Tutorial: how to test if a model withstands a certain weight in SolidWorks?
I'm a pretty decent modeler, but not a SolidWorks user, unfortunately. So I would very much appreciate if anyone could teach me how to test a model resistence in SolidWorks. I'm not even sure if that's really how it's called, but here's the deal: I have a simple shelf and I want to make sure that the bracket I'm using will likely support the weight I need it to, before I prototype it. Can anybody help me with that?
5 Answers
Well here are steps for simple analysis. First of all i'm not any professional but maybe this will help you.
Answered with a tutorial: https://grabcad.com/tutorials/tutorial-how-to-test-if-a-model-withstands-a-certain-weight-in-solidworks
You should make the kg into newtons and then apply it onto your model in FEA.
Sudhir made the tutorial for you. These are the correct steps, I just want to add some more details for you.
First in the analysis output screen you see blue, green and red areas. These colours represent the amount of stress in the area. Each material can withstand a certain amount of stress so you must compare the stress in these areas with the maximum stress your material can withstand.
I am not familiar with Solidworks but there should be an option showing you the safety factor (maximum developed stress/maximum allowable stress). This number should be above 1 at all times. A number bellow 1 means that your part will bend and/or break.
Great tutorial, FEA is much easier than most people think especially for small parts with simple loading. Just wanted to point out that you should use a bolted connection fastener where the fixed geometry was applied. In a real part bolts don't fix the sides of the holes but work by pressing the surface of the part with the mating surface of the wall to create more friction force and resist the load in this way. If you are using the bolts tightened loosely then you can also use a bearing load on the two holes. Otherwise I would take the results around these areas with a grain of salt as they are not super realistic. You can still use this as a valid analysis tho just make sure you raise your factor of safety. And to add on to what Manolis said a factor of safety of 1 means that the part is only strong enough to hold that specified load, any more and it will brake.