Simulation of sphere pressing on a plate

Aim : The aim of this challenge was to perform a simulation of a sphere pressing on a plate.

Materials Used : Structural steel for sphere and Non-Linear structural steel for the plate.

Methodology : Displacing the sphere downwards towards the plate for 4 mm and retracting it. The model consist of a quarter of the plate and a quarter of the bottom half of the sphere which is going to be pressed against the plate. The sections will be mirrored in symmetry to get more realistic results.

A few sectional view of the models are shown in the figures above. The input steps to perform the analysis are as follows :

1. Material assignment : sphere-structural steel; plate - NL structural steel.
2. Symmetry : Forming symmetry of the two side faces shown in the figures above.
3. Connections : Frictional contact type with a co-efficient of friction of 0.74.
4. Mesh : Meshing the whole model with an elemnt size of 1 mm.
5. Loads : Plate - fixed; Sphere - Top face given a displacement of 4mm and retrtacted in 4 steps.

Plastic Deformation and final verdict

The figures above show the pressing and the retracting of the sphere on the plate. The first figure shows the contact between the sphere and the plate whereas the second figure shows the downward pressing of the sphere by 4 mm. Finally, the third figure shows the plastic deformation of the plate as the plate does not regain it\'s original shape after the sphere has been retracted upwards. Hence, the simulation was performed successfully and the plate showed a plastic deformation.

Note : The video for the simulation of this analysis is shown below.