Understanding Samcef RBE and MEAN elements (Simcenter Samcef)

The Rigid Body Element (RBE)

(1) core node (2) leg nodes

The active degrees of freedom of the core node enforce the active degrees of freedom of the leg nodes. Therefore, the active degrees of freedom of all nodes included in a Simcenter Samcef RBE element are considered rigidly connected.

In the Mesh Associated Data of the element, you can specify how leg nodes are constrained to the core node: you can constrain both displacements and rotations or you can constrain only rotations.

This element corresponds to the Nastran RBE2 element.

The mean element (MEAN)

(1) slave node (2) master nodes

However, in the Simcenter Samcef MEAN element, the weighted average of the active degrees of freedom of the master nodes enforce the active degrees of freedom of the single slave node. Therefore, this element is used to find the mean displacement and rotation of a group of master nodes. It is the opposite of a rigid RBE element.

In the Mesh Associated Data of the element, you can specify how to constrain the degrees of freedom of the slave node and of the master nodes.

This element corresponds to the Nastran RBE3 element.

How do I

Create a node-to-node connection

Create an element edge to element face connection

Create a point-to-point connection

Create a point-to-edge connection

Create a point-to-face connection

Create an edge-to-edge connection

Create an edge-to-face connection

Create a face-to-face connection

Learn more

1D Connection

Edge-face 1D connections

Point-to-point and node-to-node connections

Spider element connections

Working with RBE2 and RBE3 spider elements

1D mesh to face connections

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Understanding Samcef RBE and MEAN elements (Simcenter Samcef), Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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