Learning Forum

[mikael guimaraes]

Hi,

I was discussing with someone and they mentioned it's possible to find the magnitude of a force (given that I know it's position and direction) with the strain reading of certain regions of my part (I've done this with strain gauges). Does anyone have more information on this or material I can read on the subject?

Thanks

[Armin]

Hi Mikael,

What type of models do you employ for your application? Are you dealing with linear elasticity? Locally, the same type of analysis utilizing strain gauges can also be applied in principle. It might be more challenging when nonlinearities are present such as metal plasticity, large deformation, etc.

[mikael guimaraes]

Hi, thanks for answering. 

Yes, it's a linear elastic model with small strains and deformations. But I couldn't find anywhere I could apply strain gauge data to obtain the forces 

[Armin]

Thanks Mikael.

As far as I know, there is no built-in function in Mechanical to perform this task, but in theory, the same type of procedure you used experimentally with local strain gauges should work after extracting strain data at element level (like how you did it with physical strain gauges) to estimate the force.

[mikael guimaraes]

Thank you, I think I understand now. That is a good idea. Thanks a lot