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I have been having issues with mesh matching between parts for an analysis. (this is using 2012)
My Current Process is...
1.) export a step file from inventor
2.) import in autodesk simulation (automatically generate surface contact pairs is on)
3.) Define mesh for 63 part assembly (approx, 20 plate/shell parts, 20 brick and wedge parts, 23 brick & tet parts)
4.) mesh and solve
In order to get the solver to work I have Vcad turned off, and automatically refine surface mesh off. (I have tried turning on the auto surface redine and it does not change the results)
This results in a few places that have unmatched meshes between parts, as shown in the attached image (this is a plate/shell element part onto a brick & wedge element part) . These parts have a surface contact, that is set to the default bonded, so it should be matching. I have tried adding refinement point around this area, but that does not seem to help the matching. (the unmatched warning does come up in the mesh log).
There are multiple areas that have this issue, included plate/shell element parts to other plate/shell element parts.
A strange anomoly is that the surfaces will mesh correctly if I change the brick & wedge element part to a brick & tet part.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you
-Dave
i m not sure how surface contact works in static analysis......with a combination of plates and brick parts ...in a 60 part assembly...
Hi Dave,
The "Brick and wedges (layered mesh of thin parts)" is not programmed to maintain mesh matching between parts.
The first thing to try is to have the overlap of the solid and plate parts to have surfaces of the same dimension. So you will split the plate along the edge of the brick part, and split the "top" and "bottom" face of the brick and wedge part along the edge of the plate part. (see attached image.) You will need to do this in the CAD model. With any luck, the meshes will match.
If the mesh still does not match, then you can try copying the surface from the brick and change the copy to the plate part. That is,
Sorry Dave, you mentioned this before but I forgot to address it.
The messages "14 unmatched edges" has no significance in your situation. The message is really intended for solid parts where each edge of a surface must matchup with one and only one edge of another surface; otherwise, the surfaces do not form a valid solid.
For plate surfaces, it is expected that there are unmatched edges. Since the edge of the plate does not need to match up with another plate, these warnings are of no consequence.
It's hard to tell what surfaces are in the foreground and which are in the background, but it looks like your model does have a matched mesh between the selected surface (unmatched surface mesh.jpg) and the blue surface to its right and the blue-green surface below it.
John,
That is good to know that UNMATCHED warning is only refering to the edges. However, I still am trying to get these parts to have matching meshes to get the load path correct. I am confident they are in contact due to the fact a surface contact was created when I imported the file, and that they are both model from the same surface in Inventor. There are some areas where it does mesh correctly accross the parts, but many more places where is does not match as specified above. I also attached a cross section of a typical problem area, note that both parts are surfaces to be meshed as Plate/Shell elements.
Thank you,
-Dave
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