Ex-5: Static Simulation of a Composite Motor Mount

🧰The Rhino and Grasshopper files used in this example can be downloaded here: beginner_ex_ortho.zip
*Legacy* files for Rhino 7 can also be found here: beginner_ex_ortho_rhino7.zip

This example demonstrates how to use the orthotropic material block in a static (stress) simulation.

• The key steps involved in setting up the simulation are explained here.
• New users are advised to check out the getting started page to understand the basics of using the plugin.

• Place a geometry object on the canvas by double-clicking anywhere, typing geometry, and hitting enter to place the object on the canvas
• Right-click on the geometry object and change the name of the object to “Motor Mount” (a). Click “Set one Geometry” and set the motor mount polysurface in Rhino
• Repeat this process for the restraint surfaces on the +/- z-sides of the motor mount and change the name of the object to “Clamped Surfaces” (b)
• Again, repeat this process for the loading surfaces (the five holes on the -x half of the mount) and change the name to “Load Surfaces” (c)
• These will be connected to the geometry input of the component block, restraint block, and torque load block respectively

Now, for an composite material, add an Orthotropic Material Block from the Comp&Mat menu in Intact.Simulation. Since composite materials also require material orientation, we will need a transformation input (X). For this example, we align Material X to Global X, Material Y to Global Y, and so on.

• Create a “Rotate 3D” block (b) (again by double-clicking on the canvas)
• Attach to the rotate 3D block a “Unit Z” object to the Axis (X) and a slider (a) to Angle (A) in order to set the rotation angle about the specified axis (note, can attach slider (a) to a “Radians” object if desired)
• Connect the rotation output of this block to the input for the “Orthotropic Material” block (c)

This will align the stronger “E1/Ex” material properties to the rotated x-axis and the other properties to the y and z axes respectively

Using the geometry setup, orthotropic material setup, and a few other inputs we can set up all the necessary components (a), restraint (b), and load (c) blocks.

• Attach the corresponding geometries to the corresponding component, restraint, or load block.
• Attach the orthotropic material to the component block
• Set the axis for the Torque Load block by clicking “Set one Line” and choosing the two endpoints of the line that goes through the centroid of the largest hole on the motor mount.
• Attach a slider set to -20 for the “Torque” magnitude in the torque load block

• Create a solver settings block as shown in (a)
  • Set the target resolution (Res) to 100K by attaching a number slider with a value of 100000
  • Use the default direct solver type (St)
  • Use the default basis order (B) of 1 for linear elements (basis order = 2 for quadratic elements)
• Create a Stress Solver object as shown in (b)
  • Connect the solver settings (SS)
  • Connect the motor mount component (C)
  • Connect the motor mount restraint block (R)
  • Connect the motor mount torque load block (L)
• Hit solve to compute the solution
  • Create a visualization block (d) and connect the solver output to it
  • Optionally, users can connect the visualization settings block (c) for customizing the views
  • Right-click on the visualize block and choose the simulation output for display (e.g., total displacement)
  • Again optionally, users can add a deflection scale input to scale the visualized displacement as desired

• To better visualize you can hide the geometry in Rhino or set the display to wireframe. This will prevent the object from interfering with the visualization of the simulation.

The displacement distribution resulting from this static simulation example is displayed below. The maximum displacement is near .66 mm. To load the simulation results later, create a simulation reader block, right-click, select the simulation, and connect it to a visualize block.