Automatic Between and Manual Between meshes

Use the Automatic Between or the Manual Between options in the Type list in the 3D Swept Mesh dialog box to create a structured 3D mesh between two solid meshes.

You can use these options to create a mesh of brick or wedge elements even if you do not have any geometry to define a body. For example, if you have a set of assembly components that you need to connect, but you do not have any geometry to represent the connection, you can sweep a mesh of hexahedral elements between the components.

You can also use the Manual Between option to:

• Sweep a mesh between source and target faces in the same body, such as to fill a void space with structured elements. For more information, see Manually sweeping a mesh through a void in a body.

• Create a single layer of cohesive elements between the source and target faces in the Simcenter 3D Multiphysics, Simcenter Samcef environments, or a single layer of interface elements in the ANSYS environment. For more information, see Cohesive elements and Modeling cohesive zones with ANSYS interface elements.

Defining the source and target faces with the Automatic Between or Manual Between options

When you use the Automatic Between or the Manual Between options, the software sweeps a mesh of elements from a source face to a target face.

• The source face must be filled with either 2D elements or with the free faces of 3D elements.

• The target face can be either meshed or unmeshed.

• The source and target faces must have an identical number of loops and an identical number of edges per loop. A loop is a face boundary.

Note:

The nodes on the target face are associated to that face and its related edges.

Defining the wall faces

In the 3D Swept Mesh dialog box, you can use the Wall Selection options to define the wall faces between the source and target faces. For more information, see Including wall faces in a swept mesh between bodies.

Dependent mesh mapping

When you click OK or Apply in the 3D Swept Mesh dialog box, the software maps a dependent mesh from the source face to the target face. This means that the mesh on the target face matches the mesh on the source face. Specifically, the mesh on the target face has the same number of nodes and the same element connectivity as the mesh on the source face.

With the Automatic Between or the Manual Between options, the software maps the nodes on the boundary of the source face to the boundary of the target face using the N to N mapping method. N to N mapping is a topological mapping method. The software maps nodes on an edge-to-edge or curve-to-curve basis from the source surface to the dependent target surface. Because of this boundary mapping method, both the source and target faces must have the same number of edges or curves.

Defining the correspondence between loops in the source and target faces

Because the software maps the nodes from the source to the target face, the software must first map the edges on the source face to the edges on the target face. If you select Automatic Between from the Type list, the software tries to determine how to pair the faces and match the starting edges per loop, per face pair. The automation only works for source and target faces that are approximately parallel and close to each other relative to the smallest edge length of the selected faces.

If the software cannot automatically determine the correspondence, or if you select Manual Between from the Type list, then you must define how the outer and inner loops (boundaries) of the source face correspond to the outer and inner loops of the target face.

With the Manual Between option, you use the Match Loops options to explicitly define the edge correspondence and directions. For each loop in the source face, you must specify:

• The correspondence between an edge on the source face and an edge on the target face.

• The direction of the correspondence between the edge on the source face and the edge on the target face. While the direction itself does not matter for creating the dependent mesh, the direction must be the same for the source and the target edges.

Controlling whether the resulting mesh is associated to the geometry

Use the Make Mesh Non-Associative option in the Source Mesh Parameters group to control whether the software associates the resulting solid mesh to the geometry.

• If you do not want to associate the new nodes and elements with the source geometry, select the Make Mesh Non-Associative check box. The resulting mesh is FE-based. The software does not update the mesh if it updates the surrounding meshes. You cannot modify a non-associative mesh.

• If you want to associate the new nodes and elements with the source geometry, clear the Make Mesh Non-Associative check box. The software creates a mesh recipe for the resulting mesh in the Simulation Navigator. You can use this recipe to modify the swept mesh. The software uses this mesh recipe to update the manual swept mesh when changes occur to adjacent meshes or to the underlying geometry.

Note:

With meshes created with the Manual Between option, the interior nodes are not associated with the geometry, regardless of how the Make Mesh Non-Associative option is set.

3D Sweep Between example

The following graphic shows a very simple example of a use case. (A) shows an existing hexahedral mesh on one body. The element free faces are the source mesh for the 3D manually swept mesh. (B) shows the edge and direction mapping for the source and target faces. (C) shows the resulting mesh that the software sweeps between the two bodies.

Pressure vessel example

In the following graphic, (A) shows a pressure vessel that contains a void between the outer housing and the inner volumes. Because there is no geometry in the void space, we used the 3D Swept Mesh command with the Automatic Between option to manually sweep a mesh from the interior face of the outer housing to the inner volumes. (B) shows the two layers of hexahedral elements that the software generated in that void.

Where do I find it?

Application	Pre/Post
Prerequisite	An active FEM file
Command Finder	3D Swept Mesh

Quick links

Command reference

Pre/Post video examples

Bulk Entry Descriptions

Simcenter 3D tutorials

Browse Simcenter 3D help by product area

Automatic Between and Manual Between meshes, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

© 2020 Siemens

window.mainLanguage="en_US"

window.delivId=""

window.projectId=""

MathJax.Hub.Config({ TeX: { extensions: ["autoload-all.js"] }, tex2jax: { displayMath: [ ] }, "SVG": { scale: 125 } });