Faculty of Maritime Engineering and Biological, Ocean and Natural Resources

Sciences
FINITE ELEMENTS
ANSYS TUTORIAL 03 Simple Cantilever Beam (Workbench)

Description of the Problem

In this first example using ANSYS Workbench we will model a simple steel cantilever beam, to
see how the simple structure responds to load. The problem is sketched below:

The problem description is as follows:

Geometry:
Load:
Supports:
free.
Material:
Units:

1200 x 180 x 10 mm
18000 N applied at the end of the cantilever in the string direction
the base is fixed in all degrees of freedom, all other boundaries are
Steel, with E = 200 GPa (2E11 N/m2)
N, m, Pa

Open ANSYS Workbench 15.0 and create a Project

1) First, save the (empty) project as Cantilever1.wbpj
2) The left hand window shows a set of analysis type options. Select Static Structural and
drag the icon to the right, placing it in the Project Schematic window.

Open Geometry and create the CAD Model

1) By clicking Geometry in the Project window, ANSYS will open a CAD modelling program
called Design Modeler.
2) Select Milimeter length unit for the model (Menu Bar: Units).
3) You now see this window:

The main window (slightly shaded and titled Graphics) is where the CAD model will be
displayed. The left side (Tree Outline on white background) lists the components in the
model (initially just 3 drawing planes and no bodies or parts). This window has another
tab at the bottom called Sketching. Click it now.
4) The Sketching window lets you do the 2D sketching on a selected plane. The sketching
window lets the user create and edit a variety of 2D geometric objects. This is part of
creating a sketch from which 3D objects can be made.
5) Select the rectangle tool and sketch one, taller than wide (you may click the LOOK AT
icon

).

6) Click the Dimension tab (below Modify), and using the General dimension tool, select
the right side of the rectangle and drag a dimension a bit to the right. Do the same for
the top. You will now see something like below. In this case H2 is the width of the
rectangle and V1 is the height. Notice that the actual dimensions are shown in the
Details view at the lower left. You can directly type the dimensions you want and
update the height and width of the rectangle. So type in a height of 180, and a
thickness of 10 mm, as in below.

7) To create a solid bar, hit the extrude icon

. Update the extrude depth to
1200.
8) Then hit Generate, and change the view to Isometric. You will see the solid bar in grey.
This is all we need to do in the Design Modeler for now. If the extrude distance is not
correct, you can select the Extrude component in the upper left window and edit its
value in the lower left. Then hit the Generate button.

Open Model and create the Finite Element Model

1) Return to the ANSYS window, and click on the Model feature in the Project window.
This will start the ANSYS Mechanical Program, to setup the actual finite element
model.
2) The Mechanical window looks like this;
On the right is the model geometry, but with no mesh or loads yet. On the left is a list
of the model features that have to be set. By default, the material to be used will be
structural steel. We can skip the Coordinate Systems and Mesh for now. The program
will use defaults. We do have to set the loads and supports (if we would hit to solve
now, the program would fail and give us an error).

3) First, we will set the support conditions at the base of the cantilever. You will need to
bring the back of the bar into view. You can use these tools.

With the face that you want to fix in view, you need to insert a fixed support. To do
this, make a right click on the Static Structural component in the left hand Outline

window. This will open a sub menu. Move the mouse over Insert and a 2 nd sub menu
opens. Select Fixed Support (see below).

Make sure the face select option is on (in the menu bar at the top of the screen):

Now, when you move the mouse over the model in the main window, various faces
will be temporarily selected. Select the slender end face of the bar. The face will turn
green. You are not done yet. You need to click the Apply button on the lower left to
confirm that you want fixity applied to the selected face.
Now the Fixed Support is added to the outline tree, with a check mark to indicate that
all is ok and up to date. When it is selected, the support is shown in the main window
and in the details window. It can be later deleted or edited (moved) by selecting it in
the outline tree.

4) Next we add the 18kN force to the free end of the bar. Again, right click on Static
Structural in the Outline Tree, select Insert, Force.

Select the line that defines the top-end corner of the bar, and click Apply. Then type
18000 into the Magnitude cell (shown in yellow until given a value) in the lower left.
By default, the program picks a direction for the force and draws an arrow. You may
need to select the Click to Change box under the Magnitude box. Define the direction
of the force by selecting another line or face to show the direction. Keep selecting until
the arrow points where you want it to. Then hit Apply.

5) There should be no questions marks left in the Outline Tree, with some lightning bolts
(see below). You can solve the model now, but first we will specify what information
we want to plot (this could also be done after the solution).

6) To specify output, right click on Solution in the tree, and select Insert, then Stress, then
Equivalent Stress. Do the same to select Total Deformation.

7) Hit the solve button

in the menu at the top of the screen.
8) When you select the Equivalent Stress under Solution in the Outline Tree, the vonMises equivalent stresses will be plotted on the deformed shape. The max stress is
387.99, which is in MPa. If you click on Total Deformation it shows a max value of
10.921 mm. Estimate the analytical results and compare with the results obtained
using ANSYS. Which value do you think is more correct?
9) Examine the equivalent stress plot (next page). There are very localized stresses at the
tip under the load. Are these correct? The pattern of stresses near the base of the
cantilever look slightly odd. What looks odd? Why?