degrees of freedom are needed at the nodes, and ANSYS/ED will
only handle very small numbers of nodes -- 2-D beams may be best for learning experiments
with Large Displacement. The problem with using beams elements for learning is that review
of stresses is more complex; element tables must be used to hold and display beam stress
information. For an alternative, consider SHELL63 elements with very few MDOF nodes (8
nodes x 6 DOF/node = 48 DOF), in Large Displacement substructuring studies.
Substructuring has become more rare in FEA work, because of the capacity of modern
computers for large models. There are still times when it is desirable, such as when gap
elements or contact elements are employed in large models, or when extremely large models
are in use. The user will have to employ some insight to select substructures in a way that
minimizes the resulting number of degrees of freedom and wavefront size. Substructuring is
a relatively tricky procedure, particularly with multiple substeps or multiple substructures.
For serious use, the ANSYS manuals on substructuring should be purchased and studied in
detail.
The reader is reminded that the elements inside a substructure are treated as linear. Any
nonlinear elements grouped inside the substructure will be treated as if they were in their
initial condition, without material nonlinearity. The two simple examples below do not
address use of multiple substructures, multiple load cases, g-loading, vibrations, and other
complications. Nonlinearity (Large Displacement) is mentioned only briefly. If you do not
turn to expert help for substructure work, I recommend substantial testing of any techniques
on small models before doing any real work.
35

Warning: Read the ANSYS Elements Manual section on MATRIX50 the superelement. Note
its warning that if gravity is applied during the "gen" pass when the superelement is created,
and gravity is applied during the "use" pass, it will be applied TWICE to the superelement
substructure DOUBLING the gravity load on the superelement region of the model. For this
reason, gravity load would have to be introduced "carefully". Unfortunately, a detailed
desctiption of this careful application is not included in the base ANSYS manuals. In the
"Top Down" example below, I set "ACEL" for the model to ZERO in all three global
coordinate directions during the "gen" part that generates the superelement. If the user has
applied gravity to the model file that is read in, it will be applied during the "use" part of the
analysis, and so only applied once to the superelement. This may affect the accuracy of the
solution -- I have not yet done comparison runs to test this. The example does not address
centrifugal loading or other complications. Unfortunately, linear acceleration loading (e.g.
gravity loading) is more accurately represented when applied as a load vector. This presents
a problem when there are elements with mass that are not included in substructures. I have
not yet determined whether gravity could be applied to a superelement in the GEN pass,
without having a superelement mass matrix generated -- if it could be done, then the
"accurate" application of gravity loading to the superelement could be accomplished without
counting gravity load twice. Using rotated superelements introduces another set of problems
with the direction in which loads are applied -- read the manuals.
Note that non-zero applied DOF displacements are not to be applied by a load vector, so
MDOF should be applied to nodes where non-zero DOF values are to be applied during the
analysis. Loads and constraints created in the GEN pass (i.e. in a load vector) cannot be
changed in the "USE" pass, except by uniform scaling. Brief testing I did suggests that load
ramping DOES work for load vectors -- the user should check this independently. The
exception to uniform scaling is with respect to angular motion -- read the ANSYS tutorial
and user's guide manuals on substructuring.
The substructuring examples given in Chapter 4 of the ANSYS Advanced Analysis
Techniques manual leaves out the routine steps -- leave out too many, in my opinion. The
user should purchase an ANSYS manual and tutorial manual on substructuring before doing
serious work. (ANSYS 5.5 has added some helpful comments to its Advanced User's Guide
on Substructuring.) The command EXPSOL has to be added in the expansion pass of the
bottom-up example in order to get any results in the expansion results file. The SFE
command is needed only if loads were applied to the superelement -- if SFE is used, it has to
point to the element number of the superelement that was read in with the SE command as
well as the appropriate load step number. A *GET command could find the element number
of the superelement right after the SE command. The commands manual does not explain
this adequately in ANSYS 5.3. The following examples are fairly brief. In the bottom up
example, the coupling command CPINTF is used to join the superelement with the nonsuperelement portion of the model. The example shows the stresses in the superelement after
the expansion pass completes. The results of the use pass are saved in the file "use.db" for
later review by the user.
Bottom Up Substructuring Example:
!
Substructuring demonstration
*************************************
fini
! finish whatever was active previously
/clear
! clear the database
/title,Substructure Technique Test
/filname,gen
/prep7
et,1,shell63
! filename for the generation pass

!
! element type 1 set to SHELL63
36

r,1,.05
mp,ex,1,30000000
blc4,-.5,0.5,1.0,-1.0
lesize,all, , ,3,1,1
amesh,1
fini
/solu
antype,subst
seopt,gen
lsel,s,line,,2
nsll,s,1
m,all,all
lsel,s,line,,4
nsll,s,1
d,all,all
allsel
save
expansion pass
solve
fini
!
!
!
!
!
shell is 0.05 thick

set value of E
create a rectangular area
3 elements per line -- user can change this
mesh the rectangle
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
substructure analysis
generation pass
line at right side
select all nodes on line
make these nodes Master Degrees of Freedom
line at left side
select all nodes on line
constrain nodes against all motion
! save this part of model as gen.db for

!
the save need not follow "solve"
! generates the gen.sub file
/clear,nostart
/title,Shell elements are attached to a superelement
/filname,use
! filename for the use pass
/prep7
et,1,50
! element type 1 set to superelement MATRIX50
type,1
! set type 1
se,gen
! read in the superelement matrix from
generation pass
!
after reading superelement, create
remainder of model:
et,2,shell63
! element type 2 set to SHELL63
r,2,.05
! shell is 0.05 thick
mp,ex,2,30000000
! set value of E
blc4,.5,.5,1.0,-1.0
! create a new rectangular area
lesize,all, , ,3,1,1
! 3 elements per line -- user can change this
aatt,2,2,2
! assign mat=2, real=2, type=2 to the
unmeshed area
amesh,1
! mesh the area -- note superelement node
numbers are not used
cpintf,all
! automatically couple coincident nodes at
interface
eplo
fini
/solu
ksel,s,kp,,3
! keypoint at upper right corner
nslk
! select node at this keypoint
f,all,fy,-1
! put a load on node at upper right corner
nsel,all
! select all nodes
! SFE,1,1,SELV, ,1
! no load applied in generation pass, this
statement not needed
solve
! results go in the file use.rst
save
! save use.db to review results in the nonsuperelements
fini
/post1
/pbc,f,,1
! show applied force symbols
/pbc,cp,,1
! show nodal coupling symbols
plnsol,s,eqv
! plot the stresses in the non-superlements
fini
37

/clear,nostart
/filname,gen
! filename for the expansion pass
resume
! brings up gen.db saved above
/solu
expass,on
! activate expansion pass
seexp,gen,use
! options for the substructure expansion pass
expsol,1,1
! THIS IS NEEDED ! (read about NUMEXP also)
**************
! OUTRES,ALL,ALL
! not required for one load step solution
solve
fini
/POST1
/title,Stress in the Substructure
/pbc,mast,,1
! show master degrees of freedom symbols
/pbc,u,,1
! show displacement constraints
/pbc,rot,,1
! show rotation constraints
plnsol,s,eqv
! look at the stress in the superelement
In the above example, the user can change the mesh density. The numbers and positions of
nodes along the common interface between the superelement and the normal portion of the
model have to be the same for CPINTF to successfully connect the two parts of the model.
The model is created with the "bottom-up" approach. In the "use" part of this example, the
superelement is read in with SE before the remainder of the model is created. If the
remainder of the model was created before the superelement was read in, then the user would
have to add statements to control the node numbering, so that none of the master nodes
coming in with the superelement would replicate the node numbers of the existing elements.
If the superelement has master nodes that have the same node numbers as the existing model,
the model nodes will be redefined, and a mess will result. Check the manual, and look at the
SETRAN command to act on the superelement, or at the NUMOFF command to act on the
existing model, to prevent node replication problems. The PARSAV and PARRES
commands can be used to put model parameter information into a coded file, and retrieve it
after the /CLEAR command has been issued. The maximum node number can be put into a
parameter by *GET and put into a file with PARSAV during the generation pass. It can be
retrieved during the use pass by PARRES, and used to guide the offset of node numbers in
either the already generated superelement with SETRAN, or in the remainder of the model
with NUMOFF.
Top Down Substructuring Example
The following example is NOT a substitute for a detailed understanding of ANSYS
substructuring. It is for demonstration purposes only. Get the ANSYS Substructuring
Tutorial guide and the Substructuring Guide for serious work.
The top down substructuring technique makes it possible to take an existing model, and have
a portion of it changed into a substructure. This can boost efficiency in a number of ways,
such as dealing with contact surfaces and gap elements, and handling very large models that
have already been generated. In the example presented below, a model database is read in
from a user-prepared file named "model.db". This model in "model.db" must have had a
portion of the elements grouped into a component called "super" using the command
CM,SUPER,ELEM. This component will be rendered into a substructure. The intended
substructure should, in general, consist of linear elements. The model must have had
constraints and loads applied. The SFE command used in this example expects loads to exist
inside the superelement, but should work without them. Some nodes can have been declared
by the user to be master degrees of freedom. In order to create master degrees of freedom
through the GUI, the analysis type has to be Substructure. In order to use the example below,
the analysis type will have to be changed back to the type desired after creating extra master
38

