Exercise 1 - Analyzing a Solid Part

2-1

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

Linear stress analysis of a lower control arm
Import a lower control arm modeled in Solid Edge

Apply Constraints and Loads to the geometry

Mesh the control arm Display the results

Learn more how to

Use the Model Info and Entity Editor windows to review the values

of the material properties attached to the Solid Edge part Use View manipulation to change the orientation of a model and dynamically rotate a model

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-2

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

1. Start Femap. An empty model file should appear on your screen. 2. Open the Preferences dialog box with the File, Preferences command. Select the Geometry tab. Set the Solid Geometry Scale Factor to Meters (1,). Press OK to accept.

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-3

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

3. Use File, Import, Geometry command and from Femap_Training folder, import the Solid Edge Part, LCA.par

4. Save the Femap model as a new file Femap_Training folder a) Use the File, Save command
Femap with NX Nastran
UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-4

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

5. In the Model Info window, expand the Model object and the Properties and Materials object trees. a) If the Model Info and/or Entity Editor windows are not open, select the Tools, Entity Editor and Tools, Model Info commands as needed to open these windows. b) Select the material 1.LCA.par under the Materials object.

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-5

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

6. Display the properties of the values of the material of the material defined in the Solid Edge model. a) Double press the Entity Editor window title bar to expand the window and view the values of the material. Scroll the window as needed to see all the values. b) Double press the Entity Editor window again to dock the window back to its previous position.
Femap with NX Nastran
UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-6

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

7. Apply constraints to the holes on the ends of the control arm. a) Change the view to the Dimetric view by using the F8 key to open the View Rotate dialog box. Select Dimetric and then press OK.

b)

Select the Model, Constraint, On Surface command. The Create or Activate Constraint dialog box will open. Enter CS1 as the title and press OK.

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-7

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

8. Apply constraints to the holes on the ends of the control arm.
Select the four inner surfaces that define the holes on ends of the control arm. Notice that as you move the mouse, different surfaces are highlighted and that you can select through the part. b) Press the Preview Selected Entities button to highlight the selected surfaces in the Femap model. c) Press OK to confirm the selection of the four surfaces.
a)

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-8

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

9. Continue to apply constraints to the holes on the ends of the control arm.
In the Create Constraints on Geometry select the Pinned No Translation button, and then press OK. b) press Cancel to exit the command. c) To rotate your model, you should be able to see triangles designating that the holes on the end of the bracket are pinned (the letter T is displayed to designate that translation is fixed.
a)

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-9

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

10. Apply a load to the top of the control arm
a)

b)

c)

a) b) c) d)

Select the Model, Load, On Surface command. The Create or Activate Load dialog box will open. Enter LS1 as the title and press OK. Select the top surface on top on the boss on the right end of the control arm and press OK to confirm the selection. In the Create Loads on Surfaces dialog box, select Force. Set the Direction to Normal to Surface. Enter -250 as the Magnitude. Press OK to create the load. Press Cancel or use the ESC key to exit the Load on Surface command.

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-10

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

11. Turn off display of all geometry except for curves and turn off nodes
a)

b)

c) d) e)

In the View Toolbar, select the View Visibility icon to open the View Quick Options or Control-Q Select the Geometry Off button. This turns off the display of all geometry. Check the Curve checkbox to display curves. Uncheck the Node option. Press Done to close the dialog box.

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-11

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

12. Mesh the part
Select the Mesh, Geometry, Solids command. Since there is only one solid part in your Femap model, you will not be prompted to select the part(s) to mesh. If you have a Femap model with multiple solid parts, you will get the Entity Selection Select Solids to Mesh dialog box. b) Press OK to generate the mesh. Your model should appear like the following:
a)

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-12

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

13. Toggle off the display of the mesh size a) On the View Toolbar, pull down the View Style menu and select Mesh Size. 14. Setup the linear statics analysis of the

part by creating an Analysis Set.

a) b) c) d) e)

Select the Model, Analysis command. In the Analysis Set Manager dialog box, press the New button. In the Analysis Set dialog box, set Analysis Type to 1. Static. Enter Title as Linear Statics. Press OK to close the dialog box.

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-13

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

15. Display the boundary conditions and output requests for this analysis set. a) Expand the Master Requests and Conditions tree by pressing on the + symbol next to Master Requests and Conditions. b) Expand both the Boundary Conditions and Output Requests trees. 16. To start the analysis, press the Analyze button. This will close the Analysis Set Manager dialog box and open the Analysis Monitor window.
NOTE: Active Constraint and Load Set(s) are automatically set as the Master Requests and Conditions for a new Nastran analysis set.
UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

Femap with NX Nastran

1-14

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

17. Save the model in NASTRAN format (.NAS) and in NEiNastran Editor press F5 (Analysis Run ). Editor displays the progress of the simulation. Once the simulation is complete, the results should be automatically read into your Femap model. You can confirm this by looking at the NEiNastran Termination Status, then close the editor.

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-15

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

18. Access to postprocessing data
a) In the model window, press

the Right Mouse button and select Post Data.

19. In the Select PostProcessing Data, set display for deformed shape and stress contours
a) In Output Vectors, choose 1.

Total Translation for Deformation

b) Set Contour to 60031..Solid

Von Mises Stress.

c) Press OK to close the box.

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-16

Exercise 1 Analyzing a Solid Part

20. Turn on the stress contours and the deformed shape using Post Toolbar. a) Select the Contour icon. b) Select the Deformed shape icon. 21. Turn off display of the undeformed model

Femap with NX Nastran

UGS Corp. 2006. All rights reserved.

1-17