Exercise E Plate Under Uniform Pressure

Finite Element Analysis in Practice Steps for Exercises 4.00 07/11/2005 45

Exercise E
Plate Under Uniform Pressure
Plate Elements
Objective: Determine the maximum stress in the plate from the applied pressure load.

Geometry: Model is built in the XY plane with the long side parallel to the X axis.
Plate is 10" x 5" x 0.25".






Loads: Uniform pressure of 50 psi

Constraints: The two long edges will be constrained against translation in the Y and Z directions and rotation
in the Z direction.
One of the short edges will be constrained against translation in the X and Z directions.

Elements: Plate

Material: Steel (AISI 4130)
Exercise E Plate Under Uniform Pressure
Finite Element Analysis in Practice Steps for Exercises 4.00 07/11/2005 46
Exercise E Plate Under Uniform Pressure
Finite Element Analysis in Practice Steps for Exercises 4.00 07/11/2005 47
Solution
Building the Model

"Start: Programs: ALGOR V17:
FEMPRO"
Press the Windows "Start" button. Select the
"Programs" pull-out menu and then select the
"ALGOR V17" pull-out menu. Select the
"FEMPRO" command.
"New" Select the "New" icon at the left side of the dialog.
"New" Press the "New" button.

Exercise E Type "Exercise E" in the "File name:" field in the
"Save As" dialog. Note the default folder location
where the analysis files will be created. This location
can be changed by navigating to an alternate working
folder if desired.
"Save" Press the "Save" button.

"Geometry: Mesh: 4 Point
Rectangular"
Access the GEOMETRY pull-down menu and select
the "Mesh" pull-out menu. Select the "4 Point
Rectangular" command.
20 Type "20" in the "AB:" field.
10 Type "10" in the "BC:" field.
<Enter> Press <Enter> to define the origin as the first point.

10 <Enter> Type "10" in the "X:" field and press <Enter> to
define the point (10,0,0) as the second point.

10 <Tab> 5 <Enter> Type "10" in the "X:" field, press <Tab>, type "5"
and press <Enter> to define the point (10,5,0) as the
third point.

5 <Enter> Type "5" in the "Y:" field and press <Enter> to define
the point (0,5,0) as the fourth point.
"Apply" Press the "Apply" button to create the mesh.
<Esc> Press <Esc> to exit the mesh command.

"View: Orientation: XY Top" Access the VIEW pull-down menu and select the
"Orientation" pull-out menu. Select the "XY Top"
command. The mesh will appear as shown in Figure 1.

Exercise E Plate Under Uniform Pressure
Finite Element Analysis in Practice Steps for Exercises 4.00 07/11/2005 48

Figure 1: Plate Element Mesh

Defining the Element and Material Data
Mouse Right click on the "Element Type" heading
for Part 1 in the tree view.
"Plate" Select the "Plate" command.
Mouse Right click on the "Element Definition"
heading for Part 1 in the tree view.
"Modify Element Definition" Select the "Modify Element Definition..."
command.
0.25 In the "Element Definition" dialog, type
"0.25" in the "Thickness" field.
Mouse Click on the "Orientation" tab.
100 Type "100" in the "Z Coordinate" field of the
"Element Normal" section. This will be used
to control the direction of the uniform pressure
load.
"OK" Press the "OK" button to accept the change
and close the dialog.
Mouse Right click on the "Material" heading for Part
1 in the tree view.
"Modify Material" Select the "Modify Material" command.
"Steel (AISI 4130)" Highlight the "Steel (AISI 4130)" item from
the list of available materials in the "Select
Material" section.
"View Properties" Press the "View Properties" button to view
the material properties associated with this type
of steel.

"OK" Press the "OK" button to close the properties
window.
"OK" Press the "OK" button to accept the selected
material.

Exercise E Plate Under Uniform Pressure
Finite Element Analysis in Practice Steps for Exercises 4.00 07/11/2005 49
After assigning the material properties, all red Xs should now be removed from the tree view.

Adding Loads and Constraints

"Selection: Select: Vertices" Access the SELECTION pull-down menu and
choose the "Select" pull-out menu. Select the
"Vertices" command.
Mouse Click on the vertex at the bottom left corner of
the plate.
<Ctrl> Mouse Holding down the <Ctrl> key, click on the
vertex at the upper left corner of the plate to
add it to the selection set.
Mouse Right click in the display area.
"Add: Nodal Boundary Conditions" Select the "Add" pull-out menu and select the
"Nodal Boundary Conditions" command.
"Pinned" Press the "Pinned" button to activate the
translation constraints in the X, Y and Z
directions.
"OK" Press the "OK" button to apply these
constraints to the selected vertices. A red circle
will appear on each vertex to indicate that it is
partially constrained.

