Solidworks Simulation and Analysis 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In SolidWorks Simulation, what is the difference between 'bonded' and 'no penetration' contact sets?
- Bonded allows sliding; no penetration prevents all motion
- Bonded merges surfaces as if welded; no penetration prevents overlap but allows separation and sliding (Correct answer)
- Bonded is for metals; no penetration is for plastics
- They are identical except for mesh treatment
Correct answer: Bonded merges surfaces as if welded; no penetration prevents overlap but allows separation and sliding
Bonded contact treats touching faces as permanently joined, while no penetration contact allows faces to separate and slide but not pass through each other.
Question 2: Which result probe in SolidWorks Simulation would you use to find the maximum displacement in the Z-direction only?
- von Mises stress probe
- UZ displacement component probe (Correct answer)
- Resultant displacement probe
- Strain energy probe
Correct answer: UZ displacement component probe
The UZ displacement component probe isolates deformation along the Z-axis, whereas the resultant probe shows total magnitude regardless of direction.
Question 3: In a SolidWorks Simulation fatigue study, what does the 'S-N curve' represent?
- Stress vs. number of cycles to failure (Correct answer)
- Strain vs. node count in the mesh
- Safety factor vs. number of load cases
- Stiffness vs. natural frequency
Correct answer: Stress vs. number of cycles to failure
The S-N (Wöhler) curve plots alternating stress amplitude against the number of cycles a material can endure before fatigue failure.
Question 4: What is the purpose of 'h-adaptive' mesh refinement in SolidWorks Simulation?
- It increases element order from linear to parabolic globally
- It automatically reduces element size in high-stress-gradient regions to improve accuracy (Correct answer)
- It converts hex elements to tet elements
- It applies adaptive time stepping in nonlinear studies
Correct answer: It automatically reduces element size in high-stress-gradient regions to improve accuracy
H-adaptive refinement automatically splits elements in regions where the error estimator detects steep stress gradients, targeting accuracy without refining the whole mesh.
Question 5: In SolidWorks Flow Simulation, what is a 'Global Goal' used for?
- Setting the global coordinate system for the fluid domain
- Monitoring a quantity (e.g., pressure drop or temperature) averaged or summed over the entire model (Correct answer)
- Defining the fluid material properties globally
- Specifying turbulence intensity at all inlets
Correct answer: Monitoring a quantity (e.g., pressure drop or temperature) averaged or summed over the entire model
Global Goals track aggregate quantities like total heat transfer or average pressure across the whole domain, used both as convergence criteria and result outputs.
Question 6: When running a nonlinear static study in SolidWorks Simulation, which solver setting controls how the applied load is incrementally increased?
- Mesh density control
- Number of frequencies
- Time curve / load increment stepping (Correct answer)
- Damping coefficient
Correct answer: Time curve / load increment stepping
In nonlinear studies, the load is applied in increments defined by a time curve, allowing the solver to track large deformations or material plasticity step by step.
Question 7: What does a 'Prescribed Displacement' fixture in SolidWorks Simulation allow you to do that a standard 'Fixed' fixture does not?
- Prevent all six degrees of freedom simultaneously
- Apply a known non-zero displacement or rotation to a face instead of enforcing zero motion (Correct answer)
- Define a displacement that varies with frequency
- Lock only rotational degrees of freedom
Correct answer: Apply a known non-zero displacement or rotation to a face instead of enforcing zero motion
Prescribed Displacement lets you enforce a specific deformation value (e.g., 2 mm in X) on a face, while a Fixed fixture only constrains all DOFs to zero.
Solidworks Simulation and Analysis 5
In SolidWorks Simulation, what is the difference between 'bonded' and 'no penetration' contact sets?