Hello All,
I would like to do an analysis on a welded frame. If I create welds using the Insert>Weldments>Fillet Bead, would the connection transfer to Simulation so that I don't need to do anything else for the connections? Or should I just create the joints using Connections>Edge Weld in Simulation? I tried to do it in Simulation and had issues being able to select the right faces to create the weld. Thoughts? Thanks.
-Scott
Hi,
if you defind fillet beads in solidworks, in the simulation it assume as a seperate body. it will not consider as a welding connector.
While using the Edge weld connector, the terminated part should be a sheet metal or surface part.
What is mean weldment analysis? what is the output you are looking?
Regards,
Ameer .C
Hey Ameer,
I am trying to do an analysis on a welded frame. I would like to optimize the design in hopes to making the piece cheaper and still being able to support the loads.
I created a weld joint in the model but I am not able to make the connection in Simulation.
If the face I am trying to weld has to be a surface or a sheet metal part, which neither is the case. How do I create a welded joint for a weldment frame? Thanks.
-Scott
While doing simulation we assume the welded structure to be single body.
We save a copy of the structure and merge all the extrudes etc. to make it a single body part. Rest you know.
Any better ideas?
Hey Vikas,
One thing I am looking at when reducing the cost of my frame, is only having welds on certain surfaces and not all the way around the joint. Therefore, your suggestion does not work, right? thanks.
-Scott
Ditch the welds, use manually defined contact sets for faces that need to be bonded (welded) and no penetration contact sets for faces that are not welded (if they are going to touch that is). It takes some setting up if you have lots of contacts but that's what you need to do as far as I can see.
cheers
D
I have used this single body analysis before, but I also make use of the beam elements as individual bodies.
For me it depends on what the frame is interacting with, what I need to show and most importantly, who I will be showing it to.
I am perfectly fine with beam elements, but most of the time I use FEA plots to show stress/deformation to people who are not mechanical engineers. For those applications the FEA plot must look like the final part or the customer gets confused, so I use solid bodies instead of beam elements for them.
I never use solidworks welds. Other than cosmetics I just don't see the point to them.
There is a tutorial in the on-demand video section of the solidworks website
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/subscription/SolidWorksTipsandTricksArchives.html
that covers how to analyze welds and weldments using simulation. Check it out.
Dear Peter,
Where can I find this "on-demand video section of the solidworks website"? I'm also looking for such a tutorial.
Thanks,
Guy
