Discussion Forum

Hi,
We, students from TU Delft are currently busy with a materials engineering project on structure of ancient ceramics.

I would like to model an Amphora (imported from solidworks) positioned in between four other amphora.(see picture afbeelding stapeling contact punten 2.png) Because the amphora have point contacts, I need to model a Force on a curved surface, no edges nor plane surfaces. therefore I have made partitions so I can set a boundary on these small created domains (see picture comsol contact punten.png). I did this via Geometry -> Work plane -> Partition objects. After that I placed an equally distributed load on those small surfaces.

I was wondering:
- Since the amphora are symmetric, if there is a quicker way to place planes/make partitions? Or is there in general a faster way to do this? if so how?
- Is there a way I can place a normally distributed or gaussian load, so it is more representative as point load? if so how?
- Maybe there is another, much easier way to place point loads on curved surfaces? if so, what method?

Then I have a question about the physics. How should I set the boundaries to represent this amphora in this position. (stationary)
What I have know:
- I added gravity to the body. -g_const in y direction (the body is on it's side)
- I made the 4 lower contact points fixed. here I don't know if this is representative for leaning on 4 point loads. Should I replace this with equal forces perpendicular to the tangent on these points? and how do I do that?
- I put 4 equal forces to represent the weight of 4 amphora on top
(results see picture stress.png )

Comsol is not something we are very skillful with

waiting for response

Thank you