Rigid "Elements" in NASTRAN Warren C. Gibson Vice President, CSA Engineering, Inc.

(Originally published in "ASIAC Current Awareness Bulletin," Winter 1992)

The "rigid elements" in COSMIC NASTRAN, MSC/NASTRAN and ASTROS confuse many analysts. This note is intended to clarify these elements which can be very useful, but perilous if misused. The elements in question, listed in the table below, are not really finite elements in convenient means of generating multi-point constraint eg!lations for certam modelling situations. Nevertheless, it is convenient to call them elements because the share many of the superficial aspects of finite elements: they connect nodes, have identifying numbers, ana can be plotted. The Rigid Elements
NASTRAN I MSC/NASTRAN GRIGDR CR8AR CRIGID1 CR8E1, CRIGD3 CR8E2, CGRGD2
'ASTROS Version 6

~lements (~finitely stiff, in fact). They can nove .as n~d bodies .but cannot defonn: One )otential difficulry WIth these elements IS that me analysts must carefully choose six degrees of freedom that are capable of representing rigid body motion as independent degrees of freedom (sometimes fewer than six). as in planar structures). These degrees of rreedom are retained in the equations of motion and are therefore called independent, the rest being dependent. DOF's assigned as dependent in one rigid element may not be depen<1entin any other ngid elements or multi-pomt constraints. Another pitfall is that these elements cannot be used when thennalloads are present. Most of the true rigid elements differ only superficially: they connect different numbers of griq points and provide differeIft fonnats; the ChOIce of one type over another IS often s~ly a matter of convenience. The RSPLINF element is somewhat different: it is used to ensure that a line of nodes defonns in the same sha~e that an ordinary beam element would. RSPLINE elements can be used to IIstitc;~ two plane regions with different mesh densItIes.

the mathematical sense. They are actually

Distribution Elements
The RBE3 element is generally used in two situations: to distribute static 1oads or inertia forces from a single point in space to a number of points on the structure and to serve as a transItion between two portions of a structure that are modelled differently.

~~-~~-=RTRPLT RBE1 RBE2 RSPLINE

RROD ReAR

Load Distribution Applications

RBE1 RBE2

Distribution elements
CRBE3 IRBE3 IABE3

As the table indicates, these elements can be divided into two classes: true rigid elements and distribution elements. In a sense, the two classes are opposite in that the true rigid elements are like elements with infinite stiffness while the RBE3 is like an element with limited stiffness or zero stiffness. This important distinction is not always clear. to users because the NASTRAN documentatIon unfortunately groups both kinds under the category "ngia elements." The two classes will now be explained in more detail.

To illustrate the first situation, suppose a piece of equipment is attached to a base plate at four points around the base.,." numberea 101 through ~04 (F~gure 1). 1ne .equipment stiffness IS consIdered small relative to the base structure, so an RBE3 (which is perfectly flexjble) is considered .aJJ.propriate. (If the equIpment were very stiff comQared to the base structure an RBE2 would be used instead.) The RBE3 serves to distribute the
Equipment (~11nIC1Ur8I)
Grid at e.g. wtth concentrated maa and moment of Inertia

~
uounGnvpla8 RBE3 tranat- WlerUlloada toU1Ifour mountDoInta

True Rigid Elements

The true rigid elements are easy to visualize. They act like very stiff finite

Figl:lfe 1. Representation equipment using an RBE3

of

a piece

of

Cosmic

inertia forces (or applied static forces) from the equipment to the support structure. Grid Qoint 200 IS assigned to the center of gravity of the equipment, and a CONM2 cara is used to attacn the eguipment's mass (7.5 lb) to that gI:id point. The following bulk data cards are added to the model:
GRID 200 CONM2 200 200 RBE3 101 103 104 (x) 200 (y) 7.S 123 (z) 1.0 123 101 102 +RB

The RBE3 card says that at grid 200, degrees of freedom 1, 2, and 3, are to be computed as fixnctions of degrees of fteedom 1,2, and 3 at grid points 101 Through 108. The exact dep~ndency will be computed by NASTRAN using the relative geometric locations of the vanous grid points. Now suppose the user wanted include the equipment's moment of inertia the CONM2. Althou~ moments of inertia no~ always a~~ilable, it is. usually ! ossible to on are

Figgre 2. Using RBE3 to transition shell model to a stick model.

from a

to estImate radiI of gyratIon an co~ute moments of inertia from I=M~. The RBE3 is modified so that rotation degrees of freedom are, also computeq at grid 20G, since these now carry moments of Inertia.
+CM 102 +RB

would be obtained by rigid links to each of the independent grid poin"ts separately. If the refe~ence degrees of freed~~ are called~,q and the mc;iependent pOF Ui' .l -~ ..., l~, the result IS a constramt equatIon or the form

-[J]{Uq} + L [Gj]{Uj} = 0
i=1

The t:igid-1'ody beaming equation from point i to pOint q IS

A continuation line has been added to the CONM2 for entry of the moments of inertia, and field 5 of the RBE3 has been changed from 123 to 123456. Field 7 is left as 123; use of all six degrees of freedom at the inde2endent grid pOInts (i.e., 123456) is possIble, but not recommended.

where [S;q] is
1

0
1

0 0
1

0
(zq -Zi

(Zi-Zq

~q-Yi
(Xi -Xq

Transition applications
Another valid use for RBE3's is in transitioning from a shell model-of a fuselage to a stick model, as in Figure 2. An RBE3 can be used to stipulate that the motions of the grid point at the center of the fuselage be computed as an average of the motions of the surrounding grId points on the shell model. The RBE3 transmits beam forces without preventing deformation of the shell's

0
(xq -Xi)

~i-yq
1

0
1

0
0
}.

cross-sectIon.
Mathematics of the RBE3
The mathematics underlying the RBE3 is presented in Reference 4 ana may be summarized briefly as follows. In essence, the motion of the reference grid point is computed as a weighted average of the motions that

The least-squares weighted fit results in the following constraint equations:

N

{Uq} = [~b][A]-1

1: [TgbS;qJT[WJ{u,}
1=1

where ~bis the transformationfrom basic to global coordinatesat grid point q, [W;Jis a

user-supplied factors, and

diagonal

matrix

of weighting

The wei~ting matrix defaults to an identity matrix. These wei~tin~ factors may be entered by the user on RBE3 cards, but should generally be a allowed to default. In order to determine exactly what constraint equations are generated by a ~articular set of rigid elements, the following DMAP alter can be used:
ALTER 102$ TRNSP GM/GMT $ MATGPR GPL,USET,SIL,CMT//MIN $

.This p~ts the coefficients of the constraInt equatIons that are generated. The alter is for SOL 24, version 65 of MSC/NASTRAN. For other solutions or versions, substitute the line number of the MCEI module for 102 in the ALTER statement. The following sources consulted for further infonnation. may be

1. MSC/NASTRAN Application Manual, section 2.11 "Rigid Elements and Multi-point Constraints.'
2. MSC/NASTRAN Application Manual, June 1985 Application Note, "Modelin,g Checkout Techniques for RBE3 Elements.' This Note may be out of print. 3. MSC/NASTRAN Application Manual, December 1984 ~PQlication Not~~ "Checks for MPC's and Rig1;d Elements." Note that the DMAP alter given in this note is now incoIporated in SOL 60. This Note may be out of pnnt.
4. MSC memo MAG-4, "Mathematical Specification for the RBE3 Element," April, 1975. Available from ASIAC.