4.2. Applying Interstage Constraints

In the Mechanical Application, interstage constraints are applied when you specify an Interstage object to connect the faces of the symmetric bodies specified by two different Stage objects. For details, see Interstage in the Mechanical Object Reference.

To apply interstage constraints in Mechanical APDL, first ensure that the stages have been prepared and their component names have been created as described in Modeling a StageModeling a Stage. When the stages are prepared:

step 1

Specify the interface mesh in one of the following two ways using the CEIMS command.

  1. Define the interstage boundary nodal components for both stages by specifying IntF1Nod for the first stage (Sname1) and IntF2Nod for the second stage (Sname2) on the CEIMS command.

  2. Select the nodes on the interface of the first cyclic stage (Sname1) and the elements on the interface of the second cyclic stage (Sname2) and issue CEIMS.

    Note:  In this case, the first cyclic stage (Sname1) must have a smaller number of sectors than the second cyclic stage (Sname2).

step 2

Repeat step 1 above and issue the CEIMS command for additional stages (including additional stage clones for additional harmonic index linking).

This will create the interstage constraints, which can be checked before solving by issuing MSOPT,LIST or CELIST.

Important:  Do not modify or delete these constraints with any subsequent modifications to the model.