Tutorial 1: Stress analysis of a connecting rod

1) Getting started

• The tutorial project “Tutorial 1: Connecting rod stress analysis” has been imported and is open in your SimScale Workbench.

I. Simulation Creation

• To create a new simulation, click on the Create Simulation button.
  
• Select Static as the Analysis Type and click Ok.
  
• A new tree will automatically be generated in the Simulation Tree panel, containing all parameters and settings required to start the simulation.

II. Mesh Setup

• Once the simulation has been created, the next step is to check your mesh settings. To open the mesh settings panel, click on Mesh in the Simulation Tree.
  
• All mesh settings can be kept at their defaults. To get a basic approximation, we will start with a Coarse mesh.
  Note: The fineness of the mesh determines the resolution of the result. But finer meshes will take longer to compute.
• Click the Generate button to start the meshing operation.
  
• While the Meshing operation is running, let's go ahead and start setting up the rest of the simulation.
  

III. Material Assignment

• To create a new material, click on the '+' button next to Materials in the simulation tree.
  
• The Material Library will open. Scroll down to select Steel and click Ok.
  
• The material will automatically assigned to the connecting rod.
  Note: The color blue indicates that you are in Assignment mode.
  

IV. Boundary Conditions Assignment

1. Add the Pressure boundary condition first
   1. To create a new boundary condition, click on the '+' button next to Boundary conditions in the simulation tree. Select Pressure in the contextual menu.
      
   2. Set the pressure value to 20e6 (or 20000000) Pa, which equals about 200 bar pressure.
   3. Now we need to select the faces on which the pressure should act on. In the viewer, select the two inner faces at the lower end of the connecting rod.
      Note: Their color turns blue, indicating that they have been assigned to the current boundary condition.
      
   4. Check the assignment panel to see if the faces 752@solid1 and 759@solid1 have been assigned to the pressure boundary condition.
      
2. Adding the Fixed Support boundary condition
   1. Add another boundary condition by clicking on the '+' button next to Boundary conditions in the simulation tree. Select the Fixed Support.
   2. Select all the inner faces at the upper end of the connecting rod in the viewer.
      
   3. Check if the faces 742@solid1, 791@solid1 and 796@solid1 are assigned to the Fixed Support.
      

V. Simulation Run

1. The Numerics and Simulation Control sections are set by default and do not have to be changed for this case.
2. Create a simulation run by clicking on the '+' button next to Simulation Runs in the simulation tree.
   
3. In the New Run dialog click Start to start the simulation run. (The simulation run takes about a minute to finish)
   
4. Once the simulation run is finished, the Running status will change to Finished in the run settings panel.
   

VI. Simulation Results

1. Click Post-process results to load the solution fields in the post-processor.
   
2. Click on Results to see the results of the simulation.
3. Now scroll down and choose von Mises stress from the scalar list SCL under the Result Config section to view the stress results.
   
4. Take a look at the stress field displayed on the model in the viewer. Regions of high stress load are colored red while lower stress regions are shown in blue.