Combined Meshing

Techniques in
ANSYS Workbench
Presented by:
Eric Stamper
4/21/2015
2015 CAE Associates

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Agenda

Combined Workbench Meshing Overview

Handling mixtures of:

Beams
Shells
Solids

Previous e-Learning:
https://caeai.com/resources/combiningdifferent-mesh-types-workbench-ansyse-learning

CAE Associates has a 2-Day advanced ANSYS Workbench

meshing class offered in our Middlebury, CT office.
Were also offering a 4 hour online course that covers
specialized meshing topics.

Sign up if youre interested!

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Conformal
Meshing Options

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Shared Topology Summary

Solid

Shell

Beam

Solid

Yes

Shell

No1

Yes

Beam

No1

Yes2

Yes

1 Shared topology not supported but can use node merge with v16.0
(to merge nodes on solid face, not within body)
2 Potentially use Mesh Connections instead or Pinch
Nodes
Merged

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Conformal Meshing Option #1

Geometry is connected at the CAD level in DesignModeler or

SpaceClaim:

Option = Shared Topology

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Conformal Meshing Option #2

Mesh Connections:

Mesh connections use the concept of master and slave geometry to control
how the connection is made:
Master: indicates the geometry/topology onto which other geometry is projected.
Slave: indicates the geometry that will be projected onto the master geometry.

Connection options:

Faces (Master) to Edges (Slave)

Faces (Master) to Vertices (Slave)

Slave
Master
Projection
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Conformal Meshing Option #2

Independently meshed geometries are connected at the mesh level in

Mechanical:

Mesh Connection (or Pinch):

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Conformal Meshing Option #3

Independently meshed geometries are connected at the mesh level in

Mechanical:

Node Merge:

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Conformal Mesh:
Line Bodies

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Beam Modeling

DesignModeler: features in the Concept menu are used to create and

modify Line Bodies which become FE beam models in Mechanical

Details on the specifics of all DM features can be found in the help.

SpaceClaim: can also be used to define beams, and cross sections and
directly extract beams from solid geometry.

Recommendation:

Use Shared Topology to form a continuous mesh on all beams.

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Conformal Mesh:
Surface Bodies

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DM: Connectivity repair tools

DM: Automatic extensions

Quickly connect sheet models

Mechanical/Meshing: Mesh Connections / Pinch controls

Cleanup of geometry can be manual, due to tolerances.

Use mesh connections or pinch controls to quickly fine tune models
On closer inspection, gaps remain
after surface extension. Use mesh
connections or face pinch controls
in mechanical with out having to
properly intersect geometry.

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Mesh Connections

DM

All surfaces are formed into a part

Surface passes through others
(i.e. no edge at intersection).

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Mechanical

Shared Topology splits

surfaces to form surface
intersections (edge shown)

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Mesh Connections

In Mechanical

Even though all surfaces are formed into a part, not all surfaces are meshed
continuous
Visualized with Single edges

Non-conformal mesh, single edges

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Mesh Connections

Use automatic mesh connections to find and connect all necessary edges

Create a Mesh Edit Group with Type = Mesh Connection

Set in the details the search tolerance and grouping options:

RMB Click > Detect Connections: theyll be generated in the tree.
RMB Click > Connect Mesh: to generate the connections

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Mesh Connections

Use automatic mesh connections to connect all single edges

Display edges by connection

View mesh to verify connections

Connections occur post-mesh

E.g. the mesh is pinched in a separate step after meshing is complete

Selective meshing also wont show the connection until all meshing is complete

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Mesh Connections

Mesh connections can be viewed on the geometry with the option shown

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Combining Beams
and Shells

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DM: Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh

DM Shared Topology:

Vertices are merged connecting any

mixture of shell edges or beams.

Use joints anytime you have edges

which do not share coincident vertices
(any mixture of beams and shells).
Face to edge mesh connection would
also work here.

Note that mesh connections cannot

be used to connect:

Vertices to edges
Edges to edges

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DM: Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh

Beams and Shells are meshed continuous when the following is

performed in DM:

Joint handling:
Tools > Joint
Select both surface(s) and line(s) to form joints (locations to be meshed continuous).

Shared topology of line and surface bodies:

This will ensure proper topology sharing among beams and shells in Mechanical for
the Joints that have been defined.

Beam & Shell

Geometry
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Conformal Mesh

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DM: Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh

Example:

The 1 Line Body has 2 edges.

The 1 edge joint is created on only 1 edge of the line body and the surface
1 Line Body
2 Edges

Joint

Form shared topology between line and surface

View > Edge Joints

This will display edge joints
The color will be RED with no shared topology
The color will be BLUE with shared topology

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Joint

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DM: Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh

Example:

Once the geometry is imported into mechanical, only the 1 edge of the line
body is meshed continuous with the edge of the surface.

1 shared edge
(conformal mesh)

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2 separate edges
(independently meshed)

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Beams and Shells Conformal Mesh

A continuous mesh can be formed between the ends of beams and shells
with a Pinch meshing control in Mechanical

DM joints and shared topology do not connect beams ends to shell surfaces.
However; you can use: Projection > Points On Face to create coincident vertices
that Shared Topology will merge

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Mesh Connections

Mesh connections will work on topology that consists of:

Line or surface bodies but not solids

Mesh connection combinations:

Faces (Master) to Vertices (Slave)

Faces (Master) to Edges (Slave)
Face to edges

Face to vertices

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Mesh Connections

Mesh connect beams and shells

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Solid and Shell

Shared Topology

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Solids and Shells w/ Shared Topology

Forming shared topology with solids and surfaces in DM results in the

following:
1.
2.
3.

The solid geometry is sliced by the surface only at the intersections

The surface is not imported into Mechanical
A continuous mesh is formed between all the solids

Note: solid and line body shared topology is not supported.

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Node Merge

Node merge will work on topology that consists of:

Node merge combinations:

Lines, surfaces or solids

Vertex to vertex
Edges to edge
Edge to face
Face to face

Note: mesh should be constructed with nearly

coincident nodes as the node merge can cause
poorly element shapes.
Face to face
Edge to edge

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