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REPORT FOR ANALYSIS DONE FOR

STRUCTURAL STABILITY OF MMS MODULE ASSLY.

AMARDEEP SINGH
Sunpride Solar Private Limited.
6/26/2016
TITLE : STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF MMS MODULE ASSLY

UNDER STATIC CONDITIONS.

REPORT NO : TC-SPS-FEA-01

DATE : 26 June 2016

CONCEPTUAL : Mr. Sundeep Singh

DESING BY

SIMULATION : Mr. AMARDEEP SINGH

DONE BY

APPROVED : Mr. Amit Chauhan

BY

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Sl no Index Page

1 Section ‘A’ 4
1.1 Summary of Analysis 4
1.2 Objective 4
1.3 Abstract 4
2 Section B 5
2.1 Meshing 5
2.2 Material Table 6
2.3 Quality Setting 7
2.4 List of Element Table 7
2.5 Complete Meshed Model 7
3 Section ‘C’ (Details of the Element & Equations Used) 8
4 Section ‘D’ (Quality Parameters) 9
5 Section ‘E’ Boundary Conditions 11
Load Case 1: Wind Load (From Front of the Panel)
5.1 11
Load Case 2: Wind Load (From Behind the Panel)
5.2 Calculating The Wind Load On The Flat Panel 12
5.3 Self weight of the Panels 13
5.4 Fixed Constraint 13
6 Section ‘F’ Post Processing & Results 14
7 Section ‘G’ Result Interpretation and Conclusion 19

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Section ‘A’
1.1 Summary of Analysis.

Analyzed File: MMS MODULE ASSLY


Pre-processing: Hypermesh 13
Calculation: Ansys 15
Post-processing: Hyperview
Creation Date: 26-06-2016
Simulation Author: Amardeep Singh

1.2 Objective:

To analysis the structural integrity and stability of the MMS MODULE ASSLY
under the described loading conditions.

1.3 Abstract:

The existing design of the solar module structure was evaluated at the given
loading and the wind conditions. It was found that the structure was not safe to
sustain the winds of about 150Km/h.
The design of the structure was improved and the improved version was again
evaluated for the given loading and wind conditions. Both the design were
evaluated for the structural strength and stability.
It was observed that the improved design was having higher structural strength
and good displacement behaviour.
The parameters such as the displacement and Von-mises stress are used to
calculate and understand the structural and deformation behaviour of the
assembly (equipment).

It is concluded from the static calculation that

The structure is safe for the wind loads exerted by the wind blowing at
the speeds of 150 Km/Hr.
The maximum stress in the complete structure is “157” Mpa.
The maximum displacement of the structure is “48” mm.

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Section B
2.1 Meshing
The structure of the solar generator is meshed using 2D Shell elements of
the similar thickness as the thickness of the sheet metal components is far
less than the corresponding length & width. Please refer to the section ‘C’
for further details on the element properties and the list of elements table
given below. All the structural components are modelled with Mild steel
material, and the properties used are given below in the material table.

All the welding are considered to be continues and weld seams are
modelled using the shell181 element of the thickness similar to the
thickness of the thinner part (from the parts to be welded)

Welding connection

Bolted connections are considered to be rigid and are modelled using two
spiders (shown in red colour) of beam4 element (10 mm dia) and these
spiders are connected with another Beam4 element (Shown in Green
Colour) with diameter equals to the diameter of the bolt. The spiders are
modelled with zero mass and the bolts are modelled with steel material to
accommodate their mass in the complete assembly. Please refer to the
section ‘C’ for further details on the element properties and the list of
elements table given below.

Spider with
10mm Dia

Beam4 element with


dia similar to bolt dia

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Solar Panels are modelled using CP_Struct equations to distribute the
wind load on the structure holding the panels. The geometry of one such
panel is shown in the figure below.

CP_Struct Element
connected to the
Roof Structure (Blue)

Bolting Location
(RED)

Point of Force
Application

Geometry Cleanup tools are used to remove the radius and holes which
are of lower than 4mm.

2.2 Material Table:

Following material is used for modelling the structure of the generator.

Name Mild Steel.


Mass Density 7.86 g/cm^3
General Yield Strength 207 MPa
Ultimate Tensile Strength 345 MPa
Young's Modulus 210 GPa
Stress Poisson's Ratio 0.3 ul
Shear Modulus 86.2745 GPa
Expansion Coefficient 0.000012 ul/c
Stress Thermal Thermal Conductivity 56 W/( m K )
Specific Heat 460 J/( kg c )

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2.3 Quality Setting:

Following Quality setting are used for the model checking. Further details of the
quality parameters are given in Section ‘D’ of the report.

