Mesh Connections
Combined Meshing Techniques in ANSYS Workbench Presented by: Eric Stamper 4/21/2015 © 2015 CAE Associates CAE Associates Inc. Engineering Consulting Firm in Middlebury, CT specializing in FEA and CFD analysis. ANSYS® Channel Partner since 1985 providing sales of the ANSYS® products, training and technical support. www.caeai.com 2 e-Learning Webinar Series This presentation is part of a series of e-Learning webinars offered by CAE Associates. 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Registration is available on our website. www.caeai.com 6 Agenda Combined Workbench Meshing Overview — Handling mixtures of: • Beams • Shells • Solids Previous e-Learning: https://caeai.com/resources/combiningdifferent-mesh-types-workbench-ansyse-learning CAE Associates has a 2-Day advanced ANSYS Workbench meshing class offered in our Middlebury, CT office. We’re also offering a 4 hour online course that covers specialized meshing topics. — Sign up if you’re interested! www.caeai.com 7 Conformal Meshing Options © 2015 CAE Associates Shared Topology Summary Solid Shell Beam Solid Yes - - Shell No1 Yes - Beam No1 Yes2 Yes 1 – Shared topology not supported but can use “node merge” with v16.0 (to merge nodes on solid face, not within body) 2 – Potentially use Mesh Connections instead or Pinch Nodes Merged www.caeai.com 9 Conformal Meshing Option #1 Geometry is connected at the CAD level in DesignModeler or SpaceClaim: — Option = Shared Topology www.caeai.com 10 Conformal Meshing Option #2 Mesh Connections: — Mesh connections use the concept of master and slave geometry to control how the connection is made: • Master: indicates the geometry/topology onto which other geometry is projected. • Slave: indicates the geometry that will be projected onto the master geometry. Connection options: — — Faces (Master) to Edges (Slave) Faces (Master) to Vertices (Slave) Slave Master Projection www.caeai.com 11 Conformal Meshing Option #2 Independently meshed geometries are connected at the mesh level in Mechanical: — Mesh Connection (or Pinch): www.caeai.com 12 Conformal Meshing Option #3 Independently meshed geometries are connected at the mesh level in Mechanical: — Node Merge: www.caeai.com 13 Conformal Mesh: Line Bodies © 2015 CAE Associates Beam Modeling DesignModeler: features in the Concept menu are used to create and modify “Line Bodies” which become FE beam models in Mechanical — Details on the specifics of all DM features can be found in the help. SpaceClaim: can also be used to define beams, and cross sections and directly extract beams from solid geometry. Recommendation: — Use Shared Topology to form a continuous mesh on all beams. www.caeai.com 15 Conformal Mesh: Surface Bodies © 2015 CAE Associates DM: Connectivity repair tools DM: Automatic extensions — Quickly connect sheet models Mechanical/Meshing: Mesh Connections / Pinch controls — Cleanup of geometry can be manual, due to tolerances. Use mesh connections or pinch controls to quickly fine tune models On closer inspection, gaps remain after surface extension. Use mesh connections or face pinch controls in mechanical with out having to properly intersect geometry. www.caeai.com 17 Mesh Connections DM — — All surfaces are formed into a part Surface passes through others (i.e. no edge at intersection). www.caeai.com Mechanical — Shared Topology splits surfaces to form surface intersections (edge shown) 18 Mesh Connections In Mechanical — — Even though all surfaces are formed into a part, not all surfaces are meshed continuous Visualized with “Single” edges Non-conformal mesh, single edges www.caeai.com 19 Mesh Connections Use automatic mesh connections to find and connect all necessary edges — Create a “Mesh Edit Group” with Type = “Mesh Connection” — Set in the details the search tolerance and grouping options: • RMB Click > Detect Connections: they’ll be generated in the tree. • RMB Click > Connect Mesh: to generate the connections www.caeai.com 20 Mesh Connections Use automatic mesh connections to connect all single edges — — Display edges by connection View mesh to verify connections Connections occur post-mesh — E.g. the mesh is pinched in a separate step after meshing is complete • Selective meshing also won’t show the connection until all meshing is complete www.caeai.com 21 Mesh Connections Mesh connections can be viewed on the geometry with the option shown www.caeai.com 22 Combining Beams and Shells © 2015 CAE Associates DM: Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh DM Shared Topology: — Vertices are merged connecting any mixture of shell edges or beams. — Use joints anytime you have edges which do not share coincident vertices (any mixture of beams and shells). • Face to edge mesh connection would also work here. Note that mesh connections cannot be used to connect: — — Vertices to edges Edges to edges www.caeai.com 24 DM: Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh Beams and Shells are meshed continuous when the following is performed in DM: — Joint handling: • Tools > Joint • Select both surface(s) and line(s) to form joints (locations to be meshed continuous). — Shared topology of line and surface bodies: • This will ensure proper topology sharing among beams and shells in Mechanical for the “Joints” that have been defined. Beam & Shell Geometry www.caeai.com Conformal Mesh 25 DM: Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh Example: — — The 1 Line Body has 2 edges. The 1 edge joint is created on only 1 edge of the line body and the surface 1 Line Body 2 Edges Joint — Form shared topology between line and surface — View > Edge Joints • This will display edge joints • The color will be RED with no shared topology • The color will be BLUE with shared topology www.caeai.com Joint 26 DM: Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh Example: — Once the geometry is imported into mechanical, only the 1 edge of the line body is meshed continuous with the edge of the surface. 1 shared edge (conformal mesh) www.caeai.com 2 separate edges (independently meshed) 27 Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh A continuous mesh can be formed between the ends of beams and shells with a “Pinch” meshing control in Mechanical — DM joints and shared topology do not connect beams ends to shell surfaces. • However; you can use: “Projection > Points On Face” to create coincident vertices that Shared Topology will merge www.caeai.com 28 Mesh Connections Mesh connections will work on topology that consists of: — Line or surface bodies but not solids Mesh connection combinations: — — Faces (Master) to Vertices (Slave) Faces (Master) to Edges (Slave) Face to edges Face to vertices www.caeai.com 29 Mesh Connections Mesh connect beams and shells www.caeai.com 30 Solid and Shell Shared Topology © 2015 CAE Associates Solids and Shells w/ Shared Topology Forming shared topology with solids and surfaces in DM results in the following: 1. 2. 3. The solid geometry is sliced by the surface only at the intersections The surface is not imported into Mechanical A continuous mesh is formed between all the solids Note: solid and line body shared topology is not supported. www.caeai.com 32 Node Merge Node merge will work on topology that consists of: — Node merge combinations: — — — — Lines, surfaces or solids Vertex to vertex Edges to edge Edge to face Face to face Note: mesh should be constructed with nearly coincident nodes as the node merge can cause poorly element shapes. Face to face Edge to edge www.caeai.com 33 THANK YOU! Please visit us online at caeai.com www.caeai.com 34
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