Altair Inspire® Challenge #3: 3D printed Structural Steel Connection Design

Matthew_Sauer1
Matthew_Sauer1
Altair Employee
edited August 2023 in Altair HyperWorks

Structural Steel Connections often require carefully designed components to safely transfer loads to the ground.  In this challenge we will design a 3D Printed Structural Steel Connector to transfer loads between a set of structural steel members to the ground.  The design must be such that it can accommodate bolted or welded connections to connect to the Structural Steel Components, and the goal of the design is to minimize weight while ensuring the load transfer to the ground occurs without plastic deformation.  The attached STMOD file can be a starting point.  It contains a sample design space, loads, and supports.  Feel free to adjust the design space, and optimization settings (lattice optimization) to your preferences.

image

Level: Medium

Product Required: Inspire

The solution can be attached in the comment section of this post. The desired output format is a JPG or PNG showing your optimized design.

The solution to Challenge "Cycling Shoe Cleat Design" can be found Here

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Comments

  • Karli
    Karli Altair Community Member
    edited September 2023

    So I run couple of tests.

    imageimage

    and I got some kind of idea what to do.

    So I made first prototype, but there was still room to remove some stuff.

    image

    So I made other version:

    image

    This one looks more doable in real world. But it is do light and it can bend too much. Where the first one can bend 0,633 mm, the second one can bend 1,2 mm which is a lot.image

    The weight of the objects are v1: 226 kg and v2: 185 kg. So the first one must be better version.

  • Matthew_Sauer1
    Matthew_Sauer1
    Altair Employee
    edited September 2023
    Karli said:

    So I run couple of tests.

    imageimage

    and I got some kind of idea what to do.

    So I made first prototype, but there was still room to remove some stuff.

    image

    So I made other version:

    image

    This one looks more doable in real world. But it is do light and it can bend too much. Where the first one can bend 0,633 mm, the second one can bend 1,2 mm which is a lot.image

    The weight of the objects are v1: 226 kg and v2: 185 kg. So the first one must be better version.

    Very nice, Karli!

  • Matthew_Sauer1
    Matthew_Sauer1
    Altair Employee
    edited September 2023

    image

     

     

    Great work, Sourav!

  • Kunal Pandit_21294
    Kunal Pandit_21294
    Altair Employee
    edited September 2023

    Hello,

    Structural steel connections play a critical role in bearing and transferring substantial loads between beams and columns. Therefore, in the process of optimization, it is imperative to execute meticulous material removal to ensure that stress and displacement remain within acceptable limits.

    image

    The original values for mass, stress, and displacement were as follows: 1108.807 kg, 14.74 MPa, and 0.7679 mm, respectively.

    image    image    image  Through optimization, these parameters have been significantly improved, resulting in reduced values of 125.121 kg for mass, 18.15 MPa for stress, and 0.7721 mm for displacement.

    image    image    image

    It is worth noting that the connections offer flexibility in terms of assembly methods, including spot welds, line welds, or bolts. In this specific task, spot welds were employed, resulting in a total mass of 511.109 kilograms.

    image    image

    For the structural analysis performed after optimization, spot welds were not utilized due to constraints within Optistruct, making it necessary to exclude them from the analysis.

     

    Thank You.

          

  • Matthew_Sauer1
    Matthew_Sauer1
    Altair Employee
    edited September 2023

    Hello,

    Structural steel connections play a critical role in bearing and transferring substantial loads between beams and columns. Therefore, in the process of optimization, it is imperative to execute meticulous material removal to ensure that stress and displacement remain within acceptable limits.

    image

    The original values for mass, stress, and displacement were as follows: 1108.807 kg, 14.74 MPa, and 0.7679 mm, respectively.

    image    image    image  Through optimization, these parameters have been significantly improved, resulting in reduced values of 125.121 kg for mass, 18.15 MPa for stress, and 0.7721 mm for displacement.

    image    image    image

    It is worth noting that the connections offer flexibility in terms of assembly methods, including spot welds, line welds, or bolts. In this specific task, spot welds were employed, resulting in a total mass of 511.109 kilograms.

    image    image

    For the structural analysis performed after optimization, spot welds were not utilized due to constraints within Optistruct, making it necessary to exclude them from the analysis.

     

    Thank You.

          

    Very nicely done, and a lot of practical considerations were made.  Nice work!

  • SouravDas
    SouravDas
    Altair Employee
    edited September 2023

    image

     

     

    Great work, Sourav!

    Thanks, Matthew

  • Kunal Pandit_21294
    Kunal Pandit_21294
    Altair Employee
    edited September 2023

    Hello,

    Structural steel connections play a critical role in bearing and transferring substantial loads between beams and columns. Therefore, in the process of optimization, it is imperative to execute meticulous material removal to ensure that stress and displacement remain within acceptable limits.

    image

    The original values for mass, stress, and displacement were as follows: 1108.807 kg, 14.74 MPa, and 0.7679 mm, respectively.

    image    image    image  Through optimization, these parameters have been significantly improved, resulting in reduced values of 125.121 kg for mass, 18.15 MPa for stress, and 0.7721 mm for displacement.

    image    image    image

    It is worth noting that the connections offer flexibility in terms of assembly methods, including spot welds, line welds, or bolts. In this specific task, spot welds were employed, resulting in a total mass of 511.109 kilograms.

    image    image

    For the structural analysis performed after optimization, spot welds were not utilized due to constraints within Optistruct, making it necessary to exclude them from the analysis.

     

    Thank You.

          

    Very nicely done, and a lot of practical considerations were made.  Nice work!

    Thank you so much, Matthew!