Barrel Cam & Follower Finite Element Analysis using ANSYS Workbench

• Objectives: To analyse barrel cam and follower for stress, strain analysis.

• Geometrical Design:

For this analysis we have geometry which contains three major parts named as Barrel, Barrel Cam and Cam Follower.

This is how geometry looks like;

• Material Properties:

Structural Steel is used for whole assembly here, here its Mechanical Properties.

• Problem Statement:

Barrel Cam & Follower assembly will be applied with constraints and applied with rotational motion to capture various aspects such a Deformation, Strain & Stress.

• Mesh Criterion:

Type of Elements: Automatic Meshing (Tet & Hex Elements)

Size of Elements: 8.9806 mm (Default)

Mesh Refinement: 3 mm (Face Sizing)

Default Mesh:

Face Sizing:

• Boundary Condition:

We will look for only Cam and Follower Parts so other part’s stiffness behaviour switched from

Flexible to Rigid.

Stiffness Behaviour:

Contacts:

One Fixed Joint applied to Barrel, One Revolute Joint applied to Barrel Cam and One Translational Joint applied to Cam Follower.

• Loading and Analysis Setting:

Project carried out with 9 Steps, Large Deflection kept ON & all other parameters kept default. Time Steps are as follows;

Initial Time Step: 0.1 s

Minimum Time Step: 0.05 s

Maximum Time Step: 0.2 s

Maximum Time Step: 0.3 s (Step 2 to 9)

Analysis Settings 1:

Analysis Settings 2:

Loading:

For Loading Revolute Joint applied to Barrel Cam, in each step it is rotated by 30 Degrees.

• Post Processing:

Whole assembly is analysed for 3 cases, in 1^st Case Contacts kept as frictionless, in 2^nd case friction co-efficient set to 0.1 & for 3^rd case co-efficient set 0.2.

Case 1 (Frictionless)

Total Deformation

Equivalent Elastic Strain

Equivalent Stress

Directional Acceleration

Directional Velocity

Case 2 (Friction Co-efficient = 0.1)

Total Deformation

Equivalent Elastic Strain

Equivalent Stress

Directional Acceleration

Directional Velocity

Case 3 (Friction Co-efficient = 0.2)

Total Deformation

Equivalent Elastic Strain

Equivalent Stress

Directional Acceleration

Directional Velocity

Post Process Results summary;

Click here to see Animation of this Project;

Barrel Cam & Follower FEA || ANSYS Workbench

• Results and Conclusion:

1) Total Deformation values are same in all three cases.

2) Equivalent Elastic Strain values are nearly similar in all cases except case 3, but difference is negligible.

3) There is drastic change in Equivalent Stress values in case 3 as the co efficient of friction set to 0.2

4) Due to C/F 0.2 there is change in Acceleration values in case 3 as well.

5) Similar to Acceleration, same kind of values achieved in Velocity parameters.

We can see that when there is no friction between the Barrel Cam & Follower, because of that the Stress & Strain values are low, when we increase the C/F to 0.1 there is sudden change in Stress due to presence of friction. When C/F set to 0.2 there is drastic change in values of each parameters. The Max. Stress values are clicking at 12406 Mpa. Due to presence of friction acceleration increases and velocity decreases (mainly Case 3) as the materials are taking more energy, due to that heat also gets generated in component. Various types of Contact and presence of Friction are crucial in this kind of FEA problems.