degrees of freedom -- usually to static analysis. Note that for dynamic analysis, master
degrees of freedom are needed throughout the substructure -- they are not created by the
example below. In the example presented, master degrees of freedom are automatically
generated for the nodes on the interface between the component "super" and the remainder of
the model. (There is no check for redundancy with user-declared master degrees of freedom.)
The full model is used -- the analysis is not limited to the selected set of elements in the file
"model.db" when it is loaded. The example will automatically perform the substructure
generation and the subsequent analysis, and will plot results to plot files. I have added a plot
of the results for the full model, with results files for both the substructure and the nonsubstructure being read. There is no error checking in the example. This example has had
limited testing--let me know about errors.
When dealing with gap elements and/or contact surfaces, the usual procedure would be to
select all the linear elements in the model (not the gap or the contact elements), and in this
example, call them the component "super" for substructuring. Because the substructure
matrix is usually much smaller than the full model matrix, the iterations required for
convergence with gap and contact elements will usually run far faster than iterations
involving the full model, once the substructure matrix is generated. This makes otherwise
infeasible modeling into a possibility.
In dealing with extremely large models, where the objective is simply to deal with the size,
not nonlinear elements like gap elements, there may little advantage in turning the entire
large model into a substructure -- it could take as long to generate the superelement as to
solve the model for one load case. It would be more common to turn portions of the model
into one or more substructures. The connecting regions between the substructures would be
chosen to involve as small a number of nodes as possible, to minimize substructure matrix
size, and model wavefront size.
Although a MATRIX50 substructure superelement can undergo Large Displacement, it will
act internally as a linear elastic structure. Methods to use MATRIX50 in nonlinear
applications should be thoroughly tested by the user before application, including plots of
displacement and stress to look for compatibility in results among the substructure regions
and the remainder of the model, and checks that reaction forces equal the total applied
forces. I have encountered difficulties combining Large Displacement with Substructuring -see the image below.
To use the following example: (1) Create a model, and (2) select a portion of the elements to
become the substructure. Give this selection set of elements the component name "super"
with the command "CM,SUPER,ELEM". (3) The model should have loads and constraints
applied, and the analysis type defined. The analysis type must be acceptable for substructure
use. (4) Save the model with the database name "model.db". (5) Call the routine below with
the /INPUT command. Graphical results for the last load substep in the results files will be
plotted to disk files. If run interactively, the user will have to click the "OK" button a few
times, and a plot to the screen should result when done. Expect warning messages related to
partial element selection, and to reading from results files. NOTE: This example sets gravity
load to ZERO in the "gen" portion of the analysis; otherwise, gravity would be DOUBLED
on the superelement if the user's model includes gravity -- see the Elements Manual for
MATRIX50. (If gravity is applied, be sure a density was applied to the materials in the
model. If there is no gravity, the example can have the "seopt" command changed to NOT
generate the mass matrix for the superelement.)
The loading on MDOF nodes would also be DOUBLED if it was used in the superelement
load vector, and used in the "USE" pass. For this reason, corrections to this routine have been
added (Nov.2, Nov.4 1998). A complication for substructuring: Only a master node from a
coupled node set or a constraint equation node group can be used as an MDOF for
39

substructuring. This complication is NOT addressed in the present example. The example is
for stress analysis. It does not address centrifugal loading. To address other types of analyis,
start with a look at the ANSYS Advanced User's Guide, and look at the table of loads
applicable in a substructure analysis.
Automating a substructure analysis is somewhat tricky -- this file will NOT be applicable to
all types of analyses. I have been testing it with simple stress examples. The
"POSTPROCESS" pass seems to work in loading stresses from the two different sources for
viewing, "USE.RST" and "GEN.RST", although I haven't seen this documented. I tried the
SUBSET command, but was getting warning messages about the nodal force and other
results not necessarily being correct. I haven't thoroughly investigated this. Have a close look
at how the substeps are output with OUTRES and selected for expansion:
! "Top-Down" Substructuring Example -- In Development
!
! - For information only. Use at your own risk.
! - There is no error checking in this example.
! - Warning messages will be generated.
! - ANSYS/ED supports very few master degrees of freedom.
!
! WARNING: Gravity would be applied TWICE to the superelement if
ACEL
!
were not zeroed in the "gen" pass. For models that do not
!
include inertial loads, change the "seopt" command to
generate
!
STIFFNESS only. See the Elements manual for MATRIX50.
!
This example NOT designed for other inertial loads.
!
! WARNING: In the "use" pass, nodal loads on superelement MDOF nodes
!
are deleted so loads on MDOF nodes are not counted TWICE.
!
FDELE and DDELE are used.
!
! The model to be processed is in the file "model.db". The user must
!
have identified the region to be substructured as the component
"super"
!
with the command "CM,SUPER,ELEM" and saved the model as
"model.db".
! Anything nonlinear in the component "super" will be treated as
linear.
! Analysis type is defined by the file "model.db" -- must be
acceptable type.
! The "USE" pass has OUTRES set to write ALL substeps to the RST
file.
! The "EXPAND" pass has a *DO loop that expands solutions at ALL
substeps.
! The model must have had its loading and constraints applied.
! This example is for one load case only. Some Master Degrees of
Freedom
!
can have been applied by the user -- needed for dynamic
analysis.
! Master Degrees of Freedom Nodes will be generated between the
substructure
!
and the remainder of the model. No check for redundancy is
performed.
! Unless this file is run BATCH, the user will have to click the
"OK" button
!
whenever the CLEAR command is executed, and if error messages
appear.
!
fini
! finish whatever was active previously
40

/clear
/COM,############
/COM,############
/COM,############
! clear the database

GEN
GEN
GEN
/show,part1,grp
resume,model,db
be applied
"use" pass to
this example
/filname,gen
/prep7
allsel
*get,nmx,node,,num,max
*get,nmn,node,,num,min
cmsel,s,super
component "super"
nsle
esel,invert
"super"
nsle,r
remainder of model
m,all,all
(MDOF)
cmsel,s,super
nsle
nsel,r,m,,nmn,nmx
(don't want nodes
############
############
############
! file for storing plots

! read the model to be processed
!
- all loads and constraints must already
!
- the SFE command is employed in the
!
!
apply loads to the substructure

- only one substructure generated in
! filename for the generation pass

! get the highest node number
! get the lowest node number
! select the elements identified as the
! select nodes of these elements
! select the elements that are not part of
! reselect nodes connecting "super" to
! make these nodes Master Degrees of Freedom
! select the "super" elements again
! select their associated nodes
! reselect all of these nodes that are MDOF
!
outside the "super" that the user called
MDOF)
fdele,all,all
! delete loads on these MDOF nodes for "gen"
ddele,all,all
! delete displacement loads on these MDOF
nodes for "gen"
nsle
! select nodes of the component "super"
/pbc,mast,,1
/pbc,f,,1
/pbc,m,,1
/pbc,u,,1
/pbc,rot,,1
/title,Elements of the to-be-substructure
eplo
! plot the elements of the to-be-substructure
fini
/solu
antype,subst
! substructure analysis
seopt,gen,2
! generation pass -- generate STIFFNESS and
MASS matrices
!
- if no inertial load, change setting to
STIFFNESS only
save
! save this part of model as "gen.db" for
expansion pass
!
- SAVE need not follow the command
"solve"
!
- component "super" and its nodes
currently selected
acel,0,0,0
! set gravity to Zero AFTER "save" but BEFORE
"solve"
41

solve
fini
/COM,############
/COM,############
/COM,############
! generates the "gen.sub" file

USE
USE
USE
/clear,nostart
/show,part2,grp
resume,model,db
if any.
############
############
############
! bring the model in again. restores "acel"

! "model.db" has to define the analysis type
-- it should not
/filname,use
/prep7
allsel
*get,nmn,node,,num,min
*get,nmx,node,,num,max
cmsel,s,super
substructure
esel,invert
nsle
nsel,a,m,,nmn,nmx
for solve)
*get,ntp,etyp,,num,max
parameter ntp
et,ntp+1,50
MATRIX50
type,ntp+1
superelement with SE
se,gen
generation pass
interface
!
be a substructure generation
! filename for the use pass
! select the portion intended for the

! select the remainder of the model
! select nodes of the remainder of the model
! add MDOF nodes for visibility (not needed
! get max element type number in the model in
! new element type ntp+1 set to superelement
! set type ntp+1 before reading "creating"
! read in the superelement matrix from
!
- master D.O.F. nodes already are at the
- no need to couple coincident interface
nodes this example

!
- new element number assigned should be
above maximum
*get,snm,elem,,num,max ! get the element number of the superelement
just loaded
!
- needed for SFE loading the
superelement below
!
- extra work needed if more than one
superelement
/pbc,all,,0
/pbc,f,,1
/pbc,m,,1
/pbc,mast,,1
/title,Remainder of model attached to substructure
eplo
! plot the elements in the non-substructure
plus "outline" view
!
of the substructure
fini
/solu
! "model.db" analysis type for substructure
is needed
SFE,snm,1,SELV, ,1
! load applied in generation pass was in
"model.db"
!
- apply load to to superelement number
"snm" found above
42

