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The seven types of structural analyses available in the ANSYS family of products are explained below. The primary unknowns (nodal degrees of freedom) calculated in a structural analysis are displacements. Other quantities, such as strains, stresses, and reaction forces, are then derived from the nodal displacements.

Structural analyses are available in the ANSYS Multiphysics, ANSYS Mechanical, ANSYS Structural, and ANSYS Professional programs only.

You can perform the following types of structural analyses. Each of these analysis types are discussed in detail in this manual.

Static Analysis--Used to determine displacements, stresses, etc. under static loading conditions. Both linear and nonlinear static analyses. Nonlinearities can include plasticity, stress stiffening, large deflection, large strain, hyperelasticity, contact surfaces, and creep.

Modal Analysis--Used to calculate the natural frequencies and mode shapes of a structure. Different mode extraction methods are available.

Harmonic Analysis--Used to determine the response of a structure to harmonically time-varying loads.

Transient Dynamic Analysis--Used to determine the response of a structure to arbitrarily time-varying loads. All nonlinearities mentioned under Static Analysis above are allowed.

Spectrum Analysis--An extension of the modal analysis, used to calculate stresses and strains due to a response spectrum or a PSD input (random vibrations).

Buckling Analysis--Used to calculate the buckling loads and determine the buckling mode shape. Both linear (eigenvalue) buckling and nonlinear buckling analyses are possible.

Explicit Dynamic Analysis--This type of structural analysis is only available in the ANSYS LS-DYNA program. ANSYS LS-DYNA provides an interface to the LS-DYNA explicit finite element program. Explicit dynamic analysis is used to calculate fast solutions for large deformation dynamics and complex contact problems. Explicit dynamic analysis is described in the ANSYS LS-DYNA User's Guide.

In addition to the above analysis types, several special-purpose features are available: