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Bucket Elevator

Hi, I have two drums that act as an axis and move a belt, which raises some buckets, how can I make this animation in inspire, or edem? I leave a photo thanks

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GTT Adam

Hi @Martin82,

This type of simulation will best be handled using MotionView, where the User can easily capture this model using several different approaches:

Depending on the eventual application, a simplified version of the model can be designed in which the bucket is constrained to the pulleys using a point to curve (PTC) constraint. The bucket would then follow a rigid path around the pulleys and transfer load into the supports. The 'load' in the bucket can be approximated using a function that can fluctuate with either time or distance and you can avoid needing to model the bulk material as well. As a rigid version of this system, there would be no flexibility in the belt so if the point of the model is to study the performance of the belt, this would not be suitable. However, if it is to simulate the performance of the pulleys, then it may be all you need.
The more detailed approach would be to create a discretized belt using the Belt/Pulley Tool: This way, the bucket can be constrained to the belt and the flexibility of the pulley can be considered. The bucket can be simply constrained to a chunk of the belt using a fixed joint. The system can then be cosimulated with EDEM to incorporate bulk material or still simulated using a load function.
The most detailed approach would be to create a non-linear finite element (NLFE) belt using the Belt/Pulley Tool. The flexibility and stresses in the belt can be simulated to see if it can handle the load function or EDEM cosimulated loads into the bucket.

In Inspire, it is still possible to model a version of this system, but it would require a significant amount of planning as there is no Belt/Pulley Tool in Inspire. First, you would have to create the discretized belt yourself and model 'hinges' at every segment so the interface can detect the joints. Depending on the scale of this model, you may need to generate 100's or 1000's of these bodies manually. You would then need to create a series of contacts between the belt pieces and the pulleys with the high amount of friction.

Hope this helps!

Adam Reid

Martin82

Ok, I'm going to try to do it in motionview, too bad because I wanted to keep the original drawing of the project, now I have a question, how do I animate the belt? With what function?Thanks

GTT Adam

Hi @Martin82,

If you had already started a model in Inspire, you can easily export everything into MotionView. Inspire and MotionView are both preprocessors for MotionSolve, so the entity definitions can easily be transferred from one interface to the other. Simply go to the Run Motion Analysis window and Export » MotionView » Export .MDL File.

Also see below for an animation of the 3 different ways of creating a belt/pulley system:

Top (Discretized/Rigid belt)

Middle (NLFE belt)

Bottom (Coupled Joints)

By animate, do you mean how do you apply motion? Simply create a Motion entity on a revolute joint or a Force onto the pulley body to create the rotation of the belt.

If you are just getting into MotionView, Altair offers an introductory course, MotionView/MotionSolve Introduction eLearning, for solving multi-body dynamics (MBD) problems using HyperWorks and illustrates constructing, solving and post-processing MBD problems. This course focuses on general Multibody mechanisms and is a starting point for learning modeling in MotionSolve.

You can find it at the following link: https://learn.altair.com/enrol/index.php?id=496

Altair also offers a specialized multi-body dynamics (MBD) course for vehicle modeling, called MotionSolve for Vehicle Modeling eLearning. This class introduces the application of MotionSolve for vehicle modeling applications, such as assembly of half or full car models, vehicle event creation, generating event reports, modifying vehicle subsystems, and preliminary verification methods.

You can find it at the following link: https://learn.altair.com/enrol/index.php?id=497

Hope this helps!

Adam Reid

Martin82

Ok, thanks, I'll try and let you know if I have any questions. Thanks.