Result trackers that can be scoped to boundary conditions and geometry are available for Explicit Dynamics analyses.
The Details view settings are presented as sub-bulleted items under the tracker bullet.
Force Reaction tracker
Location Method – Select the scoping method for this tracker. Options are Boundary Condition and Geometry Selection.
Boundary Condition – When Boundary Condition is selected as the Location Method, select the defined boundary condition that is to be used for scoping. At this time, the boundary conditions that are available are: Velocity and Displacement.
Geometry – When Geometry Selection is selected as the Location Method, select the vertex, edge, face, or body where the tracker will be located.
Force Component – When Geometry Selection is selected as the Location Method, select the Force Component (Support, Euler/Lagrange Coupling, Contact, All) for which reaction force results will be shown.
specifies that the tracker show results for the forces exerted by any material in bodies assigned with an Eulerian reference frame that interact with the scoped region. These trackers can only be scoped to geometry that has a Lagrangian reference frame. See Explicit Fluid Structure Interaction (Euler-Lagrange Coupling) for more information about Euler Lagrange interactions.
specifies that the tracker show results for the forces that will be generated due to supports that are acting on the scoped area.
specifies that the tracker show results for the total force resulting from the contact forces acting on the scoped area.
specifies that the tracker show results for the sum of all three components.
Orientation – Select X, Y, or Z axis, or Total, which is the resultant force of its X, Y, and Z components.
The Filter option in the Details view is defined in the same manner as any other result tracker (see Viewing and Filtering Result Tracker Graphs for Explicit Dynamics).
The reaction force will be shown varying over time in the Graph window, and a table is displayed that shows the data. The magnitude of the reaction force is calculated by summing the reaction forces on each of the nodes selected by the scoping. For example, if you have scoped the tracker by Geometry Selection to a face using the Contact Force Component, the magnitude of the reaction force is the sum of all reaction forces due to contact at the nodes on the selected face. If you scope by Boundary Condition, the magnitude will be the sum of all of the reaction forces due to Support on the nodes scoped to the selected boundary condition.
Note:
The Force Reaction trackers are only available for an Explicit Dynamics analysis.
If you right-click a Force Reaction tracker and select Rename Based on Definition, the tracker is renamed based on its type, the direction it shows results for, and the object it is scoped to. For example, if a Force Reaction tracker is selected to show results in the Y direction and is scoped to a Velocity constraint boundary condition named "Velocity Fix", by selecting Name Based on Definition it will be renamed to "Y Force Reaction at Velocity Fix". See Renaming a Result Tracker for more information on this renaming behavior.
When post-processing Force-Reaction Result Trackers in a 2d plane strain analysis, note that the result has units of force per length, and not the unit of force as displayed in the Mechanical UI. The unit of length is that of the solver unit (always mm for an Explicit Dynamics analysis), and not that of the Mechanical display unit. If the Mechanical display unit is changed, e.g. from metric to U.S. Customary, no conversion of the data with respect to the length unit will occur from mm to inches, and the result will remain in the solver unit of length (mm).