PRIMER 22.1

Setting Element Properties

Setting Element Properties

Before elements can be generated PRIMER must know what properties (Part ids, etc) to assign to the elements.


Therefore it is necessary to select an existing property, or create a new one for the relevant class(es) of element. The following colour scheme is used for these buttons:
Red The property has not yet been defined.
Orange The property has been defined, but a check shows errors or warnings
Green The property has been defined and checks cleanly.

If a property is required but has yet to be defined that button will have a red background, and the GENERATE button will be greyed out until it has been selected or created.

Properties not required will have their button greyed out.

This panel shows the 1D seatbelt element create/ edit box.

The user is required to give a part ID, this can either be typed in directly or selected/created via the part pop-up box. Information about the section and material properties from the part to be used are shown below the part ID.

There is also the option of setting the element-specific "slack length" value.

This panel shows the shell property creation/editing box.

As above, a part ID is required to be set. Here one has been selected and the properties are displayed below the ID. The update_property button has now been made active.

The shell element specific data, (variable thickness at nodes and beta angle) is not used here.

This panel is also used for 2D Seatbelt Shell elements which, despite being defined as *ELEMENT_SEATBELT are in fact shells and must have the following attributes:

  • A *PART card unique to this seatbelt shell definition.

  • A *SECTION_SHELL ( not _SEATBELT ) definition that is unique to the part. Since the shells are used only for contact purposes the properties on this card are not structurally significant, however a sensible thickness should be used and a membrane formulation (type 5) is recommended.

  • A *MAT_SEATBELT card. It is recommended that this too is unique to the *PART definition above.

Unique definitions are required because of the extra work performed in the Ansys LS-DYNA keyword reader to "track down" the belt and generate 1D belt, slipring and retractor elements. It gets confused if multiple belts used the same basic definitions.


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