Strand7 Pty Limited

News.St7 Newsletter for Strand7 and Straus7 users

Strand7 is marketed as Straus7 in continental Europe

Issue 6, December 2008

Strand7 R2.4 Beta Available

2008 has been a big development year for Strand7, and as the year In this Issue
draws to a close we are very pleased to announce the availability of
Strand7 Release 2.4 Beta. This issue of News.St7 explains what you • Strand7 R2.4 Beta Availability 1
need to do to obtain a copy. We also highlight some of the new • Using Strand7 R2.4 Beta 2
features, such as new nonlinear options and the new attachment tools.
Other major features will be covered in upcoming issues of News.St7. • Strand7 R2.4 Features 2
As always you will find information on training and exhibitions together • R2.4 Nonlinear Solver 2
with new Did You Know items.
• Nonlinear Load Increments 10
If you have any feedback or suggestions regarding the content of News.St7 or would like to feature • Attachment Link 13
any of your projects then please email news.st7@strand7.com. If you would like to automatically
receive your copy of News.St7 directly by email simply send a blank email to newsletter- • Training 16
subscribe@strand7.com. All care is taken to ensure that information in News.St7 is accurate and up
to date at the time of publishing. However Strand7 Pty Ltd accepts no responsibility for inaccuracies • Exhibitions 16
in, or changes to, such information.

useful feedback and comments. The release is now ready

Strand7 R2.4 Beta Availability
S trand7 R2.4 is a major new release with over 140 new
features plus many enhancements to existing
functionality. Many of the new features are in direct
response to feedback and requests from users.
Figure 1.1: Strand7 R2.4 Beta Splashscreen.
Over the past few months, Strand7 R2.4 has been in beta
test mode with a growing list of beta testers providing
to enter the next stage of beta testing, and this involves
making it available to a much larger user base. If you are
currently up to date with your support and maintenance
you may be eligible to download this beta release.
Users will need to visit our website, www.strand7.com
and click on Strand7 Release 2.4 Beta in the latest news
section. You will need to enter your name, company
name and hardware lock name. You will then receive an
email from us with the download site location, user ID
and password.
If you are not sure what your hardware lock name is, go
to Strand7 and click Help/Licence Information. The
hardware lock name is given there.
We hope this next beta testing period will allow us to
obtain a wider range of feedback and therefore help us to
iron out any remaining issues before making a final
release.
Your feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
We request that you direct any questions, suggestions,
comments or problems that you encounter while using
the beta release, to support on +61 (2) 9264 2977 or
support@strand7.com