2.4 List of Element Table:

Type of Element Parameter Measure


Shell181 : Average element size 11
2D 4 Node Shell Total number of elements 42126
Element
Total number of nodes 46186
Beam4: Average element Length N.A.
1D 2 Node Beam Total number of elements 120
Element
Total number of nodes 211

2.5 Complete Meshed Model:

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Section ‘C’ (Details of the Element & Equations Used):

Shell 181: SHELL181 is suitable for analyzing thin to moderately-thick shell


structures. It is a four-noded element with six degrees of freedom at each node:
translations in the x, y, and z directions, and rotations about the x, y, and z axes.

SHELL181 supports uniform reduced integration, full integration, and full


integration with incompatible modes. In this simulation full integration is used.

BEAM4: BEAM4 is a uniaxial element with tension, compression, torsion, and


bending capabilities. The element has six degrees of freedom at each node:
translations in the nodal x, y, and z directions and rotations about the nodal x, y,
and z axes. Stress stiffening and large deflection capabilities are included. A
consistent tangent stiffness matrix option is available for use in large deflection
(finite rotation) analyses.

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Section ‘D’ (Quality Parameters):

Sl Parameter Details of the parameter.


No. Name
1 Aspect ratio Aspect ratio defines as the ratio between the minimum and
maximum side lengths. 3-D elements are evaluated by treating
each face of the element as a 2-D element, finding the aspect
ratio of each face, and then returning the most extreme aspect
ratio found.
Allowable Aspect Ratio - 10
2 Chordal Curved surfaces can be approximated by using many short lines
Deviation
instead of a true curve. Chordal deviation is the perpendicular
distance between the actual curve and the approximating line
segments.

Allowable Chordal Deviation - 0.1


3 Interior These maximum and minimum values are evaluated independently
Angles for triangles and quadrilaterals.
FOR QUAD4 ELEMENTS:
Allowable Minimum Angle - 45
Allowable Maximum Angle – 135
4
Jacobian This measures the deviation of an element from its ideal or "perfect"
shape, such as a triangle’s deviation from equilateral. The Jacobian
value ranges from 0.0 to 1.0, where 1.0 represents a perfectly
shaped element. The determinant of the Jacobian relates the local
stretching of the parametric space which is required to fit it onto the
global coordinate space.
HyperMesh evaluates the determinant of the Jacobian matrix at
each of the element’s integration points (also called Gauss points) or
at the element’s corner nodes, and reports the ratio between the
smallest and the largest. In the case of Jacobian evaluation at the
Gauss points, values of 0.7 and above are generally acceptable.
You can select which method of evaluation to use (Gauss point or
corner node) from the Check Element Settings window.
Allowable Jacobian - 0.5

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5 Length (min.
& max) Minimum element lengths are calculated using one of two methods:
• The shortest edge of the element. This method is used for
non tetrahedral 3-D elements.
• The shortest distance from a corner node to its opposing
edge (or face, in the case of tetra elements); referred to as
"minimal normalized height".

Allowable Minimum Length - 5


Allowable Maximum Length – 20

6 Skew
Skew of triangular elements is calculated by finding the minimum
angle between the vector from each node to the opposing mid-side,
and the vector between the two adjacent mid-sides at each node of
the element.

The minimum angle found is subtracted from ninety degrees and


reported as its skew.
Allowable Skew – 60

7 Warpage
This is the amount by which an element (or in the case of solid
elements, an element face) deviates from being planar. Since three
points define a plane, this check only applies to quads. The quad is
divided into two tria’s along its diagonal, and the angle between the
tria’s normals is measured.

Allowable Warpage – 15

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Section ‘E’ (Boundary Conditions)

5.1 Load Case 1: Wind Load (From Front of the Panel):


As the component is to work in open field, hence will be subjected to wind pressure
exerted due to the fast blowing winds. It is found that the equipment will be subjected
to the maximum wind speed of 150Km/hr. The force exerted by the wind is
proportional to the angle of inclination of the flat panel, hence it is decided to go upto
maximum of 20deg from the horizontal.
Load Type Uniformly distributed load

Magnitude 520 N on panel

Direction Global Z axis


Flat Surface of the solar panels (Marked blue in the figure
Applied area
below)

Load 2: Wind Load (From Behind the Panel):

