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November 14, 2012 5:37pm UTC

Total Mass of a Structure

Hello,

I was wondering how to extract the total mass of system. I have solids model of a beam and a beam model of a beam. I wanted to compare their total masses to each other.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Joshua Mendoza

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November 14, 2012 7:44pm UTC in response to Chris Layman

Re: Total Mass of a Structure

Hi

if you compute the volume you are assuming the density is a constant, this might be correct,

but its easier to integrate, over all (or the relevant) Domains, the density "material.rho" this gives you the true total mass, even with several differet materials, as COMSOL will map the different densities of the different domains correctly

--
Good luck
Ivar

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November 14, 2012 9:03pm UTC in response to J. Mendoza

Re: Total Mass of a Structure

Thanks again,

Also if I add a point mass or a boundary mass I don't think integrating over the volume with rho will give me the mass of the entire system. That's is alright because I can add the added mass to the result of the integral to have the entire mass of the system. The question still remains if I only have edge elements how do I find the mass of the system?

Thanks,

JM

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November 15, 2012 7:03am UTC in response to J. Mendoza

Re: Total Mass of a Structure

Hi

You are right that a point mass is not part of the integration, as you integrate over a specific "Entity" domain or boundary times distance, or edge times area, so you need to add by yourself the extra masses you have attached on points, edges ...

Take care also for the eigenfrequency and the body laod cases, these do neither not include the extra mass. If you have a point mass attached to a domain and you apply a domain load (gravity load), you need also to add the point force corresponding to the added point mass.

This can seem cumbersome, but it is applying the strict way of one physics per domain, or another per boundary, or per edge ... and these are separate and must all be updated.

Just the same way if you add 2 or more physics, you must ensure that the BC are given for EACH physics and completely, symmetry boundaries for "solid" might NOT be also symmetry boundaries for Temperature etc

--
Good luck
Ivar

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