ANSYS Mechanical APDL Structural Analysis Guide

The finite element method is probably most commonly used in structural analysis. The term structural (or structure) refers to not only civil engineering structures like bridges and buildings, but also naval, aeronautical, and mechanical structures like ship hulls, airplane bodies, and machine housings, as well as mechanical components like pistons, machine parts, and tools.

You can conduct the following structural analyses:

• Static Analysis — Used to calculate displacements, stresses, and other parameters under static loading conditions. Static analyses can be linear or nonlinear. Plasticity, stress stiffening, large deflection, large strain, hyperelasticity, contact surfaces, and creep are examples of nonlinearities.

• Modal Analysis — Used to calculate a structure's natural frequencies and mode shapes. There are several modesextraction methods available.

• Harmonic Analysis — Used to determine a structure's response to harmonically time-varying loads.

• Transient Dynamic Analysis – Used to determine a structure's response to arbitrarily time-varying loads. All nonlinearities mentioned above in Static Analysis are permitted.

• Spectrum Analysis — A modal analysis extension used to calculate stresses and strains due to a response spectrum or a PSD input (random vibrations).

• Buckling Analysis — Used to calculate buckling loads and determine the shape of the buckling mode. It is possible to conduct both linear (eigenvalue) and nonlinear buckling analyses.

• Explicit Dynamic Analysis — The ANSYS LS-DYNA product, which provides an interface to the LS-DYNA explicit finite element programme, is available for this type of structural analysis. For large deformation dynamics and complex contact problems, explicit dynamic analysis computes fast solutions.

Several capabilities for special-purpose structural analysis are available:

• Composites • Fracture mechanics

• Tiredness

• Cross-sections and beam analyses.

Displacements are the primary unknowns (nodal degrees of freedom) calculated in a structural analysis.

The nodal displacements are then used to calculate strains, stresses, and reaction forces.

Only the ANSYS Multiphysics, ANSYS Mechanical, ANSYS Structural, and ANSYS Professional products support structural analyses.

Contents in ANSYS Mechanical APDL Structural Analysis Guide

1. Overview of Structural Analyses .

2. Structural Static Analysis .

3. Modal Analysis .

4. Harmonic Analysis .

5. Transient Dynamic Analysis .

6. Spectrum Analysis

7. Buckling Analysis

8. Nonlinear Structural Analysis Controls Dialog Box

9. Linear Perturbation Analysis

10. Gasket Joints Simulation

11. Fracture Mechanics

12. Interface Delamination and Failure Simulation

13. Composites

14. Fatigue

15. Beam Analysis and Cross Sections

16. Shell Analysis and Cross Sections

17. Reinforcing

18. Modeling Hydrostatic Fluids

ANSYS Mechanical APDL Structural Analysis Guide