Static FEA
Static finite-element analysis tells you whether a part will hold up under load. Fix the faces that are constrained in real life, apply forces or pressures where loads act, assign a material, and solve — HelioCad computes the resulting stress and displacement across the part.
Static studies answer the everyday question: will this bracket, mount, or housing survive its working load with enough margin?
Thermal analysis
Thermal analysis solves for temperature distribution across a solid given heat sources, sinks, and boundary conditions. Use it to check whether a heat sink spreads heat effectively or whether a component runs hotter than its rating.
Thermal and structural behavior often interact, so thermal results are a natural companion to a static study on the same part.
Modal frequencies
Modal analysis finds a part's natural frequencies and mode shapes — the frequencies at which it prefers to vibrate. This matters wherever a part sees vibration or cyclic loading: matching an excitation frequency to a natural frequency causes resonance and early failure.
Reviewing the first several modes tells you whether a structure is stiff enough to keep its resonances clear of its operating environment.
Boundary conditions
Results are only as good as the boundary conditions. Constraints (fixtures) represent how the part is held, and loads represent the forces, pressures, or thermal inputs acting on it. Setting these to match reality is the most important step in any study.
HelioCad applies constraints and loads to faces and edges you select, so the setup maps directly onto the geometry.
Tip: If a result looks surprising, re-check the boundary conditions first. Over- or under-constraining a model is the most common cause of misleading FEA results.
Mesh density
The solver discretizes the part into a mesh of elements. A finer mesh captures stress gradients more accurately — especially around fillets, holes, and other stress concentrations — at the cost of longer solve times.
Refine the mesh where stresses change quickly and keep it coarser elsewhere to balance accuracy against speed.
Reading von Mises results
Von Mises stress is the standard scalar measure for judging whether a ductile material will yield. Compare the peak von Mises stress in your result to the material's yield strength to compute a factor of safety.
The color plot points you straight to the hot spots — the regions carrying the most load and most likely to fail. Redesign there: add a fillet, thicken a wall, or move a feature away from the peak.
Ready to try it yourself?
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