Simulation of elastic-plastic bending of beams

• Main Author: Huang, Jun Wei.
• Other Authors: Sellakkutti Rajendran
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Mechanics and dynamics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40498
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Beam has been widely used ever since ancient times, and can be seen in use almost everywhere in almost any structures we find today. Because of our reliance of beams, a failure of beams could spell disaster to overall structure integrity, and may even cause harm to human beings. As different types of beams are available in the market, mainly characterized by their cross-sectional profile and materials, it is important to study and understand their characteristics and their potential failures, through for this project focusing on finite element simulations of aluminium beam. The project utilises commercial Finite Element Analysis software, ANSYS. Each of the different profiles of aluminium beams will be subjected to three different material models, being the elasto-plastic, isotropic strain hardening, and real material. Modelling process details and considerations will be discussed. Various phenomenons that exist in during the simulation will also be discussed. Results garnered from the simulations will be tabulated and verified with theoretical calculations. Overall the aim of this project is to try to reproduce the phenomenon as discussed in Mechanics of Materials theories, and re-verifying the results from the previous project attempted, as well as to try to try out new profiles that will aid in possible future project progress.