CASE STUDY

Stress Analysis using SolidWorks

Software

STRENGTH OF MATERIALS
DMX4205

NAME : R.R.R.B.P.W.S.S.PALIHAWADANA
REG. NO. : 413338900
DATE OF SUB. : 06/10/2021
TITLE
Stress Analysis using SolidWorks Software

OBJECTIVES
 Simulating the behavior of the mechanical part under given conditions.
 Study and compare the stress distribution under three various materials.
 Study the deflection/displacement under given conditions.

INTRODUCTION
This experiment is for studying the stresses and displacement/ deflection of a machine
parts under three various materials, using SolidWorks simulations. SolidWorks is a tool
that use Finite Element Analysis.
Finite element analysis (FEA) softwares are used to predict how does a machine part
works with real world forces, vibration, heat, fluid flow and other physical effects.
Simulating using FEA softwares shows whether a product could break, wear out or work
properly the way it is designed.
FEA process works by breaking down a real object into a large number of finite elements
and predicting the behavior of each element using mathematical analysis. Then all the
individual behaviors add together to predict the behavior of the actual object.
Finite element analysis can be used to predict the behavior of machine parts affected by,
 Mechanical stress
 Mechanical vibration
 Fatigue
 Motion
 Heat transfer
 Fluid flow
 Electrostatics
 Plastic injection molding
The major advantages of FEA softwares are,
 Improved Accuracy.
 Affordable and Faster Design Cycle.
 Improved Design.
 Insights into Crucial Design Parameters.

 Virtual Prototyping.
  Few Hardware Prototypes.
Moreover, these are some examples for FEA softwares
 ANSYS™
 SimScale™
 COMSOL Multiphysics™
 OpenFoam™
 ABAQUS™
 Altair HyperWorks™
 Autodesk CFD™
 Nastran™
Elements in FEA can be grouped into three groups as,
 1D element,
Ex: All line elements (straight or curved)
 2D element,
Ex: 3-node triangular element, 6-node triangular element.
 3D element.
Ex: 4-node tetrahedral element, 10-node tetrahedral element, 8-node
isoperimetric elements.
When simulating using a FEA software, meshing is an important step to obtain an
accurate simulation. A mesh is made up of elements, which contain nodes that represent
the shape of the geometry. A node can be defined simply as a point in space that is
defined by its coordinates at which degree of freedom are defined. In the case of using
FEA solving option, the system cannot easily work with irregular shapes which we
design as machines parts. Therefore, in meshing, we can turn irregular shapes into a set of
more recognizable shapes and these shapes are called elements.
Comparing the time required to mesh elements, the Curvature based mesh is more than
twice as fast as the standard mesh. In addition, it is faster than the blended curvature
based mesh wish is suitable for shapes that are more complex.
So, I selected the Curvature mesh for my simulation.
Therefore, number of elements = 10424
And number of nodes = 18076
 Figure 01: Mesh details
The materials I selected to the simulation, are
 Mild steel
 Brass
 Copper

Propertise of Mild steel:

 Mild steel contains approximately 0.05–0.30% carbon
 High tensile strength.
 High impact strength.
 Good ductility and weldability.
 A magnetic metal due to its ferrite content.
 Good malleability with cold-forming possibilities.
 Not suitable for heat treatment to improve properties.
 Phase at STP: solid
 Density: 7850 kg/m3
 Ultimate Tensile Strength: 400-550 MPa
 Yield Strength: 250 MPa
 Young’s Modulus of Elasticity: 200 GPa
 Brinell Hardness: 120 BHN
 Melting Point: 1450 °C
 Thermal Conductivity: 50 W/mK
 Heat Capacity: 510 J/g K
 Price: 0.5 $/kg

