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We see that the symmetry and clamped BC's haven't been applied at the correct locations. The pressure has been applied only over part of the facesheet. We'll fix these mistakes below.

Fix Geometry

Recall that originally we made two copies of subsection ABCD. Now we are making three copies of ABCD. However, the input file still insists on making only two copies; this is inherited from the original case. Let's dig a little further into this mystery and see how we can solve it.

When we made the copies in the y-direction, we selected the components to copy using "Pick All" in the pick menu. Go to near the end of your input file and find the corresponding statement:

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Save the input file. This will fix the problem with the geometry.

Fix BC's

Recall that, while applying the BC's, we selected the approporiate subset of components and applied the BC's to the selected components using "Pick All" in the pick menu. As above, "Pick All" mangles the selection when we change the number of components. We can again fix this by using "ALL" instead of "Pick All" in the BC commands.

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SFA,ALL,1,PRES,0.05

Save the input file.

Re-read Input File

Main Menu > File > Clear & Start New > OK

Utility Menu > File > Read Input from > shell_step6.inp > OK

Select the shell_step6.inp file and click OK. Plot elements and select the isometric view. Did ANSYS get it right this time?

 

Check that the BC's have been applied correctly.

Utility Menu > Plot > Areas

Utility Menu > PlotCtrls > Symbols

Symbols menu: For Boundary condition symbol, select All Applied BCs. For Surface Load Symbols, select Pressures and under Show pres and convect as, select Arrows. Click OK.

Zoom into the sides of the structure and carefully check the BC's.

 

Now repeat steps 7-9 in the original tutorial and compare the results for NSX=2 and 3.

A tip from a battle-hardened user: you have to be careful about recycling the log file when the topology of the geometry changes. For instance, if you change H2 and H3 such that the y-stiffeners become wider than the x-stiffeners, the topology changes significantly. In this case, unless you are a power user, it might be advisable to use the log file only for steps 1-3 (as you look through the log file, you should be able to hone in on where step 3 ends and step 4 begins).Then, go through steps 4-6 in the GUI and generate clean new lgw/input files.

Save: Toolbar > SAVE_DB