Wire Bend Simulation with three different materials
- Objective: - To compare wire bending in ANSYS, with different wire materials such as Copper alloy NL, Aluminium alloy NL and Magnesium alloy NL.
- Model Details: - Wire bending model with mesh is shown as shown below,
Mesh Details (Element Type- Tet10):
Number of Elements: - 3917
Number of Nodes: - 7894
Average Element Quality: - 0.69858
Tetrahedron mesh method is used for all three objects, with 2.2mm mesh sizing for surfaces in contacts. A 7mm spherical region on the wheel at the curved bend on the wheel, where huge stress is expected, is meshed by using 0.8mm of the element size. Mesh smoothening is kept Low.
Mesh is the same for all three materials. Material assigned to Wheel and Lever is Structural Steel, while Wire is assigned with Copper alloy NL, Aluminium alloy NL and Magnesium alloy NL.
Important physical properties of Copper alloy NL: -
Young\'s Modulus = 110 GPa
Yield Strength = 280 MPa
Tangent Modulus = 1150 MPa
Poisson\'s Ratio = 0.34
Density = 8300 kg/m3
Important physical properties of Aluminium alloy NL: -
Young\'s Modulus = 71 GPa
Yield Stregnth = 280 MPa
Tangent Modulus = 500 MPa
Poisson\'s Ratio = 0.33
Density = 2770 kg/m3
Important physical properties of Magnesium alloy NL: -
Young\'s Modulus = 45 GPa
Yield Strength = 193 MPa
Tangent Modulus = 920 MPa
Poisson\'s Ratio = 0.35
Density = 1800 kg/m3
- Load and Constraints: -
Firstly, Wire (contact) to Lever (target) contact is formed, and then Wheel (contact) to Wire (target) contact is made. Both contacts are Frictional with friction coefficient as 0.2. The Formulation is Augmented Lagrange with Normal Stiffness factor as 0.1, and updation of the stiffness factor is carried in each iteration. A Revolute joint at the cylindrical surface concentric to wheel entre is formed, for rotation of the lever.
In the Analysis Settings, the bending is carried out in 8-time steps. As the first time step is beginning on bending, it is performed with a smaller maximum time step value.
The wheel and the inner flat surface of the wire are assigned with Fixed Support. Wire\'s one end is fixed, to stop it from slipping off of the wheel during bending. The lever rotation per each time step is given in the table below.
- Results: -
The Total Deformation animation is given in the video below,
1. Copper Alloy NL: -
The maximum Equivalent Stress generated in Copper alloy NL wire is = 676.37 MPa
And the maximum Equivalent Elastic Strain in Copper alloy NL wire is = 0.0061702
Animation for Copper alloy NL for Equivalent Stress: - https://youtu.be/8Gc6xnfN5Fk
Animation for Copper alloy NL for Equivalent Elastic Strain: - https://youtu.be/sKUMNdEBPhc
1. Aluminium Alloy NL: -
The maximum Equivalent Stress generated in Aluminium alloy NL wire is = 445.28 MPa
And the maximum Equivalent Elastic Strain in Aluminium alloy NL wire is = 0.0063543
Animation for Aluminium alloy NL for Equivalent Stress: - https://youtu.be/V7juzOfneb4
Animation for Aluminium alloy NL for Equivalent Elastic Strain: - https://youtu.be/sy9SheGFshA
1. Magnesium Alloy NL: -
The maximum Equivalent Stress generated in Magnesium alloy NL wire is = 488.7 MPa
And the maximum Equivalent Elastic Strain in Magnesium alloy NL wire is = 0.011051
Animation for Magnesium alloy NL for Equivalent Stress: - https://youtu.be/pVx2wKaM6zY
Animation for Magnesium alloy NL for Equivalent Elastic Strain: - https://youtu.be/aFmwX8cRA8Q
- Conclusion: -
From the material\'s physical properties we can see that Copper alloy NL has the highest Young\'s Modulus (110 MPa). So we expect it to show greater resistance to bend in bending operation, compared to the other two alloys.
From the Force reaction between WHeel and Wire table, we can clearly see that the Maximum Force reaction of Copper alloy NL (1530.6 N) material is the highest amongst the three given materials.
So we can conclude that Magnesium alloy NL wire will be easiest to bend compared to Copper and Aluminium alloy NL.
From the animation, we see that the maximum stress and strain is observed in the same region for all three cases. This region is the first bending of the wire at the curved arc on the wheel. This result is also expected because the radius of curvature of the curved arc on the wheel (4-7 mm) is very sharper compared to the radius of wheel (40-50 mm) on which the wire later continues to bend. Hence, this sharper radius of curvature at the beginning induces higher strain and stress in the wire.