"Selection: Shape: Rectangle" Access the SELECTION pull-down menu and
select the "Shape" pull-out menu. Select the
"Rectangle" command.
Mouse Draw a box enclosing all of the vertices along
the top edge except for the one at the upper left
corner (see Figure 2).


Figure 2: Rectangle Select of Upper Vertices
Exercise E Plate Under Uniform Pressure
Finite Element Analysis in Practice Steps for Exercises 4.00 07/11/2005 50

<Ctrl>Mouse Holding down the <Ctrl> key, draw a box
enclosing all of the vertices along the bottom
edge except for the one at the lower left corner.
Mouse Right click in the display area.
"Add: Nodal Boundary Conditions" Select the "Add" pull-out menu and select the
"Nodal Boundary Conditions" command.

Mouse Activate the "Ty" checkbox in the
"Constrained DOFs" section to constrain the
translation in the Y direction.

Mouse Activate the "Tz" checkbox in the
"Constrained DOFs" section to constrain the
translation in the Z direction.

Mouse Activate the "Rz" checkbox in the
"Constrained DOFs" section to constrain the
rotation in the Z direction.

"OK" Press the "OK" button to apply these
constraints to the selected vertices.

Mouse Draw a box enclosing the left edge except for
the lower left and upper left corners.
Mouse Right click in the display area.
"Add: Nodal Boundary Conditions" Select the "Add" pull-out menu and select the
"Nodal Boundary Conditions" command.

Mouse Activate the "Tx" checkbox in the
"Constrained DOFs" section to constrain the
translation in the X direction.

Mouse Activate the "Tz" checkbox in the
"Constrained DOFs" section to constrain the
translation in the Z direction.

"OK" Press the "OK" button to apply these
constraints to the selected vertices.
Mouse Click on the + next to the "Surfaces" heading
for Part 1 in the tree view.
Mouse Right click on the "Surface 1" heading for
Part 1 in the tree view.
"Add: Surface Pressure/Traction" Select the "Add" pull-out menu and select the
"Surface Pressure/Traction" command.
50 Type "50" in the "Magnitude" field.
"OK" Press the "OK" button to apply the pressure.

Exercise E Plate Under Uniform Pressure
Finite Element Analysis in Practice Steps for Exercises 4.00 07/11/2005 51
Analysis


"Analysis:
Perform Analysis"
Access the ANALYSIS pull-down menu and
select the "Perform Analysis" command to
run the analysis. At the completion of the
analysis, FEMPRO will automatically transfer
to the Results environment.
Viewing the Results
The maximum stress is in a direction parallel to the free edge, which for this example is the Y
direction.


"View: Orientation: Isometric" Access the VIEW pull-down menu and select
the "Orientation" pull-out menu. Select the
"Isometric" command.
"Results: Stress: Stress Tensor: 2) YY" Access the RESULTS pull-down menu and
select the "Stress" pull-out menu. Select the
"Stress Tensor" pull-out menu and select the
"2) YY" command. The maximum stress is
indicated as 15,772 psi.

Mouse To verify the location of boundary conditions
and the orientation of the pressure, press the
"Toggle Load and Constraint Display"
toolbar button near the bottom of the screen.
Your screen should now look similar to the one
shown in Figure 3.


Figure 3: Stress Tensor Results


Exercise E Plate Under Uniform Pressure
Finite Element Analysis in Practice Steps for Exercises 4.00 07/11/2005 52
Validation of Results
Reference

Roark, R. J. and Young, W. C., Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain, Fifth Edition, New York,
McGraw-Hill, 1975, page 389, Table 26, Case 2A.

Theoretical Solution

max
is parallel to the free edge.
2
2
max

t
Bqb
= = 15,800 psi

Variable Value Units Comments
a 10 in. Length of long side
b 5 in. Length of short side
q 50 psi Uniform pressure
t 0.25 in. Thickness
B 0.79 - Parameter from
reference based on
a/b ratio of 2.


Comparison of Results
Theoretical ALGOR % Difference
15,800 15,772 0.18%



This completes the exercise. To review a completed archive of this exercise, refer to the file
Exercise E.ach in the "exercise E\results archive" directory.