The documents listed below form the Ansys Mechanical APDL product documentation set. They include descriptions of the procedures, commands, elements, and theoretical details needed to use the Mechanical APDL product. A brief description of each document follows.
Acoustic Analysis Guide: Describes how to perform a modal, time-harmonic, and transient acoustic analysis to simulate the generation and propagation properties of either the coupled acoustic-structural interaction (FSI) or the uncoupled pure acoustic wave in a given environment.
Advanced Analysis Guide: Discusses techniques commonly used for complex analyses or by experienced users, including design optimization, manual rezoning, cyclic symmetry, rotating structures, submodeling, substructuring, component mode synthesis, and cross sections.
Ansys Parametric Design Language Guide: Describes features of the Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL), including parameters, array parameters, macros, and ways to interface with the Ansys GUI. Explains how to automate common tasks or to build your model in terms of parameters.
Basic Analysis Guide: Describes general tasks that apply to any type of analysis, including applying loads to a model, obtaining a solution, and using the program's graphics capabilities to review results.
Command Reference: Describes all commands, in alphabetical order. It is the definitive reference for correct command usage, providing associated menu paths, product applicability, and usage notes.
Connection User's Guide: Gives instructions for using the Connection functionality, which helps you import parts and models into Mechanical APDL.
Contact Technology Guide: Describes how to perform contact analyses (pair-based contact and general contact) and presents other contact-related features such as multipoint constraints and multiphysics contact.
Coupled-Field Analysis Guide: Explains how to perform analyses that involve an interaction between two or more fields of engineering.
Cyclic Symmetry Analysis Guide: Explains how to model and analyze structures with a repetitive geometric pattern in 360 degrees around an axis of symmetry, such as domes, cooling towers, industrial chimneys, milling cutters, turbine blade disks, gears, fans, and pump impellers.
Element Reference: Describes all elements, in numerical order. It is the primary reference for correct element type input and output, providing comprehensive descriptions for every option of every element. Includes a pictorial catalog of the characteristics of each element.
Feature Archive: The official documentation repository for archived features, elements, theory, and commands. While Ansys, Inc. testing, error correction, Class 3 error reporting, and technical support are maintained for the capabilities documented in the archive, new feature development or technical enhancement is unlikely to occur.
Fluids Analysis Guide: Describes how to perform fluid flow analyses involving thin films.
Fracture Analysis Guide: Describes how to apply fracture criteria in a fracture mechanics analysis to simulate the behavior of cracks or flaws in a structure.
Harmonic Balance Method Analysis Guide: Describes the use of the harmonic balance method to solve a nonlinear harmonic analysis with multiple harmonics and localized nonlinearities.
Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Analysis Guide: Describes techniques for performing the following types of analyses: transient, static, or harmonic magnetic; steady state current conduction; quasistatic harmonic and time-transient electric; electrostatic; circuit.
Material Reference: Provides information about material model behavior and application, including details about the load-response relationship and the necessary information required to use the material models in an analysis.
Mechanical APDL as a Server User's Guide: Describes the set of tools and functionality that allows local or remote client applications to access and interact with a running session of Mechanical APDL.
Modeling and Meshing Guide: Describes how to build a finite element model and mesh it.
Multibody Analysis Guide: Describes how to perform a multibody simulation to analyze the dynamic behavior of a system of interconnected bodies made up of flexible and/or rigid components.
Multistage Cyclic Symmetry Analysis Guide: Describes how to combine multiple independent cyclically symmetric structures with different sector counts for analysis. This innovative technology enables accurate and efficient simulation of rotationally periodic structures, including gears, turbines, and turbomachinery assemblies containing several cyclic parts.
Nonlinear Adaptivity Analysis Guide: Describes how to use nonlinear adaptivity analysis techniques to solve some otherwise unsolvable problems or to improve the accuracy of analysis results.
Operations Guide: Describes basic operations such as starting, stopping, interactive or batch operation, using help, and use of the graphical user interface (GUI).
Parallel Processing Guide: Explains how to configure a parallel processing environment to reduce the computation time of analyses by running simulations across multiple CPU cores and machines.
Performance Guide: Describes factors that affect the performance of Mechanical APDL on current hardware systems and provides information on how to optimize performance for different analysis types and equation solvers.
Programmer's Reference: Provides information about the programming interfaces available for Mechanical APDL, enabling you to directly access the Mechanical APDL database and binary files, and to write your own user-programmable features (UPFs).
Rotordynamic Analysis Guide: Describes how to perform analysis of vibrational behavior in axially symmetric rotating structures, such as gas turbine engines, motors, and disk drives.
Structural Analysis Guide: Describes how to perform various types of structural analyses such as static, modal, harmonic, transient, spectrum, buckling, reinforcing, and many others.
Substructuring Analysis Guide: Describes the procedure for condensing a group of finite elements into a single superelement represented as a matrix.
Technology Showcase: Example Problems: Showcases the features and effectiveness of Mechanical APDL by presenting a series of analysis problems from a variety of engineering disciplines. The problems presented are more substantive and complex than examples found in the standard documentation set.
Mechanical APDL Theory Reference: Provides the theoretical basis for the calculations that occur in the Mechanical APDL program, such as elements, solvers and results formulations, material models, and analysis methods. By understanding the underlying theory, you can make better use of the program's capabilities while being aware of assumptions and limitations.
Thermal Analysis Guide: Describes how to do steady-state or transient thermal analyses.
Tire Analysis Guide: Describes how to perform a complete tire simulation to analyze acceleration, braking, free rolling, cornering, and other maneuvers.
Other documents may be referenced by or listed in the Mechanical APDL product's documentation set; however, those documents are offered solely for your convenience and do not undergo the same rigorous verification as the product documentation set. No documents other than those listed above are considered to be part of the formal program specification as stated in your license agreement.
All of the above documents are available online via the Help System, which can be accessed either as a standalone system or from within the program.
NOTICE — The documents listed above provide the complete specification of the ANSYS product referenced in your license agreement. This specification describes how to use the program, input required for commands and elements, and how the input data relate to the output.