Engineering 6003 - Ship Structures II

Lab #3
LSDyna: Pop Can Crushing Analysis
By C. Daley

Overview
For a general introduction of LSDyna see Lab #1. Unlike most finite element
programs LSDyna can easily model buckling events, such as occur when an empty pop
can is crushed. In this lab we will model that situation.

Learning Objectives
The lab builds on the LSDyna features learned in Lab#1 and #2. In this lab we will
model a rigid block moving as a ram (constrained rigid body motion). The ram will
strike a complex shell object (a pop can) and crush and fold the aluminum shell. We
will import and mesh the can geometry as a CAD file (a .stp file), and combine it with
blocks meshed in LS-PrePost. This simulation will take much longer to solve than the
previous models because there are more and smaller elements involved. We will see
how to set an appropriate solution time to give good results without taking too long to
solve.
LSDYNA Model #3 Pop Can Crushing
Step 1: describe and sketch the problem:
In this third example we will model an aluminum pop can as it is crushed between a
moving ram and a rigid base. The problem is sketched below.

6003 Lab#3: LSDyna Can Crushing Analysis, page 1