...

Mesh

In this section, we will specify our surface elements to have a mesh size of onemesh each gauge with one shell element. We will also hard code commands to the surface bodies gauges so that ANSYS treats treats them with a stiffness of zero. But first, let's give the surface bodies a proper thickness. ignores their stiffness i.e. the original stiffness matrix is not changed by the addition of the gauges.

ANSYS looks for a thickness input for each "surface body" corresponding to the gauges. We'll give the gauges a thickness. Keep in mind that this thickness does not affect the strain values for the gauges since the gauges are just riding along on the crank in our model. So their strain will be the same as the underlying strain on the crank face.

<iframe width="600" height="338" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0edS8qQN_zE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

We now show you how to insert commands to the surface bodies so that the stiffness of the gauges are ignored.

<iframe width="600" height="338" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/1hVoQQoz05s?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

...