- [Instructor] This video describes how to convert
SolidWorks Weldments into FEA beam elements,
together with the appropriate methods
for loads and bandwidth conditions.
We're going to reuse weldments used in the trusss example
earlier, but instead, convert these to beam elements.
So let's go to File, Open.
I'm going to select layout_truss, if you have
SolidWorks version 2018 or later, then you can pick this
up from the Exercise folder.
If you've got a version prior to this, you're going to need
to recreate the profile and the layout sketch.
The details to do that are found
in chapter 2 of this course.
Now I'm going to rename this study,
and it's more appropriate now to call it beam weldment.
So we're gonna change from trusses to beams.
Let's fully expand the bodies.
Now we can highlight both bodies, just hold down Control,
right mouse-click, Edit Definition, at the moment these
are both trusses, so we want to change them both to beams.
We can click to show the beam direction, the beam axial
direction is along the red arrow, and the reference plane
used, the two directioners in plane, normal to the beam
axis, the one direction is out of plane,
again normal to the beam access.
It's important to get orientated this way, as the beam
directions are created arbitrarily and they can control,
in particular, the sense of the element forces
and the element stresses.
So we check OK.
The first task is to recreate the truss benchmark
by only allowing axial forces in the beams.
This is done by ensuring that the beam's up and jointed.
So if I right mouse-click on Body 1
and edit the definition, you can see we
have End 1 Connection and End 2 Connection.
End 1 is the red end, and that's the end
we want to focus on, I want to make that a hinge connection.
So when I mesh this with elements, the last element will
be hinged to the first element created on the next group.
We check OK.
Then repeat this for SolidBody 2.
Edit Definition, again the sense is now reversed,
so this is End 2, End 1, so it's End 2 that we want to
be hinged, so when we mesh it,
it's tying the end connection,
End 2 will be hinged to its adjacent element.
Check OK.
Right mouse-click on Fixtures, Fixed 1, edit the definition.
Now at the moment this is fully fixed,
so this is the grounded ends, this point and this point.
We want to change that.
Now there is an option we can use here in the list,
which is Immovable, what this implies is, there's no
translation, but the rotations will be permitted.
Essentially this is pin-jointed and that's fully-fixed.
So we can check OK.
Now the Reference Geometry here, under Fixtures, was used
to stop out-of-plane translation of the truss top joint.
For beams, this is redundant because we've described
this as a hinge position, and our lower ends are constrained
out of plane, so we can delete this constraint.
So right mouse-click and just delete.
Do I really want to delete, and the answer is yes.
The loads used for the truss, the horizontal
and the vertical are still applicable.
As these are beams, we can vary the number of elements
along each one of these solid bodies.
We can do that with a mesh control.
So let's right mouse-click, Apply Mesh Control,
we can pick the two bodies here.
The default is gonna be 10 elements along the length.
Now we're only going to be dealing with axial loads,
so in fact, we could come down to one element,
but just to show the difference,
let's come down to five elements.
We can check OK.
And if now we say mesh, let's see what that mesh looks like.
The preview of the mesh is actually cluttering
up the picture a little bit, these are the red dots.
So what we can do is go back in,
then we can edit the definition.
And under Symbol Settings, we can switch off this preview.
That reduces the clutter a little bit, and we can see one,
two, three, four, five elements quite clearly along here.
Now we can run this study.
Now Stress Result 1 should be set to axial, if it's not,
edit the definition by right mouse-clicking, and check that
is set to axial, and it's set to PSI.
Let's check OK.
The easiest way to confirm the stress in each of these
members is go to Plot Tools, Probe.
We're going to select an element on each leg,
so if I select an element here, element number one,
I select an element here, element number ten,
then I can see what those stress values are.
And it's again, 2788, and 366 PSI.
So it's matched the truss example, the benchmark.
The reason it's matched is because, again, we've just
pin jointed the end here, pin jointing here,
pin jointing here, so we're only developing axial load
in these beam elements.
So let's close that.
Let's double-click on Displacement 1, new X appears.
Hold down the pin, and then we can easily change this
to the Y displacement, check OK.
Again that confirms, or agrees with,
the benchmark .298 inches.
We'll pause the video there, and then in the next video
we'll look at the effect of changing the joint,
and also the binary conditions.