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Contents
General Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
How do I set COSMOS/Works Preferences? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
How can I switch languages while using COSMOS/Works? 2
What's the difference between node values and element values? 2
Applying Loads and Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
How do I apply Bearing Loads? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Do I have to be consistent with units? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
How do design changes affect the study defined? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
How can I apply a torque to a face? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
How can I apply boundary condition to a portion of the model? . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
How can I work with COSMOS/Works when I have several
configurations for my part? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
How do I apply variable forces that reverse direction on a given face? . . . . . . . 7
I need to apply varying pressure (hydrostatic pressure) on surfaces
on the model. Is it possible with COSMOS/Works? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Applying Material Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Can I define Isotropic and Orthotropic Material properties? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
How can I add materials permanently to the database? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Do I have to reapply materials and Loads/BCs for a new study? . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Meshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
What is Meshing? What is a Transitional Mesh? How do I implement
Transitional Mesh in COSMOS/Works? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Why is that there is only one mesh folder for all studies?
Can I create a different mesh for each study? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
What is the difference between a draft quality and a high quality mesh? . . . . . 17
When do I use a Draft or High quality Mesh? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
What are the Mesh Control Parameters? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
COSMOS/Works Tutorial
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T his booklet has been compiled from FAQs stored on the COSMOS/ Online
Knowledge Base. Hundreds of additional tips and tricks for COSMOS/Works can
be found at http://www.cosmosm.com/support/faq.htm
General Info
General Info
How do I set COSMOS/Works Preferences?
You can access the Preferences dialog box by right clicking the part or
assembly icon in the COSMOS/ Works Manager tree and selecting
Preferences. Or, by clicking COSMOS/Works, Preferences from
SolidWorks menu bar.
The Preferences dialog box contains tabs to set preferences for general, units,
material, mesh, results, graphics and export. Preferences are stored in a file and
are used by default every time you start COSMOS/ Works. Click the desired
tab to open its preferences dialog box.
After a successful run, nodal stress results at each node of every element should
be available in the database. Consequently, multiple results are available at nodes
common to two or more elements. These results will not be identical because the
finite element method is an approximate method. For example, if a node is
common to three elements, there can be 3 slightly different values for every stress
component at that node. During result visualization, you may ask for element
stresses or nodal stresses.
In calculating nodal stresses at a node, the program averages the corresponding
results from all elements contributing to the stresses at that node. For example:
General Info
Important Notes:
Select a coordinate system and a set of cylindrical faces. The Z-axis of the
selected faces should coincide with the Z-axis of the selected coordinate
system.
Do the following:
Right-click the Load/Restraint folder of a structural study and select Bearing
Load.
Select the desired entities to which the torque load is to be applied and a
reference axis.
Tips:
The value specified in the torque dialog box is the total torque for each
entity.
To change the color of the force symbol, click the Color button. The color
palette opens. Select the desired color and click the OK button.
Selected entities box lists the number of faces and edges to which the force
is to be applied. Reference entities box displays the name of the plane to be
used as reference for defining the force loads. If no reference is selected,
then the force is applied with respect to Plane 1.
Click Split Line on the Curves toolbar, or click Insert, Curve, Split Line.
In the Split Lines dialog box, select Projection, and click Next.
Click the Sketch to Project box and select the sketched line in the Feature
Manager design tree.
Click the Faces to Split box, then hold the Ctrl key and select all the faces
around the perimeter of the part that you want the split line to pass through.
Click Single Direction if you want the split line to project in only one direction.
Click Reverse Direction to project the split line in the opposite direction.
Click Finish.
In that case, the net resultant force = 0, and the summation of the absolute
values of the individual nodal forces = Value is a non-zero value
Therefore, the value you should input is not equal to the resultant force you
want to apply. This can create some confusion. Thus, in a more general case
like the following, where the force reverses direction, you should split the
entity so that the force has a constant direction on each of the split entities.
