Beginner to FEA

[BenDragon]

Hello,

I am new to Finite Element Analysis, the goal is to design vehicle frames subject to various static and dynamic loads.

I came across this application, it looks good on the surface, but I am not entirely sure if I can read the results from my designs.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_QDr1HeXA&t=338s[/video]

I did watch this video to see if I can natively read the results and while I can read the stress distribution across the part.

What I can't tell, is whether the component would break or how much headroom I would have for failure.

Is there a way to get an idea of how close a component is to failure?

[TB20]

Hello BenDragon,

the Finite Element Analysis is only a tool to compute deformation, stresses etc. The user is responsible for interpreting the results.

In general, the maximum stress must be less than a maximum allowable value (e.g. yield or tensile strength of the material) including a factor of safety. In specific cases, there may be standards that need to be taken in account.

[BenDragon]

Of course.

But there are a number of denominations for the stress displayed.

This includes Pascal, kiloPascal and Megapascal.

Displacement doesn't seem to be clear on this either.

From the tutorial it isn't clear to me the which units the software uses for calculations.

[TB20]

The results are calculated in the unit which you used during preprocessing. This is called consistency of units.

The standard unit system is often N / mm / t:

• Input: length in mm, mass in t, Young's Modulus in N/mm^2, force in N, pressure in N/mm^2

• Output: displacement in mm, force in N, stress in N/mm^2