MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Element Description

The MPC184 point-in-plane joint element is a two-node element that has two relative displacement degrees of freedom. The relative rotational degrees of freedom are not considered and cannot be controlled.

Figure 184poin.1:  MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Geometry

MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Input Data

Set KEYOPT(1) = 9 to define a two-node point-in-plane joint element.

Figure 184poin.1: MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Geometry shows the geometry and node locations for this element. Two nodes (I and J) define the element.

A local Cartesian coordinate system must be specified at the first node, I, of the element. The second node, J, is constrained such that it remains on a plane defined by the local and axes. The normal distance from this plane containing node J to node I is held fixed. The local coordinate system specified at node I evolves with the rotations at node I. Use the SECJOINT command to specify the identifiers of the local coordinate systems.

The constraints imposed on a point-in-plane joint element are easily described by referring to Figure 184poin.1: MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Geometry. At any given instant of time, the constraint imposed is as follows:

Where, x^I and x^J are the positional vectors of nodes I and J in the current configuration, and X^I and X^J are the position vectors of nodes I and J in the reference configuration. e^I are in the current configuration, while E^I are specified in the initial configuration.

The changes in the relative position of the nodes I and J are given by:

The constitutive calculations use the following definition of the joint displacement:

where:

= reference length specified on the SECDATA command

= reference length specified on the SECDATA command

If the reference lengths are not specified, the initial offsets are used.

Other input data that are common to all joint elements (material behavior, stops and limits, locks, etc.) are described in "Joint Input Data" in the MPC184 element description.

MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Output Data

The solution output associated with the element is in two forms:

These tables use the following notation:

A colon (:) in the Name column indicates the item can be accessed by the Component Name method [ETABLE, ESOL]. The O column indicates the availability of the items in the file Jobname.OUT. The R column indicates the availability of the items in the results file.

In either the O or R columns, Y indicates that the item is always available, a number refers to a table footnote that describes when the item is conditionally available, and a - indicates that the item is not available.

The following table shows additional non-summable miscellaneous (NMISC) output available for the point-in-plane joint element.

Table 184poin.3: MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Item and Sequence Numbers - SMISC Items and Table 184poin.4: MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Item and Sequence Numbers - NMISC Items list output available via the ETABLE command using the Sequence Number method. See The General Postprocessor (POST1) in the Basic Analysis Guide and The Item and Sequence Number Table for further information. The table uses the following notation:

MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Assumptions and Restrictions

MPC184 Point-in-plane Joint Product Restrictions

When used in the product(s) listed below, the stated product-specific restrictions apply to this element in addition to the general assumptions and restrictions given in the previous section.

ANSYS Mechanical Pro