Workshop 2

Advanced Named Selection 14. 0 Release

Introduction to ANSYS
Mechanical Part 2
1 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. March 28, 2012 Release 14.0
 Goals
The goal of this workshop is to use several techniques to create named selections
that will then be used to set up the boundary conditions shown below.
• Two holes at one end of the model will be used to apply a fixed support.
• On one of the remaining holes we will apply a radial displacement to simulate the
effect of a fastener that has been press fit into it.

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 Project Schematic
Begin a new Workbench session and, from the Project
page, choose “Restore Archive . . . “ and browse to the
file “WS2_Named_Selections.wbpz” and Open (location
provided by instructor).
When prompted, “Save” using the default name in the
same location as the archive file.

From the “Units” menu verify:

• Project units are set to “Metric (kg, mm, s, ºC, mA, N, mV).
• “Display Values in Project Units” is chec ked (on).

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 . . . Project Schematic
1. From the S tatic Structural system double click
(or RMB > Edit) the “Model” cell.

1.

2. When Mechanical opens, verify the units are

2.
set to “Metric (mm, kg, s, mV, mA)”.

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 Preprocessing
When Mechanical opens note the model’s orientation with respect to the
global coordinate system:
3. Expand the Coordinate Systems branch and highlight “Global Coordinate
System”.

3.

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 . . . Preprocessing
The first named selection will be created so that the
constraints can be added, and conveniently
modified, to the geometry.
4. Highlight the cy lindrical fa ce of t he h ole nearest
the global coordinate system srcin. 4.

5. RMB > Create Named Selection.

5.
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 . . . Preprocessing
6. In the Selection dialog enter t he name
“Fixture”. 6.

7.
7. Choose “Apply geometry items of same:”.
8.

8. Check the box “Size”.

9. In the tree, highlight the new named selection 9.

“Fixture” and note the scope of the selection
is 4 faces.
Since our goal is to apply the constraints only to
the 2 holes closest to the srcin, we need to add a
location filter the worksheet.

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 . . . Preprocessing
In order to proceed we need to first determine the
location of the features to be filtered. While there are
a number of ways we might accomplish this, we’ll use
the “selection information” feature.
10.
10. Highlight the cylindrical face used previously.

11. In the top menu click the box to activate “Selection

Information”.
11.

The summary shows the

face centroid is located at
an X coordinate of 8 mm.
Also note the radius of the
cylinder is 2.5 mm.

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 . . . Preprocessing
In the worksheet shows the initial selection (select by size) is represented by
the first row.
12. RMB in the worksheet and “Add Row”.

1.
1.
1.

By inspection we can see that the centroid of both required holes must be at the same X
location. Instead of using that criteria directly we’ll illustrate the use of a “filter”.
13. Configure the row to filter the selection based on X location in a range of 0 to 10 mm.
14. “Generate”.

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 . . . Preprocessing
15. With the filter applied verify the scope of the
selection is now 2 faces.

15.
16. In the graphics window review the selection.

16.

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 . . . Preprocessing
Again, there are a number of ways we might proceed
with this step, but we’ll create a geometry based
named selection and then convert it to a mesh based
selection.
Create a named selection where the press fit
simulation will be applied:

17. Select the cylindrical face shown here. 17.

18. RMB > Insert > Named Selection.

19. In the tree RMB > Rename the new selection to

“PressFace”.
18.

19.

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 . . . Preprocessing
20. Highlight the Named Selections branch, “RMB > Insert > Named Selection”.

20.

21. In the details for the new selection change the scoping method to

21.

22. In the worksheet RMB > Add Row and configure to add a face named
selection, equal to “PressFace”.

22.

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 . . . Preprocessing
23. In the worksheet RMB > Add Ro w and configure to convert to mesh nodes.

24.

23.

24. Generate the named selection.

25. In the tree, rename the selection to “PressNodes”.

25.

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 . . . Preprocessing
26. Review the details and the graphics window and note that we now have a
named selection composed of 88 nodes associated with the desired face.

26.

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 . . . Preprocessing
As stated earlier we wish to simulate a press fit by displacing the nodes in the
cylinder in a radial direction. We need a local cylindrical coordinate system to use
as a reference.

27. Highlight the same fa ce used to cr eate

the previous named selection, RMB >
Insert > Coordinate System.
27.

28. In the new c oordinate system details

change the type to Cylindrical.
29.

29. Rename the new coordinate system 28.

“PressSystem”.

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 Environment
30. Highlight the Static Structural branch, RMB > Insert
> Fixed Support.

30.

31. In the details change the scoping method to

“Named Selection”.
32. From the drop down list choose the named 31.
selection “Fixture”. 32.

In the graphics window note the fixed

support is scoped to the 2 holes
closest to the global srcin.

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 . . . Environment
Before proceeding with the next step (applying the
radial displacement to the nodes) it will be useful to
review the basics of FE loads (covered in Mechanical
Intro Part 1).
Recall:

• FE loads are applied to an F E based named selection.

•

The directions in which FE loads are applied, unlike

other loads, are always with respect to each node’s
individual coordinate system.
Because of this second point nodal orientations must
sometimes be modified so that the correct load
direction can be defined.

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 . . . Environment
33. Highlight the Static Structural branch, RMB > Insert > Nod al Orientation.

33.

34. In the nodal orientation details for “Named Selection” choose “PressNodes”
from the drop down list.
35. In the detail for “Coordinate System” choose “PressSystem” (defined earlier).

34.
35.

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 . . . Environment
36. Highlight the Static Structural branch, RMB > Insert
> FE Displacement.

36.
37. In the FE Displacement details for “Named
Selection”
down list. choose “PressNodes” from the drop
38. Enter a value of 0.1 in the X component field.

Recall that the earlier nodal rotation was done with 37.
respect to a local cylindrical system. For cylindrical
systems the X, Y and Z directions are interpreted as
radial (X), tangential (Y) and axial (Z) directions. 38.

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 Postprocessing
Solve the model.

When the solution is complete various displacement plots can be used to verify
the loading. In the figure on the right a directional deformation result is
transformed into the local cylindrical system (PressSystem) defined earlier.

Total Deformation Transformed Deformation

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 . . . Postprocessing
A final verification can be done by plotting
the Nodal Triads associated with each node.
To create a clearer display, the coordinate
display was scoped only to the face where
the displacement is applied.

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