Time step

- April 10, 2020 at 12:25 pm
  
  muneebvohra
  Subscriber
  
  Dear Sir
  what is the basis for the initial time step formula? and what does it signifies? Can you explain it further? And what is the maximum or minimum time step? As far as I know, the time step is the difference between two consecutive time intervals. For instance, if the initial time =1s, and the time step is .001 then the system will do analysis at 1.001s. Therefore I am confused about the maximum or minimum time step and how it can impact our analysis?
  
  Thanks
- April 10, 2020 at 2:18 pm
  Wenlong
  Ansys Employee
  Hi,
  
  I assume you are talking about static or transient structural analysis. The initial, maximum, and minimum time step is referring to the substeps. A step can consist of several substeps, and if you define the initial step, max, and min substep size, your substep will start at the initial value, and varies within the min and max values. This is based on you have turned on "automatic time stepping" and the solver will adjust the substep size to optimize the simulation speed.
  
  This website has a very detailed description of step and substep definitions: https://ansyshelp.ansys.com/account/secured?returnurl=/Views/Secured/corp/v193/wb_sim/ds_Steps_Substeps_Eq.html
  
  This website has a guideline for integration step size (in other words, how to choose sub-step size): https://ansyshelp.ansys.com/account/secured?returnurl=/Views/Secured/corp/v193/wb_sim/ds_guidelines_int_time.html
  
  Regards,
  
  Wenlong
  
  Useful Links
- April 10, 2020 at 3:24 pm
  
  muneebvohra
  Subscriber
  
  I do not have the account number to sign up. Can you tell me how to get it?
- April 10, 2020 at 8:02 pm
  
  Wenlong
  Ansys Employee
  
  Please see my attached "useful links"