Original configuration with one entity:
Modified configuration, with two entities on each of which the force has a
constant sign and direction:
Select the desired face(s), along with the coordinate system, and possibly a
plane which will be used to define the orientation of the load.
Right click on the Load/Restraint folder of the Visualizer and select Pressure.
Make sure the "variable" option is activated. Fill-in the coefficient of the
equation. The Variable option uses a distribution of the form:
p(x, y) = Value (A + Bx + Cy + Dxy + Ex^2 + Fy^2)
Where:
p (x, y) = Magnitude of pressure applied at a point with coordinates x and y
in the selected coordinate system.
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Meshing
Meshing
What is Meshing? What is a Transitional Mesh? How do I implement
Transitional Mesh in COSMOS/Works?
What is Meshing?
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) provides a reliable numerical technique for
analyzing engineering designs. The process starts with the creation of a geometric
model. Then, the program subdivides the model into small pieces of simple shapes
(elements) connected at common points (nodes). The representation of a given
region by a set of elements (i.e., discretization or mesh generation) is an important
step in finite element analysis. Meshing the model is the heart of any FEA
analysis. The choice of element type, number of elements, and density of elements
depends on the geometry of the domain, the problem to be analyzed, and the
degree of accuracy desired. Local mesh refinement tools are very important to
have good mesh with gradual transitions between the mesh densities. One should
have a finer mesh in the areas of high stress gradient to ensure accuracy of the
solution.
What is Transitional Mesh?
The aspect ratio of the element is very critical for the accurate solution. The
transition of the element should not be from very small to very big. There should
be smooth transition of the elements to ensure accurate and converged solution. A
sudden change in element size can result in artificially high stress calculation in
the transition zone. The smooth variation of the mesh density from high-density
region to the low-density region is termed as Transitional Mesh. The ratio and the
number of layers at which the mesh can grow is controlled by the Element growth
ratio and number of layers specified.
Why Transitional Mesh?
Using transitional meshing to focus resources on critical areas in the model, an
accurate solution can be achieved at a minimal cost, both in terms of time and
computer requirements (RAM, disk space etc.).
How to implement Transitional Mesh in COSMOS/?
The Mesh control section has two options for transitional mesh. (Tools >Options
>Mesh >Mesh Option):
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Meshing
Lets take the following shell model. All three holes are fixed and a pressure of -1
psi is applied at the bottom surface. We will see that applying the user defined
control is more appropriate than using automatic transition or smaller global mesh
size for the entire model. Using user-defined control gives us fairly accurate
solution with lesser number of nodes, hence less number of DOF to be solved.
Following are the findings:
Global
Mesh
Size (in)
DOF
Max. von
Mises
Stress
(psi)
Min. von
Mises
Stress
(psi)
Total
Memory
Usage
for the
Solver
(KB)
Total
Solution
Time
(sec)
Case
Mesh Type
Uniform
Mesh
Density
0.6
14,574
8.43 x 103
17.3
14624
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Uniform
Mesh
Density
0.3
55,686
10.1 x 103
0.95
36068
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Uniform
Mesh
Density
0.15
212,886
11.0 x 103
3.09
121276
133
Automatic
Transition
0.6
33,372
9.98 x 103
3.82
24744
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User
Controls
0.6
(mesh
refineme
nt size
=0.15)
22,194
10.5 x 103
17.06
19676
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Conclusion:
The analysis above was done on a Pentium III / 256 MB RAM, 500 MHz
machine. The solver used was FFEPlus (Iterative solver). Looking at the results,
we can see that the user-defined control is the better option for the user in terms of
memory, time and efficiency. In the chart, cost increase going right, accuracy
increases moving upward. Therefore, it is desirable to move toward the upper left
corner. It can be seen from the above graph that, accurate and converged solution
can be obtained by using user-defined control while reducing the time and
computer requirements by a factor of almost 7 with respect to using the uniform
mesh density.
