machinery Package#

What is the machinery package?#

The msolve package provides a library of “atomic” multibody modeling elements that allow you to build models. Though, general in its capabilities, the functionality is hard to use for complex systems. The aim of this machinery package is to create a library of higher-level components to simplify the modeling process. With these components, you will be able to build complex general machinery models quickly and understand how they behave. Higher-level components are defined by a set of design parameters as input. These inputs are used to instantiate a set of built-in atomic entities. The higher-level components are parametric in nature. Thus, by changing input design parameters, physically meaningful variations of the higher-level components can be generated.

Who will use it?#

The primary users of this library are non-multibody experts (often FEA experts or designers) that want to include accurate machinery components into their system analysis. Often, they do not have the experience to create these components from the existing atomic MotionSolve elements on their own.

What is its application?#

The machinery package targets various industries, such as gearbox, automotive, general machinery, and white goods markets. Use the package to quickly assemble models and events. Once the models and events have been specified, you can solve the underlying equations to obtain the response of the model to the specified events. Subsequently, you can evaluate the model response as animations or plots. After ensuring that the models behave as expected, you can improve model behavior by changing the design variables or perform a design study to understand how variations in the design affect model performance.

Why do I want to use it?#

You may want to understand or improve the following aspects of the dynamic performance of the machinery:

  1. The overall motion of the system.

  2. The loads acting on the components as the system moves.

  3. The deformations, stresses, and strains for the flexible components in the system.

  4. The stability or the vibration modes at the operating point.

  5. Calculate component strength metrics from the loads through a downstream finite element strength analysis.

  6. Optimize component behavior (weight, for example) with “real loads” through a downstream finite element optimization.

  7. Perform a design study to identify the parameters that really control the design performance of the system.

  8. Find the optimal set of parameters given system performance objectives and constraints.

  9. Design and validate controllers for the system using the fully nonlinear or linearized models.

  10. Create technical reports summarizing system behavior.

  11. Certify the system by running it through a battery of tests and design variations level system analysis.

For example, the machinery components allow you to understand the load distribution between bearings on a shaft as well as the force transmission between gears. Other effects such as manufacturing tolerances, vibration, and shaft/gear eccentricities could be investigated with the components as well.

machinery Libraries#

Bearings#

The msolve.machinery.bearings module contains Bearing objects. These higher-level objects can be used in MotionSolve the same way as every other Model entity.

Bearings - Journal#

The msolve.machinery.journal_bearings module contains Journal Bearing objects. These higher-level objects can be used in MotionSolve the same way as every other Model entity.

Gears#

The msolve.machinery.gears module contains Gear elements, as well as GearSet systems that assemble gears in well-established arrangements. These higher-level objects can be used in MotionSolve the same way as every other Model entity.