I have been using the stress analysis environment in Autodesk Inventor to find the torsional displacement of a chassis I have been constructing. I have made an assembly of the parts using strictly mates, both face to face and flush mates. I now have fixed one end of the assembly and applied a moment to the other of 1000 in-lbs, which I think is rather high but I wanted to see what would happen with a moment that could exaggerate the displacement. I have also used the automatic contact tool to apply contacts between parts. Some of the contacts may be incorrect, but my knowledge in this environment is limited so I used what the software spat out.
Now here's where my issue comes in. I have actually had this assembly created and have it sitting in the lab. I have performed a similar test where I took the front of the chassis and rotated it in one direction while the other laid flat, so essentially one end was fixed and the other was being torqued like in the software. I can see with the physical chassis that there is definitely torsional flex. However, in the software I do not see the same level of displacement as on the actual chassis. To reiterate, when the analysis is set to actual, so that the movement is what it would be without exaggerating it, I do not see the same amount as with the real thing.
If anyone knows of anything I may be doing wrong I would appreciate the help. Images of the software are attached, thank you in advance. If anything else is needed to put everything into context please let me know. Top left corner view. Displacement shown by the software.
