The Inside Story Of A Placement Student - Week 3

 Week 3 is complete and time for another update. This week has been a lot more training; Simulation and Flow this time and it’s been interesting to branch out again into a different area of the software and look a bit more at the real world applications of SOLIDWORKS.

I’ve been able to use what I’ve learnt on the training courses to do a simulation on the D-lock holder, to predict if and where it would fail.

(A stress analysis modelling static loading from the D-lock) The results show that when stationary, the holder can easily take the weight of the lock (the yield stress of PLA is about 60MPa) and also which regions of the design should be strengthened if needed.

I was also able to do a flow analysis of the lock for when travelling on a bike, which can be used to generate a stress analysis for the lock in motion.

(The flow of air over the lock and holder, when travelling at about 15mph) I’ve also been testing out the lock holder throughout the week on the cycle to and from the office.

After using it for about a week it split along one of the layers. And then after using it for another day it has properly broken!

It failed differently to the stress analysis because the stress analysis assume the material was isotropic, but due to the method of fabrication (3D printing) it isn’t. In my final week, I’ll have to perfect the dimensions of the design and increase the strength of the design by printing it differently.