MEE351 – Computer Aided Design Lab

Lab 8: Simulation - Stress Analysis

Due: Sunday, November 24th

An Introduction to Stress Analysis Applications with SolidWorks
Simulation
Part 1: Wrench
Upon successful completion of this lesson, you will be able to understand the basic functionality of
SolidWorks Simulation and perform static analysis of the following part.

Creating the Part

Create a new part document in Solidworks and save it by the name of Wrench. Select the top plane and
create the below sketch on it. First, draw this polygon on the origin point with a circle around it:

Now add these lines:

Now add the opposite head of the wrench. First draw another polygon
Now add two arcs like below. Let their centers be coincident.

Trim the unwanted lines

Now extrude the drawing

Now we have our wrench and we can start our simulation analysis
Checking the SolidWorks Simulation Menu

Step 2: Assign Carbon Steel

1 In the SolidWorks Simulation Manager tree, right-click the Part1 component and click
Apply/Edit Material. The Material dialog box appears.
2 Do the following:
a) Expand the SolidWorks Materials library folder.
b) Expand the Steel category.
c) Select Cast Carbon Steel.
d) Close the Materials window.
Cast Carbon Steel is assigned to the part and a check mark appears on the component’s icon. Note
that the name of the assigned material appears next to the component’s name.
Step 3: Applying Fixtures
We will fix these four faces.
1 Use the Arrow keys to rotate the assembly as shown in the figure.
2 In the Simulation study tree, right-click the Fixtures folder and click Fixtures Advisor. The
Simulation Advisor PropertyManager appears.
3 Click on Add a Fixture.
4 In the graphics area, click the faces shown in the figure below. Face<1>, Face<2>,
Face<3>, and Face<4> appear in the Faces, Edges, Vertices for Fixture box.
5 Click OK. Fixed fixture is applied and its symbols appear on the selected faces.
Also, Fixed-1 item appears in the Fixtures folder in the Simulation study tree. The name
of the fixture can be modified at any time.

Step 4: Applying Loads

We will apply a 400 N force normal to the face shown in the figure below.
1 In the SolidWorks Simulation Manager tree, right-click the External Loads folder and
select Force. The Force/Torque PropertyManager appears.
3 In the graphics area, click the face shown in the figure. Face<1> appears in the Faces and
Shell Edges for Normal Force list box.
4 Make sure that Normal is selected as the direction.
5 Make sure that Units is set to SI.
6 In the Force Value box, type 400.
7 Click OK.
SolidWorks Simulation applies the force to the selected face and Force-1 item
appears in the External Loads folder.
To Hide Fixtures and Loads Symbols
In the SolidWorks Simulation Manager tree, right-click the Fixtures or External Loads
folder and click Hide.
Step 5: Meshing the Assembly
Meshing divides your model into smaller pieces called elements. Based on the geometrical
dimensions of the model SolidWorks Simulation suggests a default element size which can be
changed as needed.
1 In the Simulation study tree, right-click the Mesh icon and select Create Mesh. The Mesh
PropertyManager appears.
2 Expand Mesh Parameters by selecting the check box. Make sure that Curvature based mesh
is selected. Keep default Maximum element size, Minimum element size, Min number of
elements in a circle and Element size growth ratio suggested by the program.
3 Click OK to begin meshing.

Step 6: Running the Analysis

In the Simulation study tree, right-click the My First Study icon and click Run to start the
analysis. When the analysis completes, SolidWorks Simulation automatically creates default result
plots stored in the Results folder.

von Mises stresses

1 Click the plus sign beside the Results folder. All the default plots icons appear.
Note: If no default plots appear, right click the Results folder and
select Define Stress Plot. Set the options in the PropertyManager and click OK.
2 Double-click Stress1 (-vonMises-) to display the stress plot.
Note: To show the annotation indicating the minimum and the maximum values in the plot,
double-click the legend and check Show min annotation and Show max annotation check
boxes. Then click OK.
Visualizing Resultant Displacements
1 Double-click Displacement1 (-Res disp-) icon to display the resultant displacement
plot.

Is the Design Safe?

