Ex-4: Displacement Boundary Conditions

🧰The geometry and grasshopper files for this example can be downloaded here: disp_bc.zip
*Legacy* files for Rhino 7 can also be found here: disp_bc_rhino7.zip

This example demonstrates how to use Displacement Boundary Conditions. This is particularly useful when you want to see the stresses in an object after a certain deformation.

Open the model in Rhino, place intact components, reference geometry, and set material.

Next, place the number of displacement boundary conditions you’d like to set and specify the displacements.

Note: If there are no fully fixed restraints, all displacement boundary conditions together must specify displacements in x, y, and z directions to be correctly restrained. If displacement in one or more directions is not specified, the FEA problem is not correctly defined. This is an example of incomplete displacement boundary conditions that will not solve.

This is the valid set of boundary conditions we would like to set. Define a resolution or cell size with solver settings, and the simulation is ready to be solved.

Solve the simulation, connect it to a visualize block, and the stress distribution is ready to be seen. It is helpful to hide the geometry in rhino and turn off the geometry previews in Grasshopper to see the results the clearest.