I really hope someone can help me with a problem I'm having with Solidworks simulation.
I'm a student Industrial Design and I'm designing a toy for children. The toy consists of rubber stiks that children can connect to build structures. I'm facing some problems with simulating the behavior of a stick. A stick is 600 mm long, has a diamter of 30 mm and is made of rubber. I want to know wat will happen when de stick bends in a certain situation: when someone is holding the stick at the ends and moves the hands toward each other. How far is it possible to bend it and will there be buckling or just bending? I've tried to do this by fixing one end and putting a force on the other ,but it never bends far enough. I think I need a moving force or something but I really don't know. Can someone help me? Is this possible with Solidworks simulation? If yes, how? If no, is there an other way to do it?
Hi Marleen,
I hope all is well with your project. In my experience there isn't much that one can do to speed up nonlinear analyses. Assuming your mesh is converged, perhaps reducing the number of elements (checking to make sure that the results don't deviate from the converged solution) or using simpler elements could be an option. On the other hand, for large displacements and rubber-like materials...the computation time is usually long. You can reduce the iteration time as well (which means you would only simulate the rod bending some distance z versus some distance <z.
Have you considered simply asking the manufacturer for rubber samples to doyour own "tests" on the material? This is going to be a toy for a child...couldn't very basic "experimental" tests be done instead of an FEA simulation. Nonlinear analyses with complicated materials can take a lot of tweaking and prior experience to yeild accurate solutions. I would think you just need to select a material that can support X amount of weight with Y amount of deflection, etc. Perhaps you are doing the FEA as a supplement or simply for fun, but with all due respect, it just seems a bit impractical to me.