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Simulation

Hey Everyone,

Here's my situation: I have two sprockets that are on the same hoizontal plane. I have a custom chain that I want to go around them. The upper horizontal tangencies of the chain are supported but the lower is hanging from gravity. Is there a way to Simulate the chain going around these two sprockets? Can the Simulate or other movement features pull the chain around in a path? How would I go about doing this?

Thanks.

Reply to
Relz
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"Relz" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Simulate just for motion? Maybe. Have a look at Mike Wilson's Moebus strip or slot cars models to get ideas.

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Reply to
Dale Dunn

Um, maybe you're asking about the curve followed by the slack side of the chain? The simulation tools added in 2003 might be able to achieve this, I dunno. I've never tried.

The curve you should end up with is called a catenary curve, and If you want to draw one of those with any accuracy, you'll need some tools from Dynabits. If I were trying to draw the curve, I'd probably just use a parabola.

Reply to
Dale Dunn

The catenary curve is exactly what I'm trying to do. My boss wants to see how the chain is interacting with the sprocket as it turns. It's not merely for show, but to determine if my chain is rising up or whatever else it may be doing. Is this even possible? Would you have to try and add gravity?

Reply to
Relz

You might need an motion analysis package for that. Does Cosmos (designer or what ever it's called now) support this or gravity? I know working model does this, but I'm not sure were this package is, I thinks it's part of MSC Corp.

Keith

Reply to
Keith Streich

You definitely need some osrt of add-on or other tool to simulate that.

Reply to
Dale Dunn

Thanks for your guys' input. I'll have to look into that. For the time being, can a singular chain link assembly be patterned along a sketched profile to make a whole chain? I can't figure out how to this.

Reply to
Relz

i find chains extremely difficult to deal with, and try to avoid them. If anyone has a good way of handling them I would definitely listen.

Reply to
Corey Scheich

Yeah, modeling chains really sucks. I put together something around Christmas time for fun:

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I made a subassembly of 8 links mated to each other, then assembled a bunch of these subs into the top-level assembly. The link pin temporary axes were mated to a curve or a surface that controlled the path of the chain. The subs have to be flexible (component properties - flexible radio button) for this to work.

It takes about 3 minutes for SW to respond after I try to drag the chain. Not practical! I just use simple rectangular-section sweeps to represent chains now.

Hope this helps Denny Trimble University of Washington

Reply to
Denny Trimble

Sounds like you are trying to solve a very tricky problem. The catenary curve is the ideal shape if there were no friction or inertial effects. If you think the chain is rising up as it leaves the sprocket, then you are going to need to model the effects of friction and of non-ideal sprocket and link shapes. (My bike chain starts acting up when I haven't lubricated it enough,when the sprockets are worn, and when the chain is worn. Bike people call this stretching, but it is actually just wear causing the center to center distance to increase.)

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"

Reply to
Jerry Steiger

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