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The analysis of I-Beam is done in this report. The I-Beam is used to lift big marble and
granite blocks of 1 ton by mass from stockyard to put on the machine for cutting it down
to slabs. The
I-Beam rests on two rollers in a simply supported way. The rollers which are geared by
electric motors can move in the direction perpendicular to the length of the I-Beam. The
rollers move on two tracks.

Since the I-beam rests simply supported on support rollers, so one end of I-beam is
fixed and the other end the I-Beam can move in the longitudinal direction.
So the other end roller has rollers on it which allows the beam to translate in longitudinal
direction. The bending moment at the ends is zero as the beam is simply supported.

The analysis is done only for I-Beam. The reaction forces by rollers at the ends are
taken as pressure forces on the beam. The load is carried by the beam with the help of
steel ropes. The end of the steel rope which is attached to the I-Beam is assumed to be
located at the centre of beam and the load is represented by the uniform pressure
distribution acting on the beam.

So the I-Beam is subjected to the following forces:

• Uniform pressure distribution force at two ends.

• Uniform pressure distribution force at the middle of the beam due to load.

Fillets are made between the flange and web in order to avoid stress concentration at
the corners.

Mild Steel is chosen as the material of I-Beam. The material is chosen to be isotropic so
that the properties of the material are assumed same in all the directions.

The effect of weight on the analysis of I-Beam is very small as compared to the effect of
load acting on it. So weight is neglected in our analysis.



We will start with standard/explicit model as we are doing static analysis of a solid body.
Then we will double click on ³Parts´ in the model tree and fill the options as under

• Modelling Space: 3D
 • Type: Deformable
• Shape: Solid
• After that, the cross-section of the I Beam is made on the 2D plane and is then
extruded in the third dimension. The dimensions of the I Beam are detailed below.
• Length of I-Beam = 2.2m
• Beam height = 100mm = 0.1m
• Flange width = 100mm = 0.1m
• Flange thickness = 10 mm = 0.01m
• Web thickness = 10 mm = 0.01m
• Fillet radius = 10mm = 0.01m

Cross-sectional view with dimensions of the I-Beam

After that, material properties of I Beam are defined in the ³Materials´ subsection in the
model tree which are as follows

• Type: Mechanical, Elastic, Isotropic

• Modulus of elasticity = 210 × 109 Pa
• Poisson¶s ratio = 0.303

The section is defined as solid and homogeneous in the ³Section´ subsection of the
model tree.
In the ³Section Assignment´ container, the I-Beam is assigned the section.
In the ³Create Instances´ dialog box in ³Instances´ subsection, dependent mesh is
defined on the I Beam.
In the ³Step´ subsection, procedure type is taken as static, general.
In the ³Field Output Requests Manager´ dialog box, the desired field output variables
are checked which are as under

• Stress components and invariants.

• Translations and rotations.
• Reaction forces and moments.
• Nodal forces due to element stresses.

The history output requests are deleted in the ³History Output Requests Manager´
dialog box.
The maximum uniform pressure of 0.981 MPa is applied on the I-Beam at its centre.
The area on which this pressure will act is 0.1m×0.1m at the centre of the I Beam. The
contact surface between roller and I-Beam at both ends is assumed to be 0.1m × 0.1m.
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The maximum load the beam is to be subjected is calculated as follows.

Lmax = mass of stone × (9.81)

= (1000 kg) × (9.81 m/s2)
= 9810 N

If the surface area on which the rope is distributed in longitudinal direction is 0.1 m then
the pressure load on the beam is

Pmax = Lmax / (0.1m × 0.1m)

= 9810 N / (0.1m × 0.1m)
= 0.981 × 106 Pa

To apply the load on the I Beam, we have to partition it so that we can apply pressure
load in the middle of the I Beam. Also we have to partition it at the ends so that
boundary conditions can be applied. To partition the I-Beam, ³Partition Cell: Define
Cutting plane´ icon is selected and the beam is partitioned. To improve the mesh quality,
the beam is partitioned in the longitudinal direction as well. This is shown in the figure
below.
The boundary conditions are applied at both ends of the I Beam. This is done by
clicking at the ³BCs´ in the model tree. Select the step in the ³Create Boundary
Condition´ dialog box. Select the ³Mechanical-Displacement/Rotation´, then select the
region for boundary condition and then enter the following values for both ends.
• Left End BCs: U1 = U2 = U3 = UR2 = UR3 = 0 , UR1  0
• Right End BCs: U1 = U2 = UR2 = UR3 = 0 , U3  0 , UR1  0
In the ³Loads´ subsection, select step and then select ³Mechanical-Pressure´. Select the
surface on which the pressure load will act and then enter uniform pressure value of
0.981 × 106 Pa.
In the ³Seed Part´ container, select the approximate global size equal to 0.05. In the
³Seed Edges´ container, seed the cross section of the I Beam so that the number of
elements in the cross section area is increased. This cross-section is shown below.

I-Beam cross-section
In the ³Mesh-Element Type´ select element library as ³Standard´, family as ³3D Stress´,
geometric order as ³Quadratic´, and select ³Reduced Integration´. The element type is
quadratic hexahedral C3D20R. Each of these elements has 20 nodes.

In the ³Mesh Part´ container mesh the entire structure as is shown below.

Meshed I-Beam

The number of elements in this I Beam is 2816 and the number of nodes is 16369 which
is less than the maximum limit of the academic licensed version of ABAQUS. So our job
can be submitted.
The model is submitted in the ³Job´ container in the model tree.









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The von Mises stresses varies from 0.16 MPa to 89 MPa over the entire beam. The
higher values of stress are at the middle of the I Beam and at both ends. These are the
regions where reaction forces and load are applied. The most stressed regions are the
bottom of the web at both ends and the maximum von Mises stress equal to 89 MPa
occurs at these two points. Since the yield stress of the mild steel is 100 MPa so the I-
Beam will not deform plastically in any of its region. So the material will not fail at any
point.
The factor of safety considered in this analysis is 1.

 º  
The graph and table below shows the variation of the maximum von Mises Stress and
Displacement as the global seed size is decreased (hence number of elements is
increased) in longitudinal direction of the beam. The von Mises stress converges to 89.2
MPa (upto 3 significant figures). The maximum displacement diverges and its
convergence by increasing number of elements cannot be found because of the
limitation of the educational version of ABAQUS available.

S.N Global Number Maximum von Mises Stress Maximum

o. Seed of (MPa) Displacement
Size Elements (mm)
(m)
1 0.15 1152 89.88 0.7754
2 0.10 1600 89.38 0.7753
3 0.07 2176 89.24 0.7755
4 0.05 2816 89.23 0.7758

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_steel
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/poissons-ratio-d_1224.html