BDA 4033/40303

Task Report No.x

Title of the task report (here is an example)
Students name
Matrix No: xxxxxxxxxxx
January 5, 2011

Model/Problem Description

The cantilever beam shown below is loaded by a single point load of magnitude 1000 N at its free end
and in the negative Y-direction. The beam is of length 10 m, and cross-section 4 4 m. It is rigidly fixed
at its left end. The material properties are Youngs modulus, E 200 GPa, Poisson ratio 0.3. The stress
distribution is required to be determined. The illustration is shown in Figure 1.

2
2.1

Finite Element Model

Element model

The cantilever beam is modeled as two dimensional plate with a constact thickness of 4 m. The x-y plane
surface is modelled using 8-node quadrilateral elements (Quad8). The total number of elements is 40
elements. The illustration of the meshing is shown in Figure 2.
The unit used in this model is a consistent SI unit:
Length: m
E: N/m2 , therefore the Youngs Modulus is 200000000000 N/m2
Force: N, the applied force for this case is 1000 N

Figure 1: Cantilever beam under concentrated load

Figure 2: FEM Model

2.2

Constraints

To represent a fixed end of the cantilever beam, all nodes in the left end are constrained in x axis. They
are not allowed to move in x axis, using displx=0. To make sure that the cantilever beam is not moving
in y direction, one of the node is also restrained in y-axis, using disply=0. The constraints can be seen
in Figure 2.

2.3

Loadings

A concentrated load is represented by indicating as a negative direction in y direction, forcey=1000 N.

Negative value here indicates that the direction is the opposite of the y-axis.

Results and Short Discussion

The displacement and von misses results are illustrated in Figure 3 and Figure 4, respectively. By looking
at the magnitude (total) displacement of the deformed beam, it is clearly shown that the free end will
be mostly deformed. The largest displacement is at the tip where a concentrated load is applied. The
displacement is 9.972E08 m.

Figure 3: Displacement result

The Von misses stresses contour shown in Figure 4 shows that a critical area occurs at the left bottom
2

Figure 4: Von misses stress

corner. During the bending deformation as indicated by deformation plot (Figure 3) this region is highly
compressed, as a consequence the stress contour shows higher compared to other region. In this corner a
stress concentration is the highest (1598 N/m2 ). Besides this area, the area around the concentrated load
is also high stressed. It can be understood since the load is applied in this point.

Conclusion

Based on this simulation result, there are some results can be derived:
1. The cantilever will be deformed in a bending mode with the largest displacement of 9.972E08 m
2. High concentration stresses occur at lower left corner region where the cantilever beam is fixed. The
damage can start from this region because of this high stress concentration, as high as 1598 N/m2
3. The left upper region has develop high stresss concentration although the concentration level is not
as high as the left lower region. This upper region, however is purely in tension stress, so crack can
be initiated from this region if the stress level reaches the fracture stress of the material.