F360: Liquid FEA simulation?

[Anonymous]

I would like to model a 500 gallon PVC sheet water tank and determine the frame reinforcement needed to keep the walls from warping/leaking. Is there a way to do this in the Fusion 360 simulator?

If there is not a direct way to simulate liquids, is there a substitution method, such as for example filling the tank volume with loose-packed spheres of the same approximate weight as the liquid?

If there is not a direct way, and spheres are too much for the "finite" element analysis, I can see other possibilities, but which will be quite annoying for me to have to deal with myself.

In terms of abstract modeling, I understand that for the floor it is basically the weight of the vertical height of the liquid column, and that can be directly calculated, but will vary if the floor is sloped or pocketed with higher/lower areas..

For the walls, the outward liquid pressure varies in a linear gradient from nothing at the top, to maximum at the bottom of the wall. There may be a way to abstract that, too, perhaps in the form of a spring tensioned plate pressing on the wall with the plate hinge point at the virtual water line...

[ADSKDJW4]

Hello dmahalko,

I do not believe fusion is capable of this type of simulation. Below is a post made around the development of simulation for fusion. You can make a post here if you like to where the author can reply to hopefully answer if this will be possible in the future.

Simulation for Fusion 360

Best Regards,

Don

[kb9ydn]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I would like to model a 500 gallon PVC sheet water tank and determine the frame reinforcement needed to keep the walls from warping/leaking. Is there a way to do this in the Fusion 360 simulator?

If there is not a direct way to simulate liquids, is there a substitution method, such as for example filling the tank volume with loose-packed spheres of the same approximate weight as the liquid?

If there is not a direct way, and spheres are too much for the "finite" element analysis, I can see other possibilities, but which will be quite annoying for me to have to deal with myself.

In terms of abstract modeling, I understand that for the floor it is basically the weight of the vertical height of the liquid column, and that can be directly calculated, but will vary if the floor is sloped or pocketed with higher/lower areas..

For the walls, the outward liquid pressure varies in a linear gradient from nothing at the top, to maximum at the bottom of the wall. There may be a way to abstract that, too, perhaps in the form of a spring tensioned plate pressing on the wall with the plate hinge point at the virtual water line...

---

That's an interesting problem.  I think you could approximate the wall loading by splitting the inside wall faces horizontally and applying calculated loads to the split lines.  It's been a million years since I've had to do this sort of problem (calculus class in college) so I can't really help with the calculation, but as I recall it should be fairly simple since you only need to calculate the force from the water at particular depths.

If the floor has varying heights or pockets you may have to calculate and apply the loads to those areas manually.

C|