ANALYSIS OF PLATES WITH HOLES USING FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS (using SOLIDWORKS)

AIM:

To perform a static analysis on two different kinds of plates with holes on it using SOLIDWORKS

OBJECTIVES:

1. To understand the concept of stress, strain and displacement in much more details
2. To compare the analysis recovered by the two plates and find out the reason of such conclusions
3. To accomplish the aforementioned objectives using SOLIDWORKS

INTRODUCTION:

A linear static analysis is an analysis where a linear relation holds between applied forces and displacements. In practice, this is applicable to structural problems where stresses remain in the linear elastic range of the used material. In a linear static analysis the model’s stiffness matrix is constant, and the solving process is relatively short compared to a nonlinear analysis on the same model. Therefore, for a first estimate, the linear static analysis is often used prior to performing a full nonlinear analysis.

PROCEDURE OF COMPLETION:

• First, the plate with one hole is created as per the following dimensions:

Length = `300mm`, Height = `120mm`, Thickness = `30mm`

Circular hole at the centre of the plate with diameter of `60mm`.

• The simulation study was setup and one end of the plate is fixed as we can see as the green pins and a force of `1000N` was applied on the opposite face.
• A finer mesh of `5mm` mesh element was used for better accurate results.

• The simulation was run then.
• Next, the second plate was sketched using the following dimensions and constraints

• The sketch was extruded to `30mm` thickness as in the previous case.
• Next, as in the previous case one end of the plate was fixed and at the other end, a force of `1000N` was applied.

• Here, also a finer mesh of `5mm`mesh element was used.

• Then, the simulation was run for the static analysis.

Note: Before running the simulation, the material must be applied. Here, in both the cases, Alloy steel was used. The properties of the material are as follows:

OBSERVATIONS:

The static analysis comparison for the plate with one hole is as follows:

The static analysis comparison of the plate with three holes is as follows:

CONCLUSION:

1. As we can see in the first case where the plate has one hole, the stress is higher than the second case. This implies that increasing the no. of holes decreases the stress in the plate as stress is inversely proportional to area.
2. The strain factor is also low in the second case as compared to the first case.
3. The displacement is higher in the second case than the first case.
4. So, the second case is the best one as it is more cost-efficient, it has low material cost, it faces less strain and stress.