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Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering

University of Pretoria

SIMULATION-BASED DESIGN MOW 323

Semester Test : 5 September 2020

Instructions:
• Answer and submit all questions in a TYPED REPORT
• Assume g = 9.81 m/s^2
• Round off answers to TWO DECIMAL PLACES
• Be as BRIEF as possible. Comments, discussions or conclusions can be provided
in bullet format
• Provide a clear screenshot of any figures used for comments, discussions or
conclusions
• Submit the final report per question in PDF format
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Question 1 (10)

Consider the following joint :

1.1) State the number of free degrees of freedom of the joint provided.
[1]

1.2) Using a free body diagram prove your solution to Question 1.1.
[9]
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Question 2 (15)

Consider the following dynamics problem with length units in millimetres.

Figure 1: Source Meriam and Kraige 7th edition

The analytical solution to the problem is determined as :

𝑔
𝛼 = 0.389 ( )
𝑏

2.1) Determine b as seen in Figure 1? [3]

2.2) What is the analytical solution to the angular acceleration of the slender bar assembly?
[3]

2.3) Using Solidworks a 0.1s dynamic simulation of the problem is performed. The angular
acceleration is plotted relative to time. Using this graph, determine the simulation-based solution
with reason.
[5]
2.4) Validate the accuracy of the solution in a tabular format. [4]
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Question 3 (25)

You work for a global company known as Simulation Elite Fitness. This is a company that is responsible
for the design and evaluation of equipment that will be used in the fitness industry. The most recent
project awarded to your company is that of a dual sculling rowing machine.

The client has a good design team, but the design team are currently working on another critical
project. As a result, the client asks to evaluate a few critical points on the final design such that the
plans can be pushed to production. Through closer inspection of the design by the CEO, PJ Joubert, it
is decided that the most critical component that will decide if the equipment is being used safely is
the seat train plate. This component is seen as a connection point that connects a comfortable seat
for the user to the actual rail system such that the seat can move forward and backward to aid in the
rowing simulation. Frame components are constructed from AISI 1020 steel. The seat train assembly
is shown on the next page.
The seat train plate is shown above. Two sets of holes have been highlighted, one set in red (the top
4 holes) and the other in green (the bottom 4 holes). One set of holes are used for stability whereas
the other is used to carry/transmit load.

3.1) Classify which set of holes (red/green) refers to which type of hole (stability/load carrying) and
provide a reason for your answer.

[4]

3.2) How will this critical component be constrained for simulation purposes? Explain the reasoning
behind this decision and indicate the location of the constraint visually.

[5]

3.3) The critical component is constructed from 2mm thick AISI 1020 plate. Solidworks states that this
material has a yield stress of 351.57 MPa. The client has stated that the equipment was designed in
such a way that the safety factors in stress are always 1.75. Calculate the maximum allowable stress
that the applied load can cause.

[3]

3.4) Solidworks has three mesh types (standard, curvature-based and blended curvature-based). In
addition, assuming we want to mesh the geometry using one of three densities only (maximum coarse,
default and maximum fine) what would the best mesh type and mesh density be for this geometry
with reason.

[3]

A design study is performed to determine the maximum allowable load such that the maximum
allowable stress is never exceeded. The next page defines 6 manual iterations that are used to isolate
the interval in which failure is determined. According to iterative simulation-based results the solution
is determined as 130.05kg. Therefore, the safe operating conditions of this machine is obtained for a
human that weighs less than 130.05kg.
Your boss visits you in your office and says although the simulation results have provided the
solution the client requested there must be a more efficient method of determining the solution
assuming that one structural simulation is computationally expensive. His solution is potentially
using the data from a few simulations and constructing models which are then optimized or used to
determine the requested result. Condensing all design study iterations into a single set of data
results in the following :

3.5) Fit an approximate model of exponential form (in Microsoft Excel) to model loading conditions
based on applied load. Provide the equation of the model as well as the Pearson correlation
coefficient.

[2]

3.6) Use the model from Question 3.5 along with an appropriate What-if Analysis (in Microsoft
Excel) to determine where this model predicts failure (Use the model to predict the initial onset of
failure). In addition, briefly explain how this solution is obtained.

[4]

3.7) Assuming the simulation-based solution is the correct solution validate the accuracy of the
model prediction.

[4]
Formulas:
𝐹𝐷𝑂𝐹 = (𝐵 × 𝐷𝑂𝐹 ) − 𝐶

𝑆𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 − 𝐴𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙
𝐸𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = | | × 100
𝐴𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙

𝑁
1
𝐸 (𝑤) = ∑ {𝑦(𝑥𝑛 , 𝑤) − 𝑡𝑛 }2
2
𝑛=1

𝑁
1 𝜆
𝐸̃ (𝑤) = ∑ {𝑦(𝑥𝑛 , 𝑤) − 𝑡𝑛 }2 + ||𝑤||2
2 2
𝑛=1

𝜎𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑅=
𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝜎𝑎
𝜎𝑎𝑟 = 𝜎
1− 𝑚
𝜎𝑢
𝜎𝑎
𝜎𝑎𝑟 =
𝜎 2
1 − ( 𝜎𝑚 )
𝑢
𝜎𝑎
𝜎𝑎𝑟 = 𝜎
1− 𝑚
𝜎𝑦
𝜎𝑦
𝜏𝑚𝑎𝑥 ≥
2𝑛
𝜎𝑦
𝜎1 − 𝜎3 ≥
𝑛

(𝜎 − 𝜎2 )2 + (𝜎2 − 𝜎3 )2 + (𝜎3 − 𝜎1 )2 𝜎𝑦
√ 1 ≥
2 𝑛

𝜎1 𝜎3 1
− ≥
𝜎𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝜎𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑛

𝜎1 ≥ 𝜎𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒,𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑒
𝜎3 ≥ −𝜎𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒,𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