Step 6: Validate the final design performance
- Working Model FEA is used to verify the final design. This is done
by simply creating a new mesh with the same element size that was used
in Step 4. The results from this simulation
are shown in Figure 10. It is found that the maximum stress is about
92 ksi, which is far above the allowable of 70 ksi. Displaying only the
contours above 60 ksi, it is found the stress is violated only at the base
shown in Figure 11.
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| Figure 10: Simulatoin result of final design. |
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Shape Optimization made the original good design better, but it also made it bad. Now, optimization will be used to make this bad design good. To do so, only the width of the over-stressed member is used as a design variable in Working Model Shape. Furthermore, the stress constraint (of 60 ksi) is only applied to the over-stressed member. Because this is only a local shape optimization problem, the element size is not enlarged.
Working Model Shape used 4 desing cycles to increase the width of the over-stressed member from 0.19 in to 0.28 in. The CAD geometry is again updated to the final design cycle and an analysis performed to verify the new design. The results from this simulation are shown in Figure 12.
Figure 12: Simulation results of final design.
The maximum stress is 65 ksi. This is below the allowable of 70 ksi but above the constraint value of 60 ksi. This is so because the constraint was not applied to all of the elements. Further use of Working Model Shape could be used to decrease the maximum stress.
Use the Report Generation feature of Working
Model FEA to produce a professional-looking report that summarizes the
design.
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| Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Step 5 | Step 6 |