Project 2 - 2D meshing on the instrumental Panel

2D Meshing on the instrumental Panel

AIM:

The FE-model has to be generate from the given Automotive Instrumental panel semi-trimmed component within the given elements Quality criterias and assign thickness by using the ANSA preprocessor tool.

OBJECTIVES:

• Check for the geometrical errors and to create the midsurface for the given plastic components.
• Mesh the extracted midsurface with good mesh flow at given quality criterias and to obtain zero OFF elements.
• Assign PID or Property ID and thickness for all the midsurfaces and finally activate Draw shell as solid for the midsurfaces.

COMPONENT PROPERTIES :

Materials which is having less than or equal to 6mm can be meshed by creating midsurface with 2D Meshing. If it is above than 6mm there is no need to create the midsurfaces.

• In 2D Meshing, we can classify the materials into two types.
• Sheet Metal Component
• Plastic Component
• The material which is having Linear Thickness throughout the Body is known as 'Sheet metal'.
• The material which is having Non Linear Thickness is 'Plastic Material'.

Instrumental Panel:

• The instrument panel is the portion of the dashboard which sits behind the steering wheel.
• The panel where the dials and switches are located. The instrument cluster is the part that contains the gauges.
• It houses various gauges and lights which update the driver on the vehicle's status.
• It displays instrumentation and controls for the vehicle's operation.

The instrumental panel contains:

• Speedometer
• Tachometer
• Odometer
• Fuel gauge
• Temperature gauge
• Turn signal indicators
• Gear display
• Warning lights
• Coolant level
• Battery status

PROCEDURE:

• CAD SET UP
• CAD Geometry
• Model Clean Up
• CAD MODELING
• FE-model
• Align Entities
• Meshing
• FINAL CHECK
• Attain proper Mesh
• Achieve zero OFF element
• Assign Thickness to Midsurface

PHASES:

At each phase it will explain about the process fo extracting Midsurface, proper mesh flow, reducing OFF ELEMENTS and assigning thickness to midsurfaces of the given component.

Phase-1 Fixing CAD geometry:

Import CAD:

• The given Cad model has to be import in ANSA preprocessor tool by File-->open select the file should be in .igs or .stp format and then click open.

The imported CAD component will be,

Cons resolution:

• The cons resolution will improve the resolution of the component. To perform select the entire entity by using on Perimeter-->length in classic mesh module.

After setting the cons resolution the model will be,

Topology Cleanup:

• The Topolgy has to be done if the imported geometry doesn't have the surface connectivity. If all the surfaces are connected perfectly then there is no need to do topology.
• To perform Topology select Faces-->Topo in Topo module and select the entire entity then click Middle mouse button as confirm.

Orientation:

• The orientation to be done to make all the faces of surface to be in one normal direction.
• By selecting Faces-->Orient-->Visible the component will be Oriented.

Checks geometry:

• The imported model can have geometry errors like unwanted attached cons or gaps between faces or discrepency.
• To solve Checks geometry has processed. In the tools deck select Checks-->Geometry then click Execute.

• In Checks manager there is an option called Auto Fix that will fix the error which can be fix automatically.

Phase-2 Identify component type & Assign Quality:

Measuring thickness:

• The thickness of the component has to be measured to identify if the model is having uniform or variable thickness.
• The thickness can be measured by using measure tool in Utilities deck.

After measuring in different places, it is identified that the component having variable thickness with less than 6mm means it will be concluded that the model is a plastic component.

Elemental Quality criterias:

Mesh Parameters:

• In utilities tools click on mesh parameters provide the values for target length and minimum target length as per the given quality criterias.

• After providing mesh parameters values click ok.

Quality criterias:

• Now provide the quality criterias to set the mesh that should come under the given spcific criterias.

• After providing Quality criterias click Apply and Ok.

Phase-3 Extracting Midsurface:

Creating Midsurface:

• The CAD geometry had prepared. Now the Midsurface has to be create for the component.
• There are two methods to create the midsurface for plastic model. They are,
• Manual Method
• Automatic Method

• At here the Casting option is used in Automatic method to create the midsurface.
• Casting option will save lots of efforts in extracting midsurface at various thickness areas.
• To perform Casting select Topo module-->Faces-->Mid.Surface-->Casting.
• In that provide values for minimum thickness and Target element length then give Ok to extract the meshed midsurface.

Extracted Midsurface:

• With some OFF elements and distorted areas the generated auto-mid surface by casting method will be,

Distorted surfaces:

• In the generated midsurface there are some areas get distorted or deformed that are not captured perfectly by Casting as per the Parent geometry.

Some examples of those distorted areas are,

Now to capture those deformed areas Align manager has to be used to define the distorted areas using the Parent geometry.

Phase-4 Redefining the surfaces:

Align Manager:

The Align manager are used to recorrect the wrong definition or undefined areas and perimeters for the distorted surfaces.

To perform Align manager click Alt+A or go to Topo-->Faces-->Mid.surfaces-->Align manager.

By using its function the definition for all features of the midsurfaces are to be properly rectified.

After correcting the distorted improper features it will be,

Phase-5 Improving Mesh flow & its Quality:

• After finishing the cleanup and definition corrections in the Midsurface, now its time to improve the mesh flow and to achieve zero OFF elements.

Before neglecting OFF elements it will be,

• In some areas OFF elements are not resolved due to Triple cons are present near to the Features.

After neglecting Off elements the FE-model will be,

After correcting the Quality criteria, Mesh flow and Feature definitions the FE-model will be,

Phase-6 Assigning Thickness:

• Various thickness has been assigned to each individual areas of the midsurface by using Mesh module-->Grids-->Thickness-->Convert.
• Then check Draw shell as solid are to be enabled.
• Then using Isolate-->Connectivity groups-->PID bounds-->Ok-->Groups are used to find the few ideal element PID thickness are to be rectified and merged with nearby proper PIDs.

CONCLUSION:

• Finally FE-model has been created with minimum neglegible OFF elements.
• Good mesh flow also achieved with no trias touching on the circle and at free end are maintained.
• No rotating quads and no opposite trias are kept in the FE-model.
• Thickness has been assigned and Draw shell as solid are also get activated.
• All feature lines are captured properly as per Parent Geometry.
• Achieved Trias with 4.44% and OFF Elements with 0.07%.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Hence, the geometrical errors and 2D meshing with the given element Quality criteria has been performed successfully for a given Automotive IP Trim component.

At the end of this project:

• Understood to build FE Model easily for any complex automotive components with a good mesh flow.
• Learned a lot of new ideas with most of all tools and fast way to complete the model requirments.

Drive link for the component:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BJz0yfsJqlwee9r0FOx8M24iZEz27dww/view?usp=sharing