PSI - Issue 54

Wojciech Skarka et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 54 (2024) 506–513 Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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Force of 150 N applied in 3 different places

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3.2.1. Force applied on the centre, through the central connector In the first case, a force of 150N was applied, set in the simulation along the z axis, with the vector directed to the minus side, intended to imitate the force occurring when the cage collides with an object. The force was applied to the most protruding point of a single cage segment, i.e. the central connector of a single segment (Fig.4a).

a.

b.

Fig.4. (a) vector of the applied force, (b) deformation of the segment

As can see in Fig.4b the maximum deformations occur mainly at the point of application of the force and at the closest area of the connector. The maximum deformation occurring in the simulation is 16.793mm, which gives us approximately 1.68cm. Due to the high plasticity of the material the tubes are made of, they will return to their previous state without any major problems. 3.2.2. Force applied on the edge connector through the centre A force of 150N is given in the simulation along the "x" axis, with the vector directed to the plus side. It was to imitate the force occurring when the cage collides with an object. The force was applied to the outer connector of the cage segment and was directed to the centre of the cage segment (Fig.5a)

b.

a.

Fig.5. (a) vector of the applied force, (b) deformation of the segment

Maximum deformations (Fig.5b) of the model occur in the external tube connectors and in the immediate area of the connectors. The maximum deformations occurring in the simulation are 5 mm, they result from the set boundary conditions imitating the maximum range of movement when connecting individual segments of the cage with cable ties.