Abstract:
In this study, a conversion factor between BEAM188 and SOLID186 elements is obtained in ANSYS. ANSYS is been used as a FEA tool. Conversion factor helps in predicting natural frequencies that would be obtained if SOLID186 element would have been used thereby reducing solution time. Frequency obtained by using BEAM188 element; when multiplied by conversion factor; gives the frequency that will be obtained by using SOLID186 element. In order to verify this, beams with three boundary conditions i.e. Fixed-Fixed, Fixed-Free and Simply Supported were used with varying slenderness ratio from 20 and 6. Finding out the variation in hand calculations and those using ANSYS as a tool was another aim. This variation is caused owing to the fact that hand calculations follow Euler-Bernoulli beam theory whereas elements used in ANSYS software followed Timoshenko beam theory. Timoshenko beam theory considers shear deformation whereas Euler-Bernoulli neglects it. Both theories have their own assumptions leading to the variation in solutions obtained by both of them.
Keywords: Conversion factor, Natural frequency, Mode shapes, BEAM188 element, Solid186 element, ANSYS, MS-Excel, Slenderness ratio, Timoshenko beam theory, Euler-Bernoulli beam theory.