#SEU12 - 605 solid edge simulation a hands-on experience - mark thompson

#SEU12

Solid Edge Simulation Mark Thompson

Siemens PLM

Application Engineer

© Siemens AG 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Siemens PLM Software

Presenter background

Presenter background:

Mark Thompson has been in the Mechanical CAD industry for 25 years. Mark is a member of the Solid edge Field Support team and has been promoting Solid Edge since its first release in 1996. Mark’s responsibilities include the creation of demonstration material for internal application engineers and channel partners, customer presentations, update training material, and support for the field personnel. Prior to coming to work in the mechanical CAD industry Mark spent 14 years as a machinist/tool maker.

Areas of Expertise:

Solid Edge Assembly

Solid Edge Simulation



Our Challenge

Design challenges to be solved

Run an analysis on the floor jack assembly to determine if the middle frame is sufficient to lift a heavy vehicle.

How Solid Edge meets the challenge

Solid Edge ST5 has improved the Simulation tools to help users get a fast accurate analysis. Features like “Total Load”, Meshing improvements, and Heat transfer capabilities. We are going to look at them all today!



Simulation Hands-On

Open “1-FloorJack.asm”

Once the floor jack has been opened we want to change the display configuration so that we can focus in on the components we will be analyzing.

Change the “Display Configuration” to “Simulation Parts”.



Simulation Hands-On

Typically when working on Simulation studies, it is a good idea to open Study Navigator making it easier too see what has been defined of other important information.

Pin the “Study Navigator” so that it stays open.

A couple of things to mention before we begin the process of doing an analysis.

Make sure all the components you are analyzing have material properties assigned to them.

It is best to simplify the models before analyzing as long as it does not effect the results.

Just like simplifying parts it is also a good idea to minimize the number of models you use in an assembly during an analysis.

In many cases users tend to have more parts involved in the analysis than what is needed. Less parts equals less time to mesh and analyze.



Simulation Hands-On

At the top of the assembly you will notice 2 tabs that are designated for Simulation.

The “Simulation” tab is used for creating studies, defining loads, constraints, connectors, meshing, solving, and etc…

The “Simulation Geometry” tab is specific to the assembly environment for the user to be able to create geometry quickly at the assembly level for Simulation purposes ONLY.

For example a mid-plane surface can be created on a sheet metal part.



Simulation Hands-On

The advantage of this is that the user does not have to in-place activate into the part/sheet metal model to create a mid-plane surface, or copy a surface, but can do it at the assembly level.

Another reason is that the user may not have write access to the model, but may want to run a quick analysis to make sure it will work.

This is where we will begin our analysis.

Click on the “Simulation Geometry” tab, then click on the Mid-Surface button.

Select the “Pivot Bracket.psm” graphically.



Simulation Hands-On

Because we are offsetting at 50% of the thickness, it does not matter which offset option is used, so click on the first one.

Click on “Preview” button to generate the mid-plane surface and then click on “Finish” which will leave you in the command.

We need to repeat the steps for the “Lift Bracket.psm”.

Create a mid-plane surface for this component as we to the previous model.



Simulation Hands-On

After the creation of the mid-planes surfaces you will notice in Study Navigator that those surfaces were automatically added to a “Simulation Geometry” collector.

Any surface that is created using the commands under the “Simulation Geometry” tab will be added to this collector and used for ONLY Simulation.

Once the surfaces are created, change the display configuration to “Surfaces and Solids”.

Click on the “Simulation” tab on the main ribbon bar



Simulation Hands-On

Create a new study.

For this study, we will use the study type of “Linear Static” and a mesh type of “Mixed and General bodies”.

We are mixing solids and surfaces for this mesh.

Click on the “OK” button to create.

Because it is an assembly simulation needs to know which parts you will be analyzing, so the “Define Parts” will automatically start.

Fence select all the components in the view.

To fence select, hold down the left mouse button and drag a rectangle around the parts.



Simulation Hands-On

Accept the highlighted parts with RMB click or selecting the green checkmark.

Once the geometry is defined, notice the first quarter of the pie turns to green letting the user know the first part of the study is good to go.

After creating the study you will notice the rest of the ribbon comes alive where we can define loads and constraints.

Select the “Force” command found in the “Structural Loads” group.

Select the top face of the “Lift Bracket” and key in 500 lbf



Simulation Hands-On

We also need to change the direction of the force downward, so select the “Flip Direction” on the QuickBar.

This same Quickbar has several other options where we can change the symbol color, size, spacing and etc.

Next, we need to constrain the models to imitate what would occur when force is applied.

To do this we can apply a “Fixed” constraint to the pin in the back of the model.



Simulation Hands-On

We also need to apply a fixed constraint to the 2 bottom hole edges.

Change the option to “Edge/Corner” and then select the 2 edges as shown.

