Overview

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional adds multiple features to SOLIDWORKS Simulation Standard FEA software. These include: design optimization, advanced contacts and connectors, event-based motion, frequency, buckling or collapse, structural thermal, 2D simplification, drop test, pressure vessel design and sub modeling simulation.

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional parametric optimization design study allows you to carry out the “what if” scenario when it comes to testing the parameters of the model, material, loadings and restraints. Testing these in advance sets the stage for optimal design.

Test your design with extensive structural analysis

Structural simulation covers a wide range of FEA problems—from the performance of a part under a constant load to the stress analysis of a moving assembly under dynamic loading, all of which can be determined using SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional:

• Optimize designs based on structural, motion, or geometric criteria.
• Have your CAD toolbox fasteners translated automatically into connectors for fast and accurate assembly analysis.
• Combine load cases and test structural performance for multiple load combinations with the Load Case Manager.
• Analyze how dropping a product will affect its structural integrity.
• Assess large assembly behavior focusing on critical zones with sub-modelling.
• Evaluate complex problems early in the design cycle with plane stress, plane strain, and axisymmetric linear static analysis.
• Access an extensive materials database with metal properties and fatigue curves.

Analyze assembly motion for process and task workflow with event–based simulation

Easily simulate complex machine operations using event-based motion analysis with SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional and validate the sequencing of the design to ensure correct operation, product quality, and safety. See how your product would move in the real world and measure the forces and loads while you design, helping you correctly size the motors and the structure and confirm the timing.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS Premium CAD software, event-based motion analysis using SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional can be a regular part of your design process—reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework or delays, and saving time and development costs:

• Define motion studies based on model event and assembly actions.
• Trigger actions through motion sensors, time, or the completion of a previous task.
• Evaluate characteristics like actuator force and joint loads for motion optimization.
• Gain greater control of model actuators with servomotors.

Understand the effects of temperature on your design

SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional enables every designer and engineer to carry out thermal analysis at any stage of design to ensure that every component and assembly performs properly within expected temperature ranges, and spot safety issues before they arise:

• Study conduction, convection, and radiation heat transfer.
• Utilize isotropic, orthotropic, and temperature-dependent material properties.
• Determine the combined stresses and deformations due to structural and thermal loads.

Simulate frequency or buckling in your designs

Quickly and efficiently investigate the natural frequencies of a design—with and without loads and boundary conditions—with easy-to-use SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional. Ensure that the natural modes of vibration are away from environmental forcing frequencies, indicating that the design will meet the required service life.

Frequency analysis with SOLIDWORKS Simulation uses an Eigen value approach to determine the natural modes of vibration for any geometry. If a design’s natural modes and its expected service vibration environment are closely matched, a harmonic resonance may occur and lead to excessive loads which will result in failure.

• Examine how vibrating or unstable modes can shorten equipment life and cause unexpected failures.
• Assess the effects of load stiffening on frequency and buckling response.

Pressure Vessel Design

In a Pressure Vessel Design study, you combine the results of static studies with the desired factors. Each static study has a different set of loads that produce corresponding results. These loads can be dead loads, live loads (approximated by static loads), thermal loads, seismic loads, and so on.

The Pressure Vessel Design study combines the results of the static studies algebraically using a linear combination or the square root of the sum of the squares (SRSS). When using a solid mesh, the software provides a stress linearization tool to separate bending and membrane components. One can separate and linearize membrane and bending stresses between two locations in a sectional plot of pressure vessel study.

The results can be used in accordance with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. The functionality is used for solid meshes only. For shells, you can plot and list membrane and bending stresses separately.

SOLIDWORKS FEA Topology Study

Use a Topology study to explore design iterations of a component that satisfy a given optimization goal and geometric constraints. Available in SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional and SOLIDWORKS Simulation Premium. A Topology study performs nonparametric topology optimization of parts. Starting with a maximum design space (which represents the maximum allowed size for a component) and considering all applied loads, fixtures, and manufacturing constraints, the topology optimization seeks a new material layout, within the boundaries of the maximum allowed geometry, by redistributing the material. The optimized component satisfies all the required mechanical and manufacturing requirements.