nastranuser123
Structural
I had been trying to understand how the straine energy contours available in FE software contours prove useful
I had been reading this post
Can anyone comment on my interpretation below:
When a body is deformed, work is done. The energy used up is stored in the body as strain energy [for an elastic body, the energy may be regained by allowing the body to relax].
That is: strain energy by definition is the energy that is stored in a body due to deformation.
This strain energy when plotted per element following a finite element analysis gives the analyst a design guideline i.e. a higher strain energy area requires a higher strength and hence one could add more material into the structure in regions of higher strain energy and less material into the structure into regions of less strain energy.
Question : Can't this optimization [i.e. removing material (or strength?) where you have less strain energy and adding material (or strength?) where you have higher strain energy be assessed by looking at stress contours? Why do we need strain energy contours?
Is it that the strain energy plots help us to assess stiffness criteria of design? If it is so, why not look at stress and deformations separately to assess strength and stiffness respectively.
I'd like anyone who've used these plots for any assessment comment / provide soem guideline in order understand the nitty gritty of an FE software working...
Regards,
Ajay
I had been reading this post
Can anyone comment on my interpretation below:
When a body is deformed, work is done. The energy used up is stored in the body as strain energy [for an elastic body, the energy may be regained by allowing the body to relax].
That is: strain energy by definition is the energy that is stored in a body due to deformation.
This strain energy when plotted per element following a finite element analysis gives the analyst a design guideline i.e. a higher strain energy area requires a higher strength and hence one could add more material into the structure in regions of higher strain energy and less material into the structure into regions of less strain energy.
Question : Can't this optimization [i.e. removing material (or strength?) where you have less strain energy and adding material (or strength?) where you have higher strain energy be assessed by looking at stress contours? Why do we need strain energy contours?
Is it that the strain energy plots help us to assess stiffness criteria of design? If it is so, why not look at stress and deformations separately to assess strength and stiffness respectively.
I'd like anyone who've used these plots for any assessment comment / provide soem guideline in order understand the nitty gritty of an FE software working...
Regards,
Ajay