!
superelement
outres,all,all
step
- extra work needed if more than one
! save results for the all substeps of load
!
- change here and "EXPAND" below if
desired to change
solve
! results go in the file "use.rst"
save
! save "use.db" to optionally review nonsubstructure results
fini
!
"use.db" and "use.rst" now contain nonsubstructure results
/post1
set,last
! plot results at the end of the load step
/title,Stress in the non-substructure elements
plnsol,s,eqv
! show nodal stress in the non-substructure
*get,lastlstp,active,,set,lstp
! get the last load step
number
*get,lastsbst,active,,set,sbst
! get the last substep number
parsav,scalar,parameterstore,parm
! store them in file for
retrieval below
fini
/COM,############
/COM,############
/COM,############
EXPAND
EXPAND
EXPAND
############
############
############
/clear,nostart
/show,part3,grp
/filname,gen
! filename for the expansion pass
resume
! brings up "gen.db" saved above, "super" is
selected
parres,new,parameterstore,parm
! retrieve data on last load
step/substep
! parres must follow resume
statement
/solu
expass,on
! activate expansion pass
seexp,gen,use
! options for the substructure expansion pass
*do,iii,1,lastsbst
expsol,lastlstp,iii,,yes
! expand result at last load
step/substep
!
- (read about NUMEXP also)
outres,all,all
! all data written
solve
*enddo
fini
! "gen.rst" now contains substructure
results, last step
/POST1
/title,Stress in the Substructure
plnsol,s,eqv
! show nodal stress in the substructure
save,stresses_in_super,db
fini
/COM,############
/COM,############
/COM,############
POSTPROCESS
POSTPROCESS
POSTPROCESS
!
! WARNING:
use at your own risk.
!
by ANSYS.
############
############
############
The following is my own invention;
Warning messages will be generated
43

resume,model,db
/show,part4,grp
/post1
cmsel,s,super
nsle
file,gen,rst
set,last
esel,invert
! Select the elements NOT in substructure
component "super"
nsle
! Select the nodes of these elements
file,use,rst
! Point to file "use.rst" that contains the
rest of the results
set,last
! Read in load step data for selected
elements, last substep
esel,all
! Select all elements
nsle
! Select the nodes of the elements
/pbc,all,,0
/pbc,f,,1
/pbc,m,,1
/pbc,mast,,1
/title,Stress in the Full Structure
plnsol,s,eqv
! Show nodal stress for the full model.
! Because of averaging, PLNSOL stresses on
the interface of the
!
substructure and non-substructure
regions cannot exactly
!
match values for these locations plotted
separately, above.
!
Element stress and displacement should
exactly match in
!
a small displacement linear analysis.
save,stress_allelem,db ! Save the model with all stresses on
elements
/show,term
! Back to screen -- only works if used
interactively
plnsol,s,eqv
! Show the stress results for all elements if
interactive ANSYS
The "top down" example saves the results of the "use" pass and the "expansion" pass in
database files. These can be loaded to inspect results in the non-substructure and in the
substructure parts of the model, respectively. If the file is run interactively, the user will have
to click the "OK" button each time the /CLEAR command executes, and for a variety of
warning messages that can appear. It may be preferred to run the file under Batch control,
and to later review the results in the plot files, and in the resulting database files. Remember
to check for error and warning messages. Because of the complexity of substructure analysis,
the user should run checks on balance of forces, and do other typical checking of results.
Large Displacement Nonlinearity and Substructure: The ANSYS 5.5 Advanced User's
Guide, Chapter 5 gives more help on large rotation (large displacement, geometrically
nonlinear) substructured analysis than at the 5.3 level. Note the comment that constraints
should be applied in the "use" pass, not in the "gen" pass, for large rotation analysis.
If the file "model.db", used in the above example, has had Large Displacement activated with
"NLGEOM,ON" then a nonlinear solution will be sought. Convergence criteria, ramping of
loading, substeps, and other nonlinear controls may be desired. Because the substructure will
act linearly internally, convergence may not be as easy as the user would wish. When the run
does converge, the results will not be an exact match for the result without substructuring.
The output plots should be examined to see if they read "Substep 999999", indicating failure
to converge. If you test the above example with Large Displacement, use a Large
Displacement model that converges easily without a substructure approach. An attempt has
44

been made in the above example to cope with a model that develops the Large Displacement
solution in a load step containing a set of substeps. This is the reason for statements that
record the last loadstep and substep numbers. However, the example does NOT reserve
application of all DOF constraints for the "USE" pass, as recommended in the ANSYS 5.5
guide, so it will NOT be appropriate for models with constraints applied to non-MDOF
nodes in the substructure region. The user can get around this by manually assigning MDOF
to all the nodes to which constraints are applied in the component "super", in "model.db".
The master degrees of freedom for the superelement must have rotational degrees of freedom
for Large Displacement work. The user can try assigning MASS21 elements to the master
degree of freedom nodes if the elements in the model do not have rotational degrees of
freedom. The MASS21 elements can have a REAL value that contains zero values for the
masses and mass moments of inertia. This will introduce the requisite rotational degrees of
freedom.
When using elements like SHELL63, which have rotational degrees of freedom, I have
encountered a rather odd result: The Large Displacement solution for the elements in the
superelement (stored in "gen.rst" in the example) is for the displacement of the substructure
nodes with respect to a coordinate system embedded in the superelement, not with respect to
the global axes. This is not the case for small displacement solutions, which appear displaced
correctly. Since the superelement can undergo large rotation, the displacement that is
reported and plotted for the nodes inside the superelement will be far smaller than the
displacement reported and plotted for the remainder of the model, in a Large Displacement
solution. This is because the coordinate system embedded in the superelement moves with
the superelement. In limited testing, the SEQV stress plots appear to be OK, if the load step
that is to be expanded is identified properly. I have not investigated what happens to stress
components in the Global and Element Coordinate Systems. Rotational transormation of the
stress and strain tensors could be very complex. See the image below for a result combining
SHELL63 elements, substructuring, and Large Displacement.
A possible visual displacement fix (for the displacement plot problem of 6 DOF elements in
Large Displacement substructures) is to transform the displaced position coordinates of the
non-MDOF nodes in the superelement on the basis of the rotations and translations of the
origin of the superelement in Global Coordinates. The origin of the superelement will be the
MDOF node that reports no displacements or rotations inside the superelement (in
superelement coordinates); it appears to be the MDOF node with the lowest node number.
Applying a transformation properly will require deducing or looking up the order of the
sequence of rotations that ANSYS uses in Large Displacement work, or that ANSYS uses to
report node rotations. A reading of the Theory Manual suggests that ANSYS internally uses
quaternions for large displacement rotations in space. This would be for the usual reason that
quaternions do not have a singularity in any orientation, in contrast to Euler angles. It
appears that the rotations reported at a node represent 3-D components of a single rotation
vector, rather than Euler or other angles, so the transformation will need to be based on
rotation about a vector that starts at a known point in space (the origin of the superelement),
plus translations. I will be working on this as my next project for this web page. The reported
rotation may be complicated by rotated nodal coordinate systems (NROTAT) or
superelements that the user has employed... this will require checking. Reader feedback
would be appreciated. If I get anywhere with this, I will limit myself to displacements only.
Transforming stress tensors would be a bit much!
45
The above plot was generated using the above sample /INPUT file on a Large Displacement
model of a cantilever beam created with SHELL63 elements. A similar displacement
discontinuity results with BEAM4 elements in a similar application, as shown in the images
below:
Tip 46: Plot Applied Temperatures

In a thermal stress analysis, temperatures will be applied as a "load". Temperatures can be
applied to nodes with the BF command, to elements with the BFE command, or implied
using other commands. (Check the BFE command and the element type in the ANSYS
documentation for details on using BFE.) A colored element plot of applied temperatures can
be generated by using the commands /PBF,TEMP,,1 and EPLO, which Shows body force
loads as contours on displays, per the ANSYS Commands manual.
When using beam, link, and pipe elements, if the element thickness is shown with the
/ESHAPE command before executing EPLO, temperatures can be made visible with contour
coloring for these line elements. It may be desired to exaggerate their displayed thickness
with /ESHAPE in order to make the temperature information more visible.
Tip 47: Skipping Over Statements in an ANSYS Input File
ANSYS commands can be developed in a file that is executed with the /INPUT command.
This can permit very flexible and sophisticated use of the program. Here is a well known
46

programming trick that can be used to temporarily skip over part of an ANSYS input file. Set
a parameter ("SKIP" in this example) to a value that tells an *IF statement to jump over a
section of code that you want to skip. This is much quicker than commenting out a block of
code, or cutting and pasting as an input file is developed and modified. *IF statements that
use this parameter could be located in a number of positions in the input file -- this permits
changing the value of one parameter at the beginning of the input file to cause skipping of
input code in a variety of locations.
! Input code to ANSYS...
! ...
SKIP=1
! Set to 1 to skip, 0 to run the code inside
the *IF...*ENDIF commands
*IF,SKIP,EQ,0,THEN
! ANSYS commands that are optionally executed...
*ENDIF
! ... more code follows
Since there is no compilation of the input file, the "skip" technique uses little time in
choosing to execute or bypass the blocked off commands (ANSYS still has to read the
blocked out code in order to check off the number of *IF and *ENDIF commands).
Tip 48: Static Analysis Followed by Transient Analysis
Transient analysis by ANSYS can model transient vibrations, or the dynamics of a flexible
mechanism in motion, in addition to more complex effects. Initial conditions can be applied,
followed by transient analysis. One type of initial condition is a zero velocity initial position
with stored energy. The stored energy can be potential energy of position, elastic energy, or
both. Another initial condition is an initial velocity. A model can have both initial velocity
and stored energy. A static analysis may be desired to develop the stored elastic energy,
before starting a transient analysis. Remember that for transient analysis, the mass of the
model must be input in the appropriate mass units, not as weight.
The following ANSYS input file illustrates the execution of a linear elastic static analysis
that sets an initial condition, followed by a transient analysis. The model is of a cantilevered
beam that has a force applied to the free end in a static analysis. The transient vibration that
results when the force on the free end is removed is obtained. No gravity is used. No
damping has been applied, and ANSYS defaults for the numerical integration are implicit.
This is a linear elastic solution, so the numerical integration should be stable, given the
ANSYS algorithm used. The time substep size for the transient analysis should be smaller
than 1/20 of the period of the first few modes of vibration. (The user could tweak the
ANSYS numerical integration parameters so that very high frequency response modes are
numerically damped. Stability in Large Displacement nonlinear transient analysis is probably
not guaranteed, although damping and small time substep size should help.) The use of a
consistent mass matrix (default) should in general yield more accurate results than a reduced
mass matrix if the element density is coarse, however the use of a reduced mass matrix may
shorten the solution time in large models. The movement of the tip of the beam is plotted -- it
is not a perfect sinusoid because the initial deflected shape of the beam is not an exact match
to a mode of vibration.
! Transient vibration, cantilever beam, "plucking" the tip.
! For illustration purposes only. Use at your own risk.
fini
/clear
! Start fresh
/title,Transient Vibration of Cantilever Beam
/PREP7
ET,1,BEAM3
! 2-D model of beam
R,1,1,1,1
! beam crossection properties
MP,EX, 1, 30000000
! Young's modulus, BIN units
MP,DENS,1, 7.34E-04
! beam mass density, BIN units
47

