Proceedings of 2015 IEEE
International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation
August 2 - 5, Beijing, China
The Structural Static Analysis of Four-Column Hydraulic
Press
Yuefeng Li
Tianjin Key Laboratory For Control Theory & Applications
in Complicated Systems
Tianjin University of Technology
274, Xiqing Dao, Xiqing District, Tianjin
300380, China
1842176081@qq.com
Abstract - The whole three-dimensional model of main
cylinder, the column and beam of four-post type hydraulic press
which have been established, use the method of finite element,
make the simulation for the static performance of the whole
structure, obtain the position of stress and strain distribution and
stress concentration and the maximum deformation, analyse the
strength and stiffness of the structure. The results show that: the
structure strength of the hydraulic press is enough but the lack of
rigidity of the upper beam and the movable beam, need to
improve the design, the results of the analysis provide a
theoretical basis for hydraulic structure optimization.
Index Terms - Hydraulic press, Beam, Finite element, Stress,
Strain
I. INTRODUCTION
In the structure calculation of hydraulic , usually use the
theory of "material mechanics" or "elastic mechanics" as a
tool for the analysis of component, under the cases of given
load, when the internal artifacts produce stress and strain,
often due to the complexity of the geometry of the real
component、the load or the constraint condition and so on,
must simplify the actual situation when make the calculation,
so the result does not provide complete analysis, thus cause
many times damaged accident[1,2]. For the three beams four-
column type hydraulic press, the beams (including upper
beam、lower beam and movable beam) are box parts which
have familiar size on the three directions, if adopt the method
of "material mechanics", it can only be simplified for simple
support beam to calculate roughly, the results obtained can not
fully reflect its stress state, unable to determine the location
and size of stress concentration, point out the weak links in the
beam[3,4]. So this paper uses the method of finite element,
establish the overall structure model of the main cylinder、the
column and beam of the four-column type hydraulic press,
make the static calculation for it, get the whole structure and
the stress of each part 、 strain distribution figure and the
position of stress concentration and the maximum
deformation, then check its strength and stiffness. The results
show that: this method is simple, reduces duplication of work
and improves the efficiency.
The standard procedure for parts finite element analysis
includes: the definition of model, applied load, solving the
analysis and results processing. If the finite element analysis
978-1-4799-7098-8/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
Tieqiang Wang*
School of Electrical Engineering
Tianjin University of Technology
391, Binshui Xidao, Xiqing District, Tianjin,
300384, China
Wangtieqiang5566@163.com
results show that it is necessary to modify the design, then we
have to change the geometry of the model or impose different
load cases, and repeat the above steps. Actually, in the design
of the engineering practice, a lot of products need to be
repeated the process of “design, modeling, analysis, modify
the design, modeling again, and then analysis”. When the
model is complex or there are more changes, this process
becomes very complicated, directly affect the efficiency of
design and analysis. Thus the analysis expands the more
advanced operations which include parameterized modeling of
part library, design modification and optimization.
II. PRINCIPLES OF FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURE
STATIC
Assume that the components of hydraulic press are linear
elastomer, each unit in the range of small deformation, meet
the basic hypothesis of elastic mechanics. The static equation
of finite element calculation model which has been discretized
can be written to[5]:
[K]{u}＝{R} (1)
In the equation [K]－The whole stiffness matrix of structure,
[K]＝Σ[K]e
[K]e－Unit stiffness matrix,[K]e＝ ∫∫∫ [B]T[D] [B]dxdydz
[B]－Unit geometric matrix
[D]－Elastic matrix of material
{u}－The displacement vector of each discrete point on the
structure
{R}－The external force vector of structure
According to the finite element model and material
properties which have been established, can get each
coefficient of equation (1), and according to the load and
boundary conditions, obtain the displacement of each node of
structure requested {a}e, the displacement vector of each
