Book Image

Practical Finite Element Simulations with SOLIDWORKS 2022

By : Khameel B. Mustapha
Book Image

Practical Finite Element Simulations with SOLIDWORKS 2022

By: Khameel B. Mustapha

Overview of this book

SOLIDWORKS is a dominant computer-aided design (CAD) software for the 3D modeling, designing, and analysis of components. This book helps you get to grips with SOLIDWORKS Simulation, which is a remarkable and integral part of SOLIDWORKS predominantly deployed for advanced product performance assessment and virtual prototyping. With this book, you'll take a hands-on approach to learning SOLIDWORKS Simulation with the help of step-by-step guidelines on various aspects of the simulation workflow. You'll begin by learning about the requirements for effective simulation of parts and components, along with the idealization of physical components and their representation with finite element models. As you progress through the book, you'll find exercises at the end of each chapter, and you'll be able to download the geometry models used in all the chapters from GitHub. Finally, you’ll discover how to set up finite element simulations for the static analysis of components under various types of loads, and with different types of materials, from simple isotropic to composite, and different boundary conditions. By the end of this SOLIDWORKS 2022 book, you'll be able to conduct basic and advanced static analyses with SOLIDWORKS Simulation and have practical knowledge of how to best use the family of elements in the SOLIDWORKS Simulation library.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
1
Section 1: An Introduction to SOLIDWORKS Simulation
6
Section 2: SOLIDWORKS Simulation with Shell and Solid Elements
10
Section 3: Advanced SOLIDWORKS Simulation with Complex Material and Loading Behavior

Strategies for the analysis of beams and frames

This section describes the structural details that are necessary for the analysis of beams and frames. It also highlights the modeling strategy for their simulation and the characteristics of the beam element within the SOLIDWORKS Simulation library.

Structural details

You will need to know the following technical details before venturing into the analysis of beam/frame structures:

  • Dimensions

    a. The details of the cross-section

    b. The geometric length of each member

    c. The orientation angles of the members (for a frame)

  • The material properties of the beam/members of a frame
  • The external loads applied to a beam/frame
  • The support provided to a beam/frame to prevent a rigid body motion

Beyond the structural details, we are now set to examine the modeling strategy.

Modeling strategy

Armed with the geometric and material details, the steps to take for the analysis of beams/frames are depicted in Figure...