Beam connections use structural beam elements that can carry a bending (flexure) load. The Beam option enables you to specify body-to-body or a body-to-ground connection. This feature supports all structural analyses.
Important: When you create a beam connection, the application automatically creates internal Remote Points at each end of the beam. The application uses these Remote Points to connect the beam to the scoped body/bodies. If you change the position of a body after creating the beam connections, the positions of the internally created Remote Points do not change. They remain in their original position. As a result, the beam’s orientation and the new position of the bodies do not align.
Review the Requirements and Default Settings listed following the Application topic and note the associated Help sections in the References topic.
Application
To add a object:
Select the Connections folder in the object tree. As needed, add a Connections folder by selecting the Model object and clicking the option on the Model Context Tab.
On the Connections Context Tab, open the Beam drop-down menu and select either or to add a circular beam under Connections.
In the Details View, under Definition, click the Material fly-out menu, and then select a material for the beam.
Enter a beam radius in the Radius field.
If necessary, modify the Scope setting.
The Scope property of the Scope category enables you to change the scoping from to . Similar to Springs, this property defines the beam’s end points in coordination with the properties of the Reference and Mobile categories. For body-to-ground property specification, the Reference is assumed to be grounded (fixed) and as a result scoping is required on the Mobile side only. Because beams define a span, the reference and mobile locations determine a distance and as such the reference and mobile locations cannot be the same.
In addition, the Reference and Mobile categories provide the scoping property Applied By. This property enables you to specify the connection as either a or a . The option (default) uses a as a scoping mechanism. The option enables you to scope directly to a single vertex or a node of the model. Direct Attachment is not allowed if scoped to solid bodies, as they do not have rotational degrees of freedom.
Under the Reference category, for connections only:
Specify the Scoping Method property as either , , or . Based on the selection made in this step, select a:
geometry (faces, edges, or vertices) and click in the Scope property field.
or...
single node (Direct Attachment Only) and click in the Scope property. In order to select an individual node, you need to first generate a mesh on the model, and then select the Node filter on the Graphics Toolbar.
or...
user-defined node-based named selection (Direct Attachment Only) or a user-defined geometry-based named selection (Remote Attachment Only) from the drop-down list of the property.
or...
user-defined remote point (Remote Attachment Only) from the drop-down list of the property.
Note: You can pre-select a vertex or node (Body-Ground) or two vertices or nodes () and then insert a Beam to automatically create a directly attached beam.
Specify the following properties as needed. These properties are available under the Reference Category (Body-Body or Body-Ground connections) when the Applied By property is set to :
Coordinate System: select a different coordinate system if desired.
Reference X Coordinate: enter a value as needed.
Reference Y Coordinate: enter a value as needed.
Under Mobile Category (Body-Body or Body-Ground connections):
geometry (faces, edges, or vertices) and click in the Scope property field.
or...
single node (Direct Attachment Only) and click in the Scope property. In order to select an individual node, you need to first generate a mesh on the model, and then select the Node filter on the Graphics Toolbar.
or...
user-defined node-based named selection (Direct Attachment Only) or a user-defined geometry-based named selection (Remote Attachment Only) from the drop-down list of the property.
or...
user-defined remote point (Remote Attachment Only) from the drop-down list of the property.
Specify the following properties as needed. These properties are available under the Mobile Category (Body-Body or Body-Ground connections) when the Applied By property is set to :
Coordinate System: select a different coordinate system if desired.
Mobile X Coordinate: enter a location value.
Mobile Y Coordinate: enter a location value.
Behavior: specify this property as either , , or . Refer to the Geometry Behaviors and Support Specifications section for more information.
Pinball Radius: enter a dimension value.
Note: When defined as a , a beam connection is considered a remote boundary condition, and it can make use of remote points that were either specifically defined or created internally by the application. To do a visual check, you can display the connection lines between your scoping and the remote point by selecting the Remote Point Connections option of the Style group (Display tab).
Requirements and Default Settings
Note that following when working with beams:
For Body-Ground beam connections, the reference side is fixed. For Body-Body beam connections, you must define the reference point for each body.
The length of the beam connection must be greater than 0.0 with a tolerance of 1e-8 mm.
The Body Views display is the default display.
Beam connections support structural analyses only. In thermal stress analyses, beam connections are assigned the environment temperature in the structural analysis. You can include a beam in a thermal analysis by creating a line body and as a result providing for temperature transference.
References
See the Beam Object Reference page of the Help for additional information about the available categories and properties.
The Beam Probe results provide you the forces and moments in the beam from your analysis.