PRACTICE MODULE

AE4035 FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

ANALYSIS OF PLATES WITH BENDING LOADS

By:
Prof. Dr. Ir. Tatacipta Dirgantara
Dr. Ditho Ardiansyah Pulungan
Muhammad Latif Nurrahman, S.T.

FACULTY OF MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI BANDUNG
2023
 AE4035 FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
ANALYSIS OF PLATES WITH BENDING LOADS

In this module, modeling will be carried out for cases of plate structures subjected to bending loads
with isotropic materials.

A. Plates with Bending Loads Modeling

1. Purpose
Studnets are able to perform finite element modeling to analyze full models and half models of
plates subjected to bending loads using Abaqus CAE.

2. Problem Description:
In this module, modeling will be carried out for the case of plate structures subjected to bending
loads with isotropic materials. An isotropic material is a material that has the same mechanical and
thermal properties in all directions. The dimensions of the plate structure to be analyzed in this
module are shown in Figure 1. Also given is a plate thickness of 10 mm. The plate will be given
a load of 1000 N on the entire surface of the plate.

Figure 1 The geometry of the plate

3. Modeling Procedures:
Details of the finite element modeling steps of this module will be explained in the following
section.

Step #1: Geometry Drawing of Plate

a) Create part
• In the part module in the context bar, click the icon create part ( ).
• In the create part dialog box that appears, enter a name on the name menu, select 3D on
the modeling space menu, select planar on the type menu, and select shell on the base
feature menu. Approximate size: 5000, as shown in Figure 2. Then, click continue.

Figure 2 Create part dialog box

• Next, click icon create lines: rectangle (4 lines) ( ) and input the plate dimension as
(x,y)) = (0,0) as a start point and (x,y) = (10, 1000) as endpoint, then click enter. The
following results will be obtained from this step.

Figure 3 Plate model

Step #2: Define Properties
a) Define material properties
• Click property module, click icon create material
• In the dialog box, write the name of the material on the name menu, then click the
mechanical > elasticity > elastic menu. Next, select isotropic on the type menu. After
that, input Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio. Young's modulus value of steel is
200e3 MPa (adjusts for unit consistency), and the Poisson ratio of steel is 0.3. Then click
OK.

Figure 4 Edit material properties

b) Define section

• Click icon a window will appear, as shown in Figure 5. Fill in the name in the Name
section, select Solid in the Category section and Homogeneous in the Type Section. After
that click Continue.

Figure 5 Create section

 • Then the Edit Section window will appear, as shown in Figure 6. Fill in the name of the
material that was defined first. Fill in a value of 10 in the shell thickness according to the
given plate thickness and leave the other settings at default.

Figure 6 Edit section window

c) Assign section
• Click icon and select the area to be set as a section. Then, click Done.
• The Edit Section Assignment window will appear. In the Section section, select the
Section name that has been defined and in the Thickness section, select the From section
options. Click OK.

Figure 7 Edit section assignment

Step #3: Assembly

• Go to assembly module, click icon create instance and a dialog box will appear. Fill in
the dialog box as follows: create an instance from = parts, select the name of the parts,
instance type = dependent, then click OK.

Figure 8 Create instance

Step #4: Step

• Go to step module.

• Click icon (Create Step) and a window will appear. Fill in the name on the name menu,
select procedure type as General, select the step static, General, then click continue.

Figure 9 Create step

• Next, the edit step window will appear.
• In the dialog box, click OK (default).

Figure 10 Edit step

Step #5: Define Boundary Conditions and Load

• Go to load module, click icon create boundary condition ( ). Write a name on the name
menu, choose Displacement/Rotaion then click continue.

Figure 11 Create boundary condition

• Choose the location for boundary condition, as shown in Figure 12, then click done. To define
the same boundary conditions and more than one location, the user can hold down the shift key
while pressing the right mouse button.

Figure 12 Boundary condition for full model

• Next, a dialog box will appear. In this module, we will fixed the plate on both ends.

Figure 13 Edit boundary condition (full model)

• Click icon create load ( ),then in the dialog box, write a name on the name menu, select
mechanical as a category, select pressure, then click continue.
 Figure 14 Create load

• Select the location for defining the load (Figure 15Error! Reference source not found.),
then there will be an option to choose a side for the shell or internal face and click brown.

Figure 15 Location of the load

• Next, the edit load window will apper. Fill in Distribution: Total Force, Magnitude: 1000
and Amplitude: (Ramp). Click OK.

Figure 16 Edit load window

 Figure 17 Display of loaded plate

• In defining a half-model where the plate is considered only in half, it is necessary to define
the boundary conditions in the cut region (we need to cut the plate in half first using
partition sketch or datum plane or whatever method we desire and do not forget to remove
the other half). In this case, a y-symmetry boundary condition is defined on the cut region, as
shown in Figure 18. The y-symmetry boundary condition resists displacement in the y
direction and resists rotation about the x and z axes. The other end of the plate is remain
fixed. One way to review these boundary conditions is based on the deformation results of the
full model plate.

Figure 18 Boundary condition for half model (top section of the plate)

• Next, the load used in the case of the half-model needs to be adjusted. In this case the applied
load will be halved to 500, as shown in Figure 19.
 Figure 19 Location of the load (half model plate)

Step #6: Meshing Strategy for 3D Plate

• Go the mesh moodule, change the object to a part, click icon seed part ( ). Then the global
seeds window will appear in Figure 20. Fill in the number 10 in the approximate global size,
then click OK.

Figure 20 edit global seeds size

• Click icon mesh part ( ) then click yes.

Figure 21 Finite element model of plate

• Element type can be changed by clicking icon Assign Element Type ( ) as shown in Figure
22. In the Family section, select shell. Then click OK.
 Figure 22 Element type

Step #7: Define the Job

• Go to job module, click icon job manager ( ) and a dialog box will appear, as shown in
Figure 23. Write the job name on the name menu, select the model, and click continue. In the
dialog box that appears, click the Continue button, and the Edit Job window will appear, as
shown in Figure 24. Click OK.

Figure 23 Create job window

 Figure 24 Edit job window

• In the job manager (Figure 25), select Submit. After that, Abaqus/CAE will start the analysis
process. If the process is complete, the words Completed will appear in the model tree section.
For more complex analysis, you can select Data Check to ensure that the steps are
appropriate. If Abaqus/CAE finds an error in the modeling, it will be notified with a warning
window.

Figure 25 Job manager

Step #8: Post-Processing

• Select Result , in the job manager window. The analysis results will appear as shown in Figure
26 until Figure 29. The simulation results shown are the von Mises stress and the maximum
displacements that occur.
Figure 26 Von mises stress distribution of the full model

Figure 27 Maximum displacement of the full model plate

Figure 28 Von mises stress distribution of the half model

Figure 29 The maximum displacement of half model

Notes:
• The following shows the stress distribution and the maximum displacement on plates that are
given a bending load but are modeled as a solid instead of a shell.

Figure 30 Distribution of the plate modeled as solid

Figure 31 The maximum displacement of plate modeled as solid