Meshing Large Assemblies

[Anonymous]

I'm having trouble meshing a model of a duct. It's a very large assembly with 1,370 parts. There are plates, beams, channels, etc that make up the model. I'll eventually be needing to apply various loads such as ash load, wind load, and so on.

It seems unlikely that a single mesh type would be adequate for the model. Should I customize the various parts with a certain mesh type? And is there anything extra I should do to make sure the parts mesh together smoothly?

I've tried many things and haven't been successful at all. Meshing the model is time consuming so perhaps there's a better approach that I'm missing. Before this, the largest assembly I had dealt with only had 50-100 parts. This seems overwhelming to me.

I've attached the file and any help is very much appreciated. Thanks!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17880388/Assembly.ach

[marwan_azzam]

This model, as it is, is too detailed for an FEA analysis. While theoretically not impossible, practically it is.  With the current CAD model of 1370 detailed parts, the number of elements will be prohibitive.  Working with the model as-is is not an option.

You are right that you will need different type elements, mainly plate and beam elements.  Plate elements for the sheet metal parts, and beam elements for the stiffeners and structural beams.  You'll have to simplify the model by getting rid of some parts such as the gussets and end tabs and so on.  Your CAD model will actually be different from what you currently have.  You'll need to create a surface model and split the surfaces for where the beam element parts are going to go.  These beam element parts will created inside of Algor after meshing is done by selecting the lines on edges and making them new (beam) parts.

The approach to this model will be quite different from what you have in the current CAD model.  Simplify and idealize.

If you are interested in the stress at a specific detail you might have to sub-model that detail.