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Meshing
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Meshing
Why is that there is only one mesh folder for all studies? Can I create
a different mesh for each study?
You can use one mesh for multiple studies to investigate the effect of using
different materials, loads, and/or restraints. Each study can have its own mesh as
well. However, to consider the impact of geometry changes on the results, you
must rebuild the mesh and rerun the study after making any change in geometry.
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The old mesh will be overwritten, but you can still view the mesh associated with
a study and visualize the corresponding results even after rebuilding the mesh. If
you rerun a study after rebuilding the mesh, the new mesh will be used and all old
results will be overwritten. You can create solid and shell studies in the same
document.
To run a study using its associated mesh, activate the study by clicking its icon,
show its mesh by right-clicking the Mesh icon and selecting Show Mesh before
running it.
Note that with a higher order mesh, the elements can have curved edges. This
helps account for curved geometry.
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Meshing
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Always try the Standard mesher first. If meshing fails, try different element
sizes or edit mesh control settings. You may use the Alternate mesher in rare
situations where the Standard mesher keeps failing with different element
sizes.
Turn on the High mesh quality option. You can use the draft mesh quality
option in preliminary studies of very large problems.
Turn off the Automatic Transition option unless you have a simple model with
few small features. Activating automatic transition may result in generating a
very large number of elements unnecessarily when meshing with many small
features.
Do not use the Alternate mesher when Automatic Transition or Use Defined
Controls is on.
Always turn on the Smooth Surface option. This option improves the quality of
the mesh in most cases.
To improve results in important areas, use mesh control to set a smaller
element size.
After setting the recommended options described above, mesh the model using
the default element size and tolerance.
If meshing fails, try a different element size and/or a larger tolerance. If the
element size is too big, the program will tell you to use a smaller element size.
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Thermal Problems:
There are two solvers available for thermal problems; the new Direct Sparse
solver and the Old FFE solver. Thermal problems have one degree of freedom
(DOF) per node, and hence their solution is usually much faster than structural
problems of the same number of nodes.
Use the Old FFE solver for large and very large problems.
Use the Direct Sparse solver when solving assemblies of parts with widely
different material properties.
How can I solve a problem without any restraints, like importing loads
from motion analysis and free thermal expansion?
Use Inertia Relief option for either Sparse Matrix Solver or the New FFE solver to
solve for a problem without restraints.
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Thermal Analysis
Thermal Analysis
What is a transient thermal analysis?
In this type of analysis, we are interested in knowing the thermal status of the
model at different instances of time. A thermos designer, for example, knows that
the temperature of the fluid inside will eventually be equal to the room
temperature (steady state), but he or she is interested in finding out the
temperature of the fluid as a function of time. In addition to the thermal
conductivity (only material property needed for steady-state thermal analysis), we
also need to specify density, specific heat, initial temperature profile, and the
period of time for which solutions are desired.
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What is Radiation?
Thermal radiation is the thermal energy emitted by bodies in the form of
electromagnetic waves because of their temperature. All bodies with temperatures
above the absolute zero emit thermal energy. Because electromagnetic waves
travel in a vacuum, no medium is necessary for radiation to take place. The
thermal energy of the sun reaches earth by radiation. Because electromagnetic
waves travel at the speed of light, radiation is the fastest heat transfer mechanism.
Stefan-Boltzmann Constant and Emissivity
Stefan-Boltzmann's law states that the maximum rate of radiation that can be
emitted by a surface of area A at a temperature Ts when a surrounding temperature
Tenv is equal to:
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Thermal Analysis
What is Convection?
Convection is the heat transfer mode in which heat transfers between a solid face
and an adjacent moving fluid (or gas). Convection involves the combined effects
of conduction and the moving fluid. The fluid particles act as carriers of thermal
energy.
The rate of heat exchange between the fluid of temperature Tf and the face of a
solid of area A and temperature Ts can be expressed as:
The motion of the fluid adjacent to a solid face is caused by the buoyancy forces
induced by changes in the density of the fluid due to the presence of the solid.
