FEA to assess stresses in sheet metal
FEA to assess stresses in sheet metal
(OP)
I'm not getting any help in the Solidworks Simulation forums, and someone suggested I ask my question here: I need to assess the stresses in a piece of spring steel that has been plastically deformed and then cycled about that nominal deformed shape. Are shell elements capable of handling this problem? It seems like a "beam in bending", meaning I expect tensile stresses on one side and compressive stresses on the other as it flexes, but my intuition could be failing me. What's the best approach to solving this problem? Thanks for any tips.
Jim Andrews
Austin, TX
Jim Andrews
Austin, TX





RE: FEA to assess stresses in sheet metal
i don't know solidworks but it sounds like you want to do a plastic non-linear run fror the manufacturing stresses, then apply youe loads ...
RE: FEA to assess stresses in sheet metal
The documentation behind Simulation is sparse at best. I would expect a code like ANSYS or ABAQUS would discuss the theory and formulation behind shell elements and I could answer my own question. Unfortunately, I don't own either of those codes.
RE: FEA to assess stresses in sheet metal
That said, you may want to get a book on FEM. It will be covered in any of them.
Brian
www.espcomposites.com
RE: FEA to assess stresses in sheet metal
RE: FEA to assess stresses in sheet metal
Regardless, shell elements are probably the best for a first-run at the problem. Large amounts of non-linearity obviously significantly increase solution times significantly.