StructuralLoads CreatingapressureLoadwithSpatialVariationExercise

Exercise: Creating a Pressure Load with Spatial Variation

Objectives
After successfully completing this exercise, you will be able to:

Understand how a pressure load is applied. Apply equations from engineering theory (Hydrostatic Pressure) and determine how to introduce them into Mechanica. Understand how to apply a load as a function of coordinates.

Scenario
There are several situations in which the load applied is uniform and does not change over the surface or edge it is applied on. In addition, Force/Moment loads always maintain a constant direction with respect to the selected coordinate system. However, there are several applications in which the load must remain normal to the surface it is applied on. Pressure is a force per unit area created by fluids and will always act normal to the surface they are applied on. In some cases, such as a propane tank or scuba tank, the pressure is more or less constant across all the interior surfaces. On the other hand, anyone who has been diving knows that pressure increases the deeper you descend. For this exercise, you will apply a pressure load to a water tank to simulate Hydrostatic pressure. HydroLoad water_tank.prt

Task 1. Open the Mechanica application and Measure Tank Height.

1. Click Applications > Mechanica > OK. 2. Click Analysis > Measure > Distance. Select the top surface of the tank and the PRT_CSYS_DEF as shown in the figure. The distance should be reported as 4.1. Click Accept .

Task 2. Determine the equation to be applied and apply the pressure load.
The hydrostatic pressure in the tank will be equal to zero gauge pressure at the waters free surface, so the distance or height of that surface with respect to the coordinate system has to be measured. The equation of hydrostatic pressure is p=gh. The density of water is 1000 kg/m3, the acceleration of gravity is 9.81 m/s2. The depth h is the depth from the free surface of the tank. If 4.1m is the distance to the free surface, then the

depth of the water in any point in the tank is given by the expression (4.1 y). The equation governing the hydrostatic pressure then becomes p=(1000)(9.81)(4.1y). 1. Click Pressure Load from the Mechanica toolbar.

2. Select the inner surface of the tank as shown in the figure for the load application.

3. Click Advanced and select Function of Coordinates from the Spatial Variation drop-down menu. 4. Type 1.0 for the pressure. The dialog should appear as shown in the figure. Because you entered 1.0 for pressure, this will act as a scaling factor for the values that will be returned from the function.

5. Click Function in the Pressure Load dialog box. Click New, verify that the Definition field is set to symbolic and type 1000*9.81*(4.1-y) in the field.

6. Click Review , type 3.1 for the Lower Limit, 4.1 for the Upper Limit, and click Graph. 7. Click File > Exit to close the Graphtool. Click Done > OK > OK to return to the Pressure Load dialog box.

8. Click Preview to view the pressure distribution on the tank. 9. Click OK.

Task 3. Save the model and erase it from memory.

1. Return to the Standard Pro/ENGINEER mode by clicking Applications > Standard. 2. Click Save from the main toolbar and click OK to save the model. 3. Click File > Erase > Current > Yes to erase the model from memory.

This completes the exercise.