Who said that you must have the geometry, to mesh the geometry. If the CAD is symmetrical, you can create a mesh grid from one face of it. In this article, you will learn how to use several manual meshing commands.

Figure 1: Geometry.

The absence of geometry, the symmetrical model, or the better mesh created are reasons to follow this methodology. In this case, the model consists of a surface as shown in Figure 1.

At first, you must create a mesh grid on the surface. This step is important because Simcenter 3D will copy the element faces to make new 3D elements. If the mesh is unstructured or discontinued, the rest of it, will be just like that. My case is a structured mesh grid, and you can see the nodes highlighted by red dots.

Figure 2: Structured mesh grid.

Here are some element modifications you can use to make the mesh just like the geometry:

• Revolve the faces of 2D elements to create new 3D elements. It seems that the 2D face rotates on the z-axis.

Figure 3: Revolved 2D mesh.

• Extrude the faces of 2D elements to create new 3D elements. It seems the 2D face translates along the x-axis.

Figure 4: Extruded 2D mesh.

• Reflect: Copy and reflect the groups of elements you need. The program creates new nodes and element surfaces, just like the mirror does with bodies.

• Delete, Rotate Elements: You can modify the mesh grid by delete an element if it is damaged. You may avoid damaged elements with the command “rotate”.
• Connectivity: Connects a node with another. It is dangerous damaging the element, when you connect two distant nodes.

Figure 5: Model not connected with the node (Left)-Model connected with the node (Right).

After copying and reflecting the elements, you must check for duplicate nodes. Colored circles and node labels represent duplicate nodes. In this case, the elements at the plane are overlapping and contain duplicate nodes.

Figure 6:Duplicated nodes.

You no longer need the 2D mesh or its mesh collector, so you can delete them. Determines only the kind of the mesh and after that, you copy this layer several times to make the rest grid.

We at FEAC hope that this blog post has been interesting and that you will be able to create a nice FE Analysis after reading this. If you have any questions, you are always welcome to contact us at support@feacomp.com