Elements With Beam Section Physical Properties

Most of ANSYS BEAM and PIPE elements, as shown in tables A.1 and A.2 of Appendix A, can be assigned beam section properties defined using the PIPE, BOX, USEC, or TSEC property type as appropriate (see FEMGV User Manual for details).

In this case the user needs only to input the dimensions of the BEAM or PIPE cross-section. For PIPE elements, only the pipe dimensions are written in the 'R' command and the other real constants are assigned to their default values. If all the real constants need to be explicitly defined then the GENERAL property type should be used instead. For BEAM elements, any real constants such as cross-sectional area, area moments of inertia, shear deflection constants, shear areas, that can be calculated by the interface program from the beam dimensions, are entered as necessary in the 'R' command and the other constants are set to their default values. The complete set of real constants can be entered by using the GENERAL or EXTERNAL property type.

Note that for element BEAM44, the interface program outputs only the basic set of real constants (limited to 24 values), where all the values for end 2 of the beam default to the corresponding end 1 values. The FEMGEN command PROPERTY PHYSICAL ... OFFSET ... should be used to define the BEAM44 centroid offset, which is assumed to be the same at both ends of the beam, and the first three values input should be the offset constants DX, DY, DZ as defined in ANSYS Elements manual, the remaining input values being ignored by the interface program. If the basic set of real constants is not sufficient or if it needs different values at both ends of BEAM44, the EXTERNAL property type should be used instead.

With element BEAM54, all the values for end 2 of the beam default to the corresponding end 1 values. The offset constants (DX, DY) are input, as for BEAM44, with the FEMGEN command PROPERTY PHYSICAL ... OFFSET DX DY 0 0 0 0, using ANSYS convention for DX and DY values. The interface program will write the same offset values for both beam ends. For a more general definition of BEAM54 physical properties use the GENERAL property type.

For Example:

PROPERTY PHYSICAL BOX [propname] width height

Beam centroid offset definition is appended to an existing beam section property via the command:

PROPERTY PHYSICAL BOX [propname] OFFSET dx dy dz 0 0 0