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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier
Using Strand7 R2.4 Beta
R unning the setup.exe for Strand7 R2.4 Beta will
launch the installation wizard. If you are presently
running R2.3, you do not have to uninstall that release as
R2.4 can run in parallel on the same system.
Strand7 R2.4 Beta can be run as either a standalone or
network installation from either a parallel or USB
hardware lock. You will need to run St7Config.exe if you
are running in network mode.
Once the setup is complete you can run Strand7, and on
initial activation a new keycode may be required,
depending on your installation. Use email to send an
automatic email request or click txt to create a text file
and attach this to an email to key@strand7.com. Both
methods will return an automatic keycode.
After installing the beta, be sure to look through the
Strand7 R24 Book.pdf, which is located in the What’s
New folder of your installation. The pdf is a 300+ page
book with many detailed examples of the new features.
Strand7 R2.4 Beta is time limited, but regular updates will
be posted to the download site. For supported users
interested in continuing to use R2.4 Beta after expiry,
please check the download site for updates. At the time
of publishing this newsletter, the latest version is Strand7
R2.4 Beta9
Strand7 R2.4 Features
S trand7 R2.4 sees a number of significant changes and
additions to functionality. There are too many to list in
this newsletter, but a full list is available at
www.strand7.com - check out Whats New in Strand7
R24.pdf, or look for it in your What’s New folder.
Some of the new features include:
• Moving Load and Influence Analysis, with provision
for major codes such as AS5100, BS5400, AASHTO
LRFD and EN1992-2003.
• Construction Sequence Simulation, which allows for
the addition, removal and re-addition of elements at
any stage of the analysis, taking full account of
equilibrium changes as elements are added/removed,
with full support for material, geometric and contact
nonlinearity.
• Creep of metallic and non-metallic materials,
including concrete creep and shrinkage to most
national codes such as ACI and CEB-FIP.
• A new Quasi-Static solver that can be used to solve
problems in the time domain, while ignoring inertia
effects (e.g. creep problems).
• Modified Cam-Clay material model for modelling 2D
and 3D nonlinear drained and undrained soils.
www.strand7.com
• New fluid element for 2D and 3D analysis of fluid-
structure interaction.
• New element types including tapered beams, a new
significantly improved Tri3 element, which supports
elasto-plastic nonlinearity and geometric nonlinearity,
and new link types.
• New nonlinear fibre stress beam element of arbitrary
section shape, which may be used for material
nonlinear analysis (with or without geometric
nonlinearity) taking into account the interaction
between axial force and moments.
• New attribute types for all elements, including new
load attributes plus the ID attribute, which allows
elements to have a user-specified identification
number that is independent of the internal element
numbering.
• A new iterative solver based on the Preconditioned
Conjugate Gradient method (PCG), which is ideal for
the large brick models that increasingly arise from
automeshing CAD solid geometry.
• Improved convergence on most nonlinear models,
including material, geometric and contact
nonlinearity.
• New nonlinear substepping options, including the
very powerful arc-length method.
• STEP import/export, IGES export, binary STL import,
STL export, ANSYS import/export, SAP2000 import,
enhanced NASTRAN import/export.
• New pre-processing tools such as element cutting
tools.
• New selection tools.
• New geometry manipulation tools, including the
ability to create 2D and 3D geometry directly within
Strand7 for automeshing or exporting to other CAD
systems.
• Automatic attachment of dissimilar meshes, such as
assemblies from CAD.
• Many additional post-processing functions such as
user-defined contours, deviatoric and mean stresses,
SRSS and CQC combinations on all result types,
graphs in cylindrical systems and cutting planes.
• Concrete reinforcement post-processing on plate/shell
elements, including Wood-Armer moments and
allowance for membrane forces.
• Element Node Force results for facilitating the display
of free-body-diagrams on any section or subsection of
a model.
• Many new productivity enhancing features, such as
the ability to solve for multiple linear static freedom
cases in the one run and store all the results in the
same result file.
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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier
• Enhanced configuration options that allow you to set
your own default values for virtually every option, and
the ability to easily return to the factory defaults.
• Significantly expanded API functionality, with over
900 new functions, including very powerful functions
that allow you to incorporate the Strand7 model
window directly inside your own application.
• Plus many more…
R2.4 Nonlinear Solver
T here are a number of significant changes in the
nonlinear solvers of Strand7 R2.4, not only to
accommodate new features but also to improve existing
functionality. These changes will not only expand the
types of analyses that can be performed in Strand7, but
also improve the convergence of many nonlinear models.
In this issue of News.St7 we will look at changes to the
automatic sub incrementation methods and the new
nonlinear beam element.
Nonlinear Beam
In previous releases of Strand7, modelling of nonlinear
material beams was achieved by assigning an axial stress
vs strain table and/or moment vs curvature tables in the
two principal axes. For these analyses the axial stress vs
strain and moment vs curvature were not coupled.
While this is still available, R2.4 offers a beam element
that simply requires the material stress-strain table and
cross-section definition, and Strand7 handles the rest. The
interaction between axial and bending is automatically
accommodated.
The following tutorial uses a pushover analysis on a shed
frame to explain the different settings and their influence
on a nonlinear material beam analysis.
Figure 2.1: Shed frame.
• Open the file Nonlinear Beam – Initial Model.st7.
www.strand7.com
The frame is 10m long by 5 m wide and has a maximum
height of 6m. The members are structural steel I beams,
with dimensions of 200mm×200mm×10mm.
Two load patches are placed on the roof of the shed to
allow a pressure load to be applied to all the beams. This
means that only the stiffness of the frame is considered
and that any stiffness provided by cladding, etc, is
ignored.
A vertical pressure of Y = -5kPa is assigned to each of the
load patch plates.
• Solve the model using the Linear Static solver,
ensuring that Node Reactions are calculated.
Figure 2.2: Displacement of frame under vertical pressure load.
• Using the peek tool, find the vertical reaction at the
base of the legs.
You may have noticed that when the results were
displayed for the frame the patch plates were no longer
visible. This is because of settings in the new
Results/Options. Here you can control how some
elements are shown during post-processing: e.g.
show/hide patch plates, hide inactive contact elements,
hide inactive construction sequence elements or show
them as wireframe, etc.
Figure 2.3: Results/Options, Show/Hide tab.
An assessment of the stability of the frame structure can
be made by undertaking a pushover analysis. This method
determines the amount of horizontal load the frame can
withstand before collapse, as a ratio of the vertical load.
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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier

• Create a second load case in the model called
Horizontal Load.
• Select the four nodes at the top of the columns and
apply a horizontal load equal to the vertical reaction,
i.e. X = 72886.9N.
• Select the Nonlinear tab.
• Select Elastic-Plastic from the Material dropdown
and Isotropic from the Hardening dropdown.
• Select the stress vs strain table from the Stress vs
Strain dropdown.
If instead you wish to perform an uncoupled nonlinear
material analysis, e.g. you wish to assign a specific
moment vs curvature table to one of the principal axes
you can do so by setting Use Moment vs Curvature
Tables. This will activate the axial stress vs strain table
option as well the moment vs curvature options in both
principal axis directions and effectively sets the beam to
behave as in previous Strand7 releases.

