How does your product respond to being dropped from a given height? And why should you even consider this? A drop test can help you ensure that your design remains sustainable by giving you enough information to consider improvements in your design. How? You may ask. Keep reading and we’ll show you how in the following study.
In the spirit of Easter, we went out and got our hands on something as rare as an Easter egg made from steel. We wanted to see how durable this material was. Therefore, we set up a test showing exactly what would happen if we dropped the egg on the ground.
Step 1: Design and include the model
We used SOLIDWORKS to make a 3D model of the Easter egg. When the geometry was in place it was included in a Drop Test Study, which is a part of the SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional package.
Step 2: Adjust the setup
In the Drop Test Setup, we defined that the egg is dropped from a height of 3 meters. If we had data on the velocity of the egg as it hits the ground, we could have added that instead.
We also defined the direction for Gravity and specified a 100% rigid floor.
Another specification we could have chosen is a flexible target, in order to simulate softer surfaces such as linoleum, grass etc. but in this test, we chose a rigid target as shown below.
Once the study has been run, we can extract and simulate data such as displacement and stress.
Displacement
Stress
It is also possible to look at Displacement, Stress, etc. from given points (nodes) in the element model to see how these values change with time in relation to the collision.
In this study, a linear elastic material model was used. This is acceptable, since the stresses is below the material yield strength of 620MPa. This means that Hooks law is still valid.
If the stresses had gone beyond the yield strength, we could have accounted for the changes in stress/strain after yield by changing the material model to non-linear.
The conclusion
This Easter egg splits in two and much of the candy falls. Besides that, based on these results, there are no permanent deformations to the Easter egg since all stresses are below yield.
Therefore, we can conclude, that this specific Easter egg can withstand the given load when falling from a height of 3 meters.
The benefits
The Drop Test Study within SOLIDWORKS Simulation can help improve the sustainability of a product. It is only one of many ways to virtually test how a product can be affected by different strains. By virtually testing your products, you can improve the product quality and lower costs for prototypes and materials.
For this Easter egg it means higher quality and customer satisfaction since the egg wasn’t too fragile. Therefore, it can be used again next year when the kids are ready for another Easter egg hunt, hurray!
Have a wonderful Easter – and happy egg hunt!
