1. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information Section 16 Rigid Connections

2. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information SimLab – Rigid Connections (Application |Analysis | Structural | Connections) In SimLab, Structural Connections can be defined using any one of the tools. RBAR RBE BAR Spring Bush MPC Joint Gap Element Plot Element Spring Damper (For Ansys)

3. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information RBAR (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | RBAR) This tool is used to create Rigid Bar elements for Nastran or Beam MPC for Abaqus. These elements can be created in many ways - between faces, edges, nodes.

4. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information RBE (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | RBE) This tool is used to create Rigid Bar Elements for Nastran or Connector Elements for Abaqus. Create RBE by selecting Body / Face / Edge. Automatic center node creation based on centroid of selected entities.

5. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information This tool allows to create RBE elements by picking dependent and independent nodes manually. First pick the independent node and then pick dependent nodes Manual RBE (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | Manual RBE)

6. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information This tool is used to create bar element between two nodes. Bar or Beam property has to be assigned. Bar (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | BAR) Bar element between RBEs

7. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information Spring Elements can be created either by using Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | Spring (or) Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | Isotropic Spring Springs (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections) This tool is used to create spring element between two nodes with each node having different degree of freedom. 1.Spring

8. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information Springs 2.Isotropic Spring This tool is used to create spring element between two nodes with each node having same degree of freedom. Also spring elements along six degree of freedom with different stiffness can be created between two nodes.

9. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information This tool is used to create Spring and Damper structural element for Nastran. Bush (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | Bush)

10. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information MPC (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | MPC) This tool is used to define linear constraint equation between nodes. Constraint equations can be defined by selecting Dependent and Independent Faces / Edges / Nodes. Cyclic Symmetry boundary condition for Nastran can be specified.

11. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information MPC Dependent FaceIndependent Face

12. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information This tool is used to join two bodies using RBE2 or RBE3. Joint (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | Joint)

13. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information This tool is used to create Gap Elements for Nastran. Gap Elements can be created between edges / faces. Matching nodes between edges / faces will be found out. Gap Elements (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | GapElem)

14. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information This tool is used to create Plot Elements for Nastran. Plot Elements can be created between edges / faces. Matching nodes between edges / faces will be found out. Plot Elements (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | PlotElem)

15. Copyright © 2010 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved.Altair Proprietary and Confidential Information Spring Damper (For Ansys) (Applications | Analysis | Structural | Connections | Spring Damper) This tool is used to define Spring Damper. It is specific for Ansys.