Ansys Mechanical is a best-in-class finite element solver with structural, thermal, acoustics, transient and nonlinear capabilities to improve your modeling.
Ansys Mechanical enables you to solve complex structural engineering problems and make better, faster design decisions. With the finite element analysis (FEA) solvers available in the suite, you can customize and automate solutions for your structural mechanics problems and parameterize them to analyze multiple design scenarios. Ansys Mechanical is a dynamic tool that has a complete range of analysis tools.
Ansys Mechanical offers a dynamic environment with a complete range of analysis tools, from preparing geometry for analysis to connecting additional physics for even greater fidelity. The intuitive and customizable user interface enables engineers of all levels to get answers fast and with confidence.
July 2023
Interface with Mechanical pythonically to automate its capabilities and seamlessly connect with other technologies with PyMechanical. Opensource access to interface with Mechanical is available through GitHub.
Perform accurate and robust turbomachinery simulations leveraging new enhancements including imported load support for multistage cyclic symmetry analyses, a new forced response add-on using standardized capabilities, and a new advanced nonlinear multi-harmonic solver.
Explore a variety of drop test height and angle variations more efficiently, with added support to concurrently solve multiple drop test analyses, with the Ansys LS-DYNA solver.
Simulate surface tension and wall adhesion effects in soldering and thermal interface material applications by exposing the incompressible Smooth Particle Galerkin (ISPG) solver.
Notable meshing enhancements include ensuring a high-quality mesh before solving, mesh quality worksheet improvements, poor element location visualization, shortcut keys, and weld improvements creating welds near complex geometric features and areas where developing weld connections is challenging.
Evaluate and optimize the performance of hydrodynamic and journal bearings with a new embedded workflow that combines hydrodynamics and finite element analysis (FEA). This workflow integrates Tribo-X, a thermal elastohydrodynamics (TEHD) simulation software.
"Ansys Mechanical provides the ability to model the realistic and complex details of injection molded plastics, like the orientation of fibers and the presence of injection stresses in the parts, which significantly increases the accuracy of our engineering developments."
—Francesco Fiorini, structural and durability engineer at thysssenkrupp Presta AG
All products have an environmental impact, a fact customers are increasingly aware of as they take an interest in their carbon footprints. In the automotive industry, there is a global push to reach zero vehicle emissions by 2050 to satisfy consumer demand and increasingly stricter environmental laws. To do so, leading vehicle manufactures and their partners are embracing lightweighting and electrification. Composite materials are key to making vehicles lighter so they can use smaller engines that consume less energy and produce fewer emissions. For the high-volume production models (body panels, frames, housings), an increasingly adopted technique is the manufacturing of critical components through injection molding with short-fiber reinforced plastics.
Thyssenkrupp Presta is leveraging its longstanding competencies in materials, components and systems to lead automotive digital transformation processes. Ansys Mechanical’s short fiber reinforced composite workflow helped thyssenkrupp Presta reach the targeted 50% weight reduction with respect to the original metal part to meet mechanical performance and OEMs requirements. The adoption of an innovative and lightweight plastic housing for its steering system supports both the ecological and economical goals of thyssenkrupp Presta and helps the company lead the evolution of the steering systems for the automotive market of tomorrow.
Ansys Mechanical creates an integrated platform that uses finite element analysis (FEA) for structural analysis. Mechanical is a dynamic environment that has a complete range of analysis tools, from preparing geometry for analysis to connecting additional physics for even greater fidelity. The intuitive and customizable user interface enables engineers of all levels to get answers fast and with confidence.
Ansys Workbench enables robust connection to commercial CAD tools, providing click button design point updates. Seamlessly integrated multiphysics capabilities are available with fluids and electrical solvers.
Experience dynamic analysis and embrace advanced solver options across a variety of materials and functions
Carry out acoustics simulations to understand the vibroacoustic behavior of systems, with or without structural pre-loading. Including pre-loading adds more fidelity and means that self-weighted, bolted assemblies — or even squealing brakes — can be simulated.
Nonlinear simulation also takes into account contact and large deflection of parts moving around relative to each other, either with or without friction.
It can simulate everything from a bonded contact that treats joints between parts as if they are glued or welded together to contact interfaces that allow parts to move apart and together with or without frictional effects. Being able to simulate contact correctly means that you can simulate the change in load paths when parts deform and confidently predict how assemblies will behave in the real world.
Any model in Ansys Mechanical can be used to drive a parametric optimization. Shape and topology optimization capabilities allow creation of efficient geometries, which can be taken back to CAD for production or further simulation work. Additive manufacturing, lightweighting and robust design are excellent use cases for this technology.
With Ansys Mechanical, you can read in power losses or calculated temperatures from other analysis systems or files, which means that CFD or electromagnetic simulations can be a starting point for thermal analysis. It is also possible to account for fluid flow through pipes and heat generated from friction between parts. All these capabilities give you more accurate simulations and better results.
You can also add user-defined material models, if needed. Granta Materials Data for Simulation provides instant, clickable access to the materials property data you need, eliminating data search time and input errors. Material Designer can easily create representative volume elements (RVE’s) based around lattice, fiber, weave or user-created geometries to facilitate multiscale modeling of complex material structures.
Ansys Mechanical includes capabilities to model layered composites through the connection with Ansys PrepPost (ACP) and short fiber composites through the connection with upstream manufacturing simulation tools and the material behavior obtained from Material Designer, the Ansys tool for multiscale homogenization of materials microstructures.