Figure 2.4: Horizontal nodal loads.

For this example we are interested in the collapse of the

structure due to plasticity of the material. To determine
this we need to include a stress vs strain table for the
steel. This steel has a yield strength of 300MPa and an
ultimate strength of 350 MPa.
• Choose Tables/Stress vs Strain and create a trilinear
stress vs strain table with the following points.

Strain Stress (MPa)

0.0 0

0.0015 300
Figure 2.6: Beam property, Nonlinear tab.

0.0022 350
• Select the Section tab (Figure 2.7).
0.006 350 Integration Points may be set between 4 and 10. This
defines the number of points along the length of the beam
where the bending stiffness is fully integrated from the
stress-strain relationship over the cross section. By default
the setting is 5 and this should be sufficient for the
majority of analyses.

Figure 2.5: Steel stress vs strain table. Figure 2.7: Beam property, section tab.

• Choose Property/Beam.

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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier

• From the Geometry tab select Discretisation • Select the Results tab and ensure Beam Fibre Stress
(Nonlinear) (Figure 2.8). is calculated.
• Click Solve.
• Open the results and create a graph Vs Result Case
and name this Lateral Displacement.
• Plot a graph of nodal DX displacement.
• The Position selected should be the node at the top of
one column, relative to the node at the top of another
column. These two nodes should be on columns with
the same Z and Y coordinates.
• The X axis should be vs the Horizontal Load applied
to the structure (Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.8: Beam property, Geometry tab.

The discretisation specifies the number of cells the beam

cross section is divided into for the analysis. Each cell is
monitored independently with respect to its position on
the stress-strain table and the integration of all the cells,
over the length, determines the effective beam properties.
For a standard cross section such as this I Beam, Nominal
Divisions by default is 10, which sets the number of
divisions in the both the x and y directions. The value is
taken as the number of divisions along the longest edge
with the number of divisions in the other direction set to
make the cells roughly square. Alternatively, if Specified
Divisions is set, the number of divisions in x and y can be
directly entered.
Solid and hollow circles as well as BXS sections use a
variation on this Nominal Divisions. For further Figure 2.9: Graph vs Result Case, Position tab.
information on these section types see the Help file.
• Add to the graph the total displacement at node 8.
When the number of integration points and/or divisions
are increased the solution time will also increase.
The nonlinear solver is used for this analysis due to the
nonlinear material considerations.
• Choose Solver/Nonlinear Static.
• Set Nonlinear Material but clear Nonlinear
Geometry.

• Click Load increments and set them up as follows,

Vertical Load – Constant factor of 1.0 for 25
increments.
Horizontal Load – Factor varies from 0.0 to 1.2 over
the 25 increments.
• Under the Solver/Defaults tab select Nonlinear and
Figure 2.10: Graph of nodal DX displacement (relative and total).
set the maximum number of iterations to 100.
• Under the Sub-Steps option set Displacement Control You can see from figure 2.10 that initially the relative
(Arc Length) with a Maximum Displacement displacement between the two legs is constant but that at
Increment (Ratio) of 1.0×10-3. Also set Save Sub- around 60% of the horizontal load the distance between
Increments. the columns begins to increase.
• Contour beam fibre stress for the frame.

