Objectives Of SolidWorks Simulation

By completing this tutorial, you will learn to conduct finite-element analysis (FEA) tests on SolidWorks models using the Simulation add-on.

Introduction SolidWorks Simulation

Finite-element analysis (FEA) is useful in predicting a model’s response to various influences such as forces, torques, periodic excitations, and heat. FEA is used to analyze large or complicated models where analytical solutions are not possible. FEA software breaks the model into thousands of small tetrahedral elements and solves numerically for each one individually.

Some of the leading commercial FEA tools include COMSOL, Ansys, and SolidWorks Simulation. This tutorial covers SolidWorks Simulation because it is a comfortable environment for those who already know 3D modeling with SolidWorks. SolidWorks Simulation is primarily applicable to mechanical and thermal models. COMSOL specializes in multiphysics problems involving interaction between mechanical, thermal, and electrical behavior. Ansys also addresses mechanical and thermal simulations and has advanced capabilities required in certain fields.

This tutorial will cover three of the simulation studies available in SolidWorks Simulation:

1. Static analysis, for Identifying stresses caused by static loading
2. Frequency analysis, for identifying resonant frequencies and associated mode shapes
3. Thermal analysis, for identifying heat flow through a model

Mastering these three gives you the tools and experience necessary to make use of any of the remaining simulation studies. We will use the same model, a wine glass, for each study.

Before you begin SolidWorks Simulation

On two occasions I have been asked, “Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?”...I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
                                        Charles Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 1864

Since the very beginning of computing, users have been plagued by bad outputs as a result of bad inputs. FEA is particularly prone to such problems, generating pretty pictures that often have no bearing on reality. As a general rule, if you don’t know what to expect, the results you get are probably incorrect and certainly unusable.