Beam with holes
I modeled a 250 × 50 × 10 mm steel beam with two 20 mm holes and meshed it at several densities, from a coarse 84 elements up to 25,654 elements (39,871 nodes). In every run the stress concentrates at the top and bottom edges of the holes.
Symmetry models
I modeled a tensile dogbone three ways: full, half, and quarter, each cut along a plane of symmetry.
| Model | Elements | Peak von Mises | Max displacement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full | 276 | 4.29 MPa | 0.0027 mm |
| Half | 115 | 8.62 MPa | 0.0054 mm |
| Quarter | 106 | 17.1 MPa | 0.0109 mm |
Peak stress and displacement double with each cut. That's the pattern you get when the full load stays on a model with half or a quarter of the cross-section, which makes it a good check on how loads have to be scaled alongside symmetry boundary conditions.
