Analysis of sheet metal component

[indusrobo]

Dear all

I would like to check the strength of a 3mm thick sheet metal component made of steel which supports/hold a shaft and bearing frame. May i know what kind of elements should i use for discretization, i tried with solid 45 8 noded, it doesnt work .. any hints would be appreciated.

Also does von mises stress analysis suitable for such sheet metal components ?

Thanks in advance.
Warm regards
ragu

 

[ansysfreak]

Hi

You should use the shell 63 or 93 element for your model.

Gtrz G

 

[Stringmaker]

Ragu,
It doesn't work? Or you don't get good results? Like Ansysfreak said shell elements are probably more suitable for your analysis then a solid would be. If plasticity or nonlinearities are prevalent SHELL181 would be even better than 63 or 93. Make sure that you use the full integration element formulation if you do decide to use 181's. VonMises is very suitable for evaluation in some cases depending on what criteria is being looked at. Don't you have some sort of standard work or industry guidelines to go base your decision on?

-Brian

 

[indusrobo]

Thanks Gtrz and brian .. i will try these options, the project am doing is kinda new and no guidlines are available.

 

[indusrobo]

Hello Brain and Gtrz

I tried to mesh the volume with elastic 4node63 and 8node93 seperately, both times it shows respective error as follows

"Element type 1 is SHELL93/SHELL63, which cannot be used with the VMES command. Mesing of volume 1 aborted"

Cannot shell elements be used for meshing volumes ? .. in such a case is there any possible way to analyse sheet metal components.

The componets are imported as SAT format from Autodesk inventor, is it a problem?


thanks a lot
regards
raghu

 

[Stringmaker]

Ragu,
Volumes can only be meshed with solid elements, which are 3D elements like bricks and tets. Shells are 2D elements and require area geometry for meshing. What you need to do is to "midplane" your solid model geometry with areas that represent the neutral axis (for lack of better term) of the volume. Not too familiar with Inventor but any competent designer should be able to provide you with the proper geometry for meshing. Also, be sure that you have a good understanding of shells, where they're use is appropriate, and interpretation of results before you use your output as answers. Just a word of caution...

Good luck,
-Brian

 

[indusrobo]

wow ... such a fast reply, thanks brain ..ill try to extract the mid-plane of gometry and mesh it using shell elements.

regards
raghu