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5.2 Calculating the Wind Load on the Flat Panel

Force is given buy


F = A x P x Cd
(I)
2
A = area of the flat panel = 1.9 m .
P = Wind pressure
Cd = Coefficient of drag (it is dependent on the shape and the orientation of the
object and for slating objects at 45 deg is 0.8 and at30 deg is 0.5. We will consider
Cd = 0.5)

Wind pressure is calculated as

P = D x V2 / 2 (Pascal)
(II)
3
D = density of air = 1.1 Kg/m )
V = Velocity of wind = 150 Km/hr Or 41.6 m/Sec)

By Substituting (II) in (I) we get:

F = A x D x V2 x Cd / 2
F = 2 x 1.1 x 55.52 x .5/ 2

F = 520 N Total Force Exerted By Wind on the panel

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5.3 Self weight of the Panels:
The weight of the panel is considered as 13 Kg each. The panels are the bought out
items and are not under the scope of the calculation, hence the weight is converted
to Force and is applied on the panels itself.

Load Type Uniformly distributed load

Magnitude 25 kg per Panel

Force on the Panel 25x 9.81 = 245.25 N

Direction Global negative Y axis


Flat Surface of the solar panels (Marked blue in the figure
Applied area
below)

5.4 Fixed Constraint:


As the equipment is to be fixed on the ground the locations marked in the figure
below are fixed in all the translational degrees of freedom.

All DOF are fixed at


the fixing locations.

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Section ‘F’ Post Processing & Results

Existing Design:
Name Load Case 1 Load Case 2

Von Mises Stress 223 Mpa 151 Mpa

Displacement 82 mm 76 mm

Von Mises Stress (MPa)

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Note : The location 2 is the region near to the anchoring plate and the vertical column. This stress is
critical but as on site a concrete block is casted over it, the stress in actual will be considerably less.
Therefore this region can be neglected when considering the strength point of view.

Displacement (mm)

Note: It can be seen that we have high displacement at the vertical column (41mm & 39mm) which
causes the high displacements at the panel (82mm & 76mm). It can be concluded from the above
plot that we need to reduce the displacement in the vertical column to improve the structural
strength and rigidity of the structure.
.

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Improved Design:

Based on the above results following changes were recommended and considered.

1. The rows of the modules were connected


connected to each other using angle of
40x40x5mm as shown in the figure below.

ocation 1: The high stress concentration is because of twisting of the plate


2. At location
(shown in green color) this twisting can be avoided by doing a full weld around
the plate (on all four
ur sides) the welding can be done after bolting or without
bolting. The lower plate (shown in green color) should also be welded with the
vertical structure or should have at least two bolted connections. It is
recommended to have weld at this location.

3. To reduce the displacement and increase the local stiffness at location 2. The base plate
which is welded to the vertical column shall be minimum 250 X 250 with two holes placed
diagonally.

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Name Load Case 1 Load Case 2

Von Mises Stress 187 Mpa 178 Mpa

Displacement 51.2 mm 48.2 mm

Von Mises Stress (MPa)

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Note: The region near to the anchoring plate and the vertical column. This stress is critical but as on
site a concrete block is casted over it, the stress in actual will be considerably less. Therefore this
region can be neglected when considering the strength point of view.

Displacement (mm)

Note: It can be seen from the above results that the displacements have been reduced
considerably in comparison to the existing design.

Comparison between the Existing design and the Improved design.

Maximum stress (Mpa) Maximum displacement (mm)


Design Version
Load case 1 Load case 2 Load case 1 Load case 2
Existing design 223 151 82 76
Improved design 187 178 51.2 48.2

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Section ‘G’: Result Interpretation and Conclusion
It can be seen from the above results that the stress have been reduced in almost all
the areas in the structure of the solar module. The stress location 1 has been
reduced from 223Mpa to 180Mpa and location 2 from 418Mpa to 367Mpa. The
stiffness of the structure have been improved greatly improved and can be seen in
the displacement results which have been improved from 82mm to 512.2mm and
76mm to 48.2mm for load case 1 and 2 respectively.
It is recommended to use the improved design in place of the existing design.

Based on the above results following improvements are recommended for the future
design.
1. The base plate which is welded to the vertical column shall be minimum 250 X
250 with two holes placed diagonally.
2. The dimension of the concrete shall be changed from 300x300x350mm to
450x300x250mm with 450mm in the direction parallel to the wind flow.
3. Longer Anchor bolts shall be used so that the anchoring length is increased.

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