Introduction to Finite Element Analysis

in ANSYS

Bai-Qiao Chen
2022/2023 – 2nd Semester

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1 Strength analysis
Structural analysis is of paramount importance in engineering and construction fields

 Safety and Reliability: Structural analysis ensures the safety and reliability of structures by assessing their
capacity to withstand various loads and forces. It helps identify potential weaknesses, structural integrity issues,
and failure modes, allowing engineers to design structures that meet safety standards and regulations.

 Performance Optimization: Structural analysis enables engineers to optimize the design of structures to
achieve the desired performance characteristics. By analyzing the behavior of different structural components
and materials under different loading conditions, engineers can make informed decisions about dimensions,
material selection, and configurations to enhance structural performance while minimizing costs.

 Cost-Efficiency: By analyzing structures before construction, potential design flaws or inefficiencies can be
identified and corrected, saving both time and money. Structural analysis helps engineers identify more
economical solutions, reduce material usage, and optimize structural systems, resulting in cost-effective designs.

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1 Strength analysis
Structural analysis is of paramount importance in engineering and construction fields

 Durability and Service Life: Structural analysis helps assess the durability and service life of structures by
considering factors such as fatigue, corrosion, and long-term deformations. It enables engineers to evaluate the
effects of environmental conditions, aging, and other degradation factors on the structural integrity, ensuring that
structures remain safe and functional throughout their intended lifespan.

 Innovation and Advancements: Structural analysis plays a crucial role in advancing engineering knowledge
and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. It enables engineers to explore new materials, novel structural
systems, and innovative design concepts by simulating and analyzing their behavior under different conditions.
This drives innovation, leading to the development of more efficient, sustainable, and technologically advanced
structures.

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1 Strength analysis
Applications:

 Civil Engineering: design and analysis of buildings, bridges, dams, tunnels & other civil infrastructure projects

 Aerospace Engineering: design and evaluation of aircraft, spacecraft, and related structures

 Mechanical Engineering: designing and optimizing mechanical components, machines, industrial equipment

 Offshore and Marine Engineering: design and assessment of offshore platforms, ships, OWTs

 Automotive Engineering: strength, crashworthiness, performance of cars, trucks, motorcycles.

 Energy and Power Industry: design and analysis of power plants, pipelines, renewable energy structures
(such as wind turbines and solar panels), and other energy-related infrastructure.

 Structural and Civil Consulting Firms

 Research and Academia

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1 Strength analysis

Strength analysis methods

 Experimental Methods

 Analytical or Numerical Methods

 Finite Element Method (FEM)

 Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

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2 Brief introduction to FEM

Finite Element Method (FEM) / Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
 The FEM of structural analysis was created by academic and industrial researchers during
the 1950s and 1960s.
 The underlying theory is over 100 years old and was the basis for pen-and-paper
calculations in the evaluation of suspension bridges and steam boilers.
 FEA is a way to simulate loading conditions on a design and determine the design’s
response to those conditions.
 The design is modelled using discrete building blocks called elements.
 Each element has exact equations that describe how it responds to a certain load.
 The “sum” of the response of all elements in the model gives the total response of the
design.

 The elements have a finite number of unknowns, hence the name finite elements.

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2 Brief introduction to FEM
Finite Element Method (FEM) / Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
 Essential Definitions
 Degree of freedom (DOF) - a variable such as displacement or rotation.
 Node - a point at which the required variables (e.g., displacements, rotations) are
calculated.
 Element - a small part of the structure. In two dimensions it is usually a triangle or a
quadrilateral, in three dimensions a tetrahedron or a parallelepiped.
 The element has a number of nodes. The displacement, stresses and strains in the element
are expressed in terms of their values at the element's nodes.

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2 Brief introduction to FEM

Finite Element Method (FEM) / Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
Consider a bar hanging from the ceiling with a load at the free end. The load will cause the
bar to extend and the amount by which it extends will be determined by the size of the load
and the stiffness of the bar.
The deformation of a structure depends upon the stiffness of the structure and the loads
applied to that structure.
{f}=[k] {d} (in matrix form)
FEM or FEA is based on the idea of building a complicated object with simple blocks, or,
dividing a complicated object into small and manageable pieces.

