This tutorial was completed using ANSYS 7.0 The purpose of the tutorial is to show the required steps to account for the weight of an object in ANSYS.

Loads will not be applied to the beam shown below in order to observe the deflection caused by the weight of the beam itself. The beam is to be made of steel with a modulus of elasticity of 200 GPa.

ANSYS Command Listing

/Title, Effects of Self Weight
/PREP7

Length = 1000
Width = 50
Height = 10

K,1,0,0			! Create Keypoints
K,2,Length,0

L,1,2

ET,1,BEAM3  		! Set element type
R,1,Width*Height,Width*(Height**3)/12,Height	 !** = exponent
MP,EX,1,200000 		! Young's Modulus
MP,PRXY,1,0.3		! Poisson's ratio
MP,DENS,1,7.86e-6	! Density
  
LESIZE,ALL,Length/10,   ! Size of line elements
LMESH,1  		! Mesh line 1

FINISH  
/SOLU   		! Enter solution mode

ANTYPE,0		! Static analysis
DK,1,ALL,0,  		! Constrain keypoint 1
ACEL,,9.8		! Set gravity constant

SOLVE   
FINISH  

/POST1  
PLDISP,2		! Display deformed shape