Section 6 Meshing in SimLab

Meshing Process Import CAD model Open Meshing Application Surface mesh the CAD model Check surface mesh Water tight check Element overlap check Element quality check Fix errors in surface mesh Manual cleanup Automated cleanup Volume mesh Verify element quality

Step 1: Import the CAD model When importing the model, the user will be prompted for the units used to create the model. There are options to import solid bodies, sheet bodies and wire bodies. The Parasolid model can be imported as facets. The overlapping faces of the Parasolid parts can be imprinted during import.

Step 2: Open Meshing Toolbar To open meshing tool bar select Applications – Meshing from the Menu Bar. Meshing Toolbar

Step 3: Surface Mesh Select “Surface/Curve Mesh” in the Meshing Tool Bar to open the Surface Mesh dialog box. Select Entities ( Body or Face). Enter the desired mesh parameters and select OK.

Step 3: Surface Mesh The Body is surface meshed. A new model is created with the mesh body inside.

Step 4: Surface Mesh Check Water Tight Check: There should be no cracks in the surface mesh. Use “Free Edge” function in Meshing tool bar to find the free edges. Element Intersection Check: The surface mesh should not intersect / overlap Use “Elem Intersection” function in Meshing tool bar. Tri-Quality check: As a default, the surface mesher will generate a tri mesh that has an aspect ratio of 10. This can be modified to suit the quality criteria. Use “Quality Check” and “Q Check” functions in the Meshing tool bar to check the quality of the Tri elements.

Step 5: Surface Mesh Cleanup If any of the check fails, use cleanup tool to clean up the mesh. Clean up can be done using Automated tools and Manual tools. Automated Cleanup Fill Crack – Used to fill the cracks in the body. Fille Holes – Used to fill holes in the body. AutoTriClean – Used to clean up the Tri mesh based on Aspect ratio. AutoQuadClean – Used to clean up the Quad mesh.

Step 5: Surface Mesh Cleanup Manual Cleanup Create Element Split Swap Collapse Equivalence Combine 2Tris to Quad Split Quad to Tris Delete Element Update Layers

Step 6: Volume Mesh Select “Volume Mesh” from the Meshing tool bar to open the volume mesh dialog box. Specify the desired element type, average element size and element quality. Select OK to generate the volume mesh.

Step 6: Volume Mesh

Step 6: Volume Mesh Right click the Volume mesh body in the tree view and select Properties to show details of the mesh body.

Step 7: Check Quality Use Quality Check and Q Check tools in Mesh toolbar to verify element quality. The elements that fails a particular quality criteria can be found, displayed and cleaned automatically.