You can generate composite models for implicit and explicit structural, thermal and fluid simulations. Ansys Composite PrepPost (ACP) is the Ansys dedicated tool for modeling composite layups and failure analysis. ACP provides efficient layup and best-in-class solid element modeling capabilities and a platform that offers many ways to exchange model information. It supports the vendor-independent HDF5 composite CAE file format for communication with third-party tools, many of them dedicated and related to composites manufacturing. Beyond the modeling of composite structures, Ansys Composite Cure Simulation (ACCS), simulates curing during manufacturing processes. ACCS is an extension for Ansys Mechanical and it helps you to simulate the curing process of a part and predicts residual stresses and process-induced distortions for realizing compensation analyses.
These include SPARs, FPSOs, semi-submersibles, tension leg platforms, ships, renewable energy devices and breakwaters. Our product, Ansys Aqwa, has been used extensively in the oil and gas, renewable and general engineering sectors to model installation and use of equipment in open water as well as in harbors or sheltered locations.
One-way coupling solves the initial CFD or Ansys Mechanical simulation and automatically transfers and maps the data to the other system. In a two-way coupling simulation, the fluid and structural simulations are set up and solved at the same time and data is automatically transferred between two solvers to achieve robust and accurate results.
Journaling and scripting capabilities enable quick development and easy education of new scripts.
There are three licensing options available with Ansys Mechanical:
| Mechanical Pro | Mechanical Premium | Mechanical Enterprise | |
| Full thermal analysis | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Modal analysis | |||
| Full contact | |||
| Non-linear geometry | |||
| Material plasticity | |||
| Structural optimization | |||
| Pre-stressed modal | |||
| 4 HPC Cores | |||
| Full linear dynamics | |||
| Element birth and death | |||
| Full material non-linearity | |||
| Coupled field elements | |||
| User materials |
MECHANICAL RESOURCES & EVENT
This webinar series focuses on our lightweighting capabilities, which will help solve your toughest A&D engineering problems.
Ansys has teamed up with various software vendors to provide a complete workflow for composite manufacturing, design and analysis. This webinar series focuses on reducing modeling uncertainties when designing with composites.
This webinar showcases the workflow from geometry to validation for all available topology optimization methods, empowering you to generate truly lightweight structures.
Ansys Mechanical is a finite element analysis (FEA) software used to perform structural analysis using advanced solver options, including linear dynamics, nonlinearities, thermal analysis, materials, composites, hydrodynamic, explicit, and more. Mechanical offers a user-friendly, dynamic environment with a complete range of analysis tools, from preparing geometry to connecting other physics for high-fidelity simulations and optimization.
Mechanical is known for its customization and scripting capabilities, enabling users to automate repetitive tasks and workflows.
Ansys offers a variety of options for users of all skill levels to learn how to use Ansys Mechanical. If you are interested in enhancing your simulation and general physics knowledge of structures, Ansys offers Ansys Innovation Courses, which are free courses that will teach you the underlying physics in a problem and how Mechanical is used to help solve this problem.
For introductory product-specific step-by-step tutorials, new feature videos, and general tips & tricks, we have the Ansys How to Videos on YouTube.
The Ansys Learning Hub provides you with all the training resources needed to learn Ansys Mechanical from the ground up. The Learning Hub has self-paced video courses, CAD models, best practice guides, demo videos, and learning rooms for questions and discussions to learn from the Ansys experts.
Cornell University also offers a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that teaches the hands-on use of Ansys Mechanical. Students can gain important professional skill sought by employers. Those interested can enroll for free here.
There are several ways to open and access APDL, including through Ansys Workbench, the Start Menu, the APDL product launcher, and the command line.
The preferred method to open APDL is through the product launcher from the Windows Start Menu, so that a user can customize the product settings, including simulation environment and license, working directory, customization, high-performance computing setup, and more.
Opening through Workbench is recommended if the user intends to share the files from MAPDL with other Workbench models. Opening through the Windows Start Menu launches a standalone MAPDL session using the default product settings.
Symmetry in Ansys Mechanical enables users to only model a portion of the structure they are simulating to achieve faster simulation and post-processing results. Users can implement Symmetry if the geometry, material orientation, loading, and expected response all exhibit symmetry about the same planes.
To use Symmetry in Ansys Mechanical, you can either select the Model folder under your current project, navigate to the Model tab, and select Symmetry, or right-click on the Model folder and choose Insert then Symmetry. Both options above will insert a symmetry folder object where different types of Symmetry can be added.
Based on analysis type and symmetry needs, the following Symmetry objects can be inserted: symmetry region, linear periodic, periodic region, cyclic region, and pre-mesh cyclic region.
Current customers can download Ansys Mechanical from the Download Center in the Ansys Customer Portal.
If you are a student, you can download our free student software and use it along with our free courses, support community, and a wealth of student-focused tutorials.
Ansys Parametric Design Language, or APDL, is a powerful, structured scripting language used to interact with the Ansys Mechanical solver. Mechanical APDL, or MAPDL, is a finite element analysis program driven by APDL.
Both APDL and MAPDL can be used for various tasks ranging from creating geometries to setting up sophisticated solver settings for highly complex analyses. APDL provides access to advanced features and capabilities of Ansys Mechanical that may not be exposed or available through the graphical user interface (GUI).
With APDL, users can create custom input files, define material properties, apply boundary conditions and loads, customize the solution process, and more to tailor the analysis to their specific needs.
Learn more about Ansys Mechanical APDL.
The Ansys Mechanical layout can be reset by simply navigating to the Home tab at the top of the Mechanical user interface and clicking the Reset Layout button on the far right side.
It's vital to Ansys that all users, including those with disabilities, can access our products. As such, we endeavor to follow accessibility requirements based on the US Access Board (Section 508), Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and the current format of the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT).
