Tactile Switch – Parametric Sweep FEA

This simulation tutorial will guide you through:

• Applying a force load to a tactile switch
• Adding a parameter to a load
• Running a simulation
• Viewing the displacement in the simulation results

To get started, you’ll need to download Tactile_Switch-4.3.x_t to your computer.

Download

Import the CAD file

1. In OnScale Solve, from the Projects tab of the dashboard, create a new project.
2. In the Modeler, import the CAD file. Select Millimeters as the length unit.

Assign materials

1. Using either the tree or the 3D viewer, select Leg 1, Leg 2, Leg 3, Leg 4 and Cover.
2. Using the Material dropdown in the properties panel, assign Aluminium to this part.
3. Using either the tree or the 3D viewer, select Body and Button.
4. Using the Material dropdown in the properties panel, assign Acrylic Plastic to this part.

Add a fixture

1. Using either the tree or the 3D viewer, select Face 33 and Face 37 under Body.
2. Select the tab.
3. In the toolbar, select > to fix the surface.

Add a force load

1. Using either the tree or the 3D viewer, select Face 136 under Button (the top surface).

   The title of the tree is a dropdown. Select it and then select Model Tree to view the list of faces. This lets you select a face while remaining on the Physics tab.

2. In the toolbar, select > to add a force load.
3. In the properties panel, for Force, click (hover the mouse over the Force input box).
   
4. Set the Start Value to 0.1, End Value to 1 and Number of Values to 10.
5. Click Save.

Run a simulation

1. Select the tab.
2. In the properties panel, select MESH & ESTIMATE. This automatically meshes your model, estimates how long the simulation will take to run, and estimates what the likely core-hour cost will be.

3. Once the meshing and estimation process has finished, use the cost–time slider to select the level of computational resource that you want to use for this simulation.

   By using additional computational resources for the simulation (and hence spending additional core-hours), the simulation can be completed faster.

4. Select RUN to run the simulation.

Analyze the results

1. Once the simulation has finished, select View results to open the results in the Results tab.
2. In the controls, expand Dataset and then select Z Displacement.
3. Click the blue arrow to cycle through the simulation and view the results of each.