I've been thinking about it for last few days for my own project. My part is large enough that it will have infill. I'm sort of thinking that shell elements of just the walls might over predict deformation. While treating the part as being solid and using a solid elements as you have done will under predict deformation. BTW, I like your simulation and appreciate the effort it takes to get the FEA to work sometimes.
@chuckd7177 how large is the part? The idea of run the simulation with shell elements will depend on the thickness, if you can control the setting of the wall thickness on the slicer, I think you can use for simulation a thickness parameter for the 80% of the actual wall thickness. Remember that layer orientation is key.
@@lucmartzMost, almost all, of my work with FEA was with metals. I sort of thought about layer orientation after I wrote my first comment. I'm still thinking about it. I'm new to 3d printing (filament printer) and still learning. There are lots of options in the slicer. I "think" (meaning I have no proof) with infill (lots of options for the type of infill) the part would be stronger (less deformation) than would be predicted by just using the wall thickness as the shell thickness. Maybe I need to figure out how to do a 3 point bending test. :) I could quit guessing then.
I made to beams one was hollow and the other was solid. I hung weights from the center of each beam and measured the deflection. From the measure deflection of the hollow beam and using the equation for deflection of beam for a three point bending test I calculated the modulus of elasticity for the PLA plastic. The modulus matched fairly well with the value I found on matweb. Using the modulus I calculated from the hollow beam, I calculated the deflection for the solid beam and compared it with the measured value for the solid beam. The measured deflection was about 35% greater than the calculated value. Based on this very limited testing it would better to use shell elements for modeling of printed parts.
I've been thinking about it for last few days for my own project. My part is large enough that it will have infill. I'm sort of thinking that shell elements of just the walls might over predict deformation. While treating the part as being solid and using a solid elements as you have done will under predict deformation. BTW, I like your simulation and appreciate the effort it takes to get the FEA to work sometimes.
@chuckd7177 how large is the part? The idea of run the simulation with shell elements will depend on the thickness, if you can control the setting of the wall thickness on the slicer, I think you can use for simulation a thickness parameter for the 80% of the actual wall thickness. Remember that layer orientation is key.
@@lucmartzMost, almost all, of my work with FEA was with metals. I sort of thought about layer orientation after I wrote my first comment. I'm still thinking about it. I'm new to 3d printing (filament printer) and still learning. There are lots of options in the slicer. I "think" (meaning I have no proof) with infill (lots of options for the type of infill) the part would be stronger (less deformation) than would be predicted by just using the wall thickness as the shell thickness. Maybe I need to figure out how to do a 3 point bending test. :) I could quit guessing then.
@@chuckd7177 first step, get the 3 point bending test then :) don't forget to use non-linear analysis, linear won't work with plastics.
I made to beams one was hollow and the other was solid. I hung weights from the center of each beam and measured the deflection. From the measure deflection of the hollow beam and using the equation for deflection of beam for a three point bending test I calculated the modulus of elasticity for the PLA plastic. The modulus matched fairly well with the value I found on matweb. Using the modulus I calculated from the hollow beam, I calculated the deflection for the solid beam and compared it with the measured value for the solid beam. The measured deflection was about 35% greater than the calculated value. Based on this very limited testing it would better to use shell elements for modeling of printed parts.
@@chuckd7177 sounds like you have been having some fun. What are the dims of the beams? What load you used? I would like to try on the software