Ram Series manual


Problem data

This is the information needed for the analysis and not related to the geometry.

Mesh units are the units in which are represented the coordinates of the geometry and mesh. Results units are the units used to represent the results of the analysis.

The three components of the gravity define a vector, which will be normalized inside rambshell, and represents the direction of the gravity if the self-weight is considered.

Beam Res granularity means the number of subdivisions that will have every beam to represent the results. More subdivisions give more quality in the results visualization and more disk space. This option does not modify the precision of the result, only its visualization.

Shell res axes permits to choose if the strengths results will be displayed in local axes, in main axes or in both. Local axes are the ones defined in the properties section. Main axes will be defined later. If it is not necessary to save disk space, choose both.

Shell internal 6-noded elem If chosen, mesh generated as 3-noded triangle elements will be internally calculated as 6-noded triangles. It gives more precision in the results and needs more computer time. It should be always used except when strengths in the shell plane are dominant. In this last case, both options are feasible.

Shell smooth res If chosen, rambshell will smooth the strength results where possible. The results of the calculation are strengths in the interior of every element that are discontinuous from one element to another. Smoothing means to approximate other values of the strengths so as they are continuous from one element to another. This can only be made if the geometry is smooth by itself from one element to another.

With the option Solver type, the solver of the equations system that is used internally is chosen. Options are:

·         Solver tolerance: When the iteration process reaches this tolerance, the solver will stop.

·         Solver tolerance minimum: If the solver arrives to its maximum iteration number, this tolerance will decide if results are accepted.

·         Max. iterations: maximum number of iterations permitted to the solver.

Normally, the best option is to choose Automatic. Advanced users should choose Skyline solver if it does not take too much memory and Sparse solver for big problems depending on the available RAM memory.

Analysis type: Normally, this option should be set to Beams and shells. If the problem to analyze has only elements in one plane and it can be considered as a plane strain, plane stress or a plate problem, select one of these options. In these cases, the input of the data is the same than for the general analysis but the problem to solve is much slower. So, it saves a lot of computing time.