Once the loads and constraints are defined you will also notice that the 2nd piece of the pie becomes green.



Simulation Hands-On

The final step before meshing and solving is to define how the parts are connected.

Notice there is a “Connectors” group with a few options, but for this case where we have edges of the sheet metal parts connecting to solids.

Select the “Edge” connection command.

Notice there are 6 edges that need to be defined with an edge connection.



Simulation Hands-On

First, select the 4 edges on the front and use the default search distance.

This option is new in ST5 where they can all be selected at the same time.

RMB click to accept.

Next, select the cylinder and use the default search distance.

RMB click to accept.



Simulation Hands-On

If you were successful you will see the connect symbols as shown in the picture.

We now need to use the same process to define the 2 edges on the back side.

At this point all our loads, constraints, and connections have been defined.

At this point you can to turn off the symbols by clicking on the checkbox in front of each of them.



Simulation Hands-On

We are now ready to mesh the components.

After selecting the “Mesh” command the mesh dialog will appear.

Two new enhancements for ST5 are on this dialog.

The first is the subjective mesh size is displayed, so user who uses the slide bar gets feedback as to the actual size of the mesh being applied.

The second new feature is the ability to “Show Plate Thickness” when you are meshing sheet bodies.



Simulation Hands-On

Click on the mesh button to see what the mesh default looks like.

Meshing is not always cut and dry and many times you may need to tweak the mesh to give better results.

There are several things the user can do to adjust the mesh.

First, you may need to apply an Edge Size, Surface Size, or Body Size mesh.

There is also an option on the mesh dialog to use “Same component mesh size” which in this case may work.

Finally, you will notice the “options” button which opens other advanced options shown on the next page.



Simulation Hands-On

Mesh Options



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For this study set the “Quad edge layers to the value of 2.

Also, select the “Body Size” mesh option.

Select the “Pivot Bracket”

In the Body Size dialog move the slide bar to 7 and notice the mesh size is .111 in.

Click “Accept”

While the dialog is still up, select the “CarSupport bracket” and apply the same body size to it.

Click “Accept”



Simulation Hands-On

After defining the Body Size mesh, click on the “mesh” button again and review the results.

If you zoom up on a hole you will see the quad mesh that was applied.

Also notice that Study Navigator reflects the meshes applied including the body size meshes which can be edited if needed.



Simulation Hands-On

Notice that the 3rd piece of the pie is now green showing us we are ready to solve the model.

The real purpose of this feedback is when something changes in any part of the study, the piece of the pie will turn red.

An example is if you deleted one of the defined models

We are now ready to solve the study using all the loads, constraints, connections, and mesh that we have set.

Click on the “Solve” button.

You can also select the “Mesh & Solve” button on the dialog.

With this option it will not re-mesh if a mesh is already created.



Simulation Hands-On

It will first apply the defined boundaries and then process the results.

From the results you can see that this assembly is well under the yield stress of 40.

What we will do is look at ways to make it even stronger using Synchronous technology.



Simulation Hands-On

Another great enhancement we have made in ST5 within the “Results” environment is that we now combine the surface and solid results into a single result.

Previous to ST5 the user would have to switch the result component to see either the surface results or the solid results, but not together as we do now.

Notice in this picture you can see both results without having to select an option.

One area we need to strengthen up is on the back side near the pin as shown here.



Simulation Hands-On

Select the “Close & Return” to return back to where we can make some changes to our model.

Switch to the “Home” tab and change the display configuration to “Simulation Parts” which will turn the solids back on.

Press the “Ctrl+Spacebar” to go into “Face Priority” mode

Select the top of the sheet metal bracket.

This does not need to be as high as it is, so we can push it down .5 inches.



Simulation Hands-On

With a closer look at the model you will notice that there is also a sharp corner that we need to remove.

Select the top edge as shown.

Move the steering wheel to the center of the shaft or hole.

Rotate the angled face back moving the cursor slowly.

Key in the value -1.2 and then press “Enter”.

The results.



Simulation Hands-On

Change the display back to “Surface and Solids”.

One of the nice things about study navigator is that it reflects any changes and also provides feedback when things are out of date.

There is one more change we can make before re-solving the analysis.

Notice on the main Simulation ribbon bar a command called “Override Property”.

We will use this command to override not only the material, but also the material thickness.



Simulation Hands-On

After selecting the “Override Property” command, the QuickBar menu will appear.

Notice that we can use different values for material and thickness.

In Study Navigator it shows the material is currently Aluminum and the thickness is .109.

Let’s change the material to Aluminum 1060 and the thickness to .200

Rotate to a side view and fence select the bracket as shown – make sure you get all the surfaces of this bracket.

You can select them one at a time if you want to.



Simulation Hands-On

Select the green checkmark or RMB click to accept.

