Project 1 - 2D meshing on the instrumental Panel

OBJECTIVE:

For the given component:

• check for the geometrical errors
• mesh with the given element Quality criteria

•  Assign thickness to the elements after meshing.

PROCEDURE:

Import:

• The given file is imported to ANSA using 
• FIle>Open>File Location>File

• After the file is imported, Topo tool is used to remove the primary edge connectivity issues as shown above.
• Also inorder to check for any connectivity issues, Geometry check of the model is performed.

• Any error present in the model was cleared and the geometry check was again performed.

Orientation:

• The model orientation is corrected using the orient option under faces tab which makes the orientation of the whole model same at desired face.

Midsurface:

• After the geometry check and orientation of the model is completed, the midsurface of the model is to be obtained inorder to perform meshing.
• To obtain midsurface, offset option under faces tab is used. 
• To check for the offset distance, the thickness of the each parts should be measured, which can be done using measure option under utilities tab.

• To create the midsurface of dog houses as suggested, curves are created along the surface of dog houses to create the cross pattern.
• It is found that, the thickness of the model varies at some part, hence the offset distance for each part is different.
• The midsurface of the geometry is created by offseting the surface to half of the thickness at each part.

• Since there is difference in thickness and offset distance, some of the surfaces are found intersecting, which is intersected and deleted using Intersect tool and Delete faces tool.
• Also unnecessary divisions and sharp corners are avoided using join tool under macros tab under mesh panel.

Quality Criteria:

• Quality criteria and length parameters are defined as per given quality index table.

Property:

• PSHELL property is defined for each thickness model as shown below:

Material:

• Default material is defined  and the material is assigned to each part of the created properties:

Meshing:

• Meshing is progressed by meshing surfaces one after the other.
• Meshing of some individual area is done using best option under mesh generation tab under mesh panel.
• Some areas of the model is meshed using the batch mesh tool.
• Meshing is carried out with hidden view mode to ensure that any elements violating the specified quality criteria is eliminated once meshing of each small area of the part is finished.

• During meshing, some of the element violated quality criteria, which is cleared using reconstruct option under ShellMesh tab in Mesh panel.
• Tria elements are corrected using Swap and split option under elements tab in Mesh panel.
• Similarly the whole mid surfaces of each part is meshed and any violating elements are cleared off.
• Hence these surfaces are meshed and the 2-D meshing of the given model is completed.

Enabling Thickness:

• Inorder to enable the assigned thickness on the elements, Quality Criteria tab is opened (F11). 
• Under Presentation Parameters, Draw shell as Solid option is checked.
• Once applied, the elements are displayed with specified thickness

CONCLUSION:

• The midsurface of the given model was created.
• Quality criteria was defined and the midsurface was extracted.
• Meshing of the midsurface was performed using best mesh & Batch mesh option.
• Elements violating the criteria was cleared.
• Property was created and applied for each part of the model and original thickness was defined under each property.