Getting Quality Results with Your Simulation

Transcription

1 Getting Quality Results with Your Simulation Brandon Adkins Application Engineer, CSWE Quest Integration

2 Agenda SOLIDWORKS Simulation Determining the Proper Toolset Common issues and experiences Setting up Mixed-Mesh studies

3 Why Simulation? Tools to help us design better products Valuable insight Test many variables Make decisions quickly Avoid unnecessary prototypes Get closer to ideal in shorter time Simulation Flow Plastics

4 Linear Statics Is it Enough? (True Story) Company designed an adjustable bracket for the new Huffy basketball rim Ran linear statics design checked out. Showed finished product to customer. Ran live test in front of customer and design failed. Re-designed and re-tested. Linear statics passed. Showed customer again. Ran live test in front of customer and design failed. Huffy went to another vendor. What Happened? F Company failed to do a buckling analysis (notice the webbing).

5 Linear Statics Is it Enough? (True Story) Company designed a new garbage truck that can hold more trash Ran linear statics design checked out. Went ahead and built two prototypes for testing. When the back gate lifted, a VERY loud pop occurred. What Happened? Deflection Force Nonlinear Buckling 60% Total Load Company failed to do a non-linear buckling analysis.

6 Simulating multiple failure modes Start with Linear Static Include other methods on the same model Industry or Product dependent Vibration Buckling Fatigue Thermal Stress Get us closer to predicting the best possible prototype

7 Common Issues and Experiences Meshing Contact Definition Simplification Solver type/ options

8 Meshing Solid (3D) Bulky objects Shell (2D) Sheet metal and thin parts Beam or Truss (2D) Long extruded parts with constant cross section

9 Nodes and Elements Draft Shell High Draft Solid High Beam

10 Choosing your Elements SOLID Default for standard features (Extrude, Revolve, Etc.) Can be converted to Shell or Beam from RMB menu SHELL Default for Sheet Metal features Time saving 2D element BEAM Default for Weldment features Time saving 2D element

11 Which mesh type will work best? Single type Pros easy to deal with contact Cons calculation time can increase very quickly Mixed Mesh Pros can help decrease calculation time quickly Cons can be more difficult to deal with contact

12 Compatible or Incompatible Compatible Overlay nodes where parts faces coincide Incompatible Parts may coincide, but mesh nodes do not overlay.

13 Compatible vs. Incompatible Global Contact Option Mesh Setting Option

14 Compatible vs. Incompatible When to use it Compatible is more accurate for part interface regions Can be difficult to align nodes with parts that are much different in size Incompatible can yield successful mesh May not be as accurate in part interface regions Recommend using Mortar Bonding RMB Study Name> Properties> Incompatible Bonding Options> More Accurate

15 Mesh refinement Element size will have an effect on accuracy of the results Consider areas of most importance Feature detail Contact areas Areas of criticality in the design Global Refinement Local Refinement Manual and automatic

16 Mesh Refinement Manual Specify areas of the design to apply mesh elements of a different size User defined area and size Takes time and consideration to setup Great way to account for what is most important for your analysis Automatic Let the solver calculate results Successive loops of mesh refinement. Determined automatically based on Material strain energy

17 Automatic Mesh Refinement Adaptive meshing H- adaptive Local mesh size is decreased based on strain energy in material P- adaptive Element order increase based on strain energy in material Currently supported for Solid Parts and Assemblies with Linear Static Solver

18 Automatic Mesh Refinement RMB Study Name> Properties> Adaptive None (Default) H adaptive P adaptive

19 Adaptive Finite Element Analysis h-adaptivity, p-adaptivity Refining the mesh (h-adaptivity) Changing the order of elements (p-adaptivity) 5 th order 1 st order (Draft Quality) 2 nd order (High Quality)

20 Contact Definition Model is unstable error? Majority of cases have to do with contact definition Items to consider Number of parts in contact Mixed Mesh types Global vs. Component vs. Contact Set

21 How to Find the problems Contact visualization plot Find Under-constrained bodies Frequency Analysis (Pre 2016) SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional

22 Contact Definition Global works for initially touching faces Components with gaps can still be accounted for Local contact Global contact with gap specification

23 Contacts Interference detection Using coincidence as interference Contact Visualization plot Simulation Professional 2014 and above Troubleshooting Use methods above Combine with suppression of components

24 Simplification Adequate mesh required to capture model detail Too much detail can leave you waiting for a very long time Analysis Preparation Command Manager ( What s New) Tools > Geometry Analysis. Suppress features Tools> Find/Modify> Simplify Mid-Surface

25 Solver Type definition FFEPlus (Iterative) Direct Sparse Intel Direct Sparse Large Problem Direct Sparse

26 FFEPlus (Iterative) Typically meant for large mesh problems with simple definition of contact. Global Bonded Not recommended for use with local contacts.

27 Direct Sparse Recommended for use with problems using the following Dis-similar materials Local contact definition Can be more time consuming for large mesh problems

28 Large Problem Direct Sparse Best of both worlds! FFEPlus Direct Sparse Large Mesh Model with local contacts defined and/or dis-similar material definition.

29 Intel Direct Sparse Static, thermal, frequency, linear dynamic, and nonlinear studies. Leverage enhanced memory-allocation algorithms and multi-core processing capability Improves solution speeds for simulation problems that are solved in-core.

30 Solver Type definition It can be beneficial to choose your solver type Automatic option Typically a good choice

31 Remote Solver capabilities New in SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium 2017 Install the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Worker Agent Activate computer as a worker agent Does not require you to activate Simulation license on another computer

32 SOLIDWORKS Simulation Setting up Mixed-Mesh studies

33 Getting Quality Results Consider the options discussed Meshing Contact Definition Simplification Solver type/ options Consider the toolset Other failure modes

34 Getting Quality Results with Your Simulation Brandon Adkins Application Engineer, CSWE Quest Integration

35 Thank You! Brandon Adkins Application Engineer, CSWE Quest Integration