Combined Meshing
Techniques in
ANSYS Workbench
Presented by:
Eric Stamper
4/21/2015
© 2015 CAE Associates
CAE Associates Inc.
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Engineering Consulting Firm in Middlebury, CT specializing in FEA and
CFD analysis.
ANSYS® Channel Partner since 1985 providing sales of the ANSYS®
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Agenda
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Combined Workbench Meshing Overview
—
Handling mixtures of:
• Beams
• Shells
• Solids
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Previous e-Learning:
https://caeai.com/resources/combiningdifferent-mesh-types-workbench-ansyse-learning
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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.
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Sign up if you’re interested!
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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
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Conformal Meshing Option #1
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Geometry is connected at the CAD level in DesignModeler or
SpaceClaim:
—
Option = Shared Topology
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Conformal Meshing Option #2
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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.
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Connection options:
—
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Faces (Master) to Edges (Slave)
Faces (Master) to Vertices (Slave)
Slave
Master
Projection
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Conformal Meshing Option #2

Independently meshed geometries are connected at the mesh level in
Mechanical:
—
Mesh Connection (or Pinch):
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Conformal Meshing Option #3

Independently meshed geometries are connected at the mesh level in
Mechanical:
—
Node Merge:
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Conformal Mesh:
Line Bodies
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Beam Modeling
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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.
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Recommendation:
—
Use Shared Topology to form a continuous mesh on all beams.
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Conformal Mesh:
Surface Bodies
© 2015 CAE Associates
DM: Connectivity repair tools
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DM: Automatic extensions
—
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Quickly connect sheet models
Mechanical/Meshing: Mesh Connections / Pinch controls
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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.
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Mesh Connections
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DM
—
—
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All surfaces are formed into a part
Surface passes through others
(i.e. no edge at intersection).
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Mechanical
—
Shared Topology splits
surfaces to form surface
intersections (edge shown)
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Mesh Connections
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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
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Mesh Connections
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Use automatic mesh connections to find and connect all necessary edges
—
Create a “Mesh Edit Group” with Type = “Mesh Connection”
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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
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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
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Mesh Connections

Mesh connections can be viewed on the geometry with the option shown
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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
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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
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Conformal Mesh
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DM: Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh
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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
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Joint
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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)
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2 separate edges
(independently meshed)
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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
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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
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Mesh Connections

Mesh connect beams and shells
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Solid and Shell
Shared Topology
© 2015 CAE Associates
Solids and Shells w/ Shared Topology
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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.
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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
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