Tension Only LINK180

Figure 1: Von Mises Stress Animation

LINK180 is a very interesting element which allows tension but not compression. A snippet in a Beam element does the trick of configuring beams in Workbench into tension only beams.

et, matid, 180
*get, area, secp, matid, prop, area
sectype, matid, link
secdata, area
seccontrol,, 1 ! Tension only

The example problem has a thin plate that has a Revolute joint in the middle that rotates \(\pm3^o\). The two chain LINK180 on each sides of the plate will thus take turns being in tension and be relaxed.

Figure 2: Displacement Animation

The forces plotted using SMISC1 shows forces in tension.

Figure 3: Force Animation

V18.2 Archived Workbench File: Link