This tutorial shows you how to perform a FEA (Finite Element Analysis) for standard ASTM D638-14 Type IV in FreeCAD. See also ; FEA compression in FreeCAD
- Open FreeCAD. Click on the ‘File’ tab and select ‘New’.
- Click on the drop-down box where it says ‘Start’ and select ‘Part’.
- Now click on the file tab and select import option to use file with differenct format. FreeCad allows you to use various file type. FOr this example we will be using IGES file. Find the file in you system and upload. You can rotate the object with help of scroll button on the mouse.
- Click on the drop-down box again and select ‘FEM’. This will turn on the analysis solver.
- Click on ‘A’ under the drop-down box.
- Select the top surface of the specimen and then click on the ‘Mesh’ tab to select ‘FEM Mesh by Gmsh’.
- Enter the maximum element size as 1.0 and hit ‘Apply’ and ‘Ok’. The mesh might be hidden. To show the mesh, right click on the ‘FEMMeshGmsh’ in the model window and click on ‘Show Selection’.
- For adding the material, click on the ‘Model’ tab and click on ‘FEM Material for Solid’. Alternatively, you can click on the yellow circle right next to analysis button. You can select from the list of materials or give your own specifications for a material such as Young’s Modulus, Density and Poisson’s Ratio. For this tutorial, we select ABS. Press Ok.
- For adding constraints, click on the ‘Model’ tab and go to ‘Mechanical Constraints’ and then ‘Constraint fixed’. Select one of the flat face of specimen and click ‘Add’. Then click ‘Ok’ to exit.
- For Force constraint, again go to ‘Mechanical Constraints’ and click ‘Constraint force’. Select the other face of the specimen as shown. Enter the area load as 500 and press ‘Ok’.
- Select ‘CalculiXccxTools’ in the model window. Now click on ‘Solve’ tab and hit ‘Run Solver Calculations’.
- Double click on the ‘CalculiX_static_results’ and select the result you want on display.
See also[edit | edit source]
- FEM Module - FreeCAD Documentation [[1]]