When a hot plate is left to cool down in the air, the particles of air adjacent to the
face of the plate get warmer, their density decreases and hence they move.
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Forced Convection
An external means such as a fan or a pump is used to accelerate the flow of the
fluid over the face of the solid. The rapid motion of the fluid particles over the
face of the solid maximizes the temperature gradient and results in increasing the
rate of heat exchange.
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Thermal Analysis
What is Conduction?
Thermal energy transfers from one point to another through the interaction
between the atoms or molecules of the matter. Conduction occurs in solids,
liquids, and gasses. For example, a hot cup of coffee on your desk will eventually
cool down to the room-temperature mainly by conduction from the coffee directly
to the air and through the body of the cup. There is no bulk motion of matter when
heat transfers by conduction. The rate of heat conduction through a plane layer of
thickness X is proportional to the heat transfer area and the temperature gradient,
and inversely proportional to the thickness of the layer.
Rate of Heat Conduction= K (Area) (Difference in Temperature/Thickness)
or:
Buckling Analysis
What is the buckling factor (load factor) for buckling analysis?
Let's go back to the definition of the buckling load factor :
The value of the buckling load factor is calculated by the software and indicates
the likelihood of buckling under the applied loads:
Value of
Signification
The applied load is below the critical load for buckling
The applied load exceeds the critical load for buckling
The applied load is stiffening the structure (it actually creates
tension in the structure).
Note:
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Buckling Analysis
How do I calculate the critical buckling loads for pipes with internal
pressure?
In a typical buckling analysis, the quantities to be computed include the critical
loads at which the structure becomes unstable, and the corresponding buckling
mode shapes. The first (or the lowest) mode of buckling is of practical importance
in many design scenarios. For many slender structures with in-plane loading, the
membrane forces alter the bending stiffness. Buckling occurs when the
compressive membrane forces reduce the bending stiffness to zero for a
kinematically admissible deformation mode. However, when the membrane
forces are reversed (tensile instead of compressive), then the bending stiffness is
effectively increased. Thus, the structure becomes stiffer under tensile in-plane
loads, exhibiting what is known as the stress stiffening effect. The stress stiffening
or softening effect can also be considered in the computation of natural
frequencies. For slender structures with in-plane loading, the natural frequencies
are significantly altered depending on the type of preload applied. Compressive
loads tend to decrease the natural frequencies whereas tensile forces tend to
increase them.
For these types of structures, the stiffness properties are function of both static
loads and the deformed shape. While an accurate solution of such problems
requires the use of geometrically nonlinear solution techniques, reasonable
accuracy can be obtained by using the differential stiffness approach. In this
method, it is assumed that the geometrically nonlinear problems can be
approximated by adding a geometric stiffness matrix KG (also known as initial
stress or differential stiffness matrix, or stability coefficient matrix) to the
conventional structural stiffness matrix. The displacements are computed with
respect to the original configuration of the structure, and the change in geometry
is reflected only in the geometric stiffness matrix. COSMOS/DesignSTAR and
COSMOS/Works give the option to consider the effect of applied loads while
estimating the natural frequencies by activating in-plane effect flag in frequency
study properties dialog box. First, the program runs a linear static analysis to
calculate the deformed shape (and KG) and then it calculates the natural
frequencies (or critical buckling load factors) and mode shapes including the
effect of the applied loads. Loads are not considered and their effect will be
ignored unless you activate the in-plane loading option and use the direct solver.
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It is already shown and can be proved that the natural frequency of the structure
tends to zero as the loads applied on the structure tends to the critical buckling
load. This concept can be easily used in finding critical buckling loads for
structures stiffened due to in-plane loads. One common example is the buckling of
a pipe due to internal pressure and axial loads. Now it is very difficult to estimate
the axial buckling load for a pipe for a given internal pressure since the critical
load factor we obtain after the analysis is to be multiplied by both internal
pressure and the axial loads o obtain the buckling loads for the pipe. For this case,
using the frequency analysis (with in-plane load flag on) we could estimate the
axial load, which makes the first natural frequency of the structure to zero. This
way we could estimate the axial buckling load for any internal pressure or any
other form of stiffening (or softening) loads on the structure.
