Simulation-6 of The Most Embarrassing Mistakes You Can Make - ENGINEERING

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Modern simulation software does a lot with a little. You give it some simplied geometry and a few boundary conditions, and you get back
brilliant results. But before you run into your boss's oce saying, It works or It broke, take a moment to check your results. They may be
dead wrong. And you could be quite embarrassed.
Figure 1. Nice analysis, but how do you know it's right? After the results are shown, the checking process should begin. (Image courtesy of Autodesk.)
The stresses or uid ows that unfurl on your screen seconds after you hit solve sure may look right. You trust the program. Computer-
aided engineering (CAE) programs can be counted on to work without oversight. Your simulation program has dutifully taken your geometry
and run with it. A lot of work occurs that is unseenmeshing, converting inputs into a boatload of partial dierential equations, assembling
an immense matrix, solving itwith 100 percent accuracy. Your program has trusted in you and assumed that you knew what you are
doing, that you have used sound engineering judgmentand have not made a single typo.
Figure 2. One typo will make a big dierence. CAE programs rely on the proper input of material property valuessome of which have a lot of zeroes. (Image
courtesy of Meme Generator.)
It is a trust that is often misplaced. Something as minor as tapping the zero key six times when you should have done so seven times,
recording 1 million instead of 10 millionto something as major as using the wrong failure theoryare all user mistakes commonly made.
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Like a dog happily and repeatedly fetching a stick, your simulation program will be eager to please and do what you request of it, no
questions asked. It will be up to you, its master, to put this trust to good use.
Here, we will list several mistakes that are frighteningly easy to makeand describe how you can try to avoid them.
1. Mass Is Critical
Figure 3. In a dynamic analysis, mass should be used, not weight. (Image courtesy of MSC Software.)
Think back to your rst science class when you found out that weighthow you measured almost everythingmattered only to you
on the Earths surface. For the rest of the universe, and in most CAE programs, you learned that you had better switch to mass. If you
have since neglected this early warning and used weight instead of mass, your results will be o by the gravitational constant. That will
aect every place where the mass of a structure is importanteven on Earthas well as dynamic analyses where mass is involved.
2. Count Your Zeroes

