I am trying to do some finite element analysis of simple structures in Cosmos so I can get a better feel of how it works. Right now I have gone through the first few tutorials of Cosmos but I am having trouble with meshing the structure before applying the loads and finding the maximum stress, factor of safety, etc. Specifically I am trying to find out where I can physically enter in the number of elements and the shape of the elements that will be used in the finite element analysis. All I can find in the tutorials are what seems to be instructions on how to mesh in general, with an arbitrarily high number of elements. I thought I had found how to enter the number of elements, but once it meshed, the preview showed otherwise. For example, say that I am trying to analyze a cantilever beam of length 12 inches. I set boundary conditions at one end so it is fixed and apply a force of say 10 lbs on the other end. I want to compare the results (such as maximum deformation, maximum stress, etc.) from meshing with two elements (one node located at 6 inches) with say the results from meshing with 6 elements (nodes located at 2, 4, 6 inches, etc.). Obviously the analysis with 6 elements will be more accurate, but how can I change the number of elements? Thanks for any help.

7/31/2006 3:13:16 PM

i understand like 3 words in that paragraph

7/31/2006 11:00:44 PM

damn

7/31/2006 11:16:48 PM

Why don't you ask Dr. Yuan?


I think your problem is that you're trying to use similar protocol that we used for ANSYS. Dan Christie and I used Cosmos for our Structures project last semester even though Yuan told us to use ANSYS. Dan did the majority of the modeling and analysis, but I observed and put in my two cents the whole time. Since I didn't use the program that much I can't be sure, but I don't think you could ever really change stuff like number of elements and the meshing stuff. It just figures it out so you don't have to think that hard. But maybe that was just my wishful thinking.

Another thing was when ever he applied a load, he never applied it to the actual structure itself. I'm not 100% sure how he did it, but he seemed to make a new point or a plane attached to the structure and that opened up way more possibilities for the point loads and such.

I could be wrong on all of this, but it's what I inferred from watching him do most of this. If you need some more help I may be able to send you what I can find of our report (if it'd even help) or put you in contact with Dan.

8/2/2006 1:54:47 AM

^Ha, Dr. Yuan can't help, I am doing this whole thing for him actually. He is redesigning some of the structures projects for next year and since nobody really got ANSYS to work last semester, he is having people do it in Solidworks/COSMOS from now on. He doesn't know much about using Solidworks/COSMOS for this kind of stuff, so he sent me to figure it out and report back.

Additionally, does anyone know if there is any kind of console or script editor in Solidworks? For example, say I have a big assembly or something and I want to change a few things about where some forces are applied. Instead of opening up the file, finding the forces that I want to change, then physically changing them, is there like a text document or something I can open, change a few things around, then run it? ANSYS has something like this as does many other programs, but I can't think of anything that Solidworks has.

8/2/2006 9:41:47 AM

what type of elements are you using?

why couldnt you get ansys to work? were you getting an error or just crappy results?

8/7/2006 12:20:09 PM

After messing around for a while I have mostly figured out meshing. Now I have a relatively simpler question. Say I have a truss structure that I have designed in solidworks. I have already defined the boundary conditions and the external forces. How can I find the internal forces of the individual members? I made the truss structure through an assembly -- each member was modeled individually as a part and added/mated to the assembly. Thanks!

8/8/2006 4:13:09 PM

iirc, for ansys that's a post processing function.

[Edited on August 9, 2006 at 11:14 AM. Reason : .]

8/9/2006 11:14:11 AM

Well yeah but I am trying to figure out how to do it in Solidworks/COSMOS. The MAE 473 professor is switching over to Solidworks/COSMOS for next year and I am trying to figure out how to do most that kind of stuff for him.

8/9/2006 12:18:50 PM