Visualizing the Solution

Visualize the solution for the displacement and stress.

  1. Activate the Displacement scene in the Graphics window.
  2. Click (Save-Restore-Select Views) and select Views > -X > Up +Y.


    The computed maximum displacement is about 4.67 mm. Bernoulli-Euler beam theory predicts a displacement of about 4.63 mm, so the numerical solution differs from the theoretical result by less than 1%.

  3. Activate the Stress scene in the Graphics window.
  4. Click (Save-Restore-Select Views) and select Restore View > View 1.


As expected, the Stress scene shows high stress concentrations at the extremities of the web, that was constrained in all degrees of freedom. Examine the stress at the top flange corner, which is sufficiently far from the constrained areas:
  1. Right-click the Reports > Stress [k,k] node and select Run Report.
    The report is printed to the output window. The computed stress at the top flange corner is about 17.4 MPa, which is in good agreement with the value of 17.3 MPa, given by Euler-Bernoulli beam theory.
To visualize how the stress computed near the fixed constraints deviates from Euler-Bernoulli beam theory:
  1. Right-click the Reports > Stress [k,k] near Fixed Constraint node and select Run Report.
    The report is printed to the output window. The computed stress at the upper extremity of the web is about 18.61 MPa, which is higher than the result given by Euler-Bernoulli beam theory.
The results of this analysis are summarized in the table below. The first row shows the analytical solution from Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The second row reports the numerical solution obtained in this tutorial. For comparison, the third row shows the numerical solution that you obtain if you apply a fixed constraint to both the flanges and the web.
Solution Method Displacement [j] σzz at flange center σzz at flange corner
Euler-Bernoulli beam theory - 4.63 mm 17.34 MPa 17.34 MPa
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ analysis with:
  • fixed constraint on web
  • normal displacement constraint on flanges
- 4.67 mm 18.61 MPa 17.42 MPa
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ analysis with:
  • fixed constraint on web and flanges
-4.66 mm 20.67 MPa 24.08 MPa