Engineering Analysis and Modeling

1. CAD Modeling Set

Three models of increasing complexity: a Lego brick, a support base, and a hand juicer built as a multi-part assembly with a lever, base, and strainer that had to fit and move together.

2. FEA Studies: Beam Bending and Mounting Conditions

Two lab studies building the simulation skills behind the analysis above. The first put a copper beam under a 75 lbf load and examined displacement, von Mises stress, and the largest load the part could take before yielding. The second moved to the pull-up bar assembly and tested modeling decisions rather than the part itself: a half-bar symmetry model against the full bar, and foundation bolts against fixed supports.

3. Pull-Up Bar: Hand Calculations vs Simulation

A wall-mounted pull-up bar is a statically indeterminate beam: fixed at both ends, with more unknown reactions than equilibrium equations can solve. With a team of three, I used the superposition method to break the problem into solvable load cases, then derived the support reactions, the moment function, and the deflection curve for a 1,300 N load at mid-span.

We then ran the same bar in SolidWorks Simulation and compared. Theory predicted 103.75 MPa peak stress and 0.976 mm maximum deflection. The simulation returned roughly 87 to 89 MPa and 0.85 to 0.88 mm. The theoretical values run higher because the simulation distributes the load across a section of the bar rather than concentrating it at a single point, and because a finite mesh smooths the peak. Explaining that gap mattered more than the numbers themselves.