Workshop 22 - Lawn Mower

Part B: Post-Processing

R4.4

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OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this workshop is to use the results from the simulation we set up
and processed in Part A to analyze the performance of the Lawn Mower.

You will learn how to: And you will use these features:
Use Particle Mass to view how a Geometries Properties and Curves
Fiber breaks Time Plots
Calculate the Mower Blades’ Power Output Variables
and Torque
Identify which Mower Blade regions
are most susceptible to wear

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PREREQUISITES

This workshop assumes that you are already familiar with the Rocky user
interface (UI) and with the project workflow.
If this is not the case, please refer to Workshop 01 – Transfer Chute for a basic
introduction about Rocky usage before beginning this workshop.
Also, please ensure you have a Rocky Professional license as some features
covered in this workshop are not enabled for Rocky Designer.
Tip: If you are unsure which version of Rocky you have, ask your IT department,
or contact Rocky Support for assistance.

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OPEN PROJECT

If you completed Part A of this workshop, ensure that Rocky project is open. (Part B
will continue from where Part A left off.)
If you did not complete Part A, do all of the following:
Ensure that you have downloaded and extracted the workshop_22_A_pre-processing
folder that was provided along with this PDF.
Open Rocky 4. (Look for Rocky 4 in the Program Menu or use the desktop shortcut.)
From the Rocky program, click the Open Project button, find the
workshop_22_A_pre-processing folder, open the
workshop_22_A_pre-processing.rocky file.
Process the simulation. (From the Data panel, select Solver and then from the Data
Editors panel, click the Start button.)
With the processing complete, we can now analyze the results.

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VIEW INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS

Let’s start by using a 3D View to see the

effects of the blade geometry colliding
with the grass Fibers.
From the Window menu, click New 3D
View.
From the Data panel, use the eye icons
to hide the the ground <01> and mower
<01> geometries, and then select
Particles (as shown).
From the Data Editors panel, select the
Coloring tab, enable the Nodes
checkbox, and then from the Property
list, select Particle Mass (as shown).
The results are shown on the next screen.

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VIEW INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS

Initially, at 0 s into the simulation, each grass Fiber is whole (unbroken).

Tip: You can use the Color scale to change the color range.
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VIEW INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS

By moving the slider on the Time toolbar, you can

observe how the mower blades ”cut” the grass particles
into fragments.

Note: For the Fibers that broke, only the ”frozen” Segment of the Fiber remains upright.
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TORQUE AND POWER

In this workshop we will estimate the

Mower Blades’ torque according to:
P
τ=
2πf
Where:
τ is the torque (Nm)
P is the Power (W )
f is the angular velocity (Hz) (or frequency)

From the Data panel, under Geometries, select blades

<01> (as shown).
Build a custom Curve as shown on the next slides.

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TORQUE AND POWER

From the Data Editors panel, select the Curves

tab, and then click the Add new custom curve
icon (as shown).
From the Add new dialog, enter the Name and the
Output unit (as shown).
From the Inputs box, enable the Power and
Velocity : Rotational : Y checkboxes, and then
click OK (as shown).

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TORQUE AND POWER

From the Custom Curves dialog, enter the

Expression, and then click OK (as shown).
The new Torque (Custom) Curve appears along
with standard Curves, such as Power, in the Data
Editors panel.
Let’s use these Curves to evaluate the
performance of the mower blade.

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TORQUE AND POWER

For this workshop, we will assume that selecting the right size engine for our Lawn
Mower requires us to know the following values:
Minimum Torque
Average Torque
Maximum Power
Average Power
We could create four separate Time plots and locate this information on each plot.
However, this becomes more difficult when comparing values across multiple
simulations.
An easier method is to use Output Variables, which distills a set of Property or
Curve data into a single value in one easy-to-find location.
Let’s use Output Variables to create the four single values we need for this analysis.

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TORQUE AND POWER

From the Tools menu, ensure that Expressions/Variables is enabled.

From the Expressions/Variables panel, select the Output tab (as shown).

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TORQUE AND POWER
From the Data Editors panel, drag-and-drop the newly
created Torque (Custom) Curve onto the Output tab.
Repeat for the Power Curve.
From the Output tab, select the newly added Power entry,
and then click the Edit button (as shown).
From the Edit Properties dialog, enter the Name (as
shown), and then click OK.
Repeat for the Torque_Custom_0 entry, entering the
Name and defining the Operation on Curve (as shown).
Note: As the blade spins counter-clockwise, the minimum Torque
value will be the maximum absolute value.

