Coupled Field Analysis Types
Introduction
Coupled Field analyses enable you to simulate interaction between multiple physics types. The availability of analysis settings, boundary conditions, results, etc. is based on the specified physics as well as the analysis type you select. This article will focus on couples field analysis using Ansys Workbench
For example, if you specify a Coupled Field Static analysis, all common features are available for structural physics, such as Force, Deformation, etc. Supported physics configurations include:
| Coupled Field Harmonic | Coupled Field Modal | Coupled Field Static | Coupled Field Transient | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structural | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Acoustics | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Electric | ✓[a] | ✓[a] | ✓[b] | ✓[b] |
| Thermal | ✓ | ✓ |
[a]Supports charge-based formulation only.
[b] Supports charge-based and current-based formulation.
You can view the physics specified for your Coupled Field analysis from the properties of the Setup cell in Workbench.
In Mechanical, you can view the selected physics from the Environment object, and you can view and change the physics definition using the Physics Region object.
Coupling
The table below outlines how different physics types interact across various Coupled Field analysis types in ANSYS Mechanical. You can define these interactions in one of three ways:
Physics Region settings (e.g., Thermal Strain),
Coupling conditions (e.g., Plastic Heating), or
Built-in couplings, such as Piezoelectric interaction between structural and electric (charge-based) physics, which is always included when applicable.
| Physics | Coupled Field Harmonic | Coupled Field Modal | Coupled Field Static | Coupled Field Transient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structural Thermal | Not Supported | Thermal strain Thermoplasticity Thermoviscoelasticity | Thermal strain Thermoelastic Damping Thermoplasticity Thermoviscoelasticity | |
| Electrostatic Structural | Electrostatic Force[a] | Electrostatic Force[a] | Electrostatic Force | Not Supported |
| Structural-Acoustics | Fluid Solid Interface | Fluid Solid Interface | Fluid Solid Interface | Fluid Solid Interface |
| Structural Electric (Charge) | Piezoelectric | Piezoelectric | Piezoelectric | Piezoelectric |
| Thermal Electric (Conduction) | Joule Heating See beck Peltier | Joule Heating See beck Peltier |
[a]Requires prestress Coupled Field Static.
Important:
The Element Control property of the Geometry object is, by default, set to Program Controlled. This setting allows the application to choose the best Mechanical APDL element options (KEYOPTS). For example, if your coupled field analysis includes nonlinearities, the application could automatically (and without your knowledge):
- Change the structural-thermal coupling from Strong to Weak.
- Specify that all coupling types use a uniform reduced integration scheme instead of Full Integration (as defined by the Brick Integration Scheme property of Part/Body objects).
As a result, to make sure that the application does not automatically change the element options, use the Manual setting for the Element Control property.
See the Automatic Selection of Element Technologies and Formulations section of the Mechanical APDL Element Reference for more information.
Note:
- The Physics Region supports the activation of more than two physics types and therefore, coupling. In this case, there is a cumulative effect for each individual physics interaction with the other supported physics.
- If a body has more than two physics associated with its scoping, the interaction of the physics types is a combination of two different physics interactions.
- You can set the Thermal Strain property, of Physics Region object, to Strong (Matrix) coupling or Weak (Load Vector) coupling. Review the Coupled Effects section of the Coupling documentation in the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference for more background information.
- You can specify Thermoplasticity and Thermoviscoelasticity using the Plastic Heating and Viscoelastic Heating coupling conditions. Review the Thermoplasticity and Thermoviscoelasticity sections of the Coupling documentation in the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference for more background information.
- Joule Heating is considered as a load vector. Review the Thermoelectrics section of the Coupling documentation in the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference for more background information.
- For Piezoelectric coupling, the Piezoelectric matrix must be defined in the Engineering Data Workspace. You may want to review the Piezoelectrics section of the Coupling documentation in the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference for more background information.
- Currently, linear elements generated by the application use element SOLID226 (a high-order element) with the mid-side nodes dropped, except for structural-thermal analyses. For structural-thermal analyses, the application uses element SOLID225.
The content of this article was derived from Ansys Help Documentation.