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Applying force on center line of curved face?

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JipHeadJim

JipHeadJim

Mechanical
Sep 26, 2007
5
Hi

I am fairly new to the solidworks family so pleases excuse my lack of knowledge!

I am trying to model a THUNDER piezoelectric actuator in cosmos. basically it is a curved plate produced by laminating 3 layers of different materials. I understand that cosmos cant do piezoelectric modelling in the same way ansys or abaqus can, so i am just applying a force directly to the top plate in order to obtain the desired deflection.All the layers are extruded as thin features from a sketch in the xy plane.

The problem i am having is that when i apply the force it is applied to the whole of the top surface, whereas i require it to act along the center of the surface, in the xz plane, only as this is where my actuator will contact with the system. I have tried inserting a split line but can't seem to get it to work, and dont know which option to choose. I have also tried adding a centerline using 3d sketch but cant apply the force in this way either.

Anyone have any ideas? i think i am just missing something relatively simple but it is frustrating the hell out of me!
 
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Hi,
when you splitted the surf using one line, you got a parting line but not a "hard point". This can be obtained by crossing two parting lines, and that's the way I'd go for what you are trying to do.

As for the question if this is realistic or not, that's another problem... since a point load is not really "physic"... I believe you'd better split your surface with a small circle and apply your load on the small circular surface, but that's only my opinion.

Regards
 
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Cheers for your response cbrn! in the end i figured out how to split the surface by projecting a line across it.

I take onboard what you are saying about the loading condition not being truely realisable in the real world though. A cicular split would not be the best for me as the actuator is contacting with a bar of circular cross section across the width of a rectangular curved plate. However, it might be best if i created 2 splits a small distance from eachother and applied the force to this small sub-surface?

Ta!
 
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Hi,
hmmm, maybe yes, but perhaps it's less effort-consuming to apply point-load and simply disregard the peak stress there. In order to estimate the "realistic" peak stress you could list stress values along two perpendicular "u-v" curves and, in Excel, "smooth-out" the highest peak with an appropriate interpolating function. Or evaluate stress using Roark-Young for Herzian contact. Just an idea...

Regards
 
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