Learning Forum

[d.kirkpatrick]

Good afternoon,

I am simulating an aluminium plate, and I would like to specify one edge to be fixed for the duration for the simulation and the opposite edge to be initially (i.e. Step 1) "free" with an applied thermal load that would cause the plate to freely thermally expand. Then, in Step 2 I want to fix the edge that was initially "free" and increase the thermal load enough to cause the plate to thermally buckle. The problem I run into is that I can only either specify "Free" displacement for the duration of the simulation, or I can specify Tabular Data which does not allow me to specify "Free" at any time step. Can you please give me some pointers?

[Erik Kostson]

Hi

Use and search for activate and deactivate loads/bc - see here for a discussion:

https://innovationspace.ansys.com/forum/forums/reply/99746/

All the best

Erik

[peteroznewman]

A temperature load applied to a plate with a Fixed support on one edge and the opposite edge free will not result in a stress-free themal expansion. While there will be no stress at the free edge, there will be high stress at the fixed edge.

Delete the Fixed support and use a Remote Displacement, Behavior=Deformable, and set all six DOF to 0 to get a stress-free thermal expansion.

Erik has described how to treat the free end for the main question you asked.