Learning Forum

[a_l_o]

Hello folks,

I want to look at the deformation of nodes or a single node over time on a path (defined as construction geometry) in a transient structural simulation done in Ansys Mechanical 2022R2. How do I do that?

In the definition of the result "Total Deformation" I can choose "Maximum over Time" or "Time of Maximum" as By-value, but without getting a "time" column in the exported txt-file, only the node coordinates and the deformation value.

My big question: Is there an easy to accomplish what I want? Or do I have to add the total deformation result for every timestep for my path, export the result, and merge all files somehow to obtain the possibility of using "time" as x-axis? If you have also a clue on how the easy way could be implented via scripting in IronPython, please include this in your answer. Thx!

[peteroznewman]

Hello a_l_o,

Use Directional Deformation instead of Total Deformation and select an appropriate direction. Below is the plot of the Y Axis deformation vs Time for a single node.

Below is the mesh whose Directional Deformation was requested above.

The node that was selected was the one just inboard from the tip of the beam.

If the beam I showed was at an angle to the global coordinate axes, I could make a local coordinate axis to output the deformation in.

I don't see why you would want a path. Please explain.

[a_l_o]

Hello peteroznewman,

Thank you very much for your reply. I followed your instructions to evaluate the directional deformation and got a similar overview like in your first screenshot. Unfortunately, the export via right click "Export Text File" just provides the data of the "by" timestep I chose when setting up this result, this is the text file:

 

The manual copy-paste process of the table (right in your first screenshot) will kill some time... Do you know of a scripting way to do this?

In regards to your last question: I would like to compare certain results of nodes at the path with each other in the time domain. Of course I would have to split the path in defined paths (or choose single nodes from it) and work with means unless I visualize the data in a 3D way, what also is a possibility at the moment. The export via a path geometry seems easier to me than twenty times a single node, at least without scripting.

[peteroznewman]

When I want Ansys tabular data in Excel, I just click in the blank cell at the top left (above the row numbers) and the whole table highlights, then Ctrl-C, click in Excel and Ctrl-V.  In this case I would delete 2 columns as they contain the same data. That didn't take much time, are you doing something different that you feel is taking more time?

If you want to learn APDL, you can write code to open a file and write the directional deformation for a node into that file. That code can be put in the model and will automatically run at the end of the solution. I don't write APDL code, so I can't help you with that. APDL has been around for decades, but in the last few years, scripting has been added to Mechanical Workbench, but I have not learned to do that either.

I still don't follow what you want to do with a path, could you sketch that out and reply with an image?

How does a path save you from getting data "twenty times a single node"? I don't follow that either. Do you mean you have 20 load sets and you want to plot the family of curves from 20 solutions? To reduce the manual labor in that, I can see why you would want APDL code to automatically run the 20 loads and write one file with the time history of the node for those 20 solutions.

Or do you mean you are interested in 20 different nodes that are along a region of your model that you refer to as a "path".  Some of my confusion is due to the fact that Ansys uses the word Path to refer to Construction Geometry which is used to extract data from models by interpolating between nodes.  When you say path, do you mean Ansys Construction Geometry or do you just mean a region of nodes on your model?