Hi All,
I've modelled a frame using weldments and I'm running a static study on it.
It's been a royal pain which is unusual and it doesn't like meshing properly either.
Is it good practice to export to an iges file then re-import and combine the individual items as a one piece solid and run the analysis?
I tried it on another very simple part and loaded it and allocated it identical material and the results were alarmingly different!
Here's a screenshot of the stress results from the original part file - you can that the results are not symmetrical even though it is constrained and loaded symmetrically.
Any comments would be greatly appreciated
Regards
Paul.
Hi Paul,
As Alessandro Tornincasa said, the results are asymmetric because the mesh is asymmetric. If you are going to use solid elements to study your model then you may need to have a smaller element size than this. There should be a minimum of 2 high quality elements across all your thicknesses in the model. You would need even more elements than that for accurate and symmetric results. The number of elements required can quickly become large and unmanageable. If the model and loading are truly symmetric then you would want to use a half model with symmetry fixtures and dial the element size down so you can get under the 2 element across thickness minimum.