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 your selection, choose:
One or more faces, edges, or vertices and click in the Scope property field.
or...
A single node for the option or one or more nodes for the option, then click in the Scope property field. To select nodes, first generate the mesh on the model. Then, select the Node filter on the Graphics Toolbar to enable node selection.
or...
A user-defined named selection from the drop-down list of the Named Selection property. For the option, the named selection can be geometry- or node-based. For the option, the name selection must be node-based and only include a singular node.
or...
A user-defined remote point ( 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: Specify a desired coordinate system using the drop-down menu. Options include (default) and any user-defined coordinate systems.
Reference X/Y/Z Coordinate: Specify the X, Y, and Z coordinate of the remote point used for the Remote Attachment. These values are typically set automatically based on how you scope the Remote Attachment. However, you can manually adjust the coordinates to refine the remote point's position as needed.
Reference Location: Graphically select geometry to specify the X, Y, Z coordinate based on the centroid of the selected geometry. This property provides an alternative method to specify the location of the reference coordinates.
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.
Material: Select a material type for the beams in the connection to inherit the material properties, excluding density. Available when the Behavior property is set to .
Radius: The radius to define the circular beam's cross section for the connection. Available when the Behavior property is set to .
Coincident Length Factor: During the solution process, if the application detects a mesh node at the same location as the pilot node of the remote point, it automatically creates an additional node internally to avoid a zero-length beam element and displays a warning message. In this situation, use this property to change the stiffness of the connection by specifying a length factor that scales the offset of the additional node’s location. The default setting is
1. The property supports non-zero numeric entries.
Under Mobile Category (Body-Body or Body-Ground connections):
Specify the Scoping Method property as either Geometry Selection or Named Selection. Based on your selection, choose:
One or more faces, edges, or vertices and click in the Scope property field.
or...
A single node for the option or one or more nodes for the option, then click in the Scope property field. To select nodes, first generate the mesh on the model. Then, select the Node filter on the Graphics Toolbar to enable node selection.
or...
A user-defined named selection from the drop-down list of the Named Selection property. For the option, the named selection can be geometry- or node-based. For the option, the name selection must be node-based and only include a singular node.
or...
A user-defined remote point ( 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: Specify a desired coordinate system using the drop-down menu. Options include (default) and any user-defined coordinate systems.
Mobile X/Y/Z Coordinate: Specify the X, Y, and Z coordinate of the remote point used for the Remote Attachment. These values are typically set automatically based on how you scope the Remote Attachment. However, you can manually adjust the coordinates to refine the remote point's position as needed.
Mobile Location: Graphically select geometry to specify the X, Y, Z coordinate based on the centroid of the selected geometry. This property provides an alternative method to specify the location of the mobile coordinates.
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.
Material: Select a material type for the beams in the connection to inherit the material properties, excluding density. Available when the Behavior property is set to .
Radius: The radius to define the circular beam's cross section for the connection. Available when the Behavior property is set to .
Coincident Length Factor: During the solution process, if the application detects a mesh node at the same location as the pilot node of the remote point, it automatically creates an additional node internally to avoid a zero-length beam element and displays a warning message. In this situation, use this property to change the stiffness of the connection by specifying a length factor that scales the offset of the additional node’s location. The default setting is
1. The property supports non-zero numeric entries.
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.