Physics Set-Up

Add Structural Conditions

Once having entered the Physics task of the work flow, the wall support needs to be defined. This is done by selecting Add next to Structural Conditions. In the Add drop down menu there is an option for support, click this to open the support selection menu. Select the face which is going to be attached to the wall, press the blue ‘+’ button next to Location. Next open the drop down menu below Type and choose User Specified. Next, under Degrees of Freedom, set Translation X and Translation Y to be free while Translation Z is set to fixed. This allows the bar to be kinematically constrained so that the bar can expand in the X and Y directions while constraining Z

The other end of the bar needs a displacement constraint in order to keep it from “clipping” into the other wall. Once again select the drop down menu Add and choose Displacement. Select the appropriate face and input 0.002 m in the Translation Z box, then type Free into the Translation X and Y. By using free in these places it will prevent the free end from being over constrained and help calculate a more accurate stress value.

Next to Structural Conditions press Add > Support then select one of the cut sides as the location and the Type will be User Specified. Edit the Translation drop down menus until there is only one arrow going into our model and repeat for the other side. This creates a symmetrical constraint support for the shaft which allows it to deform while also not moving its location. Repeat this step for the other cut face and one of the top faces.

Add Solid Thermal Conditions

Next the temperature change needs to be added by selecting entire bar and adding a Solid Thermal Condition > Temperature and setting it to 122 degrees Celsius. We know that it needs to be set to 122 degrees Celsius because there needs to be a 100 degree increase. The original temperature can be found by going back to the Physics section via the workflow, and then selecting Material Assignments. In this menu the Zero-thermal-strain reference temperature can be found and used as the starting temperature for the material. The material was automatically assigned structural steel but if a different material was used, the zero-thermal-strain reference temperature would be different and so would the thermal condition for the free end of the bar.

Go to Step 5: Results

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