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2 Brief introduction to FEM
Finite Element Method (FEM) / Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
 {f}=[k] {d}

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2 Brief introduction to FEM

Finite Element Method (FEM) / Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
 {f}=[k] {d}

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2 Brief introduction to FEM
FEA of pipelines
 Structural analysis software has enabled the modeling of realistic defect shapes and
nonlinear material behaviour.
 3D models
 ANSYS, ABAQUS, NASTRAN, COSMOS, LS-DYNA, etc.

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2 Software for FEA

Some of the well-known commercial FEM software packages include:

ANSYS: offers a wide range of capabilities for structural analysis, fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, and
multiphysics simulations. Known for its robust solver technology and extensive post-processing features.

Abaqus: a powerful FEA software developed by Dassault Systèmes. It provides advanced capabilities for structural
analysis, thermal analysis, and coupled multiphysics simulations.

MSC Nastran: linear and nonlinear analysis, structural optimization, and dynamic simulations. It is known for its
robust solver technology and is often used in the aerospace and automotive industries.

LS-DYNA: can handle analyses including structural, thermal, and fluid dynamics simulations. commonly used for
crashworthiness analysis, impact simulations, and manufacturing processes.

COMSOL Multiphysics: enables multiphysics simulations, combining various physical phenomena such as
structural mechanics, fluid flow, heat transfer, and electromagnetics.

SolidWorks Simulation: a popular FEA software integrated with the SolidWorks CAD platform. user-friendly
interface, offers capabilities for structural analysis, thermal analysis, and motion simulations.

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2 Software for FEA
SESAM and Orcaflex are specialized commercial software packages used for specific types of analysis in
the field of offshore engineering and marine systems.

SESAM: SESAM is a suite of software tools developed by DNV (Det Norske Veritas) for structural analysis and
design of offshore and maritime structures. It offers a wide range of modules for tasks such as hydrodynamic
analysis, strength assessment, fatigue analysis, and dynamic response analysis of structures like ships, offshore
platforms, and subsea systems. SESAM is widely used in the oil and gas industry and is known for its advanced
capabilities and extensive database of industry standards.

Orcaflex: Orcaflex is a software package developed by Orcina for dynamic analysis of marine systems and offshore
structures. It is primarily used for simulating the behavior of flexible systems subjected to various loading
conditions, such as floating platforms, mooring systems, risers, and umbilicals. Orcaflex allows for the modeling
of complex interactions between different components and offers advanced features for time-domain analysis,
fatigue assessment, and optimization of system designs.

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS Mechanical APDL

 Structural analysis is used to determine deformations, strains, stresses, and reaction
forces.
 Static analysis
 – Used for static loading conditions.
 – Nonlinear behaviour such as large deflections, large strain, contact, plasticity,
hyper elasticity, and creep can be simulated.

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 3.1 to install and start ANSYS

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS

 ANSYS Workbench

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 3.1 to install and start ANSYS

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS

ANSYS Basics
 Pre-processing / Solution / Post-processing
 Graphical User Interface (GUI)
 Commands / Macros / ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL)

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 3.1 to install and start ANSYS
Ansys parametric design language (APDL)

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS

 3.2 Pre-processing
- Create the solid model
Volumes, Areas, Lines, Keypoints
Use top-down or bottom-up techniques
- Choose the element type
Shell, Solid…
- Assign real constants for the chosen element type
Shell element
- Assign Material Properties
- Mesh the model
Nodes and elements

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 Modelling
Any solid model, whether assembled from the bottom up or from the top down, is defined
in terms of keypoints, lines, areas, and volumes.
In top-down construction, you use geometric primitives (fully-defined lines, areas, and
volumes) to assemble your model. As you create a primitive, the program automatically
creates all the “lower” entities associated with it.

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS

 Modelling
In bottom-up construction, you first create keypoints and use those keypoints to define
higher-order solid model entities (lines, areas, and volumes).
You can freely combine bottom up and top-down modeling techniques, as appropriate, in
any model.

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 Use of parameters
GUI APDL

 Which one you prefer? For what reason?

