SOLIDWORKS-BASED FINITE ELEMENT MODELING AND SIMULATION OF THE TENSILE AND FLEXURAL STRENGTH OF A 1060-H12 ALUMINUM COMPONENT
This study applies SolidWorks Simulation to perform a finite element analysis (FEA) of a standard 1060-H12 aluminum rod specimen under static tensile and flexural loading. A three-dimensional model with a reduced gauge section was developed and assigned the linear elastic isotropic properties of 1060-H12 aluminum from the SolidWorks material library (yield strength 57.0 MPa, ultimate tensile strength 85.0 MPa, elastic modulus 69.0 GPa, Poisson’s ratio 0.33). A blended curvature-based mesh of 64,159 elements and 93,772 nodes, with 99.9% of elements maintaining an aspect ratio below 3, was generated to ensure solution accuracy. The specimen was subjected to tensile loads of 200 N, 600 N, and 1000 N, as well as concentrated and uniformly distributed flexural loads of the same magnitudes, and the resulting von Mises stress, resultant displacement, and equivalent strain fields were evaluated. Under the maximum 1000 N tensile load, the peak von Mises stress reached 111.4 kPa with a corresponding displacement of 0.000878 mm, while the 1000 N concentrated flexural load produced a substantially higher peak stress of 418.4 kPa with a deflection of 0.00424 mm. In every loading case examined, the induced stresses remained one to three orders of magnitude below the material's 57.0 MPa yield strength, yielding factors of safety well above conventional design thresholds. The results confirm that 1060-H12 aluminum, in the rod geometry studied, is structurally suitable for static, well-defined load regimes and that flexural loading represents the governing design condition relative to axial tension. The study also illustrates the role of SolidWorks Simulation as a validated, CAD-integrated FEA tool for rapid material performance screening ahead of physical prototyping.
Authors : Dumbulwa, S.S., Yahaya, I. and Abba, U.T.
Category : Open Access Volume (Issue) : 12(1) Date Uploaded : 5th August 2026