Rectangular Plate with a Hole Subjected to Tensile Loading

Stress concentration chart. Source: Beer, Ferdinand P., Johnston, Jr., E. Russell, DeWolf, John T., Mazurek, David F. (2015) Mechanics of Materials. Seventh edition. New York (NY): McGraw-Hill Education. Chapter 2, Stress and Strain - Axial Loading; p. 118.

This is an assignment for my ME-441 Computer Simulation and Analysis class. In the Computer Simulation and Analysis class ANSYS Workbench and Discovery AIM were used extensively to simulate. Instructions were provided, and sometimes the models, either from Creo Parametric or SolidWorks, were provided as well. Some assignments however need the objects to be modelled from scratch or modified before hand.

The assignment

In this assignment, a steel plate with a hole in the center undergoes a stress analysis using ANSYS AIM Structural. The assignment is to find the maximum normal stress in the x-direction on the cylindrical surface of the hole must be found and compare it with the theoretical maximum normal stress.

The plate is 0.05 m in height, 0.15 m in length, and 0.01 m in thickness. The hole, which is located in the center, is 0.01 m in diameter. Using stress concentration, 2r/D = 2(0.005 m)/0.05 m = 0.2, and from using that result on the graph, the stress concentration factor K_t = 2.5. The amount of tensile pressure being applied to the right face of the plate is 10,000 Pa. Since force (F) is equal to pressure (P) x Area (A), then F = 10,000 Pa x (0.05 m x 0.01 m) = 5 N on the steel plate. The nominal stress is Force/((height - diameter)*thickness) = 5 N/((0.05 m - 0.01 m) x 0.01 m) = 12,500 Pa. The maximum normal stress in the x-direction is the stress concentration factor multiplied by the nominal stress, which would be 31,250 Pa.

During the simulation, I applied a fixed support on the left face of the plate, and a pressure of -10,000 Pa on the right face to simulate the tensile loading.

Results