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Meshing Problems

I am having difficulty in meshing. From reading previous posts...suprise, suprize! I love SW and CW. When it works its great, but there are so many times when it just doesn't (ARRRG!).

I have a lot of T-Shaped and intersecting shells (Ship Design). The models are not huge and usually consist of a curved plate with angle bar stiffeners. I generally use solid meshes, but sometimes I use shell meshes. I usually create a part and not an assembly. The same problem happens either way. Some but not all the components mesh. I have played with various meshing settings to no avail.

From the Cosmosworks documentation I suspect it may be because some edges may have misaligned elements. How can I get the model to mesh?

I know that there are a lot of CW issues especially with thin shells, but there has to be some way to get it to mesh. You guys are smart, someone's got the answer/workaround. Another analysis package is not the answer - we are using SW period.

Hardware: dual processor 3GHz, 2 GB RAM, XP Pro . I am using SW 2006 and CW Pro. I also have access to Autocad 2006 and Rhino 3.0 if this helps.

Thank you.

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Knowledge Seeker
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Have you run an interference detection on the model. I find that this helps identify problem areas. Small gaps can cause meshing issues. Also watch out for curved or bevelled intersections that may by too small for the mesh size. If you email an edrawing of the model I may be able see what i think mifght be problem areas.

Drt.

Knowledge Seeker wrote:

Reply to
drt

I had some success today with this problem. I tried many combinations of settings, parts, assemblies, file formats etc. I was finally able to mesh sucessfully and run. Here are the guidelines I will be following:

CosmosWORKS Meshing Problem Solutions:

There are issues regarding meshing of thin shell sections in CosmosWorks. Follow these procedures to reduce meshing problems.

  1. When modelling thin stiffened plate, use surfaces only (See Slenderness Ratio below).

  1. Start meshing early in the modelling process to determine if the modelling techniques are appropriate. Remesh at suitable intervals. Do not build a complete model and then try to mesh.

  2. If the model will not mesh try saving the model as a STEP file. Open the STEP file and mesh.

4.It may be necessary to define individual contact sets of the stiffener/plate T intersection and not rely on the Global contact setting. The contact sets may have to be the same as the global value.

5.This may solve the problem and the model will mesh.

Slenderness Ratio: Sometimes modelling with solids is preferable. If this approach is necessary the "slenderness" ratio should be considered. If the plate thickness to area ratio is too small the model may not mesh. No values for this ration are currently available. If the ratio is too great the model may not mesh and the surface method should be employed.

Thanks for the offer Drt. with my problem //#################################

Reply to
Knowledge Seeker

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