Shipping container design

Shipping container design

Anonymous
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Message 1 of 14

Shipping container design

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi everyone,

 

I'll have to model some house containers soon and I'm looking for help / guidance on how to do it well and avoid pitfalls.

Those container will be built in China, already made as house with an extension that pops out when on site to roughly double their areas. They will be shipped once from China to Australia and then installed on site. 

I would need to ensure their design is compliant with ISO to be shipped and then compliant with AS to be used as a house.

 

If anyone has experience in doing so and is OK to share, that would be awesome. I'm mostly looking at making it good quickly without spending too much time solving design issues.

For what I've read so far, it would be better to design them as shell, which I have never done before as well ! so overall, a pretty challenging project for me!

 

Thanks for all advices!

 

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Message 2 of 14

AntonioZJ
Contributor
Contributor

Someone with experience in this field?

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Message 3 of 14

Simau
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@AntonioZJ 

Do you have some drawings or sketches

M. Agayr
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Message 4 of 14

AntonioZJ
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Contributor

Here is a drawing

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Message 5 of 14

Stephane.kapetanovic
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Mentor

hi @AntonioZJ 

You can try using shell elements.

  • Import the plan view of your drawing as a background (or simply open it as a new project).
  • Draw a polyline over the wall section in the background, or use converted bars directly.
  • Download and use ExtrudeLines to create the wall bay (and more) by selecting the polyline.

Here’s the result ↓

Stephanekapetanovic_0-1671363153011.png

Best regards

Stéphane Kapetanovic

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Message 6 of 14

AntonioZJ
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Contributor

Thank you for your answer @Stephane.kapetanovic 

 

I have just one more question.

 

I want to connect a volumetric object with a shell plate as I show in the picture below and in the attached container model. I think that the mesh is not correct because both element (volumetric and shell) do not have common nodes. I have tried with emitter without success. How can I do this?

 

AntonioZJ_0-1672166842537.png

 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

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Message 7 of 14

Stephane.kapetanovic
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Mentor

hi @AntonioZJ 

 

I don't quite understand the physical design of this joint but to avoid complicating this explanation, you can easily create surfaces on the joint plane from the contours of the upper plates. Once these surfaces are created, extrude them downwards, apply a solid material, recreate your supports, mesh your model.

 

Stephanekapetanovic_2-1672214609636.png

 

note that you can also create solid elements by defining the faces that compose it :

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/robot-structural-analysis-professional/learn-explore/caas/Clo...

 

Best regards

Stéphane Kapetanovic

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Message 8 of 14

AntonioZJ
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Hi again @Stephane.kapetanovic ,

The physical design of this joint is to model the connection of the shipping container shown in the picture below.

This preliminary model ignores the holes in the solid cube (volumetric object).

AntonioZJ_0-1672483445491.png

 

After this brief clarification, I have one more question. Your solution is valid because the volumetric object (cube) and the shells share the nodes on the edge of the cube, but what is the correct way of solving this other situation? 

AntonioZJ_0-1672605109669.png

 

Now, several shell plates are not coincident with an edge of the cube.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

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Message 9 of 14

EduardoMeruvia
Collaborator
Collaborator

Hi @AntonioZJ , 

 

Why don't you just use a cube made up of shells for the that corner "solid" instead? From the photo you shown, it might actually be better to modelled it that way, since you can later account for the holes too if you want to. Not the mentioned, that the shell to shell will be a compatible node situation, unlike solid to shell nodes contact. 

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Message 10 of 14

AntonioZJ
Contributor
Contributor

Hi @EduardoMeruvia,

Finally, I have followed your advice and used a cube made up of shells for the corners. The accuracy is enough.

 

In the picture below, container with maximum load is shown.

 

AntonioZJ_0-1672832002019.png

 

However, if the corner were a solid cube, i.e a continious rigid body, I think that model it with shell panels would not be a valid solution. The strains and stresses in a hollow cube (shell plates cube) will be different from those in a solid cube (volumetric object). Do you agree with me?  

 

From the menu in the picture below, I have tried to convert a shell plate cube in a volumetric object but the results do not change. Is it right?

AntonioZJ_2-1672833440198.png

 

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Message 11 of 14

Stephane.kapetanovic
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Mentor

HI @AntonioZJ 

for this method to work, the cube must consist of completely closed faces. if the problem of the stress peak lies in the modeling of the supports you must try to bring the edges of the cube plates towards a node support with for example a plate or fictitious elements, rigid connections, etc

best regards

Stéphane Kapetanovic

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Message 12 of 14

EduardoMeruvia
Collaborator
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@AntonioZJ 

 

Your differentiation of solid vs shell is correct. If the corner cast of the shipping container was a rigid solid, then using shells might not be accurate enough.  For this instance you would be better off using a solid element. When combining solids and shells though, just careful on the node compatibility (degrees of freedom at node) between them, see links below for reference.

 

https://download.autodesk.com/us/algor/userguides/index.html?url=files/GUID-BFD9750D-ADD3-4C57-BA5A-...

 

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Solid-Shell-Beam-elements-and-their-degrees-of-freedom_fig10_307...

 

 

However, typical shipping container corner cast are hollow cubes which can be represented by simple shell elements, see another typical sample below. 

EduardoMeruvia_0-1672879065202.png

 

Message 13 of 14

abdelhalim.elhaouariCSBQH
Observer
Observer

Hi @AntonioZJ ,

 

Can you please share with us the file of your container model. Thank you in advance!

Message 14 of 14

ycekalovic
Explorer
Explorer

Could you kindly provide us with the file for your container model? We appreciate your assistance in advance. This is for a university thesis project, and your help would be greatly appreciated.