Simulation of Cable-Driven Soft Actuator in Ansys

- May 11, 2021 at 9:38 am
  
  zaidi99
  Subscriber
  
  Hi everyone. I am new to simulations and thats why I really need some guidance to model my problem. I want to see the behavior of my soft actuator when I pull the cables passing through it. Can anyone suggest a good starting point to start modeling this problem? How can I define the behavior of cables ? I am attaching the figure of the actuator I'm trying to simulate. Thanks in advance ?
- May 11, 2021 at 1:08 pm
  
  peteroznewman
  Subscriber
  
  What materials are in the actuator? Are the red bodies much stiffer than the other parts? If so, set those bodies to be rigid to reduce computation time. What is the connection between the black links and the red bodies? Do the red parts rotate on the black parts or are they bonded together? What is the material of the black parts. Do they elastically deform and provide the return force when the cable tension is reduced?
  I recommend you model the cable using line bodies and mesh them with CABLE280 elements. Open ANSYS Help, go to Mechanical APDL, then the Element Reference and the Element Library and scroll down to 280.
  Relevant discussions
  /forum/discussion/10032/contact-step-control/p1
  /forum/discussion/4140/type-of-contacts-in-static-structural