Properties of Brass:
  Cu 60 – 63%, Fe Max 0.35%, Other 0.5%, Pb 2.5 - 3.7% and Zn 35.5%
 Density: 8.49 g/cc
 Tensile Strength, Ultimate: 338 - 469 MPa
 Tensile Strength, Yield: 124 - 310 MPa
 Elongation at Break: 53%
 Modulus of Elasticity: 97 GPa
 Bulk Modulus: 140 GPa
 Poisson's Ratio: 0.31
 Machinability: 100%
 Shear Modulus: 37 GPa
 Thermal Conductivity: 115 W/m-K
 Melting Point: 885 - 900 °C

Properties of Copper:
 Copper, Cu73 / Lead, Pb16-2 /Tin. Sn6-8/ Zinc, Zn ≤ 1.20/ Nickel, Ni≤ 1.0/
Antimony, Sb≤ 0.80 /Phosphorus, P≤ 0.50/ Iron,Fe≤ 0.15 /Sulfur, S≤ 0.080
/Silicon, Si ≤ 0.0050 /Aluminum, Al≤ 0.0050
 Density 9.40 g/cm3
 Tensile strength:170 MPa
 Yield strength: 83.0 MPa
 Elongation at break (in 50 mm): 12%
 Poisson's ratio: 0.34
 Elastic modulus: 117 GPa
 Compressive strength: 250 MPa
 Izod impact: 5.40 J
 Fatigue strength :69 MPa
 Hardness, Brinell: 50
 Machinability: 80
In this report, stress and displacement of following machine part under above
mentinoned materials are disscuced.
Figure 02: The machine part with dimensions
PROCEDURE

1. The mechine part was steched using Solidwork software.

Figure 03: Sketching the design

Figure 04: Sketching the design

Figure 05: Sketching the design

2. The mesh was creared.

Figure 06: Created mesh

3. The materilal was selcted as Mild steel.
4. The forces and the fix piont were set.

Figure 07: Fixed surface and apllied force

5. The simulation was run and the neesarry details are observed.
6. The above process was reapeted for Copper and Brass.
7. The bending load was added and observations were obtained.
OBSERVATIONS AND DATA

Type of the mesh: Curvature mesh

Number of elements = 10424
Number of nodes = 18076

When 10kN tensile force is applied:

 For Mild steel

1. Stress distribution

Figure 08: Stress distribution for Mild steel

 Figure 09: Stresses in critical areas

Figure 10: Plot for stress disctrbusion concidering critical points

2. Displacement

Figure 11: Displacement simulation

 For Brass

1. Stress distribution

Figure 12: Stress distribution for Brass

 Figure 13: Stresses in critical points for Brass

Figure 14: Plot for stress distribution concidering critical points

 2. Displacement

Figure 15: Displacement simulation results for Brass

 For Copper

1. Stress distribution

Figure 16: Stress distribution for Copper

 Figure 17: Stresses in critical points for Copper

Figure 18: Stresses distribution graph concidering critical points for Copper
 2. Displacement

Figure 19: Simulation results for displacement for Brass

When both tensile and bemding loads are applied

 For Mildsteel

1. Stress distribution

Figure 20: Strain distribution for Mild stell

Figure 21: Strain distribution graph concidering critical points For Mild Steel

2. Displacement/Diflection

Figure 22 Displcaement/Diflection oobservation for Mildsteel

 For Brass

1. Stress dirtribusion

Figure 23: Stress distribution For Brass

Figure 24: Strain distribution graph concidering critical points

 2. Displacement/Diflection

Figure 25: Displcaement/Diflection

 For Copper

1. Stress distribution

Figure 26: Strain distribution for Copper

 Figure 27: Strain distribution graph concidering critical points

2. Displacement/Diflection

Figure 28: Displcaement/Diflection

 Material Properties

For Mild Steel

Figure 29: Propertise of Mild Steel

For Brass

Figure 30: Propertise of Brass

For Copper

Figure 31: Propertise of Copper

CALCULATIONS AND RESULTS

Figure 32: Nodes concidered for observe stresses in the critical areas

 Under 10kN Tensile load

For Mild Steel

Maximum stress = 3.335 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Minimum stress = 1.563 × 105 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 1 = 2.985 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 2 = 2.808 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 3 = 2.529 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 4 = 2.826 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2

