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  ANSYS Tutorial
  ANSYS Example The term 'pivot' refers to the first non-zero term in the matrix when one
  Pivot is performing Gaussian elimination to upper-triangularize the matrix
before finding the displacement vector by back-substitution. These
  ANSYS 12 concepts are most applicable to use of the frontal solver.
 

collections Typically, the matrix being solved is the stiffness matrix. Consider, for
example, a simple 1-d element with two nodes, x1 and x2. If the model
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is unconstrained, ANSYS will attempt to write two equations:
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   tips & tricks k(x1-x2) = 0

   material prop k(x2-x1) = 0
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ANSYS tries to solve for these two equations and two unknowns by
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subtracting one equation from the other. However, you can quickly see
  that this technique won't work because the two equations are not
resources independent, meaning that for any value of x1=x2, the equations are
satisfied. In matrix manipulation space, ANSYS ends up with the
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following:
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   user polls | k -k | x1 = | 0 |
   xansys archives | -k k | x2 = | 0 |

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Using Gaussian elimination:
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| k -k | x1 = | 0 |
engineering | 0 0 | x2 = | 0 |
   tools & utilities  
   material links The second '0' that I've underlined is the 'pivot'. The zero pivot here
means that you have made ANSYS write more equations than can be
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solve deterministically. The mathematical term for this is that the matrix
   book references failed to be "positive definite."
 

general info The practical upshot is that zero pivots always are caused by
unconstrained problems.
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The "small pivot" problem comes from the fact that computers don't give
   fea-nux blog zero when doing subtraction using real variables. Instead, you get values
   twitter like 1e-20, or even -1e-20. Hence, poorly constrained problems will tend
to lead to exceedingly small pivots, near the roundoff level for the
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machine. To the best of my knowledge, there is no significance to
  whether these small pivots are negative or positive, although ANSYS will
sometimes tell you that you have a "negative pivot," rather than a "small
pivot." They both indicate the same problem.

Lastly, when you have a big stiffness difference between adjacent

elements, poor constraint can result from asking ANSYS to do Gaussian
elimination that causes it to calculated small differences between large
numbers. In this case, you start to lose accuracy as the pivot gets to be
very close to the roundoff error of the computer. This is why ANSYS will
also complain about stiffness matrix ratios that exceed 1e8.

What do you do to figure out what is going on? One answer is to do a

modal analysis and see what part goes flying off at near zero frequency.
I try to think about where the offending dof is in the model and try to
visualize that part of the model moving as a rigid body.

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ansys.net: tnt_gross1 Page 2 of 2

In your case, however, I believe the problem is poor element choice.

Someone may correct me on this, but I believe that the SOLID72's are
your problem. If you read the fine manual regarding this element, you
will note the following little gotcha:

"Do not apply nodal forces or nodal moments, due to theoretical

limitations of this element."

You see, SOLID72 rotational degrees of freedom are not "real," as has
been discussed on this list in relation to its full-blown cousin SOLID73.
They are a poor-mans approximation to the SOLID92 element, and have
been proposed to be eliminated because they set just the type of trap
that you are apparently falling into.

The conventional techniques for reacting beam and shell moments in

solids include:

- bury the beam/shell one row deep into the solid

- make a tee out of the beam/shell and overlay on the solid face
- write constraint equations

General purpose SOLID92's are then your best bet, in conjunction with
these techniques.

  Posted by David Gross (Dominion Engineering, Inc.) on 07.13.2002

 
Small Pivot Terms

Details on small positive and negative pivot terms can be found in the
  Theory Manual, Ch. 15.8 "Equation Solvers." This also provides a good
discussion on pivot terms.

  Posted by Sheldon Imaoka (CSI) on 07.13.2002

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