Have you ever wondered how to model the effect of thermal expansion/contraction?
SimSolid – Volume expansion
Altair SimSolid™ enables “volume expansion/shrinkage” to be applied to a complete assembly or individual parts. This works similarly to thermal expansion on the body. A volumetric expansion of 100% would yield a similar result as the thermal load of 1 Degree Celsius (°C) with a thermal expansion coefficient of 1/ degree Celsius. This option also allows you to study volumetric shrinkage studies by applying a negative coefficient value.
The example below describes the application of a thermal load compared to using the “volume expansion” feature available within SimSolid.
Thermal Load VS SimSolid™ Volume Expansion
In this example the following are considered:
-
- A 10 mm x 10 mm solid square steel bar (100 mm long) with steel mechanical properties, an Elastic modulus of 200 Gpa and a Poisson’s ratio of 0.3.
- A thermal expansion coefficient of 1/(°C) with a temperature change of 1°C
Based on the theory, the Change in length based on thermal expansion is calculated as follows:
ΔL = α*L*ΔT
Where:
ΔL = Change in length (mm)
α = Linear thermal expansion coefficient [1/(°C)]
L = Original length (mm)
ΔT = Change in temperature (°C)
Hence, the Change in length for this example is 100 mm.
The resultant displacement results of the “thermal expansion” load of 1°C are shown below:
The resultant displacement results of the “volume expansion” coefficient of 100% are shown below:
The example solved considering thermal expansion and the model solved with volume expansion correlate well with the theory.
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