Thin Layer Simulation

[scudelari]

Dear Friends,

I  have a quite difficult meshing problem. This is not the real model of the piece, just a simpler version with the same concept so that I could experiment with meshing to solve the issue.

Anyway, the model was made in Inventor and is an assembly of three pieces:

1- The cilinder having a thickness much smaller than the other dimensions, height and width.

2- A solid attached to it (The surface connected to the cilinder is rounded to make a perfect fit).

3- Another solid.

This model is meshed with some acceptable time if set to be meshed as the following:

1- The cilinder is as bricks and wedges set to have one layer.

2- The rest is meshed with bricks and tetrahedra.

The problem is that in my real model the ratio between the dimensions is even worse, making the meshing to take an incredible amount of time.

This is what I attempted and failed:

1- I tried to model the cilinder in Inventor as a surface and then set the thinckness in the plate options. The imported assembly comes without the surface: Only the two other blocks appear. Is it possible to use an assembly like this at all in Simulator? If yes, how? Would it know that the thickness of the rounded surface should be considered towards the central axis?

2- I already tried to mesh the cilinder to its midplane, but the problem is that then th connection with the other objects is lost. How can I then set this connection? Is it possible to have the surface mesh collapsed to one of the surfaces (the outer surface instead of having it in the middle?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot, everybody!

[S.LI]

If you want to simulate this in Autodesk Simulation, instead of Invertor simulation, the thin part could be meshed into shell/plate element, and other solid parts could go to brick or tetrahedron. The connection between them should have no problem.

[hupn · Accepted solution]

Hi,

It is a limitation In linear stress simulation that users could not define the contacts for the disconnected part surfaces. Instead, you can use MES, where you can still define the contact even the surface are disconnected.

hup 

[TorTømmervold]

Li,

What is the difference between Autodesk Simulation and Inventor Simulation.  We have a the Autodesk Product Design Suite Ultimate 2012, and I am trying to find out how to use shell elements insead of the standard tetrahedron elements.

Bertil Rognes

Offshore Heavy Tranpsort

[scudelari]

This post was written by me when I had no clue whatsoever on what I was doing.

Anyway, to simulate this you can create your model in Inventor and use Simulation to make everything. 

In simulation you have several different meshing options, which include Bricks, Tetrahedra, Thin layers of Bricks.

To answer your question directly, you can think of Inventor as a subseb (very narrow subset) of Autodesk Simulation.

If you have the opportunity, do use autodesk simulation instead of the one built in in Inventor. You won`t regret it.

Use the tutorials available to help you in the beginning, and people in the forum are very helpful.

See ya,