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Introduction: Simulations for Beginners
This page describes how to approach performing a FEA simulation on a part of the dynamics system. We do this to simulate the stress on a part that would occur in real-life situations. Every time a change is made to a part, we have to run a new simulation on it to ensure that it will not break. If you have no experience with FEA, watch this videoand then come back to this page! Ok, so now that you know how to run a general study in SolidWorks, what is your job?
Get assigned a part to simulate (Yay! This could be any custom part of the dynamics system. You’ll become super familiar with it.)
Set up your simulation (we’ll guide you through this here!) while also keeping a record of what you do in a report.
Ultimately, your report should not only show the details of how you created your simulation but should show if the part failed or passed under the loads (see below for what is a pass/fail).
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Every material has a yield strength (typically measured in Pa or MPa) which is the limit of stress that the material can take before it breaks (which for your purposes, means it has failed). If at any place on your part it has reached it’s yield strength, the part has failed. If it hasn’t reached it’s yield strength, it passed! |
Reading a Stress Plot
As you can see in the results of this simulation of a smiley face made of 6061-T6 (a material used often in our custom parts!), the yield strength (highlighted) is 2.750e+08 N/m^2 (aka Pa), and the max stress is indicated at the top of the scale (1.078e+09 N/m^2) which is higher than the yield strength. Therefore, this part failed 😢
If I take the same part and lessen the load such that the stress on the part is decreased, you can see that the scale changes to a maximum of 2.695e+06 Pa which is well below the yield strength. So something we can do to better represent these results in comparison with the first study is to change the maximum of the scale (Right click on the scale > Chart Options > Unclick “Automatically Define Maximum” > Set maximum to yield strength. Also, select “Show Max Annotation” to see where the maximum stress occurs in your part.
6 Degrees of Freedom
Without any fixtures, your part is free to move in all directions! Which is not true in real-life situations, which is where ✨ fixtures✨ come in. Depending on your part, you may want to lock all six degrees of freedom or you may want to leave select degrees free for the part to move properly.
Fixtures
There are many features that you can now use to make your simulation as accurate as possible. One of which is selecting the correct fixtures for your part. We’ll be running through the most commonly used fixtures (in bold)
Basic Fixtures:
Fixed Geometry
Roller/Slider
Fixed Hinge
Elastic Support
Bearing Fixture
Foundation Bolt
Advanced Fixtures:
Symmetry
Cyclic Symmetry
Use Reference Geometry
On Flat Faces
On Cylindrical Faces
On Spherical Faces
Virtual Wall
Basic Fixtures
Fixed Geometry
Selecting fixed geometry on a feature of your part will inhibit
Roller/Slider
Advanced Fixtures
On Flat Faces
On Cylindrical Faces
this is what you use it for