Notice the new “Override Property” entry in Study Navigator.

The advantage to being able to override these properties allows the user to make these types of changes if they don’t have write access to a file or if they want to just try different values before making a change to the actual file.

Select the “Solve” button again to re-run the analysis and see the results.

Notice the difference from the first analysis. 1st 2nd



Simulation Hands-On

More importantly the stress value and displacement values have also dropped.

From the main ribbon bar select “Animate”.

This gives you an opportunity to put the results into motion to see how the model responds to the force in this case.

The animation toolbar gives the user several options which includes creating a movie.

Click on “Close”

Click on the “Probe” command.



Simulation Hands-On

This tool provides feedback each time you select a node.

Select a few nodes to place the flags.

Select the “Create Report” command.

Click on “Create Report” at the bottom of the dialog.



Simulation Hands-On

This will generate a report that provides all the analysis information including images of all the studies generated.

This completes this study – click on “Close Simulation Results”.

Close the file – no need to save.

Open “2-FirePitOnDeck.asm”

With the release of ST5 Solid Edge Simulation now supports steady state heat transfer.

In this exercise we will discover the new heat transfer options available to our users.



Simulation Hands-On

After you open the fire pit assembly, click on the Simulation tab and then click on “New Study”.

Notice under “Study Type” there are 3 new study options for Steady State Heat Transfer.

The Steady State Heat Transfer + Linear Static and Steady State Heat Transfer + Linear Buckling allows the user to combine study types.

For this exercise select “Steady State Heat Transfer”.

Click “OK” to dismiss the form and create the new study.



Simulation Hands-On

At this point the study asks for us to define the parts for the study, so fence select all the components in the view.

Click the green checkmark or RMB click to accept the components.

The one thing you may notice is that we created a heat transfer study, so only the “Thermal” loads are active on the main ribbon bar.

These thermal load options can be mixed and or used individually depending on the study you are creating.

For this example with the fire pit we will look at “Convection”.



Simulation Hands-On

Solid Edge ST5 Simulation supports free/natural convection.

Convection is the up and down movement of gases and liquids caused by heat transfer.

Example: As a gas or liquid is heated, it warms, expands, and rises because it is less dense. When the gas or liquid cools, it becomes denser and falls. As the gas or liquid warms and rises, or cools and falls, it creates a convection current. Convection is the primary method by which heat moves through gases and liquids.

Select the “Convection” command.

Select the inside face of where the fire would be producing heat and use “1” for the “Film Coefficient”.

Use 350 F for “Ambient temperature”



Simulation Hands-On

Film Coefficient describes the rate heat leaves a surface, as a function of the temperature difference between the surface and the ambient. Calculating the value of the coefficient for a given situation is actually difficult. Sometimes (if highly accurate values are required) testing must be done on the actual situation to determine the value.

In many cases, you can find tables on the internet that give you values that are close enough to use.

Select “Convection” again and then select the inside faces using 1 and the film coefficient and the default ambient temperature.

Below we are defining the upper 2 inside faces (can be defined together or individually).



Simulation Hands-On

We also need to define the legs and the top of the plate.

The best way to do this is to use the “Ctrl+F” keys to get to a front view and then fence select.

Take note when you do the fence select that you do not pull the fence past the bottom of the model, but only half way through the base.

When you are finished defining these faces with the convection load turn off the symbols



Simulation Hands-On

Because we are in an assembly and there are more than one component defined, we need to define a connector.

Select the “Auto” button from the “Connectors” group.

Then fence select all the geometry and accept with a RMB click or select the green checkmark.

The results will be displayed and you need to select the “Create Connectors” button.



Simulation Hands-On

The last thing to do before solving is to mesh the models.

Click on “Mesh”

Use the default settings and click on “Mesh” in the dialog.

Click “Mesh and Solve”



Simulation Hands-On

Notice the results and how the temperatures range from around 80 degrees F to 246 F.

Using the “Probe” will give you a better idea of the temps on different parts of the model.



Simulation Hands-On

While in the “Results” there are other tools that can be used to examine the results of the study.

Notice on the Main ribbon of the “Results” environment there are other tabs available.

Click on the “Color Bar tab

Set the values shown.

This option allows the user to zero in (in this example) on the high temp area.



Simulation Hands-On

Click the “Home” tab, then click on “Close Simulation Results”

RMB click on the “heat transfer study” in study navigator.

Click on “Modify Study”, then select the “Options” button for this study.

Uncheck “generate only surface results” as shown.



Simulation Hands-On

Click “OK” on the options dialog, the we need to run the “Solve” again because we have made a change to the study.

You can see that study navigator shows us this with the red exclamation point !

Once you are back in the “results” environment, select “Display Options” and check the “Surfaces in Iso Contour” option.



Simulation Hands-On

With this option turned on we can then view the results using the Iso Contour options.

