I don't believe ANSYS can do this (at least not without some
tricks).  Have you tried simply breaking your film into
several layers, each with a different material type (and
stress)?   If you have access to CoventorWare or Abaqus,
both of those do have this functionality.  A word of warning
though: meshing is absolutely critical when trying to do
something like this, and unfortunately these two don't have
nearly as versatile meshing capabilities as does ANSYS.

I would also be interested however if anyone has found a
simpler way to do this in ANSYS.  Sorry I couldn't offer
more help.

Marc Straub
Solidus Technologies, Inc.
Colorado Springs, CO  USA


-----Original Message-----
From: ssing77 [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 11:40 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [mems-talk] how to apply thin film residual stress
gradient alongthickness in Ansys


Hello everyone

Does anyone know how to apply the stress gradient of thin
film in ANSYS analysis for bilayer cantilever ?
I want to analysis the multilayer beam deflection resulted
from residual stress gradient along thickness. ( this stress
was originated from film deposition process.)
But, i can't find the method to apply stress gradient in
ansys.

Could you let me know the detail steps, element type, and so
on ?

Ssing77