Surface Wrapping the Engine, Transmission and the Gear Box

Objective

The aim of this project is to individually surface wrap three models: engine, transmission and gear box. Thereafter, combine the partrs and create seamless connection between the three parts. This project will be done using ANSA.

Engine

We first work on the engine.

Figure 1 shows the original engine model that needs to be wrapped and also shows the number of unchecked surfaces originally.

Fifty five unchecked surfaces seen in figure 1 are to be deleted by selecting to show only the unchecked surfaces and untrim all. This step got rid of 49 unchecked surfaces, leaving behind only 6 unchecked surfaces can be seen in figure 2.

Figure 2 Shows the unnecessary reference features.

To perform surface wrap, we start by covering all orifices, to cover orifices we first release all the cons and perform fill hole option to fill all the orifices in the geometry which will enable us to perform accurate surface wrap. The complete geometry with holes covered is shown in figure 3 below.

Figure 3 Shows the complete geometry with orifices covered.

Now, to surfacw wrap the geometry we use the wrap tab under the elements tab in MESH mode. We use the wrap oiption with constant length and select to wrap the outer surafece. We use the wrap size of 8mm under the target element length. The final wrapped and meshed model with element size 8 is shown in figure 4.

Figure 4 Shows the exterior surafce of the engine wrapped with element size of 8mm.

Compress the file at this point and proceed further.

Transmission and Gear Box

Same steps are performed for gear box and transmission shown in figures 3 and 4 respectively. 

Figure 5 Shows the original transmission to be worked upon.

Figure 6 Shows the gear box to be surface wrapped.

Wrap size for both tranmission and gear box is to be 5mm per element size.

Figure 7 Wrapped tranmission can be seen in this image.

Figure 8 Shows the wrapped gear box. 

Merging geometries in a single window

Merging all three geometries in one single active window. To merge files select file tab and select merge then select files to merge and choose option to merge files in the sam,e active window. The merged file can be seen in figure 9 below.

Figure 9 Shows all the three geometries in one active window.

Configuring Model Browser

We now have the moldel browser which is showing the complete geometry as one single part (Figure 10). We divide this whole part into three separate parts as previously known to us into the engine, transmission and the gearbox categories as shown in figure 11.

Figure 10 Shows the model browser prior to configuration.

Figure 11 shows the model browser after configuration.

Creating seamless connection

As we can see in figure 12 below, the combined parts are three different volumes. We need to create a single volume of all the parts, i.e. creating a seamless connection.

Figure 12 shows that the combined geometry is separated into three different volumes.

We first start with merging gear box and transmission. To combine the geometries into a single volume, we need to delete the elements that is present between them and coincides see (figure 13) using elements delete option and using the feature area angle of 10 degrees, this step would delete most of the intersection. Rest of extra intersection that hasnt been deleted can be deleted using entity universal delete option. This needs to be done for both surfaces, seen in figure 13 in pink and red colour. The result we acheive is shown in figure 14.

Another approach of performing the same delete option would be to release the cons near the borders and delete the entire PID Region that is now created. This release can be performed using the release edges tab found under the DECKS mode instead of TOPO or MESH mode.

The result seen in figure 14 shows a gap between the geometry which can be filled using fill mesh option using draft method and also using create new element option, all in the MESH mode. Also, frequently using split, swap, mv free and mv surface options to adjust and create finer looking meshes. The final complete result is shown in for this work is shown in figure 15.

Figure 13 shows the intersecting entities between the gear box and the transmission.

Figure 14 shows the open area left between the two parts.

Figure 15 shows the intersection between the engine and the transmission.

Figure 16 shows newly created elements in the cyan cons that will help to delete the intersecting surfaces.

Now, to combine engine and transmission (shown in figurte 15) as single volume, we use another approach, which is also a lot faster than the previous approaches. We will now use fill option under shell mesh tab in MESH mode to create new elements in very close proximity to the original model which would look somewhat as shown in figure 16. The newly created surface can be seen in cyan cons. We frequently use MV surface, MV free, swap and split options to adjust the elements before creating the new surface. Once the new surface is created, the extra surafaces needs to be deleted using universal delete option and PID region. There shall be no cyan or red cons left and the geometry should be complete as a single volume.

Figure 17 shows that the seamless connection has been created between all three parts.

Figure 18 shows the completed model of the engine, surface wrapped with sealmess connection.

Conclusion

We have successfully created surface wrap of the engine, transmission and the gear box using ANSA. Thereafter, we have merged the surface wrapped parts in a single window and created a seamless model.