Click on the “Iso Contour” button.

By default there are 12 levels shown on the color bar and each 12 of those values are shown as an Iso surface on the model representing that temperature value.



Simulation Hands-On

To change these levels (increase or decrease) select the “Color Bar” tab

Change the “Levels” value to a value between 2 and 32.

Here we can change it to 20

Notice the results now show 20 levels with the different temperature levels.



Simulation Hands-On

Click back on the “Home” tab and then select “Dynamic Iso Contour”.

This will provide a toolbar that allows the user to view the different levels (in this case of the temperatures) depending on where the slidebar is set or what value is keyed in.



Simulation Hands-On

Open “3-Motor and Bracket.asm”

In this example we are going to run a static analysis on the sheetmetal part where the gears are mounted.

Change Display Configs to “Simulation Parts”.

Go to the “Simulation Geometry” tab and select “Mid-Surface”.

Create a mid plane surface for both sheetmetal files.



Simulation Hands-On

Before we create our first study, let’s get things as simple as possible to make the processing faster.

IPA into the “MotorBody.par”

Highlight the features from the “Thinwall 1 to Protrusion 3”, and then RMB click and use “Suppress”.

Select both sheetmetal files, then RMB click and select “Show/Hide Component” and turn off the design bodies.



Simulation Hands-On

Now we are ready to create our first study.

This will be a Linear Static study and for Mesh Type we will use the “Mixed and General Bodies” option, then click OK.

To define the geometry, fence select everything in the view.

Place a fixed constraint on the 2 top flanges of the “TopFrame.psm”.



Simulation Hands-On

Place a “Force” load on the “MotorBracket.psm” downward and key in the value “100 n”.

It will display as

We need to tell Solid Edge how these 3 parts are connected, so we will use “Auto” connectors to achieve this.

Select the “Auto” button.

Fence select all the geometry, then key in 5 for “Search distance”, then accept.



Simulation Hands-On

There should be 2 connectors in the list as shown.

If so, select “Create Connectors”.

The next step is the mesh the components.

A new option was added in ST5 that will “Show Plate Thickness” after the parts are meshed.

Click on “Mesh” to mesh the components.



Simulation Hands-On

Once the parts are meshed, deselect the “Show plate thickness” option to see the parts in sheet thickness.

Re-select “Show plate thickness” option.

Select “Solve” to run the analysis.



Simulation Hands-On

Notice the result stress values.

STRESS

DISPLACEMENT



Simulation Hands-on

The next step in the Hands-On is to create a coupled study to see the effects of heat being applied and what that does to the stress and displacement values.

Create a new coupled study and make sure to select the “Mixed and General Bodies” option.

To define the geometry, just fence select the same 3 files again.

Select “Static Study 1” to activate, then expand “Loads” so you can see “Force 1” load, then RMB click and copy the load to the clipboard.

Then RMB click on “Loads” in the new study and “Paste”



Simulation Hands-On

Use the same steps to copy and paste the “Fixed 1” constraint to the new study.

Select the “Auto” button.

Fence select all the geometry, then key in 5 for “Search distance”, then accept (same as we did in the first study).

Now we can apply the Thermal loads.

Select “Temperature” for the thermal load and then select the front face of the motor that touches the bracket – key in “40”, then RMB click to accept.



Simulation Hands-On

Next we will define the faces that will convect the heat from the model.

Select “Convection” from the Thermal loads group.

Fence select all 3 parts, then hold the “Shift” key down and deselect the front faces of the motor as shown.

One of these faces we defined as the temperature load face.

For this example we will use 5 for the film coefficient

The Ambient temperature can remain at 20 C (68 degrees F) which is the surrounding air.



Simulation Hands-On

After creating thermal loads it is not a bad idea to deselect the checkbox in study navigator to hide all the load symbols.

Run “Solve” so we can see the difference in the stress with heat applied.

When solving a coupled study, it will first solve the heat transfer first, then the linear static study.



Simulation Hands-On

With heat applied, the stress value goes up.

With Heat

Without Heat



Simulation Hands-On

With heat applied, the displacement value goes up.

With Heat

Without Heat



Simulation Hands-On

We can also review the temperature levels on the model.

Click on the Simulation tab on the left, expand the “Mesh” collector and uncheck the “MotorBody.par” to hide it.

Then select the “Iso Contour” command.

Go to the “Color Bar” tab on the ribbon bar and increase the “Level” from 12 to 25.

Go back the the “Home” tab and select “Dynamic Iso Contour”.



Simulation Hands-On

Use the slider bar to see the different results.

This completes the Hands-On session!

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Thank You! Questions?

#SEU12 - 605 solid edge simulation a hands-on experience - mark thompson

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Transcript of #SEU12 - 605 solid edge simulation a hands-on experience - mark thompson