18.9.1. Structural Result Trackers

Coupled Field Static, Static Structural, and Transient structural analyses support the following result trackers.

Deformation

The Deformation result tracker tracks displacement for one vertex only using the geometry picker or a geometry-based Named Selection or a node-based Named Selection for a single node. Details view categories and properties include:

Category	Property/Description
Scope	Scoping Method: Options include Geometry Selection or Named Selection. Geometry: Visible when the Scoping Method property is set to Geometry Selection. This field allows you to select and define a single vertex or a single node as the geometry. Named Selection: Visible when the Scoping Method property is set to Named Selection.. This field provides a list of user-defined Named Selections that are either geometry-based or node-based.
Definition	Type: Read-only field that displays the type of Result Tracker - Directional Deformation. Orientation: Specifies X-Axis, Y-Axis, or Z-Axis. Suppressed: Prior to solving, you can include or exclude the result from the analysis. The default is value is No.
Results	Minimum: Read-only indication of the minimum value of the result tracker type. Maximum: Read-only indication of the maximum value of the result tracker type.

Contact

The Contact result tracker is for contact outputs scoped to a given contact pair. Details view categories and properties include:

Note: You can add Contact Result Trackerswhile the solution is in progress. The application automatically sets the Enhanced Tracking property to Yes and the property is read-only. Normal scoping requirements apply.

Category Property/Description

Scope

Contact Region: Specifies the particular contact region in the pair. Default names are Contact Region and Contact Region 2.

Enhanced Tracking: This property causes your Contact Result Tracker to obtain contact pair-based information as specified by the Type property (Number Contacting, Penetration, etc.). This takes place during the solution phase or following a completed solution from the CND file (file.cnd). The default setting is Yes. See NLDIAG command for additional information. The No setting reads data from the NLH file. See NLHIST command for additional information.

Important:

The .cnd file is limited to 10MB. However, you can use the Variable Manager feature and enter the variable, cndFileSize, to increase the size limitation. The Value property enables you to specify the new file size, 15 equals 15MB, etc. In addition, Ansys recommends that you increase the value of the Update Interval property of the Solution Information object to make sure that the application has enough time during the solution to read the file before refreshing the data presented in the Worksheet. Without a sufficient interval, you could see the application appear to freeze or hang.
Enhanced Tracking results are only available when a complete solution is performed in Mechanical 16.0 or a later version.

Contact Side: Specify the desired side of the associated Contact Region for which you wish to obtain results, either the Contact (default) side or the Target side.

Definition

Type: Specifies the particular contact output. For each of these options, the result tracking is performed on the Contact side of the pair. If you want to perform the result tracking on the Target side, you should flip the source and target sides. If this occurs you can change the contact region to Asymmetric and flip the source and target faces in order to specify the side of interest that is to be the contact side. If Auto Asymmetric contact is active (either by the Behavior contact region setting equaling Auto Asymmetric or by the Formulation setting equaling Augmented Lagrange or MPC) and the contact side is chosen by the program to be disabled, the Results Tracker will not contain any results (as signified by a value of -2 for Number Contacting output). Contact results will be valid depending on the type of contact (for example, edge-edge) and the contact formulation.

Pressure: Maximum pressure.
Penetration: Maximum penetration.
Geometric Gap: Minimum gap. The values will be reported as negative numbers to signify a gap. A value of zero is reported if the contact region is in contact (and thus has a penetration). Also, if the region is in far-field contact (contact faces are outside the pinball radius), then the gap will be equal to the resulting pinball size for the region.
Frictional Stress: Maximum frictional stress.
Sliding Distance: Maximum total sliding distance (algebraic sum) when the contact status is sticking or sliding.
Number Sticking: Number of elements that are sticking.
Number Contacting (default): Number of elements in contact. A value of -1 means the contact pair is in Far-field contact (meaning the faces lie outside the contact pinball region).
Chattering: Maximum chattering level.
Elastic Slip: Maximum elastic slip.
Max Normal Stiffness: Maximum normal stiffness.
Min Normal Stiffness: Minimum normal stiffness.
Max Tangential Stiffness: Maximum tangential stiffness.
Min Tangential Stiffness: Minimum tangential stiffness.
Contacting Area: The total area of the elements that are in contact.
Max Damping Pressure: Maximum damping pressure.
Min Geometric Sliding Distance: Minimum total sliding distance, including sticking, sliding, and near-field. For more information, see the GSLID output parameter in the Mechanical APDL Contact Technology Guide.
Max Geometric Sliding Distance: Maximum total sliding distance, including sticking, sliding, and near-field. For more information, see the GSLID output parameter in the Mechanical APDL Contact Technology Guide.
Resulting Pinball: Maximum pinball radius.
Normal Fluid Pressure: Maximum normal fluid penetration pressure. Requires the Enhanced Tracking property to be set to Yes (default).
Tangential Fluid Pressure: Maximum tangential fluid penetration due to fluid penetration loading. Requires the Enhanced Tracking property to be set to Yes (default).
Fluid Pressure: Maximum fluid penetration pressure. Requires the Enhanced Tracking property to be set to No.
Contact Depth: Average contact depth.
Closed Penetration: Maximum closed (geometrical) penetration.
Number with Large Penetration: Number of contact points having too much penetration.
Tangential Damping Stress: Maximum tangential contact damping stress.
Volume Loss Due to Wear: Total volume lost due to wear for the contact pair (not available for general contact).
Strain Energy: Total strain energy due to contact constraint.
Frictional Dissipation Energy: Total frictional dissipation energy.
Stabilization Energy: Total contact stabilization energy.
Number With Too Much Sliding: Number of contact points having too much sliding for small sliding contact.
Total Force From Contact Pressure X: Total Force along the X-axis due to contact pressure.
Total Force from Contact Pressure Y: Total Force along the Y-axis due to contact pressure.
Total Force from Contact Pressure Z: In a 3D model, the reported item is the total force along the Z-axis. In a 2D axisymmetric model, the reported item is maximum torque that can potentially act on the Y-axis.
Total Force from Tangential Stress X: Total Force along the X-axis due to tangential stress.
Total Force from Tangential Stress Y: Total Force along the Y-axis due to tangential stress.
Total Force from Tangential Stress Z: Total Force along the Z-axis due to tangential stress.
Sliding Indication: Specifying this option requires that the Type property of the specified Contact Region be set to Frictional. Sliding Indication is calculated using the following formula.
For the equation, MU is the Friction Coefficient of the Frictional Contact. When Sliding Indication equals -1, this indicates that the normal contact force equals 0. When Sliding Indication equals 1, this indicates that the Friction Coefficient equals 0 (a great deal of sliding). Any other result for the Sliding Indication value means that there is some amount of sliding. The higher the value, the greater the amount of sliding.
Force Convergence: Pair-based force convergence norm and criterion used in the local convergence check. The local convergence check is met if the pair-based force convergence norm is less than the pair-based force convergence criterion.
Possible Overconstraint: Supported for contact regions using the Program Controlled or MPC settings for the Formulation property. When extracted, negative value indicates a possible overconstraint for the scoped contact region and contact side.

Suppressed: Prior to solving, you can include or exclude the result from the analysis. The default is value is No.

Definition

Minimum: Read-only indication of the minimum value of the result tracker type.

Maximum: Read-only indication of the maximum value of the result tracker type.

Energy

The Details pane properties and options for energy-based result trackers are described below.