Ex-9: Hydrostatic Loading Conditions

🧰The geometry and grasshopper files for this example can be downloaded here: hydrostatic_example.zip
*Legacy* files for Rhino 7 can also be found here: hydrostatic_example_rhino7.zip

This example demonstrates how to use Hydrostatic Loading Conditions. Hydrostatic load is a pressure force exerted from a fluid and increases as fluid depth increases. See more details here: Surface Loads.

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

Next, we apply the boundary conditions. There is a fixed restraint and a hydrostatic load. The fixed restraint has been covered in the previous example. For the hydrostatic boundary condition, import Hydrostatic Load block from Restraints&Loads section to the Grasshopper canvas. Following are the inputs to the Hydrostatic load:

• G: select inside faces (red in color) of the container which will have hydrostatic load because do the fluid
• P: a point that is on the surface of the fluid and defines zero depth
• SG: Specific gravity of the fluid (SG = 1 for water)

Once the inputs are specified, connect the Hydrostatic block to the (L) input to the Stress Solver Block.

Connect Solver Setting Block and the simulation is ready to be solved. (Feel free to change the default solver setting parameters). Solve the simulation, connect it to a visualize block, and the deformation and 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.