Stress along a cut line in Calculix

     This videos is about how to plot a entity value against a cut line (node sequence) generating plots like this:

Hexahedral Mesh Refinement in Salome

     In this video I show some ways to refine the hexahedral mesh of the beam we did before. This procedure is meant to be more clever than simple making the "number of segments" parameter bigger and bigger.

Thanks again!

Cantilever beam finite element analysis using open source software

     In this video I'm modeling, meshing and computing a cantilever beam using open source software. For the model and mesh, I've used Salome7, and the finite element computations were carried out with Calculix. This is meant to be an practical introductory video to free fea software. Theres an insane amount of theoretical books about this subject out there, take a look on them before designing your own cranes (LoL). 

The code for the calculix input deck:

Cheers!

Pressure vessel FEA using Calculix and Salome 7 - Part 3 (Simulation)

In the last part of the Calculix + Salome 7 FEA, I've shown how to run a Calculix ccx Input deck.

The video:

The code:

Thanks !

Eddie

Pressure vessel Finite Element Analysis using Calculix and Salome 7 - Part 2 (Mesh)

     In the part 2 (of 3), I've shown how I made the mesh for the finite element analysis of the can using Salome 7 software. One of the problems we face using Salome+Calculix is that Salome7 don't export the mesh in *.inp format needed for calculix. Our solution to the problem is to export the mesh in *.unv and convert it using a python script. 

     More information on these extension conversion scripts can be found in the following sites:

http://caelinux.org/wiki/index.php/Doc:Interop

http://dip28p.web.fc2.com/calculix/gimpconvert/index.htm

     Or you can download the one that I already fixed here (.tar.gz) or here (.zip).

Pressure vessel Finite Element Analysis using Calculix and Salome 7 - Part 1 (Geometry)

     One of the reasons I made this blog is to keep a record about what I'm doing so in the future I can come back and see details, that with time I can end up forgetting. This Video is about Finite Element Analysis using only free software, some of them open-source. The softwares I'm talking about are Calculix and Salome 7.

    The test model I'm simulating is internal pressure of an aluminum can, and its effects. An aluminum can is a good  because its commonly available, cheap. So it's relatively easy to get some results experimentally to match with the calculations. Other good reason is that the analytical models of pressure vessel are very straightforward, good for solid mechanics students. 

     In the picture we can see that the can I'm using is a funky one, because I attached a tire valve stem, so I can load and unload the can with air pressure, and use a tire pressure gauge to read a ball park value of the inside pressure in the can. 

     I also have a strain gage bonded in the can, making possible some extensometry studies, and perhaps numerical values of the strain related to the internal pressure

  

      Here we can see an arduino setup to read the Wheatstone bridge.  

     

     The last picture is the results for displacements that returned from calculix. The numerical answer has shown a good agreement with analytical calculations.  

    Finally, the video: