Stress analysis examples — cantilever beams, brackets, and thermal expansion.
Cantilever beam
Point load
"Analyze a steel cantilever beam (1m long, 5cm x 5cm cross-section) with a 1000N point load at the free end. Show the deflection and stress distribution."
What SimPilot will do: Set up a structural FEA model with appropriate material properties (E = 200 GPa, nu = 0.3), apply boundary conditions (fixed at one end, point load at the other), solve for displacement and stress fields.
Distributed load
"Model a cantilever beam under its own weight plus a 500 N/m distributed load. Beam is 2m long aluminum (I-beam, 10cm tall)."
What SimPilot will do: Apply gravitational body force plus the distributed surface load, solve for maximum deflection and compare with analytical Euler-Bernoulli prediction.
Bracket stress analysis
L-bracket
"Analyze stress in an L-shaped steel bracket (10cm x 10cm, 5mm thick) with a 500N vertical load at the tip. The base is bolted to a wall. Where does it yield?"
What SimPilot will do: Create the L-bracket geometry, apply fixed boundary conditions at bolt locations, apply the load, and identify stress concentration areas. Compare peak Von Mises stress with yield strength.
Mounting bracket
"Upload my STEP file and run a stress analysis with 2000N applied to the top face. Material is 6061 aluminum. Fixed at the four bolt holes."
What SimPilot will do: Import the geometry, generate a tetrahedral mesh, apply loads and constraints, solve, and visualize the stress field with the warp tool showing deformation.
Thermal expansion
Bimetallic strip
"Simulate the bending of a bimetallic strip (steel + aluminum, 10cm long, 1cm wide, 1mm thick each layer) when heated from 20°C to 100°C."
What SimPilot will do: Set up a coupled thermo-mechanical simulation with different thermal expansion coefficients for each layer, compute the thermally-induced bending deformation.
Pipe thermal stress
"Calculate thermal stress in a steel pipe (OD 10cm, wall thickness 5mm, length 2m) when the inside is at 200°C and outside at 25°C. Both ends are fixed."
What SimPilot will do: Solve the temperature distribution through the pipe wall, then compute the resulting thermal stress from constrained expansion. Report hoop and axial stress components.
CFD + Structural coupling
In the future, SimPilot will support one-way FSI (fluid-structure interaction) where CFD pressure loads are mapped to structural meshes for stress analysis.