Case Study – Thermal Expansion of a Bar

Posted byScott LeePosted inUncategorized

This case study goes over a simple example for a bar under thermal loading and the concept of springs in series.

This study will analyze two scenarios,

-Fixed – Fixed BC’s

-Adding Compliant Stiffnesses at the two ends of the bar

This simple example will illustrate the concept of thermal loading for a bar, and how the results differ dramatically based off the assumed boundary conditions.

The fixed-fixed BC is an “idealized” system, in order to get first-order results. However, in real physical systems, the BC’s are never fully fixed-fixed, but have compliance based off the structural support stiffness. Therefore, it would be extremely erroneous to assume such stiff BC’s when analyzing your structures in real-life applications. Please view the attached PPT and youtube video that explains the problem statement in more detail.

Thermal_Expansion_of_Bar_Case_StudyDownload

Published by Scott Lee

Hello. I have been in the aerospace stress industry for 13+ years. I have a passion for building FEM models and I am continuously looking for ways to improve the FEA processes and flows. Being able to "move faster" will give companies a competitive edge within the development process of an aircraft, as well as in other arenas. In addition, it is highly important to be able to build your models as accurately as possible. This site will go over the decision making processes and explain why one technique of modeling may have been chosen over another technique.

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