K, , 0.0
K, , 10.
L, 1, 2
LESIZE,ALL,,,8,1,1
LMESH, 1
FINISH
/SOLU
ANTYPE,4
F,2,FY,-50000
(unrealistically high)
d,1,ux
direction
d,1,uy
d,1,rotz
time,0.0005
OUTRES,ALL,ALL
timint,off,all
State
nsubst,2
velocity for transient
kbc,1
solve
!
!
!
!
!
keypoints
10" long
line
8 element divisions
mesh with beam elements
! Select transient analysis

! apply down force on RHS node
! constrain first node at LHS, in X
!
!
in Y direction
and constrain rotation
! small time increment, static

! save all substep results
! no time integration -- treat as Steady
! two substeps to imply zero initial
! step change load
! find the static deformed shape
TIME,.002
! time at end of transient (predetermined to show oscillation)
NSUBST,100
! time steps small enough to show
vibration
KBC,1
! step change load
fdele,all,all
! delete force -- show vibration after
force is released
OUTRES,ALL,ALL,
! save all substep results
timint,on,all
! activate transient analysis
solve
! find the transient vibration of the
beam
fini
/post1
/dscale,1
final result
pldisp,1
FINISH
! automatic scaling, to easily view

! show final deformed shape
/POST26
NSOL,2,2,U,Y,UY
! results variable for plotting
/title,Transient Vibration of Cantilever Beam: Motion of Tip
PLVAR,2
! graph oscillation of the tip of the
beam
FINISH
NOTE: The use of the TIMINT command controls activation of the static and transient
portions of the solution. The static solution is obtained at two time substeps so that an initial
velocity of zero is implied. An animation of the transient solution can be generated for the
full beam in /POST1, showing the transient vibration in action. For an animation, the user
will have to set a satisfactory displacement scaling value with the command /DSCALE, not
use automatic scaling. In the animation of the Large Displacement motions of a mechanism,
a /DSCALE setting of 1.0 will generally be wanted, so that angles of rotation look correct. A
zoom setting other than /ZOOM,OFF will usually yield a better animation.
48

Tip 49: File Compression for Model Storage
If no restart is to be executed on an ANSYS model, it will often be sufficient to save only the
model database file (*.DB) and the results file (*.RST) when archiving an ANSYS model. If
the model was generated from command input files, these will require storage. If only one
load step was written to the results file, the results file may not require archival if the results
are also contained in the database file. Load case, graphics output, and other files may be
wanted for archival. The database, graphics, and results files can be extremely large. They
often compress well using data compression programs such as the UNIX compress and gzip
utilities (gzip is more powerful than compress). On Windows computers, gzip is also
available for NT (it handles long file names), in addition to the shareware ZIP utilities,
though you will need to dig on the Internet to find gzip for Windows NT -- have a look at
GZIP on the web and look for instructions and the version for your computer (test before
use). In FEA work, I find the advantage of the gzip utility to be that the compressed file
name is simply the original file name with .gz appended, and the uncompressed file is
removed. The data storage requirement may be reduced by roughly 25% to 80%, both on the
hard drive, and on tape or removable disk. The data compression is significantly more
effective, though much slower, than with the disk compression scheme that can be used by
Windows NT 4.0, which also does not keep the files compressed when they are sent over a
network, or otherwise moved around. Hint: Make sure that those who will decompress the
files in future will know how to do it!
Tip 50: Organizing Large FEA Models
Examining the results of an FEA model, selecting and modifying portions of the model, and
keeping a record of what MAT (material) and REAL (shell thickness, beam size, etc.) values
were used for various parts of a model becomes very difficult with large FEA models. A
very large structure represented with hundreds or thousands of individual beam elements or
areas meshed with shell elements, will require that the identities, materials and REAL
settings for large numbers of parts be organized and recorded.
There is no one way to do this. Individual parts, or groups of parts, can be defined to be
components that are accessed by names of up to 8 characters. These parts can be geometric
entities, elements, or nodes. Macros can step through all the components using *GET
commands. Collections of components can be grouped into component assemblies. An
individual assembly could be created for those components that are to be selected under
certain circumstances, for analysis or for results review. The use of components makes it
possible to refer to either a part or a subassembly by one name, and easy to select it. The
creation of a component can save a set of entities that were selected with a certain sequence
of select logic, and be used in the enhancement of the ANSYS select logic process. The
database component commands are: CM, CMDELE, CMEDIT, CMGRP, CMLIST, and
CMSEL. A macro can be written that will step through all components, plotting them,
including the component name and information on it in the plot title, or an annotation.
Either REAL values for elements and entities, or MAT values, can be used to identify parts
in a model with numbers. (The element type will have to support a REAL value if a REAL is
to be created for that element type. However, a REAL value can be forced on an element
even if the element type does not admit assignment of a REAL. This can be done when
creating an element, applied to the geometric entity that is to be meshed with the element, or
forced after the fact with EMODIF. When EMODIF is used, be cautioned that in a remeshing the REAL assigned to the geometric entity will be used. When the element type
does not accept a REAL setting, the R setting can simply be left blank. In that case, the
commands NUMMRG,ALL and NUMCMP,ALL can make a mess and should not be used
in this all-inclusive form -- stick to specific forms such as NUMMRG,KP.) In a model made
of shell elements or beam elements, for example, each plate or beam could be described with
49

its own REAL value, even though there may be many plates or beams of a given thickness or
size within the model. Where a group of parts will always be chosen with the same REAL
value, they could share one REAL setting. This makes changing the shell thickness or the
beam characteristics very simple, and provides easy part selection with commands like
ESEL, ASEL, or LSEL, as appropriate, according to their REAL value, or a range of REAL
values. An array (see the *DIM command) could correlate REAL values with other
information, such as part names (with an 8 character limit). The same approach can be taken
with the setting of MAT values for describing the material properties. Using material
numbers for part identification, however, could get cumbersome, because there are such a
large number of individual material property settings, and they may be temperature
dependent in some models, or include material nonlinearity.
I find it helpful NOT to set any of the geometric entities or elements in a large model to a
MAT or REAL value of one. One is a default value that is sometimes assigned when no
value has been assigned by the user. Geometric entities may have a value of zero when
nothing has been assigned. I can then select things that have a MAT or REAL of zero or one
to check on whether I have forgotten to assign a value to any part of the model. Plots with
coloring assigned according to REAL or MAT will help in checking a model.
When REAL or MAT values have been used to differentiate between different parts of a
model, the user must be careful not to use a NUMCMP,ALL or NUMMRG,ALL command
on entity numbering, because it will compress or merge out REAL and MAT values. This
will destroy the identification scheme. The NUMCMP command will have to be called with
the specific quantities to be compressed individually identified, such as NODE, as in the
manual.
When the parts have been identified by different REAL or MAT numbers, a coloring scheme
based on REAL or MAT can be used during element or geometric entity plots, to improve
identification of the parts of a model, and the appearance of the FEA plot. Caution: ANSYS
does not use a "4 color map theorem" when plotting (can't do this in 3-D anyway) so parts of
differing REAL or MAT may be adjacent and have the same color.
Arrays could be used to assign numbers to component names, and to keep track of what
REAL values were used by the elements within components. Arrays could assign 8-character
names to the parts described by different REAL values. Arrays could be used to set several
values of a number of shell thicknesses or beam sizes to be examined in a series of analyses
that are to be run automatically. As discussed above, this parameter information can be
included in annotations during model and results plotting, making model review easier and
less error-prone.
Tip 51: Selecting Nodes in a Stress or Strain Range
The selection of nodes in a certain stress range can be effected with, for example, the
command NSEL,S,S,EQV,40000,9999999 in order to get nodes with EQV (Von Mises
equivalent) stresses from 40000 to 9999999. This and similar commands can be used to get
at only the portions of a full model that are significantly stressed.
The effectiveness of this command can be compromised somewhat by nodal stress
averaging, shell stress surface selection (TOP, MID, or BOT), and other complications. The
command would typically be followed by the two commands ESLN and NSLE to be able to
plot the associated elements and their stresses.
If the above part identification scheme using REAL values has been employed, the stress
level selection command could be followed by a macro that selects all parts that match the
REAL types of the selected elements. This would make it possible to see all highly stressed
parts. This approach is helpful with complex models with parts visually hidden by other
parts.
50