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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier
Figure 2.11: Beam fibre stress contour – Increment 22.
Figure 2.11 shows the plastic hinges that are eventually
formed at the top and bottom of the columns; stresses
have reached the maximum ultimate values of +350 MPa
and –350 MPa.
The peek tool can also be used to investigate the yielding
of the beam.
Figure 2.12: Peek tool showing beam fibre stress in the yielded beam.
Prior to yielding, all beam stress types on an elasto-plastic
nonlinear beam can be extracted. However once a beam
yields, it is no longer possible to calculate fibre stress as
simply a linear summation of axial stress and bending
stress. Consequently certain stress contours will no
longer be available for yielded elements. For example, if
an attempt is made to plot Bending Stress (as opposed to
Fibre Stress) yielded beams will be displayed as
wireframe, as shown in figure 2.13. Similar explanation
applies to the axial stress plot for a nonlinear beam.
However, if axial stress contours are requested on a beam
that has yielded, Strand7 simply contours the total axial
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force divided by the cross section area, as an indicative
value.
Figure 2.13: Bending stress Plane 2 contour .
Sub-incrementation
I n Strand7 R2.3 sub-incrementation was handled via
load scaling, i.e. if the solution didn’t converge within the
specified number of iterations, or the displacement
increments were too large, the amount of load was
reduced and the solution proceeded. This is still available
in R2.4, but now, two more sub-incrementation
procedures have been introduced, Displacement Scaling
and Displacement Control (Arc Length). The different
sub-incrementation techniques can be set via the solver
dialog Defaults, under Sub-Steps. This is shown in
Figure 2.14.
Figure 2.14: Nonlinear static solver Defaults – Sub-Steps.
Load Scaling
As was the case in previous releases of Strand7, load
scaling scales the amount of applied load should the
solution fail to converge. The amount of load applied in
the increment is reduced and the iteration process starts
again. The load continues to be reduced until either the
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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier
solution converges or the Minimum Reduction Factor is
reached, before increasing it again towards the value
requested by the user.
Load Scaling can be triggered by one of the following,
• The solution does not converge in the set number of
iterations.
• The matrix is singular.
• The Maximum Rotation Increment or Maximum
Displacement Increment are exceeded.
Displacement Scaling
Displacement scaling is similar to load scaling except
when this is triggered, instead of scaling the externally
applied loads, the initially calculated displacements are
scaled. The solver scales back the calculated
displacements when determining the internal state of
stress and updated model stiffness. This allows the
structure to develop the necessary stiffness and stability
(e.g. due to membrane loads) to eventually equilibrate
with the externally applied loads. The displacement is
scaled such that at any iteration it is no larger than the
Maximum Rotation Increment or the Maximum
Displacement Increment.
Did you Know?
Nonlinear Convergence Graph
Convergence of the nonlinear solvers is
based on the displacement and force norms
for the model for each iteration. Within R2.4
you can now click in the solver panel to
display a graph of the displacement and force
norms for each iteration.
This means that it is easier to track the path
of convergence of the model.
Displacement Control (Arc Length)
The addition of arc length is the most significant addition
to the sub-stepping options. This will enable models that
previously diverged after a certain amount of load, to
proceed further down the solution path. In particular this
www.strand7.com
sub-stepping procedure is useful for buckling and post
buckling analysis.
The procedure searches along the equilibrium path
allowing total movement, in any increment, up to a
specified amount; this amount is the nominal arc length
value. The Maximum Rotation Increment and the
Maximum Displacement Increment (Ratio) settings
directly control the nominal arc length value, which is
calculated as a type of norm of the displacement vector.
Arc length sub-incrementation is then triggered when the
displacement/rotation increment generates an
instantaneous arc length value that exceeds the nominal
arc length value.
In a single degree of freedom system, for example, a
single spring along the X axis being extended, it is easy to
visualise the nominal arc length: in this case it is simply
the X displacement of the end of the spring. The arc
length procedure therefore scales the effective load on the
spring such that each increment produces an X
displacement no bigger than the nominated arc length. In
a general case, it is not trivial to determine which degree
of freedom is controlling the response (it can change as
the structure is loaded and deforms), therefore the
nominal arc length is calculated based on the complete
displacement increment vector.
As mentioned above, the Maximum Rotation Increment
and the Maximum Displacement Increment (Ratio)
control the nominal arc length. The rotation is simply a
nodal rotation, whereas the displacement increment,
being a ratio, is converted to an actual displacement value
by multiplying the ratio by the largest dimension of the
model, parallel to the global axes. The nominal arc
length is then the norm of the displacement vector scaled
such that the maximum nodal rotation component
increment equals the Maximum Rotation Increment, or
the maximum displacement component increment equals
the Maximum Displacement Increment, whichever occurs
first.
Sub-Incrementation – Example 1
This first sub-incrementation example will look at a cable
net structure. The structure is 30m long and 10m high. It
consists of relatively stiff I beams on the sides and top and
very flexible circular solid sections forming the cables.
Figure 2.15: Cable net model.
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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier

The nodes at the base are pinned and the structure is

subjected to self weight.
• Open the model Cable Net.st7.
• Choose Solver/Nonlinear Static.
• Set Nonlinear Geometry.
There is a single nonlinear load increment in this model
with a factor of 1 for self weight.
• Select the Defaults tab and click Sub-Steps.
• Select Load Scaling and click Solve.

