Introduction
ANSYS is a Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software where you can virtually simulate many types of systems which is a part of process of designing. This software delivers more better and powerful results than other CAEs that nearly resembles the actual scenario.It offers various fields such as Fluids, Structures, Electronics, Semiconductors, and much more. You can download Ansys student version for free from the official website. There are some important analysis systems namely
- Fluid Flow (CFX, Poly Flow, and Fluent): It is an analysis system where you can simulate flow of fluid over and past any object.It will be very helpful when dealing with aerodynamics because if you want to calculate the lift produced by conventional methods it will be difficult.
- Rigid Body Dynamics: In Rigid Dynamics you can fi nd motion of the bodies in a complex assembly. In this analysis system you have to provide joint rotations and forces that actually resemble the scenario.
- Static Structural: In Static Structural you can find out the stresses, strains and displacements of the design. In this you have to provide the forces and supports on the bodies.
- Steady state and Transient Thermal: In Thermal you can fi nd out the heat transfer, temperature distribution caused by conduction,convection, radiation and you can simulate by giving the temperature and fi nding out the behaviour of the model under given thermal environment.
Apart from above there are many other analysis systems that you can analyze different systems under given conditions. This tutorial is meant for a part of mechanical field called Shape Optimization. This is a part of Ansys software but you won’t fi nd it in normal menu. You have to enable a check box called Beta Options in options to obtain this. This will be
helpful when there is a limitation in the weight parameter of the design. Using this you can find out where the material can be removed to reduce the weight of your design.
Step 1:
Start ANSYS Workbench. Open Start Menu type workbench and click the Work-
bench application. This is the window you will see when you open Ansys Workbench.
Here you can see Shape Optimization is not available.
Step 2:
Open Tools menu in Ansys and select options. In Options window go to Appearance tab and scroll down. Enable the `Beta Options’ check box. Press OK.
Now you will find Shape Optimization (Beta) in analysis systems.
Double click the Shape Optimization (Beta) to open in Project Schematic.
Step 3:
Double click the Engineering data tab and select the desired material of parts. The
default material will be Structural Steel. Then you will see Green tick mark beside
Engineering data.
Right click the Geometry and select Import Geometry and Browse to the folder
where the fi le is present.
If you use SOLIDWORKS for part modelling you can open SLDPRT fi le but in case you
won’t get it then try conveting the sldprt part into IGES or STEP format.
Step 4:
Double click Model, you will get Ansys Mechanical. Initially you will see the symbol of question mark for the Geometry and yellow colour for the material assignment.
Select the material of your part by clicking the assignment in material section. Here Stainless Steel material is selected. The material is assigned and the question mark will be replaced by tick mark beside the Geometry.
Step 5:
Right click the Mesh and click Generate Mesh.
Step 6:
Right click the Shape Optimization and select Insert and Fixed Support.
Select required faces for support. Click Apply from left side. In this case I am selecting
the two cylindrical surfaces as shown in the fi gure.
Step 7:
Now we have given xed support and we have to provide forces or moments. Right click the Shape Optimization and select Insert and Force.
Here I have given a force of 10N downwards for the cylindrical surface as shown in the
figure. You can give forces or moments of your choice.
You will get the vector for the force but if you want components you have to double click
the vector in Defi ne by section. Then you will get x y z components for providing force
in components.
Step 8:
After de ning the material, fixed support and forces in required directions you will get Thunderbolt symbol beside Shape Optimization, Solution Information and Shape finder.
Click Shape Finder and select the value of Target Reduction in Defi niton section.
Target Reduction is the factor by which your part weight will get reduced from previous weight.
Select Unaveraged in Display Option in Integration Point Results section.
Step 9:
Right click the Solution and click Solve
It will take couple of minutes to complete the analysis based on your complexity of your
parts. Once the solution is complete the thunderbolt symbols are replaced by green tick marks.
Click the Shape Finder to visualize the calculated results.
You will get the optimized part in Shape Finder with different colors red, yellow and
grey.The details are given below.
1. Red = Material you can remove
2. Yellow = Marginal material you can remove
3. Grey = Material to keep
To view the part with the material removed click the Capped Isosurfaces in Result
section in the drop down menu of the grey cube in the top left corner.
To view the material that is removed you can click the Capped Isosurfaces as shown
in the fi gure.
