CST2013: Mechanical Solver Overview

Structural mechanics solver is intended to compute the static distributions of displacements, strains and stresses in a solid object, caused by various internal and external forces.

Solver specific sources

The following solver specific sources are regarded while computing the deformation of the solid:

• Displacement Source: A displacement vector can be assigned to a face of the solid.

• Traction Source: Stress (in GPa) applied to a surface of the solid.

Besides, several field types can be imported, modifying the behavior of the system:

• External force densities and nodal forces calculated by tetrahedral electrostatic, tetrahedral magnetostatic or tetrahedral high-frequency eigenmode solvers.

• Temperature distribution generated by thermal solvers contributes to the deformation via thermal expansion of the object materials.

Material properties

Each material comprising the solution domain must exhibit the following characteristics:

• Type of the material which can be one of the following types: "Unused", "Normal" or "Temperature dependent".

• Young's Modulus (in GPa) defines the stiffness of the material. This parameter must be non-zero. Its temperature dependency can also be defined, in this case a temperature distribution from the thermal solver must be imported.

• Poisson's Ratio defines the ratio of the transverse to the axial strain, if the body is stretched.

• The Thermal Expansion Coefficient defines the relative change of the material's length if its temperature rises by 1 degree.

Mesh Type

The mechanical solver runs upon tetrahedron meshes.

General work flow

In order to run the mechanical solver, the following steps are to be performed:

• Define mechanical properties (Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio and eventually, thermal expansion coefficient) for all the materials building up the solution domain.

• Define the displacement (at least one is necessary to fix the simulated structure) and traction boundaries.

• If needed, import a temperature distribution from thermal solver or external forces from electromagnetic solvers.

• Configure and run the mechanical solver.

Solver results

The linear mechanical solver offers a variety of 2D and 3D result types which are described here for the linear solver and here for the nonlinear solver.

See also

Mechanical Solver Parameters, Mechanical Sources, Define Displacement Boundary, Define Traction Boundary, Nonlinear Mechanical Solver Overview, Mechanical Linear Solver Results Overview, Mechanical Nonlinear Solver Results Overview