Figure 2.17: Cable net displaced shape.

Figure 2.17 shows an exaggerated plot of displacement

for the cable net. You can see from this that the cables
have tended to droop under the gravity load.
Displacement scaling is useful for structures that will
develop stiffness under loading but initially may be
unstable.

Did you Know?

View Load Factors
With the release of Strand7 R2.4 comes the
ability to view the applied loads for a
specific load case combination, nonlinear
load increment, quasi-static or transient
dynamic time step. Results/View Load
Figure 2.16: Nonlinear solver Defaults tab.
Factors will show the load factors applied
for each load case for the displayed result
The solver terminates due to divergence. This is because case.
the load is causing large deflections in the structure which
cannot be resolved. In reality, as the cable begins to Sub-Incrementation – Example 2
deflect, some lateral stiffness would develop reducing the
overall amount of deflection. For this example we will look at a
• Choose Solver/Nonlinear Static and select the rectangular hollow section
Defaults tab again.
modelled using plate/shell
elements.
• Click Sub-Steps.
The structure is 197mm ×
• Select Displacement Scaling. 236.4mm, 1000mm tall and has a
thickness of 6mm.
• Enter a Maximum Rotation Increment of 30
degrees, and a Maximum Displacement Increment Only half the structure is modelled
of 0.01. with the appropriate restraints
applied along the symmetry plane
This means that the structure can only move 0.01 ×
and the base fully fixed.
maximum model size in an iteration. The displacement
scaling routine will scale back the displacements when A moment of 1 × 108 Nmm is
this is exceeded, and determine the load required for this applied across the top of the
amount of displacement and then proceed to iterate to column.
balance the internal and external loads. This allows the
• Open the model Rectangular
structure to develop some lateral stiffness due to
Hollow Section.st7.
membrane effects and to stabilise under the load.
• Set Save Sub-Increments and click Solve. • Choose Solver/Nonlinear Static.
This time the displacement scaling routine allows the • Set Nonlinear Geometry.
solver to scale back the displacements and the solution to
proceed until 100% of the load is applied. • Click Load Increments.
There are 10 increments factoring from 1 to 10.

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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier

Figure 2.18: Nonlinear load increment table.

• Select the Defaults tab.

• Click Sub-steps.
In this first section we will look at using Load Scaling as
the sub-stepping option.
Figure 2.20: RHS lateral deflection (absolute 1).
• Enter a Minimum Reduction Factor of 0.025.
A graph of the lateral (DX) deflection vs load halfway up
• Set Save Sub-Increments.
the column, shown in figure 2.21, also shows this
• Click Solve. buckling occurring. This is indicated by the sharp change
in gradient of the slope.
Note: The iteration limit has been changed to 75 for this
model.

Figure 2.21: RHS load stepping lateral deflection graph.

However it could be useful to be able to track with more

Figure 2.19: Sub-Steps dialog.
The model begins to sub-step at increment 5 and
terminates due to divergence of the solution at the start of
increment 6.
Figure 2.20 shows a displacement plot of absolute 1 for
approximately 5% of increment 6. This clearly shows the
structure is beginning to buckle under the current load.
detail exactly how the structure is buckling as well as to
look further into the post-buckling behaviour. The
nonlinear displacement control (Arc Length) sub-stepping
procedure is ideally suited to this type of problem.
• Choose Solver/Nonlinear Static and select the
Defaults tab.
• Click Sub-Steps.
• Select Displacement Control (Arc Length).
• Click Solve.

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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier

Figure 2.24: RHS lateral deflection, Increment 6 (Sub-increment 38).

Figure 2.22: Sub-Steps dialog.

Again the solver begins to sub-step but now the sub-

stepping routine is arc length. The solver no longer
terminates due to divergence but continues to update the
load. Figures 2.23 to 2.25 show different stages of the
buckling of the column. Initially the shape is very similar
to the shape found using the load stepping method,
however 2.24 and 2.25 show that the post buckling
behaviour is now being captured. Figure 2.25 shows the
column completely failing. Figure 2.25: RHS lateral deflection, Increment 6 (Sub increment 100)

The same graph created for the load stepping procedure

can now be viewed for the arc length results. This clearly
shows both the ultimate moment carrying capacity of the
column and its response beyond that point.

Figure 2.23: RHS lateral deflection, Increment 6 (Sub-increment 1).

Figure 2.26: RHS lateral deflection vs load graph.

