Plastic garbage can
The aim of the project was to comply with the necessary loads while minimizing the amount of material used and, last but not least, to disprove the opinion that “plastics cannot be simulated”.
Many may be familiar with the dents in garbage cans that occur when they are lifted up by the garbage collection vehicle during emptying – see the green rectangles in the picture.
The question to be answered was: Is the existing garbage can suitable to carry the loads according to EN 840-1. For this purpose, a mid-surface model with automatic wall thickness assignment was created and calculated from the 3D CAD model. In order to show the influence of the material properties in detail, simulations were carried out using both the material data from the data sheet and measured material parameters.
A load of 55 kg was specified for the 120 l garbage can.
A comparison shows stresses (Mises) of 55 MPa in a linear-elastic material behavior analysis (left) and 23 MPa in a non-linear material behavior analysis (right) – with a tensile strength of 30 MPa!
The use of realistic material properties and a completely non-linear analysis (non-linear material behavior, contact with the lifting device AND geometric non-linearity) allow a realistic simulation. In this case, this was a slight, permanent deformation of the garbage can.