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS

 Select Entities
 Components

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 Basic mouse control
 use dynamic mode
— a way to orient the plot dynamically
using the Control key and mouse buttons.
– Ctrl + Left mouse button pans the model.
– Ctrl + Middle mouse button zooms the model, spins the model
– Ctrl + Right mouse button rotates the model:

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS

 Coordinate systems

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 Mesh
• Sensitivity analysis on element size is required in systematic FEA

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS

 3.3 Solution

 Apply boundary conditions

- Displacement constraints (BC)

- External loads

 To solve

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
Arc-Length Method
 The arc-length method (accessed with ARCLEN,ON) is suitable for nonlinear static equilibrium
solutions of unstable problems.

 Applications of the arc-length method involves the tracing of a complex path in the load-
displacement response into the buckling/post buckling regimes.

 Unsmooth or discontinuous load-displacement response in the cases often seen in contact analyses
and elastic-perfectly plastic analyses cannot be traced effectively by the arc-length solution method.

 Mathematically, the arc-length method can be viewed as the trace of a single equilibrium curve in a
space spanned by the nodal displacement variables and the total load factor. Therefore, all options
of the Newton-Raphson method are still the basic method for the arc-length solution.

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS

Arc-Length Method
 a denotes a normalized displacement whereas λ the load increment parameter. The increment is defined
by the radius of the circle ∆l and the next point is the point of intersection between the path and the
circle.

 The Newton's method cannot accurately predict the solution after a limit point is reached.

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 3.3 Solution

 Arc-Length Method
 As the displacement vectors and the scalar load factor are treated as unknowns, the arc-length method
itself is an automatic load step method (AUTOTS,ON is not needed).

 For problems with sharp turns in the load-displacement curve or path dependent materials, it is
necessary to limit the arc-length radius (arc-length load step size) using the initial arc-length radius
(using the NSUBST command).

 During the solution, the arc-length method will vary the arc-length radius at each arc-length substep
according to the degree of nonlinearities that is involved.

 The range of variation of the arc-length radius is limited by the maximum and minimum multipliers
(MAXARC and MINARC on the ARCLEN command).

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 3.3 Solution

 Number of Substeps

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 3.4 Post-processing

 Review results using POST1, the general postprocessor

 Choose “Read Results > By Pick” in POST1

Notice that the result is stored in separate sub-steps.

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 3.4 Post-processing

 Plot and List results in POST1

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3 Static analysis in ANSYS
 3.4 Post-processing

 Plot and List results in POST26

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4 Bibliography
 E. Madenci, I. Guven. The finite element method and applications in engineering using ANSYS®. 2015. Springer.

 G. Dhatt, E. Lefrançois, G. Touzot. Finite element method. 2012. John Wiley & Sons.

 Netto TA, Ferraz US, Botto A. On the effect of corrosion defects on the collapse pressure of pipelines. International journal of solids
and structures. 2007 Nov 30;44(22):7597-7614.

 Netto TA, Ferraz US, Estefen SF. The effect of corrosion defects on the burst pressure of pipelines. Journal of Constructional Steel
Research. 2005 Aug 31;61(8):1185-1204.

 Teixeira AP, Guedes Soares C, Netto TA, Estefen SF. Reliability of pipelines with corrosion defects. International Journal of
Pressure Vessels and Piping. 2008 Apr 30;85(4):228-237.

 Chen BQ, Zhang XH, Guedes Soares C. 2022. The effect of general and localized corrosions on the collapse pressure of subsea
pipelines. Ocean Engineering, Vol. 247, pp. 110719.

 Li R, Chen BQ, Guedes Soares C. 2021. Design equation for the effect of ovality on the collapse strength of sandwich pipes.
Ocean Engineering, Vol. 235, pp. 109367.

 Chen BQ, Liu B, Guedes Soares, C. 2022. Experimental and numerical investigation on a double hull structure subject to collision.
Ocean Engineering, Vol. 256, pp. 111437.

 Chen BQ, Liu B, Guedes Soares C. 2019. Experimental and numerical investigation on the influence of stiffeners on the crushing
resistance of web girders in ship grounding. Marine Structures, Vol. 63, pp. 351-363.

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4 Course materials

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Schedule of classes

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 Introduction to Finite Element Analysis
in ANSYS

Bai-Qiao Chen
Question & discussions to
[email protected]

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