Tension only element

Rahul_P1
Rahul_P1
Altair Employee
edited October 2020 in Community Q&A

Dear support,

I would like to know how can I create a 1D element that resists to only tension (compression stiffness will be 0 , similarly to Link10 used in Ansys).

Thank you in advance.
Best regards
Vitor

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Answers

  • Rahul_P1
    Rahul_P1
    Altair Employee
    edited February 2015

    One common application of LINK10 is to simulate a slack cable (with the tension-only option, the stiffness is removed if the element is under compression). you can use cgap element with FLIP option for it.

    Set the 9th field of the CGAP element to 'FLIP' and then defining a tensile load in the field 'F0'of PGAP card

    svpoe-1.PNG
    np3m6-2.PNG

    With these settings if you are able to get the positive gap force (ELFORCE) reported in the results then it corresponds to the cable/rope being in tension.

    Please see the following comments in CGAP document. - Altair OptiStruct > Reference Guide > Input Data > Bulk Data Section:
    CGAP

    Alternatively, FLIP can be used to define a simple cable element. If such an arrangement is used, then it should be noted that:

    a)
    F0 corresponds to a pair of forces acting on the ends of the cable (pointing inwards), while U0 corresponds to pre-existing “slack” or extra length in the cable.

    image/emoticons/default_cool.png' alt='B)'>
    Gap “open” status corresponds to the cable being “shortened,” while “closed” gap status corresponds to the cable being “elongated.”

    c)
    Positive gap force reported in the results corresponds to the cable being in tension (note that the force also includes the effect of F0).

  • jker
    jker Altair Community Member
    edited February 2019

     

    Dear Rahul,
    is it possible to create a tension only spring element for a linear static analysis?

     

    Thank you very much for your help.

     

    Kind regards

    Jo

     

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