The availability of displacement control (arc length) opens

up new possibilities in the analysis of nonlinear models
allowing the buckling and post buckling behaviour of
models to be tracked in great detail

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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier
Nonlinear Load Increments
W hile the application of nonlinear load increments
remains the same in Strand7 R2.4, creating the increment
table has become a little bit different, now incorporating
stages of a construction sequence and an automatic
creation tool. This article will revisit the application of
loads from the load increment table and then discuss how
the new dialog differs from previous releases.
Revisiting Nonlinear Load Increments
The factors applied to a load case in the nonlinear load
increment table are factors applied to that load. It is
important to remember when setting up your nonlinear
load increments that the factors applied to each increment
are independent of the previous increments, not
cumulative. This has not changed from previous release
versions of Strand7.
Figure 3.1: Nonlinear load increment table with two increments.
For example, Figure 3.1 shows Increment 1 as applying a
factor of 1.3 to X = 130N (load case 1). This means that
for this increment 1.3 × (X=130N) is applied giving a
total applied load of X=169N. In Increment 2, the factors
are 1.0 for X = 130N (LC1) and 1.0 to Y = 25N (LC2).
This means that the load applied to the structure would be
a combination of X = 130N and Y = 25N at the same
time. This type of nonlinear load increment table is
common for modeling different load combinations within
the nonlinear solver.
Figure 3.2: Nonlinear load increment table with five increments.
www.strand7.com
Fig 3.2 shows a different nonlinear load increment table.
In this example gravity is included and kept constant
while a second load is gradually added. So in Increment
1, only gravity is included at 100% (a factor of 1 is
assigned to Gravity). In the second increment gravity
remains at 100% but now 25% or 0.25 times load case 2
is applied. So we have gravity and X = 15N applied to
the model. The increments then continue to keep gravity
constant while steadily increasing the second load. This
method of setting up the nonlinear load increment table is
usually used for one of two scenarios. The first is when
you are looking at situations such as buckling when one
load is kept constant but another load is steadily increased
until reaching the buckling load factor. The other time
this setup might be used is when a model is very
nonlinear and only small amounts of load are applied in a
single step to aid solution convergence.
Did you Know?
Anchoring Node Coordinates
If you wish to create nodes in a specific plane or line, you can
anchor one or more nodal coordinates and then enter the
remaining values.
In the Create/Node dialog enter
the coordinates that are to stay
the same, e.g Z = 250. Then
clear the Z checkbox. Now every
node that is created when an X
and or Y coordinate is entered
will be at Z = 250.
Both Fig 3.1 and 3.2 have the freedom case factors set to
zero. In this case both freedom cases include only fully
fixed restraints. This means that regardless of the factor
assigned to the freedom case the restraint will remain
fixed: 0 × fully fixed = 1 × fully fixed. The factor assigned
to a freedom case in the increment table only becomes
important when either an enforced displacement or shrink
link is present in a model.
Figure 3.3: Nonlinear load increment table with three increments.
Fig 3.3 shows an increment table for a model containing
an enforced displacement of X = 5mm. For the first
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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier

increment the factor is 0, so this will simulate a fixed X

restraint in the model, or 0 × 5mm = 0mm. For the
second increment the factor is 0.5, giving a total X
enforced displacement of 2.5mm in the model. It is not
until the final increment when 1 is applied as the factor
that 5mm is enforced in the model. If instead of enforced
displacements in the model, shrink links existed, the
freedom case factors would still apply. In this situation
increment 1 would create no change in the length of the
shrink link. Increment 2 however would cause the shrink
link to close by 50%, or half its length. At increment 3,
Figure 3.5: Nonlinear load increment dialog with five increments.
both ends of the shrink link come together.
Automatic Load Increments The automatic load increments can also be used for a
more complicated loading scenario. If your model had
In Strand7 R2.4 while load increments can still be created
two load cases but you wanted one to be at 100% for all
manually it is now possible to automatically create load
increments but the second load case to be applied
gradually this can be handled in two steps using the
increments. By clicking the dialog box in Fig 3.4 is
automatic load increment generator.
displayed.

Figure 3.6: Automatic load increment dialog.

Figure 3.4: Automatic load increment dialog.

To setup the increments so that the first load case is at

Here you can specify the Start Factor, End Factor, Start
100% for all increments, only load case 1 should be
Increment and End Increment for the load and/or freedom
checked and the Start and End Factors should be 1.0. The
cases. For example, If you require a load case to linearly
Start Increment should be 1 and the End Increment, 5.
increase the loading from 0 to 100% in five increments
This will produce the nonlinear load increment table
you would set up the automatic load increments as
shown in Fig 3.7.
follows:
• Start Factor = 0
• End Factor = 1
• Start Increment = 1
• End Increment = 5
This is shown in Fig 3.4 with the resulting nonlinear load
increment table shown in Fig 3.5.

