what simulation should I perform to this assembly composed of sheet metal parts? what outcomes should I be analyzing?

[aferiaNLGTK]

Hello everyone,

I have just finished designing this laboratory station and I wonder whether I should perform any type of simulation. (this assembly is composed of different sheet metal parts that are connected to each other by threads and sockets).

Description of the station: Its main purpose is to pull air room through the perforated trays that you can see along the edge of the work surface (inside the bottom box there is an EC fan that sucks de air). Then, the air passes through two filters and it travels through the plenum (back part that connects the bottom and top part) and exhausts from the top creating an air curtain near the view screen that moves faster than the air inside the cabinet, minimizing the chance for allergens to scape the work area.

Given the above info, what type of simulation should I perform? and most importantly, what outcomes should I be analyzing?

Since there is an airflow circulating through the parts, it would be ideal to simulate this air circulation. The problem is that every single sheet metal part of the assembly has "leaks", they are gaps that are formed in the corners where the bending is (we will laser cut, bend and weld them in the workshop). any advice is more than welcome

FUSION 360 VIDEO LINK:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/2b1e24b8-663b-4f6d-ac53-999ba606ee04

any suggestions are more than welcome.

Thanks

[Marcin_Kosciolek]

Hi @aferiaNLGTK 

In your case, you should conduct CFD analysis which is now unavailable in Fusion (only electronics cooling study uses CFD solver). You should rather go to Autodesk CFD software. It allows you to simulate fluid flow in the laboratory station. In your case you can create a domain of the room where this station is placed, so you will see how the flow behaves in the whole space (so the leaks in your design are no problem). 

If we have forced movement of the air, I think we are mainly interested in the velocity and pressure to see if we maintain an "air curtain".

Anyway, I think you can post a new thread on CFD forum to know more about this type of simulation. There are specialists who daily deal with such problems.

[aferiaNLGTK]

Hi @Marcin_Kosciolek ,

I'm sorry for the late reply and really appreaciate your help. 

Interesting, I have had a look at what CFD analysis is and what diagnoses and it's definitely the type of study that I was looking for.

Apart from that, I am strongly interested in knowing how I can mechanically analyse and check the stability of the design and how the whole assembling will react once all the parts are joined. What I mean by that is, the body of this station has been purely made of sheet metal, they are connected between them by either screws or weldings and I have designed it by eye, so I don't really know how stable it is or whether I have distribuited the forces evenly along the faces.

Perhaps I should perform a static stress analysis? I'm not too sure about that since there is no loads or pressure applied anywhere to the sheet metal body except for the screws them self.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Jose