Consider the following example where we need to estimate the axial buckling
load for a pipe subjected to an internal pressure of 100 N/m2. The pipe is made of
aluminum 1035 alloy and clamped at one end. First, a frequency study (with shell
mesh) is carried out in and an axial force value is determined (by trial and error)
which makes the first natural frequency to be zero.
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Buckling Analysis
The direct solver is used with the in-plane load flag on for estimating the
frequencies. During this process, the user may come across a STOP 7-Singular
matrix error, which means that axial loads exceeded the critical buckling load. In
such cases, reducing the axial loads would reduce the excessive softening and
give a positive frequency value. Once after estimating the critical buckling load
using this method, the value could be reconfirmed by a buckling study. Applying
the estimated axial buckling load from the frequency study in the buckling study
should give a critical buckling load factor value of 1.0. In this example the axial
load which makes the first frequency close to zero is found to be 37433 N and
when this same load is applied for the buckling study we obtain the critical load
factor to be 1.0001 confirming the buckling load. It is also a good practice to
compare the mode shapes from both studies and make sure they correspond to
same buckling modes.
This method is applicable to any slender structure softened or stiffened by inplane loads.
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Frequency Analysis
How do you deal with rigid body modes in frequency analysis?
In COSMOS/Works and COSMOS/DesignSTAR, if your model isn't fully
constrained when you run the frequency analysis, the program will include rigid
body modes in the results.
For example, if you ask the program to calculate the first 5 natural modes, and
your model isn't constrained at all (it has 6 rigid body modes), then 11 modes will
be calculated.
Modes 1 to 6 will be the rigid body modes, and 7 to 12 will be the actual modes of
vibration.
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Static Analysis
Static Analysis
What is Static Analysis?
When loads are applied to a body, the body will deform and the effect of the loads
will be transmitted throughout the body. To absorb the effect of loads, the body
generates internal forces and reactions at the supports to balance the applied
external loads. Linear static analysis refers to the calculation of displacements,
strains, and stresses under the effect of external loads based on two basic
assumptions:
Static Assumption
All loads are applied slowly and gradually until they reach their full magnitudes.
After reaching their full magnitudes, loads will remain constant (time-invariant).
This assumption allows us to disregard insignificant inertial and damping forces
due to negligibly small accelerations and velocities. Time-invariant loads that
induce considerable inertial and/or damping forces may warrant dynamic analysis.
Dynamic loads change with time and, in many cases, induce considerable inertial
and damping forces that cannot be neglected.
Notes:
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Linearity Assumption
The relationship between loads and induced responses is linear. If you double the
magnitude of loads, for example, the response of the model (displacements,
strains, and stresses), will also double. You can assume that the linearity
assumption is valid if:
All the materials in the model comply with Hook's law, that is stress is directly
proportional to strain.
The induced displacements are small enough to ignore the change in stiffness
caused by loading.
Boundary conditions do not vary during the application of loads. Loads must
be constant in magnitude, direction, and distribution. They should not change
while the model is deforming.
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Nonlinear Analysis
Nonlinear Analysis
What is nonlinear analysis? What are the types of nonlinearities that
can occur?
In linear analysis, the response of a structure is directly proportional to the load.
We assume that:
the displacements and rotations are small
stress is directly proportional to strain
loads maintain their original directions as the structure deforms.
However any of the convenient assumptions that are made during a linear analysis
may not hold good in real life situations. For example:
A contact area may change as the load changes
A material may no longer exhibit an elastic behavior especially after it starts to
yield and flows into the plasticity region.
The stiffness of the structure may decrease because of buckling or the material
may even fracture!