Tip 52: Selecting Nodes that are Subjected to Nodal Coupling
Nodes that are coupled can be selected with commands such as NSEL,S,CP,,1,999999 in
order to show only the coupled nodes, and to have the option of using picking to delete nodal
coupling, or for other purposes. Once coupled nodes have been selected, work to evaluate the
forces resulting from the coupling can begin. Similarly, nodes can be selected according to
their presence in constraint equations (CE), their applied displacement (D), forces applied,
and other criteria -- see the NSEL command for further information.
Tip 53: /NOPR and /GOPR Speed Up Input Files and Macros
When a long input file or macro is read while running ANSYS interactively, text information
is written to the output screen and optionally to an output file. If a significant number of
*GET and similar operations are being executed, a large quantity of text information will be
written to output. If the input files and macros are known to be fully debugged, they may
execute faster if they start with /NOPR and end with /GOPR in order to switch off text
output while they are running. If their execution is causing geometry, nodes, or elements to
be generated, a speedup may result from temporarily switching off the generation of graphics
with IMMED,0 and /SHOW,OFF. They can be re-activated with IMMED,1 and
/SHOW,TERM. You may want to consider the /UIS command also.
Tip 54: Using Commands IMMED and /UIS and /SHOW,OFF to Suppress Plotting
I sometimes develop a model interactively, setting up some dimensions as parameters, then
manually modify and add to the log file that is generated. The resulting log file becomes an
input file that I can use for parametric generation of a model. When I run this input log file, I
don't want all of my various plot commands to be executed, only those for finished model
display and results review. This can be implemented with the IMMED,0 (for interactive
execution), /UIS,REPLOT,0 and /SHOW,OFF commands. They can be re-activated with
IMMED,1 and /UIS/REPLOT,1 and /SHOW,TERM. If the graphics output is intended to be
sent to a graphics file, the command /SHOW,FILE can be used for re-activation of writing to
a file previously designated by a /SHOW,filename command. If writing to a file, the
immediate mode plotting is off by default. Be warned that if you change to another output
graphics filename with the /SHOW command, then come back to the first filename, the first
file will be overwritten.
When re-running a log file using /INPUT the messages that required clicking "OK" will be
generated and execution will pause. This means that the /INPUT command will not re-run all
log files unattended.I have not found the /UIS command to completely stop this, such as
when the /CLEAR command is issued. Running batch is sometimes desirable.
Tip 55: What's the Bauschinger Effect? Comments on Material Yield
I first wanted to do elastic/plastic analysis in ANSYS to get a feel for the onset of failure in
an automotive part. It was of value to show that one proposed crossection shape was
significantly better than another. This required me to use plastic material properties for steel,
in nonlinear large deflection analysis in ANSYS. Unfortunately, I had taken neither an
academic course in metal forming, nor attended an ANSYS course in nonlinear analysis.
Digging into the ANSYS manuals, the first thing one has to decide on is whether to use
Kinematic Hardening or Isotropic Hardening for the material model. Fortunately, high
precision was not needed for what I was doing, so the exact stress/strain curve and the choice
of material yield rules were not a big concern. Still, I wanted to know what I was doing,
within reason. The manual mentions the relationship between kinematic hardening and the
Bauschinger effect. After some poking around, I finally found a basic description of the
Bauschinger effect in Timoshenko's Strength of Materials Part II: Advanced Theory and
Problems Third Edition, Krieger, Florida, 1976.
Essentially, a tension test causing slight yielding permanently deforms (causes slip in)
unfavorably oriented crystals before other crystals in a specimen. Consequently, upon
51

unloading, the permanently deformed crystals are in some compression. After re-loading
with tension, the onset of yield is raised because the deformed crystals do not reach their new
slip stress until the load is higher than the first time. If the material is compressed after
tension loading, the deformed crystals reach their compression slip stress before the rest of
the crystals, with the result that compression yielding starts sooner than in a fresh unstrained
specimen. Quoting Timoshenko, "Thus the tensile test cycle raises the elastic limit in
tension, but lowers the elastic limit in compression." This is the Bauschinger effect.
One thing that may affect the choice of a yield model in ANSYS will be what is supported
by an element type. Shell 63 does not support nonlinear material properties at all. Shell 181
supports isotropic hardening but not kinematic hardening. Shell 43 apparently supports both,
but it is suggested that Shell 181 is more capable.
It should be remembered that ANSYS requires a true strain curve in material
characterization, not the engineering strain curve, when multilinear curves are entered. In
quick-and-dirty checks on the possibility of failure of a structure, I sometimes consider it
sufficient just to use a bilinear model, with the yield portion of the curve fairly flat. This
wouldn't do for models of metal forming in manufacturing, but can sometimes be used to
assess whether structure failure is a concern when some portions of an elastic model are
exceeding yield. It may be desirable to load the structure beyond the design load in order to
observe where significant failure starts, in order to get a feel for margin of safety. This may
require arc-length analysis. (My use of the word "quick" in "quick-and-dirty" is overly
optimistic.)
Some design codes have rules for elastic-plastic or for fully plastic analysis that would have
to be used, if such an analysis was needed to justify or qualify a design legally or to fulfill a
contract.
Tip 56: Thought Experiments
Nothing so focuses the mind on the design details of a product as hearing that it failed in
testing or in service. You don't have to be Einstein to perform the following thought
experiment: Suppose that you heard that some aspect of a design had failed in service. The
failure could be yielding, buckling, crack growth, fracture, vibrating to death, unacceptable
deformation, wear or binding, or whatever is appropriate. Brainstorm as to whether it could
happen, what could have caused it, and how analysis could highlight what is or could be
wrong. Do this thought experiment for as many characteristics of the product as you can.
You may substantially extend the number of things that you consider in the design, and in
the FEA work. It may save someone's neck, either figuratively or literally.
Possibilities and "What If's":
What could cause yielding -- are fasteners or welds overloaded? Were their loads even
checked -- and for all load cases, or the bounding load cases? Are the bounding load cases
complete? Are stresses above yield over a significant region? Are surface stresses of shell
elements doing something unusual? Were nonlinearities considered? Were all possible
combinations of loading considered? Is there a high load situation that was not considered?
Were all components evaluated in FEA? Is there an unusual boundary condition
arrangement that has not been considered? Was the FEA mesh too coarse? Were relevant
details that cause stress concentrations left out of the model? Can what was discounted as a
local stress concentration lead to progressive collapse or crack growth?
Can buckling arise? Have both linear and nonlinear approaches to buckling possibilities been
considered? Has a portion of the model been represented so simplified that buckling
possibility is not detected? Has nonlinear buckling been considered at loads greater than the
design loads, so that some sense of the margin of safety is obtained? Can restraint of
thermal expansion cause stress and buckling?
Crack Growth -- what details exist that could possibly be sites for crack growth? Do surface
stresses give any warnings? Where could details be included to reduce crack growth
possibilities? Are regions that have geometry that could lead to crack growth highly stressed
and/or cyclically stressed? Is direct tension on welds causing Type I fracture loading? Is
52
shear, bending or torsional loading (applied forces and moments, and/or applied
displacements and rotations) on structural details causing Type II or Type III fracture loading
on welds? Is the loading significant? Is fatigue an issue? Is fracture analysis warranted? Is
there a reliable shortcut guide to what is tolerable? Is such a guide even possible? Could
crack growth be so rapid that it happens between inspections and causes sudden fracture?
Are cracks detectable at a size that does not immediately cause fracture? Should inspection
intervals be more frequent when the product is new?
Vibration -- what loading could stimulate vibration? What frequencies could drive vibration? Is
there adequate structural damping or are there other mechanisms to suppress trouble?
Where are the natural frequencies of vibration? Do steady state responses or random
vibration responses need to be evaluated? Is flow induced vibration a possibility? Will sound
and noise cause destructive vibrations? Have all possible boundary condition arrangements
been included in assessing vibration?
Will large deformations go outside of what is acceptable? Is the structure stiffness high
enough for the product use? Will deformation cause loss of function, contact with the
surroundings, binding, interference, collision, or excessive wear of moving parts?
Is the design something that can be manufactured with the quality and uniformity required to
avoid structural weakness?
The analyst should extend the above items to everything that needs to be considered, or that
could go wrong.
Tip 57: Control of Meshing
Since I am using ANSYS 5.3, I can't comment on the latest in ANSYS automatic meshing
capabilities, but a couple of suggestions about the basics may be helpful. You can select the
lines that have not yet had mesh density applied, with the command "LSEL,S,NDIV,,0" as a
check that all lines have had mesh density applied, or for convenience. The same type of
command can be used to find the lines with other mesh densities.
Basic ANSYS training should have taught you that line and area concatenation can help you
get mapped meshing, which gives relatively neat regular meshes such as all four-sided area
elements, or all six-sided solid elements. This can make a big difference in some models.
Tip 58: Four View Plot
When assessing modes of vibration or deflection of a 3-D structure, I have found it
convenient (though slower) to generate ANSYS plots showing my model in four views on
one sheet of paper or screen plot. The traditional views: Front Elevation (front), Plan (top),
Side Elevation (right), and Isometric (iso), can be positioned in four windows that are located
in the lower left quarter, upper left quarter, lower right quarter, and upper right quarter of the
plot, respectively. (Other standard view layouts can be substituted). A displacement plot of a
mode shape with PLDISP or PLDISP,1 with these four views active will leave fewer
ambiguities about what is happening with mode shapes than a single-view plot. The only
shortcoming is that the images are small -- I prefer to use 11" x 17" paper in landscape mode
for these plots.
An annecdote I heard from a guy I knew: A U.S. ship entered a foreign shipyard needing a
new propeller. The ship's engineer supplied a drawing, and a propeller was cast and installed.
The ship was launched and powered up. When set to go forward, the ship went backward -the shipyard used the European standard view interpretation of an American drawing, and
the propeller was mirror imaged!
The following code can be put into a macro to generate a four-view screen. Customize it as
you wish -- I include commands to turn off PowerGraphics and to use Centroidal sort. This
permits clean plots on paper with large models. NOTE: Users may want to set the /DSCALE
value to the same level in all four windows with "/DSCALE,ALL,value".
! Put these lines in a macro
! Set screen to show four standard views:
! User may want to set /DSCALE to the same value in all windows
/WIN,1,LTOP
! Window 1 left top
53

/WIN,2,RTOP
/WIN,3,LBOT
/WIN,4,RBOT
/WIN,5,OFF
/VIEW,1,0,1,0
/VUP,1,Y
/VIEW,2,1,1,1
/VUP,2,Y
/VIEW,3,0,0,1
/VUP,3,Y
/VIEW,4,1,0,0
/VUP,4,Y
/AUTO,ALL
/PLOPTS,INFO,1
/PLOPTS,LEG2,0
/TYPE,ALL,2
/CPLANE,0
/graphics,full
! User has to issue the
! Window 2 right top