discrete point {u}＝[N]{a}e.
By the{ε}＝[B]{a}e can work out the strain {ε} of
each point on the cell, and according to the elastic equation
[σ]＝[D]{ε}, the stress can be calculated.
The expressions of {a}e 、 {u} 、 { ε } and [ σ ] are
respectively:
{a}e = [ui vi wiu j v j w j um vm wmul vl wl ]T (2)
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 ⎧u ⎫ 1) Using the idea of parametric design, according to the
geometrical structure of the model to abstract its characteristic
[u ] = ⎪⎨v ⎪⎬ = [N ]{a}e = IN i IN j IN m INl {a}e
[ ] (3) parameters, appropriately simplify the analysis model without
⎪w⎪ affecting the accuracy of cases.
⎩ ⎭ 2) Using ANSYS command stream (process) files to
⎧ ∂u ⎫ establish the finite element analysis process, which contains
⎪ ∂x ⎪
⎪ ⎪ the entity modeling, the processes of analysis and processing
⎪ ∂v ⎪ (4) results.
⎧ε x ⎫ ⎪ ∂y ⎪
⎪ ⎪ ⎪ ⎪ 3) Characteristic parameters which are abstracted by
⎪ε y ⎪ ⎪ ∂w ⎪ APDL language instead of the parameters in the model, and
⎪⎪ε z ⎪⎪ ⎪⎪ ∂z ⎪
{ε } = ⎨ ⎬ = ⎨ ∂ ∂ ⎪⎬ = [B]{a}e form the finite element analysis process of variable
⎪γ xy ⎪ ⎪ u + v ⎪ parameters.
⎪γ ⎪ ⎪ ∂y ∂x ⎪
⎪ yz ⎪ ⎪ ∂v ∂w ⎪ 4) According to the requirements of design and analysis,
⎪⎩γ zx ⎪⎭ ⎪ + ⎪ add the specific eigenvalues to parameter, perform the finite
⎪ ∂z ∂y ⎪
⎪ ∂w ∂u ⎪ element analysis and get the results.
⎪ + ⎪ After the completion of the first three steps, when do the
⎪⎩ ∂x ∂z ⎪⎭
analysis, simply repeat the fourth step and can continue to
⎧σ x ⎫
⎪σ ⎪ receive new analysis results, we do not even need to know the
⎪ y⎪ specific process and the method of the finite element analysis,
⎪σ ⎪ (5)
the result of the finite element analysis s can be obtained.
[σ ] = ⎪⎨ z ⎪⎬ = [D]{ε } = [D][B ]{a}e The core content of parametric finite element analysis is
⎪τ xy ⎪
⎪τ ⎪ to write the finite element analysis process files of the variable
⎪ yz ⎪ parameters, should contain the following four steps:
⎩⎪τ zx ⎭⎪ 1) Define the characteristic parameters in variable form,
In the equation ui、uj、um、ul—The displacement of x and add values to them.
direction of four nodes of the unit 2) Solid modeling process which characterized by
u—The displacement of x direction which at any point in the characteristic parameters to describe the process.
unit 3) The definition of the analysis type and process.
vi 、 vj 、 vm 、 vl—The displacement of y direction of four 4) The definition of extraction and processing of analysis
nodes of the unit results.
v—The displacement of y direction which at any point in the On the basis of familiarity with ANSYS software
unit commands, can use a text editor to write the above process
wi 、wj 、wm 、wl—The displacement of z direction of four files. After the completion of the writing, only according to
nodes of the unit the parameter values of design and analysis model, modify the
w—The displacement of z direction which at any point in the values of the characteristic parameters and can obtain new
unit analysis process files.
Ni、Nj、Nm、Nl—The shape function
I—The unit matrix of third order IV. CALCULATION MODEL OF FINITE ELEMENT
Intensity correction according to the fourth strength
Because the beam is the artifact of box section, should
theory, regard Von Mises stress as the reference value, the
establish the three-dimensional model of the overall structure
formula of Calculation is:
of the column and beam, as shown in Fig. 1. Grid generation
σ＝
1
2
[
(σ 1－σ 2 )2 ＋(σ 2－σ 3 )2 ＋(σ 3－σ 1 )2 ] (6)
is the bridge between geometry definition and finite element
analysis, and only the curved face of three-dimensional
geometric surface is spline curved face, can generate the finite
element mesh, therefore when establish model, topology
III. PROCESS OF PARAMETRIC FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS processing should be carried out for some local geometric
shapes. Fig. 2 is the finite element calculation model, uses the
In this paper, according to the structure’s design features
tetrahedron unit, in order to ensure adequate accuracy, make
and analysis requirements, describe the feature sizes in
the grid subdivision in the place where easy to produce stress
parameters, and in the establishment and analysis of the finite
concentration[8].
element model, characterize the process with parameters, so as
to realize the finite element analysis of variable parameters.
This is essentially a kind of language description method
which used to realize the parametric design of the structure
and then use the finite element analysis. Concrete
implementation steps are as follows[6,7]:

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 form of surface force exert the nominal pressure 3 MN on
beam, according to the actual situation function area
A=0.5024m2, as shown in Fig. 2, the red part.

V. RESULTS ANALYSIS
A. Stress Analysis
As the structure is subjected to force action, the Mises
stress and the first principal stress overall distribution are
respectively shown as Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. It is obvious that the
maximum Mises stress values is 139MPa at lower beam, and
the first principal stress is 188MPa. The maximum Mises
stress on the upper beam is 17.3MPa, which located on the
connection of the columns and the beams. The maximum
Mises stress on the movable beam is 93.4MPa , which located
on the stiffened plates, as shown in Fig. 5; the first principal
stress are respectively 24MPa and 99.7MPa, as shown in Fig.
Fig. 1 The overall structure of the three-dimensional model of the hydraulic 6; the maximum Mises stress of columns is 69.4MPa, the first
machine principal stress is 85.9MPa, strength does not exceed the
allowable stress of their material.

Fig. 2 The finite element model of hydraulic press

Fig. 3 Mises stress distribution of the whole structure
The column material uses the 45 steel normalizing
treatment, modulus of elasticity E=209GPa, poisson’s ratioμ
=0.269, yield strengthσs=270 MPa, allowable stress [σ]=200
MPa; beam material is gray cast iron HT300, modulus of
elasticity E=143GPa, poisson's ratioμ=0.27, tensile strength
σb=300 MPa, allowable stress [σ]=150 MPa.
Assume that the hydraulic press column and upper 、
lower beam are rigid connection, at the same time do not
consider the stress of installation and temperature; the beam
which supported above the ground by means of the anchor
bolt on the bearing, its role is primarily to limit the movement
of hydraulic press in the horizontal direction, the ground to
prevent the movement of vertical direction. Thus the freedom
degrees of anchor bolt nodes are all constrained, the freedom
degrees of nodes which hydraulic press contact with the
ground in the vertical direction are all constrained. By the

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Fig. 4 The first principal stress distribution of the whole structure

Fig. 6 The first principal stress distribution of the upper and movable beams

B. The Deformation Analysis

The maximum deformation of whole structure occurs in
the movable beam, is 0.775mm, the first principal strain is
0.655E-3, as shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 8 shows the deformation
distribution of movable beam and the figure of first principal
strain distribution. The maximum span of the beam is 1.3m,
relative deflection is 0.6mm/m. Usually in order to keep the
beam stiffness enough, require the deflection of span of per
meter in columns no more than 0.15 mm, so the stiffness of
movable beam is relatively poor.

Fig. 5 Mises stress distribution of the upper and movable beams

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 Fig. 8 The deformation distribution of the movable beam and the first
principal strain distribution

C. The Stiffness Analysis

The maximum deformation of the upper beam is 0.244
mm, and the lower beam is 0.159 mm, the first principal strain
are 0.142E-3and 1.129E-3 respectively（Figure is ignored）.
Relative deflections are 0.188mm/m and 0.122mm/m
respectively. Obviously, the stiffness of lower beam is
enough, can ensure the rigidity of the whole hydraulic press;
but the stiffness of the upper beam is a bit poor, when the
stiffness of the upper beam is not enough, will bring additional
moment to column, if the stiffness is too small, when bear the
load, the contact surface of the upper beam and working
cylinder flange will form local contact, make the working
cylinder damaged prematurely.

Fig. 7 The deformation distribution of the whole structure and the first
principal strain distribution
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Use the ANSYS software to do the finite element
simulation for the overall structure of hydraulic press, by the
strain diagram of the stress, can understand that: the structure
strength of the hydraulic press is enough, it does not belong to
the difficulty of design; but the rigidity of the upper and the
movable beams are not enough, should improve the design, in
the paper, the analysis result provides a theoretical basis for
the optimization of structure of hydraulic press.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was partially supported by the Fund of Science
and Technology Development of High University of Tianjin,
China under Grant 20130411, the corresponding author is
Tieqiang Wang.

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