Skip one zero, say, in Young's modulus, and your nite element analysis (FEA) program will regard your titanium part as if it were made
of lead. This problem could be alleviated by engineering programs displaying numbers with comma separators (commas in the U.S.)
something simple calculators will do, but until simulation software vendors catch on, its on you to count your zeroes.
3. Units: Nothing If Not Consistent
Figure 4 .Inconsistent units are the most common cause of incorrect results according to the Practical Stress Analysis with Finite Element Analysis. Pick one
system or another (SI is preferred), but dont mix and match them. (Image courtesy of Bryan J. MacDonald.)
The inputs and outputs of FEA programs are usually entered without units; therefore, it's up to users to make sure that the units of
measure are used consistently. For example, if a part is measured in inches, take care to use inches consistently. A unit that is based
on length will be aected. Density, for example, is mass over length cubed. If acceleration is being entered for a dynamic analysis,
acceleration due to gravity should be in inches per second squared, not the commonly expressed feet per second squared. Otherwise,
the result will be o by a factor of 12.
4. Incorrect Material Properties
Tables of material properties are easy enough to nd, but there is more to material properties than meets the eye.
Material data presented as a single number implies a certain, but ctitious, precision. Yield stress, which may be reported as a denite
number, may be an average of data points from lab experiments. Designing to an average yield stress without any safety factor would
mean that half of your parts would fail. Look for statistical qualiers in the data. Some references give material properties that satisfy
99 percent of samples tested. Also, some industry codes may suggest that you use 50 percent of the stated value for the sake of safety.
Most FEA programs will default to apply similar material properties in all directions, a condition analyst call isotropic. But many
materials (e.g., wood, carbon ber composites) do not behave isotopically. In fact, materials that are very strong in one direction can be
extremely weak in the other two.
Figure 5. Materials will behave dierently at extreme temperatures, as is the case with this jet engine. Make sure your simulation program can accommodate
temperature-dependent material properties if your products will be subject to a wide range of temperatures. (Image courtesy of MSC Software.)
You will need to consider if parts will be in the same temperature range as the samples from which the material data was obtained. A
property table may have been generated at room temperature, but the actual parts may be subjected to extreme temperature
conditions where materials respond quite dierently. Metals get very brittle at extremely low temperatures and become soft when
heated. A change of phase when you are counting on a material to stay solid could prove to be a disaster.
The more sophisticated CAE programs do allow you to input temperature-related material properties.
Figure 6. Dont even try this with ordinary FEA programs. The tire and wheel will both undergo big displacements in this impact study, requiring large deection
and hyperelastic elements. The FEA will either have to handle severe distortion or the model will have to remesh itself with low aspect ratio elements. (Image
courtesy of Dassault Systmes.)
FEA solutions are often based on the assumption that the material will behave elastically, which is ne as long as deections stay small.
But if there is too much loading, all bets are o. For one thing, this will distort the nite elements, and the more distorted it gets, the
less trustworthy the results will be. If you are using a material that experiences a lot of stretch before failure, look into using elements
that can accommodate distortion from large displacement.
5. The Wrong Stress
Figure 7. FEA programs give you a choice in which stresses to view. The von Mises yield criterion is a good choice for ductile metals. (Image courtesy of Ezy
Mechanic.)
FEA programs can display any number of dierent stresses. For example, an analysis will give a choice of several directional stresses,
principal stresses, shear stresses and the von Mises stress. Looking at the wrong stress could potentially cause you to miss the stress
that causes failure.
Failure for ductile materials, such as steel and aluminum alloys, can be well predicted using the von Mises, or an equivalent stress. If
the maximum von Mises stress is less than the yield stress, the part will not fail.
6. Use Checks
Figure 8. Do the math. A handbook solution performed with a calculator can back up or invalidatea CAE result.
Maybe the biggest mistake you can make in simulation is not checking for mistakes. Most gross errors like the ones listed above, which
can skew results by an order of magnitude or more, can be eliminated with the following simple checks:
IntuitionThis is often based on experience with similar problems.

Physical testingBuild a scale version of your design for validation of the nite element model. With the nite element model
veried, you will have condence to proceed with the FEA model for variations in loads, materials and so on.
"Back-of-the-envelope" checksThese are useful in determining whether the results lie in the right order of magnitude. Handbook
formulas may apply only to a gross approximation of your part, but with the absence of physical tests, this could still determine if
FEA results are in the right ballpark.
Bracketing the result with checksThis is also helpful. For example, suppose you have a structure whose support behaves
somewhere between a simple support and a xed support. From handbooks, get the result for both cases and check the FEA result
to make sure it falls inbetween.
Are there any other simulation blunders we have missed? Please let us know in suggestion box below.
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4Comments ENGINEERING.com
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Jointhediscussion
Tomas5monthsago
The"MostEmbarrassingMistakesYouCanMake"...IwouldsaythatnotknowingthedifferencebetweentheunitKelvin(K)andtheprefixkilo(k)is
evenmoreembarrassing,cf.Figure.3.
1 Reply Share
Tomas>Tomas5monthsago
Mymistake.ItshouldbeFigure4.Thatwasalsoembarrassing:)
Reply Share
SrihariGangaraj5monthsago
AllgoodpointersbutthequestioniswhatareCAEvendorsdoingtocatchsuchusererrorsandeducatetheusers.IstheCAEtooladdingchecksinthe
UserInterfacetoverifyuserinputsandrecommendcorrectinput/output.Through"autonomousCAE"andsystematictrainingclasses,theCAEtool
canensurethatsucherrorsareeliminated.
Reply Share
LaszloZoltan>SrihariGangaraj5monthsago
butthatputsthevendoratriskfornorealgain
Reply Share
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2. Count Your Zeroes

3. Units: Nothing If Not Consistent

5. The Wrong Stress

IntuitionThis is often based on experience with similar problems.

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