For Brass
Maximum stress = 3.319 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Minimum stress = 2.552 × 105 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 1 = 3.019 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 2 = 2.953 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 3 = 3.299 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 4 = 2.783 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2

For Copper
Maximum stress = 3.306 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Minimum stress = 3.469 × 105 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 1 = 3.024 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 2 = 2.799 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 3 = 2.862 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 4 = 2.476 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
 Under both Tensile load and bending loads

For Mild Steel

Maximum stress = 3.335 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Minimum stress = 1.563 × 105 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 1 = 2.986 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 2 = 2.959 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 3 = 2.529 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 4 = 2.496 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2

For Brass
Maximum stress = 3.319 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Minimum stress = 2.553 × 105 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 1 = 2.991 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 2 = 2.952 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 3 = 2.554 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 4 = 1.484 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2

For Copper
Maximum stress = 3.305 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Minimum stress = 3.470 × 105 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 1 = 2.995 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 2 = 2.201 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 3 = 2.580 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Stress in node 4 = 2.476 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2

Maximum displacement of,

Mild steel = 1.956 × 10−1 𝑚𝑚
Brass = 4.1 × 10−1 𝑚𝑚
Copper = 3.722 × 10−1 𝑚𝑚

Tensile strength of,

Mild steel = 3.99826 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Brass = 4.78413 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
Copper = 3.94380 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2
DISCUSSION

I observed the stress distribution and displacement of the given mechanical part under
three material usages; Mild Steel, Brass and Copper from this simulation. After
analyzing the results, I decided the most suitable material for the machine part among
above-mentioned three materials. For the design and simulation, I used the FEA tool
of Solidwork software as instructed.

When the tensile load was applied at the end of the machine part, Mild Steel showed
the highest value for the maximum stress developed in the part and as well as the
lowest amount for the minimum value of stress. So, Mild Steel showed the biggest
rage in stress distribution. In the critical areas of the part, highest stresses were
developed when Brass was used. But, the maximum stress didn’t exceed the tensile
strength of the material used in each case and that means, the part will not fail when
applying the 10kN tensile force if it would manufacture using Mild Steel, Copper or
Brass materials.

When comparing the tensile strengths of each material and observing the difference
between the maximum stresses and the tensile strengths of each materials, we can
select Brass as the most suitable material for the machine part among selected three
materials.

Tensile strength of Mild steel = 3.99826 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2

Tensile strength of Brass = 𝟒. 𝟕𝟖𝟒𝟏𝟑 × 𝟏𝟎𝟖 𝑵𝒎−𝟐
Tensile strength of Copper = 3.94380 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2

For Mils steel, maximum stress = 3.335 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2 and tensile strength of Mild steel
= 3.99826 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2.

For Brass, maximum stress = 𝟑. 𝟑𝟏𝟗 × 𝟏𝟎𝟖 𝑵𝒎−𝟐 and tensile strength = . 𝟕𝟖𝟒𝟏𝟑 ×
𝟏𝟎𝟖 𝑵𝒎−𝟐

For Copper, maximum stress = 78413 × 108 𝑁𝑚−2 and tensile strength = 3.94380 ×
108 𝑁𝑚−2

After applying the bending load along with the tensile load, stresses increased slightly
but the maximum values did not exceed the tensile strengths.

When considering the displacement of the machine part, Brass showed the highest
value for the maximum displacement and Mild Steel showed the lowest value. This
shows the great ability to deform or bending of Brass.
Considering all these facts and observing the results, we can come into a conclusion
as Brass is the most suitable material to manufacture the machine part among Mild
Steel, Brass and Copper. On the other hand, Mild steel is the worst choice to
manufacture the machine part as it has the lowest tensile strength, shows the highest
value for the maximum stress and shows the lowest deformation.