The Factor of Safety wizard can help you answer this question. We will use the
wizard to estimate the factor of safety at every point in the model. In the process,
you will need to select a yielding failure criterion.
1 Right-click the Results folder and select Define Factor of Safety Plot.
Factor of Safety wizard Step 1 of 3 PropertyManager appears.
2 Under Criterion, click Max von Mises stress.
Note: Several yielding criteria are available. The von Mises criterion is commonly
used to check the yielding failure of ductile materials.
3 Click Next. Factor of Safety wizard Step 2 of 3 PropertyManager appears.
4 Set Units to N/mm^2 (MPa).
5 Under Set stress limit to, select Yield strength.
6 Click Next. Factor of Safety wizard Step 3 of 3 PropertyManager appears.
7 Select Areas below factor of safety and enter 1.
8 Click OK to generate the plot.
Inspect the model and look for unsafe areas shown in red color. It can be observed
that the plot is free from the red color indicating that all locations are safe.
How Safe is the Design?
1 Right-click the Results folder and select Define Factor of Safety Plot. Factor of Safety
wizard Step 1 of 3 PropertyManager appears.
2 In the Criterion list, select Max von Mises stress.
3 Click Next. Factor of Safety wizard Step 2 of 3 PropertyManager appears.
4 Click Next. Factor of Safety wizard Step 3 of 3 PropertyManager appears.

5 Under Plot results, click Factor of safety distribution.

6 Click OK.
The generated plot shows the distribution of the factor of safety. The smallest factor of
safety is approximately 3.718.
Note: A factor of safety of 1.0 at a location means that the material is just starting to yield. A
factor of safety of 2.0, for example, means that the design is safe at that location and that the
material will start yielding if you double the loads. Because some regions of the model experience
very small stress, the maximum value of the factor of safety is very high (above 1,300,000). To
make the plot more meaningful, we will change the
maximum value of the legend to 100.
7 Double-click the legend, uncheck Automatically defined maximum value and enter 100 in the
Max field.
8 Click OK. to show the modified plot.

Saving All Generated Plots

1 Right-clickMy First Study icon and click Save all plots as JPEG files. The Browse for
Folder window appears.
2 Browse to the directory where you want to save all result plots.
3 Click OK.
 Generating a Study Report
The Report utility helps you document your work quickly and systematically for each study. The
program generates structured reports as Word documents that describe all aspects related to the
study.
1 Click Simulation, Report in the main SolidWorks menu on the top of the screen. The Report
Options dialog box appears. The Report sections section allows you to choose sections that will
be included in the generated report. Use checkboxes next to each section to include or exclude it
from the report.
2 Each report section can be customized. For example, select the Description section
under Report sections and type any text in the Section properties field. The rest of the sections
would be customized in the same way.
3 The Designer and Company names, Logo and other ownership information is entered in the
Header information section. Note that the acceptable formats for the logo files are JPEG Files
(*.jpg), GIF Files (*.gif), or Bitmap Files (*.bmp).
4 Under Report publishing options, specify the Report path where the Word document will be
saved and check the Show report on publish check box.
5 Click Publish.
The report opens in your word document. To complete the report, edit the Word document as
needed. Also, the program creates an icon in the Report folder in the SolidWorks Simulation
Manager tree.
To edit any section of the report, right-click the report icon and click Edit Definition.
Modify the section and click OK to replace the existing report.

Step 8: Save Your Work and Exit SolidWorks

1 Click on the Standard toolbar or click File, Save.
2 Click File, Exit on the main menu.

Part 2: Pulley Design

1. Open the pulley part uploaded on Blackboard.
2. Apply “1060, Aluminum Alloy” as material.
3. Fix its center, and apply a torque of 1000 N.m to the periphery.
4. Check the minimum factor of safety according to the max von-Mises stress.
5. Change the material to let the smallest Factor of safety be 2.
Part 3: Basketball Rim
1. Open the rim part and apply the required four fixtures, and a total 1500N downward force on
the faces highlighted in the picture below. Assign the “1060 Alloy” as material. Use a
curvature-based mesh. When running the simulation enable the large displacement option.
2. Check the maximum stress on the fixed bolt hole edge using the probe option from the Plot
Tools on selected entities. Save an output plot in .jpg format.
3. Check the maximum displacement on the rim face using the probe option from the Plot Tools
on selected entities.