Simulation
Simulation: Factor of Safety Plots – Highlighting the Areas of Concern
The default Factor of Safety (FOS) plot would show the distribution of values over the entire model with a colour chart. Typically you would modify the colour chart to have the Minimum value as your required FOS. The regions in red are the areas of…
Suppose you need to make an animation of a 6 degree-of-freedom robot. However you only need to show the end-effector moving from point A to point B to point C, etc. You aren’t concerned with the movement of each joint at the moment. Have you ever tried free-dragging something with six degrees of freedom? I guarantee you will have it flipping around and inverting due to the fact that there are too many positions and orientations possible. As you are looking at a 2-dimensional screen, the robot could be at any depth; and it’s also possible to satisfy the position with the joints inverted. So how would you go about animating this robot? You could run some inverse kinematics to determine each joint position required for the…
Don’t Settle for Anything Less with Mirrored Results about Planes of Symmetry in SolidWorks Simulation 2014 [VIDEO]
We have all used symmetry to boost our simulation times, whether it be planar or cyclic and were happy to have achieved the results in a short time, only to be told by the manager to run the simulation for the full model so it makes more sense to him and to the customers. Here is a new feature in SolidWorks 2014 which will keep both you and your boss happy. You now have the option to apply the symmetry for the analysis and the software will mirror the results for you and show you the results in the entire model. These new results will actually serve as a double check for the symmetry assumptions that made. In the PropertyManager of the desired result quantity,…
SOLIDWORKS Simulation Transient Sensors store transient data from thermal simulations, drop tests, non-linear simulations and dynamics simulation. Due to the nature of simulations which support transient data, this new sensor is supported in SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional and above. The transient sensor replaces the existing response plots which were previously used. Loading of a transient sensor is much faster than response plots since the data is preloaded into the sensor. After your run the study, you can list and create graph plots of the data stored by the transient sensor.Create a transient study (nonlinear, dynamic, transient thermal, or drop test) In the FeatureManager design tree, right-click Sensors and select Add Sensor. In the PropertyManager: Under Sensor Type tracktype, select Simulation Data. Under Data Quantity, select the…
Reaction moments are only applicable to element with nodes having degrees of freedom in rotation. This is not the case for solids as they only have 3 degrees of freedom per node (3 translations, but no rotation). So how can we get reaction moments on fixed faces of Solid Bodies?
Have you ever tried imposing symmetry for shell elements in SOLIDWORKS Simulation 2012 or older? If you have then you would probably know it is a very tedious process and requires exact knowledge of what the symmetry condition actually does to impose it for shells….
When using Shell elements in your Simulation studies it is important to define the offset of your shell to ensure that the geometry accurately represents the 3D model. The default offset selection in a shell definition is Middle Surface. Therefore the defined thickness will have half of the material on either side of the surface. If you require all of the material on one side or the other, the Top or Bottom surface can be applied. The direction is defined by the orientation of the mesh. If the Top offset was selected, then the material will start from the Top surface of the mesh (part colour) and go below. If the Bottom offset was selected, then the material will start from the Bottom surface of…
Imagine a manhole cover in a pressure vessel that needs to be bolted to a flange in the pressure vessel. This usually requires a number of bolts to hold the two pieces together. Furthermore, same type of bolts may be present in the assembly at various locations. Imagine having to define all these bolt connectors for a simulation. I am sure this is going to give nightmares to people trying to simulate multiple bolts using SolidWorks Simulation. You will be happy to learn that SolidWorks Simulation has a smart feature which could reduce the effort in the definition of these bolt connectors.
SolidWorks simulation provides two options to solve the set of FEA algebraic equations; iterative or direct solution methods. The iterative solver, FFEPlus, uses approximate techniques to solve the problem. It assumes a solution and then calculates the associated errors. The iterations continue until the errors become acceptable. The…