! Window 3 left bottom
! Window 4 right bottom
! Turn off Window 5
! Window 1 top (plan) view
! Reference orientation
! Window 2 ISO (isometric projection) view
! Window 3 front (front elevation) view
! Window 4 right (side elevation) view
! Fit all windows
! Include information column
! Don't include view information
! Centroid sort, better print that Z-buffer
! Cutting plane
! NOT PowerGraphics (fewer facets?)
plot command
The next code can be used in a macro to return to a front view in one window. Again, the
user may want to customize some of the lines:
! Set screen to show one front view in Window 1
/WIN,1,SQUA
! Full square Window 1
/WIN,1,ON
! Turn on Window 1
/WIN,2,OFF
! Turn off Window 2
/WIN,3,OFF
! Turn off Window 3
/WIN,4,OFF
! Turn off Window 4
/WIN,5,OFF
! Turn off Window 5
/PLOPTS,INFO,1
! Info on for right column
/PLOPTS,LEG2,0
! Don't show the view information
/VIEW,1,0,0,1
! Front (front elevation) view
/VUP,1,Y
/TYPE,ALL,2
! Centroidal sort, better print than Zbuffer
/CPLANE,0
! Cutting plane
/graphics,full
! Not PowerGraphics (fewer facets?)
! User has to issue the plot command
After running one of the above view-generating macros, the user has to issue a plot
command to see the result.
Tip 59: Quick Review of Mode Shapes
To start printing plots of mode shapes directly from ANSYS mode shape results, having the
hardcopy window pop up automatically, type in an input line such as:
SET,1,1$PLDISP$/UI,COPY
The dollar sign separates the commands that are grouped on one input line. Click the
hardcopy OK button to kick off the hardcopy. You may want to set the print to landscape
mode, first. Then, to print plots of the rest of the mode shapes, type:
SET,NEXT$PLDISP$/UI,COPY
Simply keep repeating the second line (to avoid re-typing, double-click it in the ANSYS
Input window), and clicking the hardcopy OK button, to get the rest of the modes printed.
Note that the SET,NEXT command will loop back to the first mode shape after the number
of modes stored in the RST file has been exhausted.
You may see the somewhat odd message:
54
This comes up because of the /UI,COPY command, and has something to do with the
/ZOOM command. Consequently, this method may not work satisfactorily if your zoom is
not off. In viewing mode shapes, it will be typical to have zooming off.
The following code fragment read from an input or macro file can automatically plot a set of
mode shapes. *GET commands are used to detect information on what substep and
frequency are read. The user does not need to know how many modes were generated, so
automated plotting to a file is simpler. The displacement plots will contain substep and
frequency information. This code should cope with degenerate eigenvalues or rigid body
displacements. Execute this from within /POST1 after a mode case analysis was run, or after
the database and RST file for a mode case analysis are loaded. There is no error check, so
this must be used properly. The user will want to test and customize these commands:
! For information only. Use at your
set,1,1
pldisp
*do,iii,1,9999999
set,next
*get,ntotal,active,0,solu,ncmss
to 1 if all modes in RST done
*get,thefreq,mode,iii,freq
get frequency into a parameter
*if,ntotal,eq,1,then
*exit
*endif
pldisp
*enddo
own risk.
! set to the first mode
! plot the first mode
! use a very large number
! set to the next mode
! cumulative substeps -- cycles
! use this line if desired to
! exit do loop if done
! plot the displaced shape
Tip 60: Using ANSYS Help
When using ANSYS interactively, help on any command can be accessed immediately by
typing HELP,commandname into the input window. If the HELP application has been
launched independently, the quick way to get help on a particular command is to use the
"Navigate" and "Help On..." menu choice. Type the command name into the "Help On" text
box that pops up, then click the Apply button.
55

This will send the help program to the Commands manual for the command name typed. If
you click the "Apply" button, the "Help On" dialog box remains visible, and can be used to
type in other command names.
The online ANSYS help system makes the need for trips to hard-copy documentation much
less frequent. The Help application can be launched while ANSYS is running in the
background, so ANSYS documentation can be studied while a large model is solving.
Tip 61: The FEA Job Hunt
Not strictly an ANSYS issue, I want to put in my own two cent's worth on this topic, which
is of interest to all of us. Some time back when I was job hunting during a recession, I was
given a pre-screening interview over the phone. The interviewer owned a consulting firm. It
rapidly became apparent that he had been lied to, many times and by many people, about
their FEA experience. I had been using a company's proprietary FEA code and was not
experienced with the major commercial programs, so was immediately suspect. Another
time, I heard of an applicant using another guy's FEA model images to present in a job
interview as "evidence" of his own experience. I interviewed a guy who claimed experience
with "a locally available product I wouldn't know." It became apparent that he had been
coached and knew only the buzz words. When job hunting it is challenge enough to compete
with other experienced people -- misrepresentation we don't need.
The FEA job applicant should be able to present evidence of academic and/or post-academic
training. The applicant should have a portfolio of previous work. The applicant should be
instructed to bring these to the interview. The portfolio information can be a little awkward
when the products are proprietary. If it would be illegal to present any images of work done,
then I suggest a keen applicant independently develop a set of small models using
ANSYS/ED that illustrate the FEA techniques with which the applicant is familiar. The
56

applicant should be able to describe the modeling considerations, techniques, compromises,
pitfalls, and post-processing possibilities of the examples.
Of course, with good references and personal networking, the above situations are less of a
concern. Still, as with computer programming, the productivity of individuals can vary
surprisingly. Consequently, the applicant should be able to describe what makes FEA
productivity possible, some of the modeling shortcuts possible, and give an energetic,
articulate and confident presentation of self.
Questions of the "how would you model this" and "how would you handle this" type are just
as relevant as they are in other professional interviews.
I have had both excellent and very poor interviewers assessing me. With some, I've had to
politely direct the interview just to be able to point out my range of skills. On the basis of my
own small set of experiences I would say that first impressions are very telling -- if you get a
bad feeling about a place during the interview, it may be for a good reason. If you see a place
as being a welcoming workplace with a healthy environment, and the people you meet
behave well and are socially skilled, the odds are that as long as you function as a valuable
employee, life there will be OK. I've had an interviewer keep me waiting for an hour and a
half past the appointment time. I got the job, and found that things were frequently out of
control, and the guy was impossible to see. I had an unpleasant "stress interview", and sure
enough, the place was cheap, had an unhealthy work life, and poorly structured leadership.
Another interviewer struck me as highly manipulative, trying to goad me into making
negative comments about employers and ethnic groups (of all things--talk about playing with
fire--a personnel manager who apparently fancied himself a psychologist), and giving me
inaccurate data on hiring intentions. A friend of mine got the job and detested it, saying the
place was poisoned with political games. I've had a thoroughly positive interview, got the
job, and found I was with great people. Ignore their hype: What you see is (most likely) what
you get.
To end this on a few positive notes: Employers want to hire someone who will be a success
for them. Your boss will be very happy if you make everyone's life easier through your
contributions. Prepare yourself to give a picture of your range of skills, energy, confidence,
communication skill, ability to work with others, range of past experience, and ability to
time-manage a set of responsibilities. Some employers begrudge every penny, but others are
pleased to compensate you attractively if you produce well. Size up the potential employer
carefully, for your time is valuable. Best of luck.
Tip 62: *VPUT and DESOL
I have no idea why the commands manual entry for *VPUT describes the parameter ParR as
"The name of the resulting vector array parameter." The parameter ParR is the source of
data, NOT what is changed by *VPUT. Note that *VPUT can write to node results, and to an
element ETABLE. There is a difference between writing to "nodal degree of freedom
results", and what the manual calls "element nodal results" with *VPUT.
The *VPUT command can write information to the node results which can then be plotted as
if it was the nodal results, using the PLNSOL command. The command manual tells us that
the effect is permanent for degree of freedom results (changing the database), but temporary
for all others (derived results, not changing the underlying database). Writing stress data with
*VPUT does not affect element plots with PLESOL,S,option. If you use *VPUT to write to
"element nodal stress results", immediately do a PLNSOL plot to see the effect, do a PLDISP
plot (seeing unaffected degree of freedom data), and then do another PLNSOL stress plot,
the latter PLNSOL plot shows original data that is unaffected by *VPUT. The temporary
modified PLNSOL stress plot effect does not cooperate with PowerGraphics to give a plot
with contour discontinuities. Before using the *VPUT temporary effect in plotting nodal
stress (or other derived) results, test the method carefully for errors, and for any errors in
57

