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Model/Problem Description
The cantilever beam shown below is loaded by a single point load of magnitude 1000 N at its free end
and in the negative Y-direction. The beam is of length 10 m, and cross-section 4 4 m. It is rigidly fixed
at its left end. The material properties are Youngs modulus, E 200 GPa, Poisson ratio 0.3. The stress
distribution is required to be determined. The illustration is shown in Figure 1.
2
2.1
The cantilever beam is modeled as two dimensional plate with a constact thickness of 4 m. The x-y plane
surface is modelled using 8-node quadrilateral elements (Quad8). The total number of elements is 40
elements. The illustration of the meshing is shown in Figure 2.
The unit used in this model is a consistent SI unit:
Length: m
E: N/m2 , therefore the Youngs Modulus is 200000000000 N/m2
Force: N, the applied force for this case is 1000 N
2.2
Constraints
To represent a fixed end of the cantilever beam, all nodes in the left end are constrained in x axis. They
are not allowed to move in x axis, using displx=0. To make sure that the cantilever beam is not moving
in y direction, one of the node is also restrained in y-axis, using disply=0. The constraints can be seen
in Figure 2.
2.3
Loadings
The displacement and von misses results are illustrated in Figure 3 and Figure 4, respectively. By looking
at the magnitude (total) displacement of the deformed beam, it is clearly shown that the free end will
be mostly deformed. The largest displacement is at the tip where a concentrated load is applied. The
displacement is 9.972E08 m.
Conclusion
Based on this simulation result, there are some results can be derived:
1. The cantilever will be deformed in a bending mode with the largest displacement of 9.972E08 m
2. High concentration stresses occur at lower left corner region where the cantilever beam is fixed. The
damage can start from this region because of this high stress concentration, as high as 1598 N/m2
3. The left upper region has develop high stresss concentration although the concentration level is not
as high as the left lower region. This upper region, however is purely in tension stress, so crack can
be initiated from this region if the stress level reaches the fracture stress of the material.