Exercise 11 Deformation of C-Bar

Exercise 11
Deformation of C-Bar
11-1 Introduction
As described in Exercise 8, the C-shaped steel bar is used to measure the magnitude of a force P [1]. A strain gauge is bonded to the surface of the location as shown [2]. The location is chosen because the strain is large and distributed quite uniformly, so that the measured strain is not sensitive to the variation of the location of the strain gauge. The measured strain is then used to calculate the force P. The idea also relies on the fact that the strain is linearly proportional to the force P, which is true when the deformation is small enough. In other words, if the measured strain is doubled, then the force must be doubled.
In this section, we will assume a force of P = 2,000 N, and perform a simulation to see how the body deforms.
The students will learn not only the procedure of a simple simulation but the meaning of displacements. P [5] The two systems share the same <Geometry>. You can edit up-stream cell but not the downstream cell.

[2] Strain gauge.

[1] Applied force P.

11-2 Start Up
[2] Open the project "CBar," which was saved in Exercise 8.

[6] Double-click <Model> to start up <Mechanical> application.

[3] Drag <Static Structural> and drop to <Geometry> cell of the <Geometry> system. [1] Launch Workbench

[4] A <Static Structural> system is created.

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[7] <Mechanical> GUI shows up. If your GUI layout is not like this, pull-down-select <View/ Windows/Reset Layout> and select <Graphics> tab., see [8].

[9] If the unit system is not like this, see [10].

[10] Pull-down-select <Unit/ Metric (mm, kg N, s, mV, mA).

[8] Whenever necessary, pulldown-select <View/Windows/ Reset Layout> and select <Graphics> tab to bring back the "standard" layout.

Like DesignModeler, <Mechanical> is an application module of the Workbench. In this book, we will use DesignModeler to build geometric models, while use <Mechanical> to perform the rest of simulation tasks. Appendix B provides a quick reference for the use of <Mechanical>.
Also, unlike DesignModeler, the units in the <Mechanical> can be changed any time. For an overview of unit systems, see B-4.

Exercise 11 Deformation of C-Bar

11-3 Generate Mesh

[3] In the <Details>, select <Fine> for <Relevance Center> and type "75" for <Relevance>.

[1] Highlight <Mesh>.

[2] Click "+" to expand <Sizing>.

[4] Select <Mesh/ Generate Mesh>.

[5] Click "+" to expand <Statistics>.

[6] Number of nodes and elements are shown in the Details view. Your numbers may not be the same as here. Also note that in an academic teaching version of ANSYS Workbench, either the number of nodes or the number of elements is limited up to 30,000.

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Meshing
The process of dividing a body into small bodies is call meshing. The small bodies are called elements, or nite elements. The simulation method is thus called nite element simulation. The basic idea of nite element simulations is to divide a body of rather complicated geometry into smaller elements of simple geometry, and the elements are assumed to be connected to each other through nodes. The element's geometry is so simple that a set of equations may be established easily for each element. All equations are then solve simultaneously for the displacements. Strains are then calculated from the displacements. And stresses are in turn calculated from the strains. We will introduce displacements in this exercise, and will discuss how ANSYS calculates the strains and stresses in the latter exercises.
In general, the ner the mesh, the more accurate the solution (and more computing time). In this book, we will control the mesh size by simply adjusting <Relevance Center> and <Relevance> (see B-3).
Also, note that the Workbench will automatically generate a mesh right before it solves the problem if a mesh doesn't exist.

Limitation of Mesh Count

In this book, we will restrict the number of nodes or elements to be no more than 30,000, which is a limitation imposed by the <ANSYS Academic Teaching> version.

11-4 Set Up Environment Conditions

[3] Select this inner cylindrical surface.

[1] Highlight <Static Structural>.

[2] Select <Supports/Fixed Support>.

[4] Click <Apply>.

Exercise 11 Deformation of C-Bar

[5] Select <Loads/ Force>. [6] Select this inner cylindrical surface.

[8] Select <Components> for <Dene By> and type -2,000 (N) for <Y Component>.

[7] Click <Apply>.

[9] Highlight <Static Structural> to view the environment conditions. [10] We've added these two environment conditions.

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11-5 Insert Result Objects and Solve the Model

[1] Highlight <Solution>.

[2] Select <Deformation/ Total> to insert a <Total Deformation> result object. Leave the settings in the details view as their default values.

[3] Select <Deformation/ Direction> to insert a <Directional Deformation> result object. [4] Leave the settings in the details view as their default values.

[5] Insert another <Directional Deformation> result object.

[6] Select <Y Axis> for <Orientation>.

Exercise 11 Deformation of C-Bar

[7] Insert another <Directional Deformation> result object.

[8] Select <Z Axis> for <Orientation>.

[9] Select the three result objects as shown and right-click-select <Rename Based on Denition>.

[11] Click <Solve>. It takes less than one minute to solve the model.

[10] The three objects have been renamed for better readability.

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11-6 View the Deformation

[6] Click <Probe>. This tool is used to display the numerical values at specic points.

[5] Note that the deformation is automatically scaled for better visual effect. [2] Colors are used to show the magnitude of the displacement.

[1] Highlight <Total Deformation>. [3] Ranges of each color are shown in the legend. Note that your numerical values may not be exactly the same as here. [4] Click <Play> to animate the deformation.

[7] Move the mouse cursor over the model and notice that the displacement values display on the screen. The <Probe> tool enables you to display numerical results at any locations.

[8] Point the mouse cursor at this corner and click the left button to put a "label" on the model. The total displacement at this corner is 0.45316. Your value may not be exactly the same as here. To remove a label, see Appendix B-11[7-8].

Exercise 11 Deformation of C-Bar

[10] Click <Probe>.

[11] Point the mouse cursor at the same corner and click the left button to put a label. The Xcomponent of the displacement at this corner is -0.22338 mm. Your value may not be exactly the same as here.

[9] Highlight <X Axis - Directional Deformation>. [14] Point the mouse cursor at the same corner and click the left button to put a label. The Y-component of the displacement at this corner is -0.39421 mm. Your value may not be exactly the same as here.

[13] Click <Probe>.

[12] Highlight <Y Axis - Directional Deformation>. [17] Point the mouse cursor at the same corner and click the left button to put a label. The Z-component of the displacement at this corner is -0.00002 mm. Your value may not be exactly the same as here.

[16] Click <Probe>.

[15] Highlight <Z Axis - Directional Deformation>.

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11-7 Summary
The purpose of this exercise is to familiar with the meaning of displacements. Let's summarized what we have learned about displacements in this section.

Displacements (Total Displacements)

A body deforms when loads apply on it. The displacement of a particle in a body is dened as the vector formed by connecting from the location of the particle before deformation to the location of the particle after deformation. Every particle of a body has a displacement quantity. As a vector quantity, displacement has a magnitude and a direction. In this case, the displacement at the corner (11-6[8]) has a magnitude of 0.45316 mm.
The displacement is also called the total displacement. It is so called because a displacement can be viewed as a combination of directional displacements.

Directional Displacements
As a vector quantity, a displacement can be decomposed into three components in 3D space. In this case, the displacement at the corner (11-6[8]) can be decomposed into X-component (-0.22338 mm, see 11-6[11]), Ycomponent (-0.39421 mm, see 11-6[14]), and Z-component (-0.00002 mm, see 11-6[17]). These three components are call directional displacements.

Relation between Total Displacements and Directional Displacements

Since the directional displacements are the components of the total displacement, they must satisfy Pythagorean theorem, i.e., 0.45316  (
0.22338)2 + (
0.39421)2 + (
0.00002)2 Note that a directional displacement may have a negative value while a total displacement is always a positive value.

11-8 Wrap Up
Close <Mechanical>, save the project, and exit <Workbench>.