Project 2 - 2D meshing on the instrumental Panel

AIM: The main aim of this challenge is to mesh the given instrumental panel as per below element quality criteria.

S.no	Element Quality Criteria	Value
1	Target/Average length	4
2	Minimum Length	2
3	Maximum Length	6
4	Aspect	3
5	Warpage	15
6	Skewness	45
7	Jacobian	0.7
8	Minimum Quad Angle	45
9	Maximum Quad Angle	135
10	Minimum Tria Angle	30
11	Maximum Tria Angle	120
12	Tria Percentage	15

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this challenge are as follows:

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->1.     <!--[endif]-->To perform geometry clean up and generating mid surface for the given component.

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->2.     <!--[endif]-->To mesh the given component with less tria concentration and good mesh flow.

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->3.     <!--[endif]-->Finally all the elements should pass for given element quality criteria.

PROCEDURE:

      The CAD file in ANSA can be opened by selecting the open option in file tab.

 

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->2.     <!--[endif]--><!-- [if gte vml 1]> <![endif]--><!-- [if !vml]-->After opening the file, topo operation (TOPO MODULEàFACESàTOPO) was performed to convert the unstitched surfaces (single cons) to stitched surfaces (double cons).

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->3.     <!--[endif]-->The edges at the right end of the geometry were not closed and the geometry was having single cons, this error was solved by creating a new surface (TOPOàFACESà NEW) where ever it is required.

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->4.     <!--[endif]-->After performing the topo operation, geometry check (TOOLSàCHECKà GEOMETRY) was done in order to remove geometrical errors.

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->5.     <!--[endif]--><!-- [if gte vml 1]> <![endif]--><!-- [if !vml]-->Geometry check was done for unchecked faces, collapsed cons, triple cons, needle faces, overlap faces, cracks & single cons. 

 

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->6.     <!--[endif]-->Some of the errors can be fixed automatically by using fix option and the errors that cannot be fixed automatically needs human attention and those errors should be solved manually.

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<!-- [if !supportLists]-->7.     <!--[endif]-->Once all the errors are rectified, we are good to go for extracting mid surface of the given component.

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->8.     <!--[endif]-->Mid surface was extracted by using casting method (TOPO MODULE à FACESà MID SURFACEàCASTING) because the given component is complex and has variable thickness .

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->9.     <!--[endif]--><!-- [if gte vml 1]> <![endif]--><!-- [if !vml]-->Mid surface along with mesh will be automatically generated using the casting technique by defining the required minimum thickness and target length. 

 

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->10.  <!--[endif]-->The critical features such as dog houses were not clearly captured with this technique. Therefore, we must create those dog houses surfaces manually using several options like Curves, Fill and Project etc.

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->11.  <!--[endif]-->All the dog houses were captured in the form of cross pattern and were aligned with their parent geometry using align manager option (TOPO MODULE à FACESà MID SURFACEàALIGN MANAGER).

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->12.  <!--[endif]--><!-- [if gte vml 1]> <![endif]--><!-- [if !vml]-->In align manager, Areas and Perimeters options were mostly used to align the FE model with parent geometry.

       

<!-- [if gte vml 1]> <![endif]--><!-- [if !vml]-->

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<!-- [if !supportLists]-->13.  <!--[endif]--><!-- [if gte vml 1]> <![endif]--><!-- [if !vml]-->After, correcting all the critical features using align manager, for obtaining good mesh flow several options like swap, split, paste, collapse& join commands were used.

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->14.  <!--[endif]-->Finally, automatic thickness can be assigned to the component using thickness command (TOPO MODULE à FACESà MID SURFACEàTHICKNESSà CONVERT) and draw shell as solid was activated in presentation parameters tab .

      NOTE:

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->·       <!--[endif]-->Element failures near triple cons were left like that.

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->·       <!--[endif]-->Some of the critical features were slightly deviated from their parent geometry to avoid elemental failures.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->1.     <!--[endif]-->Learnt about geometry clean up and extracting the mid surface using casting option.

<!-- [if !supportLists]-->2.     <!--[endif]-->Learnt about how to use align manager for aligning the critical features with the parent geometry.

CONCLUSIONS:

Geometry cleanup, mid surface extraction and meshing of the given component was done successfully. Tria’s concentration was limited to less than 4.5%.

NOTE: CANT ABLE TO UPLOAD THE FILE AS THE FILE SIZE IS TOO LARGE. LINK FOR DOWNLOADING THE FILE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cm_Ymx7VlSiZJJ-7rKbLPKKnFmi2lT6M/view?usp=drive_link