Figure 3.7: Nonlinear load increment table.

The second stage requires us to incrementally increase

load case 2 from 0.0 to 1.0 over the five increments. The
automatic load increment tool is again used but this time
load case 2 is set instead of load case 1. The Start Factor is
now 0.0 but the End Factor is still 1.0. Start and End
Increments remain the same. This setup is shown in Fig

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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier
3.8 with the resulting nonlinear load increment table
shown in Fig 3.9.
Figure 3.8: Automatic load increment dialog.
Figure 3.9: Nonlinear load increment table.
Increments do not necessarily need to be increasing when
using the automatic increment tool. Start and End Factors
can be entered such that the loading is decreasing. Not
only can it be one or the other, the functionality of the
automatic increment tool allows for a combination of
loading and unloading to be accomplished.
Staged Increments
As part of the new features of R2.4, tools are available for
easy staged construction sequence analysis. This means
that the nonlinear load increment table now
accommodates stages of an analysis. By clicking staged
analysis nonlinear load increments can be assigned
for each of the different stages. This can consist of one to
multiple increments in the one stage.
Figure 3.13: Staged nonlinear load increment table.
www.strand7.com
More details on staged construction sequence will be
covered in a future issue of News.st7, or for further
information see Strand7 R24 Book.pdf.
Other Options
Two other buttons have been introduced to the nonlinear
load increment table that will improve efficiency.
The first is Clear All Values . When this is used all
values in the load increment table become zero.
The second is Reset Increment Totals . This allows
for the number of increments to be reset to a user
specified number, e.g. 20 increments can be reset back to
one in a single operation. This tool can be used on single
or multi-stage analyses
Attachment Link
T he attachment link was developed to allow
incompatible meshes to be connected together and
deform as if they are compatible. This will make
modelling contact scenarios between two dissimilar
meshes or joining the separate components of an
assembly a more streamlined process. This article is not
written to discuss how to use the attachment link, for
information on this please see the Strand7 R24 Book.pdf.
Instead this article will focus on the different types of
attachment available and how the results can vary due to
this as will as give a brief example of using the new link.
Figure 4.1:Attachment attribute dialog.
The three types available are Rigid, Flexible and Direct.
While each of these types will include the creation of an
attachment link, what this link will attach to varies.
13
Making Finite Element Analysis Easier

• Rigid
Did you Know?
Background Image
A background image can be added to your Strand7
model window to allow you to include your
company logo or perhaps a theme that matches
your structure to “jazz up” the presentation of your
model to your client.
2.0m
1.25m
Figure 4.2: Rigid attachment.

When rigid is selected, a rigid link 1.55m

is created from the node to the
point of attachment. The
attachment link is then connected Figure 4.5: Model configuration.
between the rigid link and the
other element. With the model configuration
Choose View/Options and select the jpeg or bmp shown in Figure 4.5 we would
• Flexible image you wish to use as the background. This will expect a moment at the fixed node
be displayed in the model window. The model can of
still be manipulated within Strand7 as per usual.
MZ = 5 N × (1.25m + 0.3m ) = 7.75 Nm

Three models with the configuration shown in Fig 4.5

have been created. The first uses a rigid attachment, the
second a flexible attachment, and the third a direct
attachment. Moment results at the fixed node are:
Rigid: MZ = 7.75Nm

Figure 4.3: Flexible attachment. Flexible: MZ = 7.75Nm

When flexible is selected, a new beam element (of the
property type of your choice) is created from the node to
the point of attachment. The attachment link is then
connected between the new beam and the other element.
This is basically the same as rigid except that the rigid link
becomes a beam element.
• Direct
Figure 4.4: Direct attachment.
When direct is selected, the attachment is assumed to be
directly between the node and the point of attachment
regardless of any distance between them.
Moment Handling
The main difference between the three attachment types
can be seen when looking at the results.
Direct: MZ = 6.25Nm
The results show that while the rigid and flexible
attachments give the expected moment, direct does not.
In fact the moment value calculated for direct ignores the
gap between the two components being attached
(MZ = 5N×1.25m = 6.25Nm). This is as you would
expect as the definition of the direct attachment is that the
two components are directly attached regardless of
distance. This result is completely analogous to the
Master-Slave link results reported in News.St7 Issue 3.
Conclusion
The above discussion is important to remember when
choosing which attachment type is appropriate for your
model. If the gap between the two attached components
is relatively small, the difference between the three types
is minimal, however as the gap grows so does the
difference. Whether any gap truly exists and therefore
impacts the moment calculation should be considered
carefully.
Attachment Link Application
Figure 4.6 shows the geometry for a mechanism that was
imported into Strand7. This geometry will be used to give
a brief outline on how the new attachment link works.

