Learning Forum

[nsaklani]

Hi All, I am trying to simulate an air mattress with a certain inflation pressure inside the mattress. If I create air mattress model, assign appropriate material properties, what is the best way to apply uniform pressure on all members inside ? Also what should be the boundary condition? 

Thanks,

[peteroznewman]

Make surface geometry for the air mattress including some internal webs between the top and bottom faces of the air mattress.  Simply apply pressure to all the external surfaces of the air mattress. Don’t apply any pressure to the internal webs.

You will want a surface to represent a floor, which can be a rigid body.  You may want a solid body on the top of the mattress to press down on it.  You would use Frictional Contact between the solid and the top of the mattress and another Frictional Contact between the floor and the bottom of the mattress. You would turn on Standard Earth gravity to pull the body down.

[nsaklani]

Thanks Peter. I have a follow up question. I used shell elements for meshing the faces of the air mattress and gave elastic properties. Do i need to change the stiffness behaviour as membrane as opposed to membrane plus bending?

[peteroznewman]

Since the shell thickness is small, the bending stiffness will be relatively small so you don't need to disable that.