Does the feasible boundary of the 2 mm laser-cut bracket converge when the mesh is refined to 0.5 mm?
research/simdesign-meshconverge
On meshes of 1.0 and 0.5 mm no width in the usable 15.0–16.0 mm window of the gauge-2 bracket scan is feasible (one point at 0.75 mm), and the lowest peak stress rises 11–14% from 1.5 to 0.5 mm; negative, stylised, preliminary.
What it found
A negative result (stylised, preliminary). Scanning web width from 15.0 to 16.0 mm (the slenderness rule forbids wider) at four fillet radii on 1.5, 1.0, 0.75 and 0.5 mm meshes, the feasible widths found at 1.5 mm are all infeasible at 1.0 and 0.5 mm under the 100 MPa peak-stress limit, with a single feasible point at 0.75 mm. The lowest peak stress rises 11–14% from 1.5 to 0.5 mm and is still creeping up, so convergence is not shown. One gauge, one load, a peak measure at a near-sharp fillet floor; no search was run on the fine meshes.
A figure from its own output
Paper, code and results
More in Simulation-first design
- Does the 1.5 mm bracket clear buckling when the whole L is one 3D body with a flexible corner?The whole 1.5 mm L-bracket as one 3D body clears the buckling floor under the design load (factor 4.01 vs closed-form 3.47) but not with the load reversed (2.25, below 3); sharp corner, ideal sheet, preliminary.
- How wide must the 1.5 mm L-bracket be to clear the buckling floor when the load is reversed?Widening the 1.5 mm L-bracket web from 18.4 to about 22.6 mm lifts the reversed-load buckling factor from 2.27 to the floor of 3, at +5.9 g (+19%) plate mass; buckling only, sharp corner, ideal sheet, preliminary.
- Do the reversed-load buckling widths of the L-bracket change with more element layers through the thickness?More element layers through the thickness (1 to 4) move the L-bracket's reversed-load buckling factor by at most 1.2% and the width needed for the floor of 3 by at most 0.07 mm at 1.5 to 3.0 mm gauges, so the thicker-sheet designs of
simdesign-revgaugestand; coarse in-plane mesh, sharp corner, ideal sheet, preliminary. - Do the reversed-load buckling-limited L-bracket designs also pass the forward-load buckling, stress and deflection checks?Under the forward 100 N load the four reversed-load buckling-limited L-brackets all clear buckling (factor 4.7 to 5.6), but only the 1.5 mm design also meets the 100 MPa and 4 mm limits; the 2.5 and 3.0 mm designs fail by 2 to 8 times, and the 2.0 mm design passes only on the coarse mesh (95.7 vs 144.9 MPa finer). Stylised.
- Is a thicker sheet lighter than a wider 1.5 mm web for clearing the reversed-load buckling floor?At the reversed-load buckling floor of 3, a 2 mm sheet needs a web of about 11.8 mm and weighs 27.5 g against 36.6 g for 1.5 mm at 22.6 mm; 2.5 mm gives 20.5 g; buckling only, one element layer through the thickness, preliminary.
- Does relaxing the 1.2 mm minimum-wall rule open thinner sheet gauges for the laser-cut bracket, or is the buckling floor what binds?Relaxing the 1.2 mm minimum wall of the laser-cut bracket: it does not open 1.0 mm sheet by itself (the buckling floor binds); with floor 1 and wall ≤ 1.0 mm a 24.8 g design appears (unvalidated closed form).
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Produced with AI assistance (Claude). Results are from the code in this repository and are simulated or stylised unless the abstract says otherwise; nothing here implies affiliation with or endorsement by any lab, researcher or company cited. MIT licensed.