what I have just said! Warning: In a shell model, the plot of temporary *VPUT derived data
may make the plot legend indicator for the TOP, MID or BOT surface of the shell elements
meaningless -- annotate the plot to inform the reviewer.
The DESOL command does write derived information into the database to the nodes of
elements, on a permanent basis. The command is powerful, and potentially dangerous.
Annotate plots and change titles to inform the reviewer. It can be painfully slow to apply
DESOL to every node of every element, element by element, in a large model.
Tip 63: How to Divide One Element Table Column by Another
To divide one column of an element table (ETABLE) by another column, use the SEXP
command. Make sure the denominator is nonzero! Per the commands manual, SEXP "forms
an element table item by exponentiating and multiplying." The result of SEXP is formed
from (ABS(Lab1)**EXP1)*(ABS(Lab2)**EXP2). Because of the absolute value operations
that protect ANSYS from complex numbers being generated, you will get the absolute value
of the answer you want. To divide with SEXP, use a positive exponent EXP1=+1 for the
numerator Lab1, and a negative exponent EXP2=-1 for the denominator Lab2.
If you must have the ETABLE column answer with its positive or negative sign, one way to
get it would be to use a blend of SEXP and SMULT. Given ETABLE columns A and B, you
want a column of A/B values with their signs. Use SMULT to form C=A*B which has the
same sign as A/B. Use SEXP to form D=1/(ABS(B)**2) which is positive. Use SMULT to
form E=C*D. Now the column E=A/B with its correct sign.
Tip 64: Element Tables (ETABLE) and Array Data Exchange -- An Example
Note that *VGET and *VPUT can communicate with an ETABLE and with an Array. In this
way, information that can only be obtained in either an ETABLE or an Array can be moved
back and forth for manipulation, evaluation, and display. You have to be inside /POST1 to
use ETABLE. SOLVE has to have been executed in order for ETABLE data to be available.
In brief testing, I found partial solve execution not to be sufficient to make any data available
for an element table, for example, element volume. In order to use *VPUT on an ETABLE,
the array and ETABLE column will have to already exist. Create the ETABLE column by
making a copy of an existing ETABLE column (you can use the SADD command, for
example), or by creating a new dummy column from model information. Give the new
column an appropriate name for the data that will come from the array. If selection of only a
subset of your elements is in place, or if there are gaps in the element numbering, it may be
preferable to use a *VMASK during the *VGET and *VPUT calls to avoid warning
messages. The *VMASK array contents can be based on a test of element selection. Array
size can be based on MIN and MAX values for selected element numbering, if you use an
offset during data movement. Minimizing array size is a good reason for compressing node
and element numbers when developing a large model, before load cases, solutions and array
dimensions are prepared.
An example with shell elements: put shell element volume in an ETABLE, shell element
area in an array, move the area array into an ETABLE column, divide volume by area to get
shell element thickness for each element in a new ETABLE column, and do a colored
ETABLE contour plot of your model's shell element thicknesses (do not average the values
in the ETABLE plot). If the shell element is of varying thickness, this process generates an
average for the element. Print a colored picture of this plot. Augment this with an element
plot using /ESHAPE,1 and coloring based on REAL constant values. This should help with
"pesky visitors" who are always wondering how thick certain parts of a complex shell model
are. It may help you catch some modeling errors. Here is a macro to generate the ETABLE
thickness column and plot the model colored by element thickness. This macro is written to
process Shell63 elements in the selected set of elements. It is a basic macro with no testing to
prevent error conditions, or "cleanup" after execution. It illustrates movement of an array
58

column into an element table column, use of masks, offset of the transferred data to
minimize array and element table size, and division of one ETABLE column by another
using the SEXP command. The macro has to be re-executed if the model is changed -- an
ETABLE update would not be sufficient. The denominator that contains element area in the
divide operation should automatically be nonzero because all shell elements have areas.
! ETABLE and Array usage and interaction example.
! For illustration only. Use at your own risk.
! This example is used on SHELL63 elements.
! An array is created called "aaa", element selection may be
reduced,
!
and element tables are used. A plot results.
! Run from within /POST1
! Put element volume in an ETABLE, and element area in an array.
! Move the area array data into the ETABLE
! Divide element volume by element area to get an element thickness
column.
! Element thickness value should be the average for variable
thickness elements.
! Plot the ETABLE thickness data for a view of the Shell 63 elements
!
that are contour colored according to the element thickness.
!
esel,r,ename,,63
! re-select only the SHELL63
elements
aaa=
! kill the array to be used
*get,xmax,elem,,num,max
! what is the highest element
number selected?
!
element number compression
will be desirable
*get,xmin,elem,,num,min
! minimum element number
*dim,aaa,array,xmax-xmin+1
! array to hold areas has to be
this big
*vget,aaa(1),elem,xmin,esel
! fill array with info on whether
element is selected
!
-1=not selected, 0=undefined,
1=selected
!
offset with xmin (see the
manual)
*vmask,aaa(1)
! use element selection info as a
mask
*vget,aaa(1),elem,xmin,geom
! fill the array with geom info on
the elements
!
for shell elements this is
AREA. Offset with xmin
etable,volu,volu
! create element table column with
element volume
sadd,geom,volu, ,0,1
! create dummy column to contain
other data
*vmask,aaa(1)
! use array as a mask (geom data
is positive or zero)
*vput,aaa(1),elem,xmin,etab,geom ! put data into ETABLE "geom"
column. Offset with xmin
sexp,thick,volu,geom,1,-1
! divide volume by area, get avg.
shell element thick.
/title,ETABLE Plot of Shell 63 Element Thickness Values
pletab,thick,noav
You can then select a few elements of interest, and list the element table for the column
containing the thickness, to get a numerical thickness value for those elements. You could
use *VGET to put the REAL values for the shell elements into an array, and transfer that
data into an ETABLE column. Then when you list ETABLE information for a selected
59

element, you could see the REAL and the thickness value side-by-side. Contour colors could
be explicitly assigned to the different thicknesses found in the ETABLE column, if the
number of thicknesses was not too great. You could place a button on the toolbar that calls a
macro that (1) checks that the user is in /POST1, (2) checks that there is results data in the
database, (3) asks you to pick elements with the mouse, then (4) generates and prints the
ETABLE values for the REAL, thickness, and stress values of those elements, and (5) finally
cleans up and restores the original element selection.
Another use: Put shell element mid-plane Sx, Sy, and Sxy into columns, and multiply them
by the element thickness column. The resulting data would be similar to TX, TY, and TXY
data that can be obtained directly, but now would be in the direction defined by the active
coordinate system. A macro could (1) have the user pick nodes or keypoints to define a local
coordinate system, (2) make it active, (3) develop this ETABLE data and generate plots
colored by load-per-unit-length in the known directions, then (4) clean up. This could be
done for SINT or SEQV if desired.
The possibilities are endless.
Tip 65: Error Estimation, PowerGraphics, and ERNORM
Error Estimation will not be available when you enter /POST1 if PowerGraphics is active. If
you turn off PowerGraphics, then the "Options for Output" in the GUI will offer the
ERNORM setting that activates error estimation. If PowerGraphics is not active, then the
"Options for Output" in the GUI will not offer the AVRES setting that controls discontinuity
of contours at changes of material and REAL value for elements. The first time I
encountered this was when I couldn't get an error report, and couldn't imagine why, until I
had poked around for a while. I had entered /POST1 with /PowerGraphics active. ERNORM
is ON by default when you enter /POST1, but only if PowerGraphics is OFF with
/GRAPHICS,FULL.
Tip 66: Concatenate and Mesh Last
One of the things I have seen go wrong in model development is: I have concatenated lines
and/or areas, then performed a boolean operation on them. Model problems resulted and I
had to start from scratch (I re-ran most of the log file); I suggest that boolean operations
happen first -- concatenate and mesh last. (This was with ANSYS 5.3; solid modeling
problems are reduced with each version.)
I have found that when three or more areas are concatenated, the lines that are implicitly
concatenated have to be concatenated manually before successful mapped meshing will
proceed. When only two areas are concatenated, the lines concatenate automatically.
When concatenated areas are used to map mesh a volume, it may happen that an adjacent
volume defined by an area that is part of the concatenated set will not mesh until the
"pseudo-area" that results from the concatenation is deleted. I've had occasions when this did
and did not happen. The concatenated lines may need cleanup, also. It is possible that if the
volumes that do not require concatenated areas in order to be meshed, are meshed first, that
the remaining volumes can have area and line concatenation created after, and then be
meshed themselves, without error messages. This consideration may compromise easy mesh
refinement and adaptive meshing. It may be necessary to go to tetrahedral elements for easy
meshing, unless ANSYS revisions have fixed up mapped meshing concatenation.
Trivia: I first encountered the word "contatenate" when using an IBM 370 a long time back.
A neighbour told me that "concatenate" is based on the Latin word for "chain".
Tip 67: ANSYS Output of Data to Files for Use by Other Programs
Numerical data contained in parameters can be output into ASCII files using the *CFOPEN,
the *VWRITE, and the *CFCLOS commands. The *VWRITE command only works when
called from an input file that includes a format statement similar to FORTRAN. The
following simple macro makes the *VWRITE command easy to use:
60

! Put this code into a macro file called "writer.mac"
! call with: writer,data
! write data in arg1 to a file previously opened with *CFOPEN
! later on, close the file with *CFCLOSE
*vwrite,arg1
(E16.8)
The following ANSYS /INPUT data test will demonstrate the use of the above macro. In this
test, the macro has been called "writer.mac" and it is in the current directory. Either numbers
or parameters that evaluate to numbers can be used in the following commands:
! Example of data output to file from ANSYS
*cfopen,myoutput,dat
writer,123
writer,234
/clear
writer,345
writer,456
*cfclos
Executing the above commands from within ANSYS generates the following data in the file
"myoutput.dat", and demonstrates that the output file remains open in spite of the /CLEAR
command. The following is the content of the file "myoutput.dat":
.12300000E+03
.23400000E+03
.34500000E+03
.45600000E+03
The filename used in the demo ended in ".dat" so that the data would be accessible to the
MathCad program from MathSoft, Inc. The above procedure makes it possible to get
ANSYS information out into another program without errors in manual transcription. If you
can get the ANSYS information into a parameter, it can be moved to an external file. Data
can be read back into ANSYS with the *VREAD command. Similar methods can be used to
move arrays full of data. Note that the *VGET and *VPUT commands can move data
between element tables and arrays, and the arrays can be used to put data into external text
files, so significant automated data movement is possible. This approach can help to reduce
data errors in reports.
Here is an example of temporarily switching the ANSYS /OUTPUT information from the
default, to a file. Note that certain list information will not go to the file when the GUI is in
use (read the manual).
! The following code switches /OUTPUT to a file,
! writes two comments, writes PRSECT information on
! linearized stresses along a previously defined path,
! then returns /OUTPUT to the default.
/output,lin_path,out
/COM,Linearized Path Results from PRSECT
/COM,Compare Results with Code Allowables
PRSECT, ,0
/output
This gives a permanent record that is independent of plotted results.

