Is it possible to define material porperties for a custom mateial that would behave like sand in an enclosed space for a static study?
Is it possible to define material porperties for a custom mateial that would behave like sand in an enclosed space for a static study?
That is what I thought too. I wasn't sure if the fact that the sand is enclosed would constrain it enough to behave not exactly like an engineering material but close enough to be modeled as one.
Thanks for the input.
Could you be more specific? What are you testing? What are you looking for? What phyisically happens? Remember: a static study only tells you stresses and displacements.
I want to design a system that consists of two 1/2" thick steel plates with grout filling in the space in between. Pressure can be applied to either side of this system. I assumed that sand would be a way of conservatlively accounting for grout strength, but perhaps that was an ill concieved thought.
I just need to determine how thick the grout filler needs to be.
I dont think FEA (especially solidworks linear study) is appropriate for this kind of analysis.
Grout will have an ultimate strength but not so much a yield strength. FEA will tell you how the stresses are distributed. Model using a ceramic or metal with a very high modulus of elasticity (2x steel+). Then use what information you have about how much stress you want the grout to take on.
If you sandwich grout in between plates I would assume you would want the thinnest coat of grout possible if failure in compression is what you are worried about.
I doubt this is possible for a static study. Sand does not have characteristics of an engineering material. A static study (in Simulation) only cares about the modulus of elasticity (young's modulus) and the Poissons ratio. These values, in a static linear study, are independant of force and time. Sand as a system does not posses these characteristics. Sand does not have a poisson's ratio and its "modulus of elasticity" is incredibly dependant on force.
If you had a more powerful simulation program like ABAQUS or ANSYS, you would eventually be able to model sand in a non-linear study using rate-dependant and force-dependant properties.