Learning Forum

[Johanna_L]

Hi!

Defining Symmetry Region with geometrical faces does not work for my body. Can I replicate planar symmetry with nodal displacements, e.g. set to 0 in the plane normal direction, or is the symmetry constraint something more? I am on ANSYS Workbench 2019 R2 if that matters.

I'm still new to ANSYS and FEA. Thank you in advance,

Johanna

[1shan]

You could replicate symmetry for solids by applying a frictionless support/ zero displacement normal to symmetry face. In case of surfaces/2d elements then in addition to fixing displacement along the symmetry plane normal you need to fix rotation along the 2 axes lying in the symmetry plane.
Regards Ishan.

[Johanna_L]

Thank you for your answer !
Just to clarify, when I specifically can't use faces - can I do this by creating Named Selections of nodes and applying the displacement constrain in the normal direction on that group?
My mesh is with tetrahedrons, so I don't need to lock the rotation then?

[peteroznewman]

Solid elements such as tetrahedrons do not have rotational DOF on the nodes, only translations. For a symmetry BC, you only need to set the displacement normal to the plane to zero on solid elements.