Structural Analysis of a Manual Can Crusher

Structural Analysis of a Manual Can Crusher

A manual can crusher is a handy tool for any household looking to save space and make recycling easier. Designing a manual can crusher involves a few key considerations to ensure it’s functional, durable, and safe to use.

This blog article demonstrates a structural analysis methodology for a can crusher, focusing on these key areas:

• Force Analysis: Determining the force needed to crush a can, based on its material properties and dimensions. This calculation informs the design of the lever arm and material selection.
• Stress Analysis: Evaluating the stress distribution within the crusher components, particularly the lever, crushing plates, and frame, to ensure they can withstand the crushing force without failure.
• Deflection Analysis: Verifying that the deflection of any component under load remains within acceptable limits to maintain the crusher’s functionality.
• Strength Check: Comparing the calculated stresses to the material’s yield strength to confirm the design’s ability to withstand the crushing forces without permanent deformation or failure.

A detailed methodology for performing a high-deformation crush analysis of an Aluminium alloy can is presented, using an explicit dynamic approach within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s Structural Mechanics Engineer role. The resulting analysis data is then post-processed.

The following workflow is employed for the analysis of the manual can crusher model:

Materials applied:

Boundary conditions:
The boundary conditions are assigned to provide a rigorous crushing load to the can geometry, with the intent to promote can crushing. General contact has been provided between the components.

Meshing:

Results:

You can generate XY plots to visualize the reaction force variation over time at specific points or nodal groups. These plots are crucial for understanding the force dynamics during the crushing process, especially when using prescribed displacement loading. Please find the reaction force values (in Newtons) at the three points indicated in the below image.

Leveraging the Structural Mechanics Engineer role and the SIMULIA Abaqus solver on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, you can efficiently tackle even the most complex explicit dynamic problems. The cloud-based computing and scalability of the platform, combined with HPC clusters, allow you to significantly reduce solution times, often achieving results in minutes by distributing the workload across numerous CPU cores.

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