9-1

C H A P T E R 9

Steady State Stress Simulation

The exercise in this chapter is for the following product:

• Working Model 4D

Exercise 9.1 introduces the FEA simulation feature in Working Model

4D.
9-2 Chapter 9—Steady State Stress Simulation

Exercise 9.1 Stress Simulation on a

Piston Connecting Rod
In this exercise you will open a connecting rod model, designate it as an
FEA part, apply a distributed load and restraint and then perform a stress
simulation.

Starting Working Model

With Working Model, you can quickly and easily isolate and stress test
a load-bearing part.

First you will start Working Model and open the piston model.

1. Launch the Working Model program.

Working Model 4D starts and presents a blank modeling window.

2. Choose Open from the File menu.

This displays the File Open dialog.

3. Browse the Tutorials/Chapter 9/Exercise 9.1 folder and open the

connecting rod.wm3 file.

Working Model 4D displays the connecting rod.

Adding a Load
Before running the stress simulation, you must add a distributed load to
the part.

1. Select Connecting Rod-1 in the Object List.

2. Right click and choose Properties from the pop-up menu, or

double-click Connecting Rod-1 in the Object List.

This displays the Properties window.

3. Click the FEA tab of the Properties window.

 Exercise 9.1 Stress Simulation on a Piston Connecting Rod 9-3

This displays the FEA page of the Properties window. To display

this page, you first may need to select the FEA checkbox in the
Properties List of the Object Manager.

Figure 9-1
Properties Window
(FEA Page)
Click to
apply Mesh
to a part
Click to
display
Mesh

4. Select the “Analyze stress with finite elements” setting.

5. Enter a Default Mesh Size of 15 mm.

6. Click the Mesh button.

7. Rotate the Connecting Rod to expose the hole surfaces.

8. Select the Distributed Load tool on the Sketch toolbar.

9. Click at a point on the surface of the top hole.

9-4 Chapter 9—Steady State Stress Simulation

This enables the distributed force.

10. Right click the distributed force in the Connections List and
choose Properties.

This displays the Properties window.

11. Click the Distributed Load tab.

This displays the Distributed Load page of the Properties window.

Figure 9-2
Properties Window
(Distributed Load Page)

12. Click the Directional setting and enter 5, 0, 0 in the Fx, Fy, Fz text
fields, respectively.

13. Select the Restraint tool on the Sketch toolbar.

14. Click at a point on the surface of the lower hole.

This enables the restraint.

Perform Stress Analysis

Now you are ready to run the stress analysis on the Connecting Rod.

1. Select the Solve FEA icon.

Working Model performs a stress simulation while a dialog

displays.
 Exercise 9.1 Stress Simulation on a Piston Connecting Rod 9-5

Figure 9-3
Stress Analysis Dialog

When the MSC.Nastran analysis is complete, Working Model

displays the results.

Figure 9-4
MSC.Nastran Results

2. Click the Play button to animate the result.

9-6 Chapter 9—Steady State Stress Simulation

This displays a dialog prompting you to animate.

3. Select “Animate the current FEA results.” to animate.

Working Model displays the animated result.

4. Choose Export Video from the File menu to create an AVI file of
the animated results.