How to analyse a Truss FEA

Using SimScale Solid Mechanics / FEA
1

Hi what is the best way to go about modelling this truss made of individual steel tube members welded together. i notice that there are no 1d or 2d elements in simscale. cheers

2

i have modelled similar trusses using 1d elements in other software packages and it was straight forward

3

Hi @MHHS -

Thanks for posting your question and welcome to SimScale! As you’ve correctly pointed out, there’s no 1D or 2D elements on SimScale yet (maybe give this feature an upvote HERE and HERE).

You can try doing this using 3D tet-elements, but I have a feeling the meshing might be tricky (I assume the pipes are hollow)

Any thoughts here @ahmedhussain18?

4

Hi @MHHS, you will to make one combined body. This process is pretty straight forward with direct editing tools. You can see my webinar on this topic here.

Regards, Ben

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5

Thanks for this…i have voted for for both 1d and 2d elements!. the truss model has been joined together and is one part. i just think that meshing it with tri elements will produce an exceedingly complex model without necessarily improving the results. i wish there was some kind of manual meshing option that had 1d and 2d elements as i do a lot of tube trusses and sheet metal structures. tri elements arent so good for these structures will a truss like this work if they are tubes? will making them solid help?.

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6

Hi @MHHS

A solid mesh will be accurate, so long as you use a second order mesh with small enough elements. You can check that your element size is small enough by performing a mesh convergence study. This is where you do a series a simulations, each one with a finer mesh. When the results converge (no change from one simulation to the next) you know your mesh is fine (small) enough.

Your geometry should match what you have in real life. If you are using hollow tubes in real life then your geometry should also have hollow tubes.

Regards, Ben

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