Transient1
Mechanical
Hi all,
I am trying to reduce the model size of a project I am working on and I am a little unsure if I am handling it correctly.
I have a test fixture that looks like a box with beams along each of its edges. It has four long beams and at the ends four short beams connect between the long beams. Between the short beam and the long beam is a welded gusset (looks like a skewed rectangle). The short beam on any one face is offset from the short beam on the two faces adjacent.
My idea was to use beam elements for the beams and shell elements for the gussets. However, once I make a beam down the center of the original beam, the gusset shells are far apart from their adjacent beams. So I am trying to think about how to connect them.
It looks reasonable to me to leave the gussets the same size and connect the edge to the beam using MPC contact (U connected to Rot). Any comments or better ways of modeling this?
I am not worried about stresses in the test fixture. The main concern is accurate displacements under thermal expansion.
I am trying to reduce the model size of a project I am working on and I am a little unsure if I am handling it correctly.
I have a test fixture that looks like a box with beams along each of its edges. It has four long beams and at the ends four short beams connect between the long beams. Between the short beam and the long beam is a welded gusset (looks like a skewed rectangle). The short beam on any one face is offset from the short beam on the two faces adjacent.
My idea was to use beam elements for the beams and shell elements for the gussets. However, once I make a beam down the center of the original beam, the gusset shells are far apart from their adjacent beams. So I am trying to think about how to connect them.
It looks reasonable to me to leave the gussets the same size and connect the edge to the beam using MPC contact (U connected to Rot). Any comments or better ways of modeling this?
I am not worried about stresses in the test fixture. The main concern is accurate displacements under thermal expansion.