Introduction

ANSYS is a general purpose finite element modeling package for numerically solving a
wide variety of mechanical problems. These problems include: static/dynamic structural
analysis (both linear and non-linear), heat transfer and fluid problems, as well as acoustic
and electro-magnetic problems.

In general, a finite element solution may be broken into the following three stages. This is
a general guideline that can be used for setting up any finite element analysis.

1. Preprocessing: defining the problem; the major steps in preprocessing are given
below:
o Define keypoints/lines/areas/volumes
o Define element type and material/geometric properties
o Mesh lines/areas/volumes as required

The amount of detail required will depend on the dimensionality of the analysis
(i.e. 1D, 2D, axi-symmetric, 3D).

2. Solution: assigning loads, constraints and solving; here we specify the loads
(point or pressure), contraints (translational and rotational) and finally solve the
resulting set of equations.
3. Postprocessing: further processing and viewing of the results; in this stage one
may wish to see:
o Lists of nodal displacements
o Element forces and moments
o Deflection plots
o Stress contour diagrams

Starting up ANSYS

Starting up ANSYS
Large File Sizes
ANSYS can create rather large files when running and saving; be sure that your local
drive has space for it.

Getting the Program Started

In the Mec E 3-3 lab, there are two ways that you can start up ANSYS:

1. Windows NT application
2. Unix X-Windows application
Windows NT Start Up
Starting up ANSYS in Windows NT is simple:

• Start Menu
• Programs
• ANSYS 5.7
• Run Interactive Now

Unix X-Windows Start Up

Starting the Unix version of ANSYS involves a few more steps:

• in the task bar at the bottom of the screen, you should see something labeled X-
Win32. If you don't see this minimized program, you can may want to reboot the
computer, as it automatically starts this application when booting.
• right click on this menu and selection Sessions and then select Mece.
• you will now be prompted to login to GPU... do this.
• once the Xwindows emulator has started, you will see an icon at the bottom of the
screen that looks like a paper and pencil; don't select this icon, but rather, click on
the up arrow above it and select Terminal
• a terminal command window will now start up
• in that window, type xansys57
• at the UNIX prompt and a small launcher menu will appear.

• select the Run Interactive Now menu item.