Paul Becker, the Chief Simulation Product Analyst at TriMech, presented on Thursday at the April FredSWUG meeting. The topics covered included a brief overview of Simulation Products, and then a more in-depth look at some of the more advanced studies that are possible with the SolidWorks Simulation packages.
There are four levels of Simulation products available in SolidWorks (no including the SimulationXpress tool, which is available in every version.
The first, most basic level of simulation is automatically available with SolidWorks Premium. It includes tools for analyzing stresses, displacements, etc. for full assemblies, as well as determining the forces acting on assembly mechanisms.
The next level is SolidWorks Simulation Professional, which includes (in addition to the SolidWorks Premium tools) Event-Based motion studies, design optimization, frequency analysis, buckling prediction, thermal analysis, drop testing, and cyclic fatigue.
The SolidWorks Simulation Premium package also contains the ability to simulate rubbers, plastics, and composites; forced vibration testing, and nonlinear dynamics.
Finally, the SolidWorks Flow Simulation Package allows for assembly-scale fluid flow simulation, and advanced thermal analysis.
The specific studies covered at this meeting included drop testing, cyclic fatigue, and thermal analysis. While some of the members of FredSWUG asked for a presentation on the advanced tools available in the Simulation packages, I had to narrow it down to just a few, knowing how complex the simulation package can be. So I chose these three, hoping that most companies can benefit from them.
Drop testing:
Cyclic Fatigue:
Thermal Analysis:
I learned:
- Results from one type of study can be used as inputs for other studies. For example, You can run a fatigue study based on the results of a static stress study, which in turn uses the results of a thermal loading study.
- Event-based motion is new in 2011. This makes analysis of large, multi-step mechanisms (such as assembly lines) mush easier.
- When applying a material through the analysis FeatureManager, the critical properties are highlighted, based on the type of study being performed (i.e. Thermal Conductivity and Specific Heat for thermal analysis).
- IF you have the time, adaptive meshing will give you the perfect mesh. It will automatically refine the mesh in high-stress areas until it achieves a pre-defined convergence (98% by default).
Dan Herzberg 