The Wire (wire) interface (
), found under the
Structural Mechanics branch (
) when adding a physics interface, is used for modeling cables or wires that can only sustain tensile axial forces. Geometric nonlinearity is always active for this interface, since the transverse stiffness of a wire is caused by its prestress.
When this physics interface is added, these default nodes are also added to the Model Builder: Elastic Wire,
Free (a condition where points are free, with no loads or constraints), and
Initial Values. Then, from the
Physics toolbar, you can add other nodes that implement, for example, loads and constraints. You can also right-click
Wire to select physics features from the context menu.
The Label is the default physics interface name.
The Name is used primarily as a scope prefix for variables defined by the physics interface. Refer to such physics interface variables in expressions using the pattern
<name>.<variable_name>. In order to distinguish between variables belonging to different physics interfaces, the
name string must be unique. Only letters, numbers, and underscores (_) are permitted in the
Name field. The first character must be a letter.
The default Name (for the first physics interface in the model) is
wire.
From the Structural transient behavior list, select
Include inertial terms (the default) or
Quasistatic. Use
Quasistatic to treat the dynamic behavior as quasi static (with no mass effects; that is, no second-order time derivatives). Selecting this option gives a more efficient solution for problems where the variation in time is slow when compared to the natural frequencies of the system. The default solver for the time stepping is changed from Generalized alpha to BDF when
Quasistatic is selected.
The dependent variable (field variable) is for the Displacement field u which has two components
(u,
v) in 2D and three components
(u,
v, and
w) in 3D. The name can be changed but the names of fields and dependent variables must be unique within a model.
