Strength indicator

For Static Stress studies, there is an indicator in the legend on the Load Case drop-down menu. This indicator provides some initial insight into your results to give you some guidance about whether the design is appropriate. The indicator shows four possible states of the current design study: insufficient strength, marginal strength, sufficient strength, and excessively strong. These states are based on the lowest resultant Safety Factor in the design and the default or user-specified safety factor targets.

Using the Results Details

The strength indicator can be used as a valuable first glance at your results, and it gives you suggestions for continuing with your design. Clicking the icon brings up a dialog with various suggestions, and you can also modify the safety factor targets in this dialog.

The descriptions of each indicator are as follows:

• Insufficient Strength : This indication is a critical warning. It means that the current design bends or breaks as a result of the loads and constraints that are applied in the analysis. There are multiple actions that can be taken when seeing insufficient strength.

  • Validate the settings of the study first.
  • Investigate materials with a higher yield strength.
  • Modify the design to reinforce the weaker areas.
  • If the design is intended to bend, run a Nonlinear Static Stress Analysis to get more accurate results and understand the bending behavior.

• Marginal Strength : This state is a warning indicating that your design strength is in a transitional area, and failure could occur. Different industries have different requirements about safety factors. This indication happens when the minimum resultant safety factor is between 1.0 and 3.0. (3.0 is the default Lower Target for the safety factor.) Some industries and applications accept a lower safety factor than typically used for general purposes. A design may be sufficient in this safety factor range, but a thorough review should be conducted. Small variations could cause a critical failure, like if a load is applied dynamically, or if the materials have any flaws (fairly common).

  • Validate the study settings.
  • Investigate safety factor requirements/recommendations for your product. More information about Safety Factor ...
  • Ensure that you have achieved mesh convergence.
  • Investigate strengthening the design by changing materials or reinforcing the design.

• Sufficient Strength : This state is a preliminary indication that your design is suited for the application. That said, it is still a good idea to do the following:

  • Validate the settings of the study.
  • Run any other studies that may depict a different load case.
  • Ensure that you have achieved mesh convergence.
  • Investigate safety factor requirements/recommendations for your product, it is possible that the industry standard for your product is greater than the default target. More information about Safety Factor ...
  • If your structure is slender and subject to compressive loads, consider the possibility of structural buckling in addition to performing a static stress analysis. Slender structures under compression can buckle at loads well below the yield strength of the material due to geometric instability. A Structural bucklling analysis indicates if this mode of failure is a concern.

• Excessive Strength : This indication is a warning stating that the current design appears to be over engineered. This indication occurs when the smallest safety factor in the design is greater than the upper safety factor target. Certain industries and applications require a higher factor of safety than the default safety factor upper limit.

  • Validate the study settings.
  • Run any other studies that may depict a different load case.
  • Ensure that you have achieved mesh convergence.
  • Consider using materials that have a lower yield strength and may reduce cost.
  • Run a Shape Optimization study to reduce the amount of material used in the design.
  • If your structure is slender and subject to compressive loads, consider the possibility of structural buckling in addition to performing a static stress analysis. Slender structures under compression can buckle at loads well below the yield strength of the material due to geometric instability. A Structural bucklling analysis indicates if this mode of failure is a concern.