UsingtheNXNastran Cbush SpringElement

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SpringsversusCBUSH
Thereisnoversus,theonlyspringelementthatIuseistheCBUSH.Why?Takea lookatthenotebelowwrittenbyawellrespectedNastran architect(TedRose).For example, l ifyouusethe h standard d dNXNastran N spring i element l between b noncoincident i id nodes,youhavethepotentialtosuckforceoutofyourmodel;thatis,yourOLOAD wontmatchyourSPCFORCEintheF06fileandyourmodelcouldbeoutofwhack. ImadethismistakeonceandwasschooledbysenioranalystatNavistarwhenshe noticed ti dthat th tmymodel d lhad h dsomestrange t stresses. t In I short, h t the th model d lwasgarbage. b ThecorrectionwastosimplyswapouttheCELASforCBUSHelements.

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TheCBUSHelementdoes accountforanyoffsetbetweenGRIDpoints,soifyouusethis,itisacceptabletohave offsetGRIDpoints.IfyouuseCELASi elements(regularNXNastran springs),youare"addingtermsdirectlyinto th tiff t i "and dth ff tb t i t Th ti d ti thestiffness matrix" therei isnooffset between th theGRIDpoints. That isth thereasonf forth therecommendation intheCommonQ&AthattheGRIDpointsbecoincident.Mostpreprocessorsallowspringelementsbetween noncoincident points.Inthiscase,ifthespringdoesnotactalongthelineconnectingthepoints,youhavea "springtoground".Thespringwillnotallowrigidbodyrotation.

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CBUSHUsage:
Femap hasseveralgoodlittlesectionsonhowtocreatetheCBUSHelement

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CBUSHUsage:
Femap hasseveralgoodlittlesectionsonhowtocreatetheCBUSHelement

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CBUSHUsage:
TheNXNastran ElementLibrarySection6.2givesyouthemathematicalbackground thatyouwillneed:

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CBUSHExamplewithSolidElements:
Ahexedsphereissuspendedbyfour CBUSHelements elements.Theconstraints createtheminimalsetforstability. TheCBUSHshouldbetreatedlikea delicatebeamelement.Eachnode has6DOF.Whenattachedtoasolid elementwith3DOF,therotational DOFneedtobeconstrainedorthe modelwillbeunstable. AtthefreeendoftheCBUSHelement, therotationalDOFarefixed(456)and theverticalDOF(2).
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CBUSHExamplewithSolidElements:
TheCBUSHelementisselectedas aSpring/Damper. Spring/Damper Then,andthisisthestepthat mostpeoplemiss,isthatone needstochangetheFormulation. WhenyoupresstheFormulation button youhaveanotherscreen button, whereyoucanchangethe Nastran typeto1.CBUSH

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CBUSHExamplewithSolidElements:
CBUSHrequiresanorientationvector forcreation(likeabeamelement). element) However,thespringconstantscanbe setupintheCBUSHcoordinatesystem orthatoftheOrientationCSys.For thisexample,thelatterapproachis used. Forstability, stability smallvaluesareusedto keeptherotationalDOFstable.Thisis necessarywhenthe6DOFCBUSHis attachedtoa3DOFelement.

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CBUSHExamplewithSolidElements:
ConstrainingtheCBUSHisthebiggest challengetoitsuse. use Togetthe constraintsrightyoumustusethe constraintsetandtheCBUSHcard together. WhentheCBUSHisattachedtosolid elements,DOF123areautomatically constrainedbutnotDOF456. Tocreateafullconstraintsetforthe CBUSH,weneedtoconstrainall6 DOFadequately.Thetranslational (123)arecoveredbythesolidelement butrotational(456)areproblematic. Onesolutionistofixoneend(456) andthenusesmallrotationalvaluesin theCBUSHformulation.

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CBUSHExamplewithPlateElements:
Thedifferencewithattachedto6DOF elementsisthattheCBUSHhas somethingtoanchortoforall6DOF (123456).Todemonstratethis,the modelwillrunwithonlythevertical DOFconstrained. Themodelsusedinthisexampleare availablewiththisnoteatthewebsite website.

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