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TORQUE AND POWER
Now we want the Average values.
From the Data Editors panel, drag-and-drop the
Torque (Custom) Curve and the Power Curve onto the
Output tab again.
From the Output tab, select the newly added Power_0
entry, and then click the Edit button (as shown).
From the Edit Properties dialog, enter the Name,
define the Operation on Curve (as shown), and then
click OK.
Repeat for the Torque_Custom__0 entry, entering the
Name and defining the Operation on Curve (as
shown).

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TORQUE AND POWER

Press Ctrl+T to open a Time Plot.

From the Data Editors panel, drag-and-drop the newly created Torque (Custom)
curve and the Power onto the Time Plot.
Now we have exactly the right Torque and Power values we need to choose an
appropriate engine for our Lawn Mower.

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INTENSITY AND WEAR

In Rocky, you are able to compute the wear effects using surface wear
modification.
The wear law used in that feature takes into account the shear work on the
geometry surface to compute the how it will wear down over time.

However, for the case we are studying in this workshop, the surface modification of
the mower blades would not be noticeable due to the short simulation time.
Instead, we can compute the total work done by the shear forces on each triangle
surface and then verify which regions of the blades have the highest shear work.

You might recall that in Part A, we enabled the collection of Intensities data for
Boundary Collision Statistics. We can use that data to perform the shear work
analysis.
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INTENSITY AND WEAR

A good approximation of it would be:

t=3s
X
Wk = Ik (t)Ak ∆t
t=0s

Where:
Wk (J) is the work
Ik (t) (W /m2 ) is the Intensity : Shear, both of which act on the triangle, k
Ak (m2 ) is the Area : Cell, which is the area of the k triangle
t is the time (s)
∆t (s) is the time between 2 outputs, which is dictated by the Output Frequency

Let’s now create a new custom Property that defines this.

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INTENSITY AND WEAR

From the Data panel, under Geometries, select

blades <01> (as shown).
From the Data Editors panel, select the Properties
tab, and then click the Add new custom property icon
(as shown).

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INTENSITY AND WEAR

From the Add new dialog, enter the Name and Output Unit (as shown).
From the Inputs list, enable the Area : Cell and Intensity : Shear checkboxes,
and then click OK (as shown).
From the Custom Property dialog, enter the Expression, and then click OK (as
shown).

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INTENSITY AND WEAR

Now we will sum the newly created Instantaneous

Shear Work (Custom) over time to compute the Total
Shear Work.
Still on the Properties tab for the blades<01>
geometry, click the Add and edit time statistics
properties icon (as shown).

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INTENSITY AND WEAR
From the Edit time statistics properties dialog, click the Add button (as shown).
From the Add time statistics properties dialog, enter the Start Time and Stop Time (as
shown); under Operations, enable the Sum checkbox; under Properties enable the
Instantaneous Shear Work (Custom) checkbox; and then click OK (as shown).
From the Add time statistics properties dialog, click OK (as shown).

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INTENSITY AND WEAR

From the Properties tab, right-click the newly created Sum of Instantaneous
Shear Work (Custom) property, point to 3D View, and then select Show in new
3D View.
From the Data panel, under Geometries, use the eye icons to hide all but the
blades <01> component.
Hide also the main Particles entity.

The 3D View window now shows

that the blade regions most
susceptible to wear are the tips.

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HELP – USER MANUAL

This completes Part B of this workshop.

For further information on any topic presented, we suggest searching the User
Manual, which provides in-depth descriptions of the tools and parameters.
To access it, from the main Toolbar click Help, point to Manuals, and then click
User Manual.

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HELP – USER MANUAL

In the User Manual, use the Search tab to quickly find the topic you are interested in:

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CONCLUSION

Rocky was used to post-process a simulation of a Lawn Mower cutting grass.

During this workshop, it was possible to:
Use Particle Mass to view how a Fiber breaks.
Compute the mower blades’ Torque by creating Custom Curves.
Use Output Variables to distill the mower blades’ Torque and Power Curves into
single, easy-to-locate values.
Compute total shear work done by the grass particles to the blades by creating
Custom Properties and Time Statistics Properties.
What’s Next? If you completed this workshop successfully, then you are ready
to move on to next workshop.

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