Project 1

Objective:

For the given component, check for the geometrical errors and mesh with the given element Quality criteria. After meshing the component, the thickness must be assigned.

Write a detailed report on your meshing process and mention which method you used to extract the mid-surface along with the reason.

Procedure:

The given component is as shown below:

The component was divided into 3 PIDs for convenience. It is as shown below:

• The component was divided into 3 sets using Set PID.
• One PID had the main sheet metal part.
• The other 2 PIDs had ribs.
• To extract the midsurface, geometry clean-up of the parent was performed.
• Used to Topo command to remove all Single (red) lines and convert them to Double (yellow) lines.
• The method used to extract midsurface was Manual Midsurfacing as Auto midsurface did not give satisfactory results.
• So, the manual midsurfacing was carried out using various commands such as Offset, New, Middle, Cut, Topo, Project Cut, Paste, Intersect, Extend, Release etc. This was a time-consuming process as it involved intricate detailing to ensure all main features were captured.
• During the manual midsurface extraction of Ip01 PID, the offset command was used. Feature angle was set to 40deg and the outer surface was selected and offset by 0.3mm.
• For the midsurface of ribs, Middle command was used.
• After obtaining the midsurface of the ribs, a combination of Extend command and Intersect command, the extra surfaces are deleted.
• After the entire midsurface was obtained, geometry clean-up was performed in preparation for meshing.
• The mesh parameters were set.
• The quality criteria were set.
• Length of Macros was set to 4.
• Best option was used to generate initial mesh.
• Improve and Reconstruct options were used to obtain mesh flow.
• Mesh was checked for quality.
• Finally, thickness of 0.6mm and 1.25mm (to ribs) were assigned to the midsurface.

 

Learning Outcome:

This challenge has helped me understand very well how to perform manual midsurfacing and meshing for complex parts.

Conclusion:

The given component was meshed as per the specified quality criteria and thickness was assigned.