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Finite Element Analysis - Shaq's Dunk
The goal of this project was to investigate the effects of a basketball player's force while dunking on a regulation basketball hoop. The hoop was simulated in Abaqus Finite Element Analysis software. To assess the maximum load conditions for the basketball hoop, Shaquille O'Neal's dunking force was used for the simulation. Von Mises stresses, torsional shear stress, transverse shear stress and maximum deflection were investigated. From this project, I developed a better understanding of applying boundary conditions, utilizing different mesh sizes and element types, and gained familiarity with using Abaqus simulation software for finite element analysis.
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To accurately model the boundary conditions of the hoop, each of the screw holes were pinned and the diagonal support ends were fixed. Impulse momentum was used to calculate two equal point forces of 1159.9 Newtons. To choose an accurate seed size to mesh the hoop, a convergence study was developed. This analyzed both linear and quadratic displacement assumptions for tetrahedral elements, and a final size of 10mm (17064 elements) was used. The maximum deflection of the basketball hoop with Quadratic Tetrahedral mesh was 32.94 mm. Since tie constraints were used to combine the parts of the hoop, the resulting stress was higher than expected in these locations. The adjusted maximum adjusted Von Mises Stress was 375 MPa.