The displacements and rotations may become too large and thus there is a need
to develop equations describing the equilibrium at various intervals instead of
one single configuration.
The direction and magnitude of the applied force can change in large rotation
problems.
Thus for various reasons, a problem may become nonlinear and thus a plot of load
versus displacement ceases to be a straight line. The figures below are different
types of nonlinear models:
Figure 1 shows an elastic beam loaded with a force F which acts normal to the
axis of the beam at all times. The graph between F and the vertical displacement y
is intended to represent the actual nonlinear displacement which occurs because of
geometric nonlinearity. This means that because of significant changes in the
geometry of the structure as it deforms, the displacement is no longer linear. In
figure 2, the contact area between the bodies increases as the load F increases.
Unlike the first example in figure 1, the displacements and the strains are
significantly small here. Nevertheless the problem is nonlinear because of the
change in contact surface area.
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Problem Setup
Two tests were run to compare and quantify the membrane effect for thin plates; a
Linear analysis and a Nonlinear analysis with the large displacement option. Hand
calculations based on linear theory were also included as reference. The model is
a 10in X 10in plate with a thickness of 0.2 inches. It is simply supported at the
perimeter and is subjected to a 150 psi pressure on the face. The material is Alloy
Steel that is found in the COSMOS/ library (Youngs Modulus (E) = 3.046 x
107psi, Poissons ratio (n): 0.28).
Figure 1 shows the boundary conditions that were applied to the model. An
element size of 0.35 inches was used to mesh the model with the standard mesher.
A higher order mesh resulted in six noded triangular elements. Figure 2 shows the
mesh that generated 1626 elements and 3369 nodes.
Formula
The formula for finding the center deflection for a flat rectangular plate under
uniform load is (Roark's "Formulas for Stress and Strain" page 386 fifth edition)
Max Y = (A*q*b^4)/(E*t^3)
Where
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q = load (lbs/in2)
E = Modulus of Elasticity (lbs/in2)
t = thickness (in)
Result
Chart 1 compares the results from the theoretical linear displacement, FEA
without the large displacement formulation, and FEA with the large displacement
formulation. All the displacements were measured at the maximum location,
which is at the center of the plate. Percentage error with respect to the theoretical
linear displacement are shown in parenthesis.
Figure 3 shows the Pressure vs. deflection for all three cases. As one can observe,
the FEA solution without the large displacement flag is extremely close to the
handbook solution. At around 50 to 60 psi, the nonlinear solution (with the large
displacement flag) visibly diverges from the linear solutions. In this case, the
membrane effect manifests itself by an increase in lateral stiffness. As stated
before, this is when the deflection becomes larger than approximately one-half the
thickness (as noted in Roarks Formulas for Stress and Strain). The thickness in
this example is 0.2.
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Conclusion
A designer must always ask, How accurate are the results? Sure, in this case the
results are accurate to the extent where the question was posed. The linear
solution gave very good results compared to the handbook results. Of course the
answers are incorrect, since the designer did not ask the right question. In this
case, when the deflection of the plate is more than one half its thickness, this leads
one to believe that the results are getting membrane action from shell elements.
One can determine that geometric stiffening is taking effect as displacements
increase; hence a nonlinear analysis with the large displacement option must be
run.
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Assembly Analysis
Assembly Analysis
How do I ignore some parts in an assembly for analysis?
Suppress the parts in the SolidWorks feature tree and the parts are ignored for
analysis.
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Assembly Analysis
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Design Optimization
Design Optimization
Can I do automatic optimization?
You can do optimization inside COSMOS/Works. After running Statics or
Frequency or Thermal analysis, optimization is performed. COSMOS/Works uses
SolidWorks model dimensions to modify the part or assembly to reach the goals
defined. Please refer to online tutorials to view an example.
Motion Simulation
How are joints created in COSMOS/Motion?
The mates created in SolidWorks between the parts are automatically converted
into joints between the parts in the Motion analysis.
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