How does engineering simulation software work?

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I know this is a very broad/challenging question, however any responses would be helpful for my understanding.

So let say I want to model the shrinkage of a 3D object on cooling, how would computer simulations go about this? I have heard of software like ANSYS being used for such modelling, but how does it actually work under the hood?

Thank you!

In: Engineering

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

In your example, you start with a 3d mesh of the object, and model how the heat leaves the object. From there you can use the coefficient of thermal expansion of the material to tell you how much to shrink the distance between mesh vertices based on temperature.

For more complicated things, like injection molding, you also have to account for different areas solidifying at different times.

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