When designing any system, it is important to have a sound knowledge of its naturally excited vibration frequency. If the structure experiences an external vibration in the same range as its natural frequency, this phenomenon is referred to as resonance, which can cause a catastrophic failure of the system. To avoid resonance, it is important to design the system such that the natural frequency does not overlap with the operating frequency of the system. Beams are one of the most used fundamental structural elements. The deflection and load-carrying characteristics can be obtained using the beam theory formulation. In this course, we simulate the load-carrying capacity of a simple cantilever beam using beam elements. We will also estimate the modal frequencies using beam theory. On comparing the obtained results, we find that the Ansys beam element results match closely with the beam theory. 
This SimCafe Structural Course was developed by Dr. Rajesh Bhaskaran, Swanson Director of Engineering Simulation at Cornell University, and Matthew Singleton Jr., in partnership with Ansys. It was last modified by Sebastien Lachance-Barrett. It serves as an e-learning resource to integrate industry-standard simulation tools into courses and provides a resource for supplementary learning outside the classroom. The following course provides a detailed setup of the modal analysis of a Cantilever structure using beam elements in Ansys WorkBench.
For more ways to learn, check out the Cornell edX course, A Hands-on Introduction to Engineering Simulations at ansys.com/cornell.
Cornell University also offers a Fluid Dynamics Simulations Using Ansys online certificate authored by Dr. Rajesh Bhaskaran. Learn more here: https://ecornell.cornell.edu/fluiddynamics.