Tip 68: Writing Array Columns to Output or to Files
The *VWRITE command can be used to output an array column, in addition to scalar
parameters. The array position from which the printing will start must be indicated when
executing the *VWRITE command. As mentioned above, the *VWRITE command cannot
be executed inside the GUI, it has to be executed from an input file or macro. The *VWRITE
command prints the data from the starting position on down to the end of the column. The
output that results can be re-directed with the /OUTPUT or with the *CFOPEN and
*CFCLOS commands. The following two macros can be used to make calling the *VWRITE
command easy. The array must exist, having been created with a *DIM command. The first
61

macro works on a 1-dimensional array parameter. Note the instruction on how to call the
macro, with the array parameter name surrounded by single quotes in order to delay the
evaluation.
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
This macro will print a 1-dimensional array

according to the starting position indicated.
If this macro is called WRITEAR1.MAC and an
array called COL1DATA is to be printed from
position COL1DATA(1) to the end of the array
then call this macro with the statement:
WRITEAR1,'COL1DATA',1
setting the name of the array in single quotes.
The user may wish to change the FORMAT statement.
*vwrite,arg1(arg2)
(E16.8)
The second works on a 2-dimensional array parameter. The macro call will include the row
and column position from which to start. The *VWRITE statement will cause printing of a
column of the 2-dimensional array. When calling the macro, the array parameter name is, as
above, enclosed with single quotes to delay evaluation.
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
This macro will print a column of a 2-dimensional array

according to the starting position indicated.
If this macro is called WRITEAR2.MAC and an
array called MYDATA2D is to be printed from
position MYDATA2D(1,2) to the end of column 2 then call
this macro with the statement:
WRITEAR2,'MYDATA2D',1,2
setting the name of the array in single quotes.
The user may wish to change the FORMAT statement.
*vwrite,arg1(arg2,arg3)
(E16.8)
Given that all ANSYS arrays are implicitly 3-dimensional, the second macro above could be
used to print out a 1-dimensional array if the second calling parameter is set to one. A similar
macro can be written to print a "column" of a 3-dimensional array. If a term in the array is
MYARRAY(III,JJJ,KKK) then the *VWRITE command will cycle through the values of the
III index when printing out data. The macro for a 3-dimensional array could be written so
that it tests ARG2, ARG3, and ARG4 to see if they are zero. If they are zero, then they
presumably were not entered, and the correct form of a *VWRITE command could be used
to print a scalar, 1-D array, 2-D array, or 3-D array, as appropriate. Such a macro is
illustrated below. Its use would be very error prone without error checking code. A scalar
need not have its name enclosed in single quotes in calling this macro, but an array would
have to be enclosed in single quotes as in the above examples. A user may want to customize
this macro to change the FORMAT statements, or to remove the /NOPR and /GOPR
commands.
! Macro to write a scalar or an array column, as appropriate.
! Indicate the starting position for *VWRITE if an array is used.
! Enclose an array parameter name in single quotes.
#################
! Examples, if this macro is called WRITER.MAC:
!
writer,aaa
! if aaa is a scalar
!
writer,'bbb',1,3,2
! if bbb is a 3-D array parameter
! Note the /NOPR and /GOPR commands. They will overwrite user
settings.
/nopr
/OUTPUT
*if,arg2,ne,0,then
! reduce the amount printed to

! if nonzero an array is used
62

*if,arg3,eq,0,then
arg3=1
*endif
*if,arg4,eq,0,then
arg4=1
*endif
*vwrite,arg1(arg2,arg3,arg4)
(E16.8)
*else
*vwrite,arg1
(E16.8)
*endif
/gopr
! if not a 2-D array

! if not a 3-D array
! if a scalar
! switch on /OUTPUT
Test these macros thoroughly before use. Note that they contain no error handling code.
Warning: It is particularly difficult to remember to surround the name of the array parameter
with single quotes.
Tip 69: Synthesizing Parameter Names and Manipulating Jobnames and Long Strings
in APDL
Although I haven't found documentation reference to the following tricks, they work in
ANSYS 5.3, and presumably will in future. The ability to synthesize parameter names, and
to do other text manipulation, could lead to some very creative activities in "programming"
ANSYS methods and in macro writing. Parameter names themselves can be synthesized by
chaining text strings together. Remember that there is a limit on the number of parameters in
a model -- arrays must be used to get around this, if it is a problem. Try these statements in
ANSYS -- manually enter these lines one at a time in the ANSYS Input window, and check
what turns up when the *STATUS command is issued (scroll down to the bottom of the
STATUS text window that pops up):
aaa='qwer'
bbb='tyui'
%aaa%%bbb%=12345
*status
%aaa%1234=5
*status
*do,iii,1,9$abc%iii%=iii$*enddo
*status
For what it's worth, you can even store ANSYS commands in parameters, and execute them.
I encountered some trouble executing commands with commas embedded inside the
character parameters, but the following worked. Give them a try:
aaa='nplo'
%aaa%
a='*get'
b='xx'
c='active'
d='0'
e='time'
f='wall'
%a%,%b%,%c%,%d%,%e%,%f%
*status,%b%
thetime=%b%
/title,%a%,%b%,%c%,%d%,%e%,%f%
/repl
yields
%thetime%
Parameters that hold text data are limited to 8 characters. Several text variables can be
chained together (concatenated) using the "percent" sign. The user should experiment to see
how blanks are truncated. The following example illustrates chaining. The strings are
concatenated in the /TITLE command, and the /REPL command shows the result in the plot
title.
63

xxx='The 1st'
yyy=' & 2nd'
/TITLE,%xxx%%yyy%
/REPL
Situations when this trick might be used could be to save and employ long title strings,
annotation strings, or job names for the /FILNAME command. The method can use several
parameters, or several terms of an array parameter. A jobname can be up to 32 characters
long, so up to four parameters, or 4 terms in an array parameter, would be needed. Note that
the *GET command can read in a jobname, with the *GET statement pointing to the
character in the jobname where the parameter will begin to read the string. An example of
array use is:
*DIM,aaa,char,4
aaa(1)='First te'
aaa(2)='rm & 2nd'
/TITLE,%aaa(1)%%aaa(2)%
/repl
A database could be saved with statements such as these, in which parameter "aaa" is text
and "num" is an integer. The contents of "num" could be the results of a load step "num" and
the file name would identify the load step number:
aaa='model'
num='456'
SAVE,%aaa%%num%,db
SAVE,%aaa%123,db
SAVE,myjob%num%,db
Another use is with a parameter inside percent signs grouped with text with all inside single
quotes. Consider this example, which was used to delete load step files in a complex
application:
! Parameter "compname" contains the Jobname of a load step file
*do,jjj,st1,st2,st3
*if,jjj,lt,10,then
/delete,compname,'s0%jjj%'
*else
/delete,compname,'s%jjj%'
*endif
*enddo
Both the RESUME command and the /CLEAR command can destroy the counter used in a
*DO loop. I have used the PARSAV command before RESUME, and the PARRES
command immediately after, in order to recover the counter and other looping parameters
when placing RESUME inside a *DO loop. The user should test this technique before using - the parameters saved and restored may undesirably overwrite parameters in the file that is
resumed. Look at this /CLEAR example; it illustrates what can be done:
! test of looping
fini
*do,iii,1,3
parsav,all,xxx,parm
/clear
parres,new,xxx,parm
*enddo
! exit whatever is active

! be prepared to hit OK button
These methods can make it possible to program considerable automation into ANSYS, using
the ability to assemble parameter names, parameter contents, commands, and file names
from letters and numbers.
Tip 70: Solid Elements 95 and 92 -- Efficiency and Interconnection
These two solid elements have mid-side nodes, so they follow curved surfaces nicely. Fewer
elements are needed than with Solid45 8-node bricks, for equivalent accuracy. Note the
ANSYS manual comments that the simpler flat-sided elements may be preferred for material
64

nonlinearity. However, nonlinearity is supported by Solid92 and Solid95. The Solid45
tetrahedral element is "not recommended" in the ANSYS manuals because of its low
accuracy in predicting stresses -- the higher order Solid92 and 95 tetrahedral option elements
do not have these warnings, and may be preferred in some cases.
Solid element 95 is a 20-node brick element. It also supports a prism, pyramid, and
tetrahedral element shape option. At revision 5.3 of ANSYS, my testing suggests that the
prism and pyramid forms are not generated by the automatic volume mesher. At the 5.5
revision, pyramids may be generated by the mesher at the interface between the brick form,
and the tetrahedral form. Brief testing I did suggests that meshing of volumes can
successfully interface the brick and tetrahedral forms. The tetrahedra formed at the interface
with brick elements do not have mid-side nodes where they would not exist on the matching
brick elements, so there should not be a big mismatch problem at the interface. These
elements that have a mid-side node missing are considered to be degenerate forms in the
ANSYS manuals, and are not recommended in regions with high stress gradients, or where
exace stress values are important.
The Solid92 element is a 10 note tetrahedron -- it should act the same as the 10 node version
of the Solid95 element in producing results. However, it executes significantly faster than the
10 node Solid95 element, presumably because the software is not dealing with the redundant
extra 10 nodes. In large models, this speedup will be of value to users, so Solid92 elements
should be considered where Solid95 tetrahedral forms would otherwise be employed in large
structural models.
65

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Tip 1: Use Annotations:

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ArcTangent of (Y/X) with the sign of each component considered (see a

Random sample of Gaussian distributions where X is the mean, and Y is the

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Natural log (to base e)

Log (to base 10)

Absolute value of X with sign of Y. Y=0 results in positive sign.

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Tip 21: Moving a Model from ANSYS Mechanical to ANSYS Linear/Plus:

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The ANSYS Toolbar can be very helpful in giving "one click"

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! filename for the generation pass

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shell is 0.05 thick

! save this part of model as gen.db for

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! finish whatever was active previously

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! clear the database

! file for storing plots

- the SFE command is employed in the

apply loads to the substructure

! filename for the generation pass

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! generates the "gen.sub" file

! bring the model in again. restores "acel"

! select the portion intended for the

- master D.O.F. nodes already are at the

- no need to couple coincident interface