Dynamic, fatigue and harmonic analysis of a beam to beam system with various cross-sections under impact load

Contact of materials is inevitable in machine environment where a number of elements interact with each other causing impact force and consequent stress and strain at point of contact. The study of this behaviour is essential for machine design applications as it helps to predict life of a particular element as per the amount of stress it can sustain. This study is based on dynamic, fatigue and harmonic analysis of two-beams in contact with a combination of cross-section geometries of the beams. ANSYS, which is a Finite Element Analysis software is used for numerical modelling of stresses and deformations developed within the two-beam system. Three different combination of beam cross-sections were simulated: square-square, circular-circular and square-circular. Under dynamic and fatigue analysis, the results show that the least deformation coupled with the highest fatigue life and safety factor occurs when one beam is square and the other is circular (Square-circular), a slightly higher deformation occurs when two square beams (square-square) interact with each other while the highest deformation occurs when two circular beams interact with each other. This shows that Square cross-section beams have higher bending resistance while circular cross-section beams have low bending resistance and thus higher deformation. Under vibration analyses, due to higher natural frequencies, both the square-square and square-circular section beams show excellent durability and better margin of safety to the same extent during vibration. The results of this work will be useful in enlightening design engineers on the combination of beam cross sections that will give optimum performance in a beam-to-beam system for structural and machine design applications.