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Making Finite Element Analysis Easier
Figure 4.6: Assembly geometry with attributes.
The geometry consists of two links, a shaft and a bearing
block. Loads and restraints are assigned directly to the
geometry; fixed restraints at the base of the bearing block
and inside the small hole of one of the links, and a
pressure load normal to a link side. We can also assign
the attachment attribute directly to the geometry. As the
connection between the shaft and the links is to be a
welded connection, a rigid connection for the attachment
is assigned here. For the connection between the shaft
and bearing block we need to simulate a sliding
connection and so this is assigned as flexible.
Figure 4.7: Section of incompatible mesh in assembly.
Fig 4.7 shows the assembly after it has been solid
meshed. It can easily be seen that there are areas of mesh
incompatibility.
Figure 4.8: Brick face attachment attribute on areas to be attached.
Once the meshing is completed and the attachment
attribute is assigned to the elements the attachment links
are created via Tools/Attach Parts.
www.strand7.com
Figure 4.8: Flexible attachment links (beam elements created).
Figure 4.8 shows the automatic creation of the attachment
links in the model. For rigid attachments, rigid links are
created, while for flexible attachments, beam elements are
created. For this example, the beam elements are set to
normal point contacts.
Welded
connection Sliding
connection
Figure 4.9: Theta displacement of the assembly.
Solving the model in the nonlinear solver produces the
theta displacement shown in figure 4.9. This shows that
the displacement across the incompatible meshes is
continuous, as would occur in a welded joint. At the
interface between the shaft and the bearing block, the
theta displacement is not continuous as the shaft is free to
rotate relative to the bearing block
15
Making Finite Element Analysis Easier

In October we exhibited at SNAME – Society of Naval

Training
Architects and Marine Engineers conference and expo in

T his year we have conducted a number of training

Houston, Texas, together with Beaufort Analysis Inc, who
are the Strand7 distributors in the USA.
courses in the use of Strand7 here in Sydney, throughout In November we also exhibited at Civils UK 2008, the
Australia and internationally. Both our introductory and premier Civil Engineering exhibition in the UK. Now in its
our advanced courses, covering nonlinear, dynamics and tenth year, it brings together the whole industry to
structures, continue to be popular with new and existing educate, learn, promote and network, covering all aspects
users alike. of civil engineering.
Our final scheduled course for the year has just been
completed in the UK. This course was a five day course
similar to the courses we run interstate and in the USA.
Although our course schedule for 2009 is yet to be
finalised, we plan to run our usual suite of courses as well
as more training in the UK, USA and interstate. When the
training schedule becomes available it will be posted on
our website, however if you wish to register to have the
schedule sent to you please send an email to
info@strand7.com.
If our standard courses don’t quite match your
requirements, you may also like to consider customised
training courses. These can be conducted at our offices in
Sydney or in your own offices. They can be for one or for
Figure 5.2: Civils 2008 Exhibition November 2008 - UK
a group of engineers, and from a few hours to five days in
duration. They are tailored to your needs. If you would
like more information about customised Strand7 training In 2009 we plan to exhibit at a range of exhibitions (a full
list will be available on our website). So far we can
for your company, please contact us confirm our attendance at NASCC 2009 (North American
Steel Construction Conference) and OTC 2009 (Offshore
Exhibitions Technology Conference).

S trand7 participated in a number of exhibitions and 1–4 April 2009 NASCC Booth 728 Phoenix, USA

conferences in 2008, in the USA, the UK and Korea. 4-7 May 2009 OTC Booth 8377 Houston, USA

These exhibitions are a great opportunity for us to not

only meet prospective new Strand7 users, but also to
meet our existing users in a relaxed environment, and to
find out about interesting engineering projects and the
application of FEA to these.
F inally all the staff here at
Strand7 would like to take this
In May we participated at the 8th World Congress on opportunity to wish all our Strand7
Railway Research in Seoul Korea, together with CNG- users a very merry Christmas and a
Softek, who are the Strand7 distributors in Korea. safe and happy 2009. We thank
you for your continued support
and hope that you will enjoy using
Strand7 R2.4.

Head Office
Strand7 Pty Ltd
Suite 1, Level 5
65 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000
AUSTRALIA
Tel +61 2 9264 2977
Fax +61 2 9264 2066
Email info@strand7.com
Figure 5.1: SNAME exhibition October 2008 – USA. Web www.strand7.com

www.strand7.com 16