FEA-Driven Design Changes on Little League Dugout Bat Rack

Comparing Multiple Studies’ Plots:

Here’s a screenshot of comparing 2 plots from the 2 different simulations and configurations. (I created “SIM1” and “SIM2” -titled configurations to remove parts that weren’t necessary, like the sign and the bat, and then to add-in the new parts). You can see the displacement and strain plots compared here:

SolidWorks Simulation “Design Insight”:

This is new to me, and I don’t know if I trust it yet (or trust that I’ve set up my simulation well enough on some parts to trust its feedback). But as I understand it, the blue areas are doing most of the work of upholding the loads I’ve placed on the model, but if I wanted to cut weight and material, I could feel much more confident doing it on the translucent areas. I can see this being a very handy tool.

Design Changes

Here’s some screenshots of parts I made to reduce deflection, with the added parts in red (one is wire frame, one is just shaded, depending on what’s easiest to view).

Little League Dugout Baseball Bat and Helmet Rack – New Parts In Red – wireframe view

Little League Dugout Baseball Bat and Helmet Rack – New Parts In Red – shaded view

 Renderings:

Rendering – Little League Dugout Baseball Bat and Helmet Rack 1

Rendering – Little League Dugout Baseball Bat and Helmet Rack 2 – Before Gussets

Rendering – Little League Dugout Baseball Bat and Helmet Rack 2 – After Gussets