Materials insight

'Lego Man' - Accurate FEA of Engineering Plastics

This demonstration showing how to analyze plastic parts using finite element analysis was given by Patrick Cunningham at CAE Associates' Accurate FEA of Engineering Plastics seminar, held on October 14, 2014 in Tarrytown, NY.

The presentation used in this demo is available for download, below.

 

Consider a “highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system” like the one shown.

Using FEA we can:

  • Determine the amount of force required to push Lego Man’s foot onto a brick.
  • Determine the deformation and resulting stress in both parts.
  • Evaluate the sensitivity of the design to manufacturing variances.
  • Evaluate the sensitivity of the design to material property variances.
  • Evaluate the response of the design under different environmental conditions that can effect the material response.
  • All this can be done with FEA provided that you have appropriate material properties assigned to the elements.

View the presentation video here...

Further reading

Links

About the author

Patrick Cunningham

Patrick Cunningham brings over 25 years of engineering experience to CAE Associates. 

Prior to joining CAE Associates in 1998, he worked in several industries including machine design of plastic and rubber processing equipment, high power ultrasonics and elevator design.  While in the R&D group at Branson Ultrasonics he was awarded two patents for rigid transducer mounting systems that are an industry standard today.  While at Otis Elevator in 1997, he received an award for individual effectiveness for his part in the development of a modeling environment used to design closed loop active suspension systems for elevator cars.    His current responsibilities include all phases of mechanical engineering consulting projects, technical support of the ANSYS products, software training, and organization of the yearly ANSYS product update seminars provided by CAE Associates.   Pat also provides applications support for sales of the ANSYS software products. 


In his free time, Pat is an avid cyclist and competes as a member of the Horst Engineering Master's Cycling team in both road and cyclo-cross disciplines.  During the winter months, he keeps himself busy as an assistant swim coach for his local high school.

 

Education

Master of Science, Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern University