{"id":22101,"date":"2018-11-18T17:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T22:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/?p=22101"},"modified":"2018-11-08T10:32:09","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T15:32:09","slug":"getting-started-with-solidworks-simulation-fixtures-and-loads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/2018\/11\/getting-started-with-solidworks-simulation-fixtures-and-loads.html","title":{"rendered":"Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Simulation &#8211; Fixtures and Loads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to part 4 of our Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Simulation series. This time we will be walking you through the process of assigning fixtures and loads to your simulation study.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\">\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/fast.wistia.net\/embed\/iframe\/muio8384db?dnt=1#?secret=sp2BS0M2ct\" data-secret=\"sp2BS0M2ct\" title=\"Wistia video player\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you haven&#8217;t seen our previous entries, here is where to get caught up:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.alignex.com\/getting-started-with-solidworks-simulation-introduction-to-finite-element-analysis\">Part 1: Introduction to Finite Element Analysis<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.alignex.com\/getting-started-with-solidworks-simulation-prepping-your-geometry\">Part 2: Prepping Your Geometry<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.alignex.com\/getting-started-with-solidworks-simulation-assigning-materials\">Part 3: Assigning Materials<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"background-color: transparent\"><span style=\"color: #91993e\">Video Transcription<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now that you know how to assign materials to your model, let\u2019s talk about how to assign fixtures and loads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">First, let\u2019s clarify the two type of load options &#8211; Static &amp; Dynamic. A problem can be defined as &#8220;static&#8221; if the forces being applied are independent of time &#8211; imagine taking a bowling ball and very gently setting it on a chair. The load being transferred to the chair is applied slowly, so hypothetically you can ignore forces caused by accelerations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"width: 555px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alignex.com\/hubfs\/blog\/Fixtures-and-Loads-Image-1.jpg\" alt=\"Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Simulation - Fixtures and Loads\" width=\"555\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now imagine you drop that same bowling ball onto the chair from a height of say 5 feet &#8211; this would be considered dynamic due to the short time period in which the load is applied.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dynamic problems are those where forces are time dependent and so accelerations\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">do\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">need to be taken into consideration\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.alignex.com\/discover-the-power-of-thors-hammer-with-solidworks-simulation\">such as in an impact or earthquake study<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the purposes of this video series, we\u2019ll be discussing static analysis only.To run a Static simulation, the model must be properly restrained so it can&#8217;t move.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alignex.com\/simulation\">SOLIDWORKS Simulation<\/a>\u00a0provides various fixture types that can be applied to faces, edges, and vertices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"width: 555px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alignex.com\/hubfs\/blog\/Fixtures-and-Loads-Image-2.jpg\" alt=\"Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Simulation - Fixtures and Loads\" width=\"555\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Without fixtures, our model would be able to translate in the x, y, or z directions. It could also rotate about the x, y, and z axes. We call these the 6 &#8220;degrees of freedom&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">By applying these fixtures, we remove the degrees of freedom which prevent the model from shooting off into virtual space once we apply the loads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For example, if we want the cylindrical face on the knuckle to be completely fixed, we can select Fixed Geometry and click the face to lock it down.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"width: 555px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alignex.com\/hubfs\/blog\/Fixtures-and-Loads-Image-3.jpg\" alt=\"Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Simulation - Fixtures and Loads\" width=\"555\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can also apply fixtures that will allow a face to move freely in its plane but prevent it from moving normal to its plane. This is called a Roller\/Slider condition, and we&#8217;ll use it to represent the top and bottom wear plate locations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These are just two examples, but there are many other fixture types that you can use to describe how the model should be held in place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"width: 555px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alignex.com\/hubfs\/blog\/Fixtures-and-Loads-Image-5.jpg\" alt=\"Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Simulation - Fixtures and Loads\" width=\"555\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once all of the degrees of freedom have been removed, the model is considered fully constrained and we&#8217;re ready to apply loads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right clicking on the External Loads folder, you&#8217;ll see options to apply force, torque, pressure, gravity, centrifugal, and bearing loads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can also define remote loads or masses to account for components that would be attached to the structure, but are not represented in the CAD model. This can greatly simplify the meshing process and significantly reduce the solve time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"width: 555px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alignex.com\/hubfs\/blog\/Fixtures-and-Loads-Image-6.jpg\" alt=\"Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Simulation - Fixtures and Loads\" width=\"555\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you need to study thermal effects, you can apply temperature loads and see how much the metal components expand or contract, and any resultant stress.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lastly, if you know how far a component moves and would like to calculate how much force is required to move it, we can use the Prescribed Displacements option.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Make sure to head over to the <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.alignex.com\/\">Alignex Blog<\/a> to check out other entries in our Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Simulation series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to part 4 of our Getting Started with SOLIDWORKS Simulation series. This time we will be walking you through the process of assigning fixtures and loads to your simulation study. &nbsp; If you haven&#8217;t seen our previous entries, here<\/p>\n... <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/2018\/11\/getting-started-with-solidworks-simulation-fixtures-and-loads.html\">Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":22108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[356],"class_list":["post-22101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solidworks-simulation","tag-how-to"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22101"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22113,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22101\/revisions\/22113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}