Beam Review

Review the beam's neutral axis position and plot MoI and flexural stiffnesses.

Restriction: Only available in the Nastran and OptiStruct solvers.

From the menu bar, click Aerospace > Beams > Beam Review.

Using this tool you can review beam attributes, such as:
  • Beam neutral axis
  • Elemental system
  • End releases
  • Plot attributes, such as area, moments of inertia, flexural stiffness and torsional stiffness
Table 1. Review Description
Option Description Result
Location Where the axis should be drawn:
  • Neutral axis (without offset)
  • Neutral axis with offset
  • Shear center with offset
Draw a colored line at selected location on review.
Elemental System Select element axis to display

Change axis color and scale

Display each element system on review.
Released dofs Show/Hide start-end node pins. Show a label of released dofs, only if dofs are released at node on review.
Plot options Graphically show quantities, such as:
  • Area
  • Iyy
  • Izz
  • Iyz
  • J
  • E.Area
  • E.Iyy
  • E.Izz
  • G.J
Graphically plot quantities as arrows on each end of the beams.

Expected Results

In this example, there is a mix of CBAR and CBEAM elements using the same section shape. In the case of CBAR, solver enforce Shear center is to match with Centroid (Neutral Axis). In the case of CBEAM elements, there is a distance between Shear center and Neutral axis. In order to place all of these beams as stiffeners on top of a shell, an offset has been applied to the elements.


Figure 1. . The raw position of neutral axis and discrepancies between CBAR and CBEAM.


Figure 2. . Considering offset, neutral axis is continuous along the path. The tapered beam is also captured.


Figure 3. . Shear center position with offset value. Usually offset is not seen while 1D are in traditional representation.


Figure 4. . Display Moment of Inertia Izz along a path of elements.


Figure 5. . Released degree of freedom on both ends (only first element is released). The second element has no offset applied.