Solving structural mechanics problems with Bentley ADINA
Using Bentley ADINA alongside other industry-leading technology we can accurately and efficiently solve a range of mechanics problems.
At DOCAN we use a wide range of technologies, and for some projects, we use the Bentley ADINA system, which has a cutting-edge Structural Mechanics engine (as well as having coupled CFD, TMC, FSI, etc).
In the below case, we have designed a cast gearbox casing and want to ensure it can survive fatigue loading, tensile load, and keep the seal activated over the full service life.
Some of the technologies we can take advantage of with ADINA:
- Liquid Pressure Penetration – we never have perfect seals, and this method enables us to understand what is happening and account for some liquid and associated pressure penetrating the seal area
- Bolt preload – we want to form a good seal with pre-load, and determine what happens after some relaxation of the gasket and external loadings
- Cast iron failure criterion – we are good in compression, but not so good in tension with our material of choice, and manufacturing process (since it’s a high volume, low-value product). With ADINA it will use the unique failure criterion and enable us to determine if we have any locations which will likely fail. Similar to von Mises or Treska equivalent stress, but specifically for cast materials
- Element – useful to model full-face gaskets and helps to account for cyclic loading, relaxation, and contact pressure compared required contact as well as non-linear pressure penetration effects.
We also use Ansys, Abaqus, Femap (to build ADINA models, etc) and other systems – but we do find each system has a sweet spot.
ADINA was the first system DOCAN used commercially, it’s popular with our engineers and is a general-purpose workhorse. We do not sell ADINA, but we used to. It’s one of our cool swiss army knives! ADINA stands for Automatic Dynamic Incremental Nonlinear Analysis, which translates as “a finite-element toolkit that does almost everything for mechanics problems”. It’s pretty cool.
If you need a professional engineering consultancy to solve your problems, look no further than DOCAN. Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can help with your project.
