Introduction

Objectives: Holistic understanding of the ANSYS workflow, boundary conditions, post processing, and optimization of setup for faster run times (incl meshing, simulating with symmetry, research others)

• Learn how to set up realistic + accurate boundary conditions

• Learn how to simplify geometry and apply mesh controls to get accurate stress readings

• Understand stress, strain, deformation, stress plots

• Interpreting post-processing results, what to do with the data

Considerations:

• Research fundamentals behind simulation. What do different setups mean? What assumptions are being made about the behavior of the structure with a certain set of boundary conditions?

• Work through a few of the ANSYS Mechanical tutorials

• Research how other solar teams have simulated their frame, i.e., what elements did they use, what did their boundary conditions look like, etc

• Research other ways to refine the setup to be properly constrained and run faster

• Simulate a frame (You could pull an FSAE frame off the internet and sim that!)

Deliverable:

• Using regulation specified loading conditions in Appendix F of the FSGP regs, set up and execute a front, rear, and side impact loading test

Fundamentals of ANSYS

Usually you want to start by opening ANSYS Workbench to outline your simulation and get yourself organized. Think of this as the setup portal.

Open

Notice how many different types of simulations you can do.

Most of frame stuff would be static structural though so mainly go with that.

This is where you identify everything so your sim can be as accurate possible. The identifiers in question are:

1. Engineering data (pick your material)

2. Geometry (the shape of the thing you are simming)

3. Modeling information (a mesh dividing the geometry into a finite number of elements) This is what makes FEA, FEA.

4. Setup information (ex: boundary conditions and loads)

What do those symbols next to the parameters mean?

Open

This section needs more data.

There’s nothing in this section, need to input data.

The minimum amount of data has been inputted.

Review/modify this section

Some data has changed, so update this section.

Rerun simulation as it was interrupted

There are pending changes, your setup may need more data from you.

Note that these symbols are more for the software than for you. Keep in mind that you still need to make sure the data YOU input is correct - ANSYS will run anything so long as the data exists where it should.

How to change material

1. Double click on engineering data

2. Click on engineering data sources

3. Your top-most tab in the center of your screen should be files of various materials to choose from.

   1. Additionally, you can input your own material properties for ANSYS to take in.

Lets start with Geometry.

• Right click Geometry → New SpaceClaim Geometry.

Usually we will import, but for now it’s time to get familiar with ANSYS spaceclaim.

This is kind of like SolidWorks but with less freedom. I started by drawing a 40mm X 1000mm rectangle constrained around the origin and ended the sketch.

Note: “Fill” will make selected lines a surface. SolidWorks does this automatically.

After that I extruded using the pull tool to 40mm along Y. Now have 1000x40x40 mm beam.

In this simulation I’m going to load the beam at a 20mm section in the center of the beam. To do this I use the split tool since ANSYS does not allow point loads. (pressing tab in the split mode lets you input specific value instead of percent)

Now our engineering data is good. Next, lets move onto “Model”. This is where ANSYS mechanical starts.

We’re gonna create a mesh first.

1. On the left side, under the “Outline” window select “Mesh”.

2. Then go to “Mesh” on the top bar, and select sizing.

3. From there click the green box to select a body.

4. Press “No selection” next to Geometry on the bottom left and press apply so Software knows what geometry is being simmed.

5. Then in same area define Element size as 10mm (enter 0.01 because units in meters).

6. Press generate mesh.

Now lets apply the load.

1. Select Static Structural in the feature tree.

2. Go to Environment top tab and press fixed in supports, then select each square end of the beam and press apply for geometry in the bottom left.

3. Now press force. Select Split area.

4. Define the force by components, not vector (bottom left)

5. Apply -2000 N force to Y component.

Now let’s sim.

1. Press solve on top left.

   1. This basically tells the simulation to compile and interpret your inputted data.

2. Now lets click “Solution” and go to “Deformation” and select total.

3. Lets click “Stress” and press “Equivalent Stress”.

   1. What we just did here is tell ANSYS what exact data we want to see from it. Note that there are so many diff types of things we could test for.

4. Now lets click solve AGAIN so we can get a visual.

Our current visual is not representative of the true deformation. Click the pink highlighted drop-down and press “True Scale” to see the what it would look like IRL.

I just simmed my first sim!

Notes and Observations:

This software is a lot more complex than SolidWorks simulation. There’s so much to do it’s definitely easy to get overwhelmed, but the possibility is also exciting. I’ve only scratched the surface at this point.

SpaceClaim doesn’t really seem worth it to 3D model. SolidWorks, even OnShape, is way better.

Woahhhhh colors O.o