r/fea • u/Videogamer543 • 7d ago

FEA Stress Analysis Tool

Hi all, I recently did an FEA Analysis tool for an AI project.

Here is a description of my project

You basically upload a STEP file, and describe how it's loaded and it shows you a stress map. Tick a box and it'll also design the pocket cut-outs for you assuming your part is a 2d plate, keeping material where the load actually goes.

Quick honesty note since the name says AI: the stress math is regular FEA. The AI parts are the chatbot and the bit that reads your plain-English description.

The pocketing tool tuned against actual pocketed actually machined, so it's calibrated to how we do things. It's linear elastic, ignores welds and bolts and fatigue, and only pockets flat plates. Treat it as a gut check, not a green light.

If you've ever pocketed a plate by hand, I'd love it if you ran one through and told me where it disagrees with what you'd actually have cut. Also please give feedback on how to improve my FEA analysis and the accuracy of my chatbot. Please leave feedback in the comments. Thanks so much!

link to app: https://cadai-282761536722.us-central1.run.app/

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9

u/p4rty_sl0th 7d ago

No thanks

6

u/Solid-Sail-1658 6d ago
  • Mesh is too coarse, the stress results should not be trusted.
  • What stress metric is being reported? von Mises? Principal stress?
  • There are no arrows indicating where the part is supported or loaded.
  • Has this been validated with text book examples?
  • The legend indicating where to keep or remove material should be described as a "guideline," and should not be taken literally. If taken literally, you get a paradox. If you have one hole supported and it has a low stress, the legend says to remove all the material around low stress regions, e.g. the hole. Literally following the legend effectively makes the supported hole disappear. How can the part be in equilibrium if the supported hole no longer exists?

  • The AI chat bot does not work. This was my request, "Make the element size smaller and re-run the analysis." This led to the error below.

    Assistant error: Groq 404: The model llama-3.3-70b-versatile does not exist or you do not have access to it. ● [1] Layout Sketch - Instructions — frcdesign.org your library ● [2] Layout Sketch Best Practices | FRCDesign.org — frcdesign.org your library ● [3] Strength of Materials | Mechanics of Materials | MechaniCalc - Applications — mechanicalc.com your library ● [4] Strength of Materials | Mechanics of Materials | MechaniCalc - Structural Calculators — mechanicalc.com your library [5] Is your finite element mesh size appropriate? | MasterSeries — masterseries.com [6] Element Size — help.altair.com [7] Determining Ideal Mesh Size -- CFD Online Discussion Forums — cfd-online.com [8] Issues with highly distorted elements | Ansys Learning Forum — innovationspace.ansys.com read as: Make the element size smaller and re-run the analysis. · general practice, not one exercise’s rules

  1. I don't think you are pushing AI hard enough in this project. AI can do a lot more than this. ;)
  2. AI cannot innovate. Yes, you can use AI to automatically build your projects, but it will create average projects. Also, you always need to "grade" AI's work. You take on the role of professor/teacher. I often give what AI outputs an F grade, but sometimes I see an A and end up going forward with that outcome.

1

u/Videogamer543 6d ago

Thanks for the feedback! Is there any way you would recommend I push my AI further

1

u/Solid-Sail-1658 6d ago

Before going down the AI route, I first recommend some training in game development.

Anything you would ever want to do in CFD, FEA, MBD or some other engineering software has already been done in a game.

Most CAE software developers have never gone through some game development training, which explains why most available software applications are horrific.

After this, you can explore AI for some of the following applications: writing automation scripts for tasks such as meshing or extracting results, troubleshooting error codes, structural optimization, writing code to build tools such as the one you built, querying results, e.g. find the load case with the highest stress, manipulate matrices in Python or Matlab. I'm sure there are more applications, but these are the applications where I have used AI in the past.

Lastly, anyone looking to be a software developer in CAE should have a background in mechanical or structural engineering, computer science, or physics.

2

u/Videogamer543 2d ago

Updates have been made to the app. Finer mesh and arrows for where the load is have been added. Additionally, chatbot has been fixed. It is still the same link to open the app