Thickening a 2D mesh

Use the Thicken Mesh command to thicken an existing 2D surface mesh. The Thicken Mesh command lets you create a closed surface mesh from an open surface mesh.

A closed surface mesh:

• Is fully stitched or water tight.

• Contains no non-manifold edges.

With the Thicken Mesh command, the software adds thickness to either side of a selected 2D mesh. The process is similar to the reverse of midsurface creation. The software treats the existing 2D mesh as the midsurface and then adds thickness equally to both sides.

Existing mesh of 2D elements.	Mesh after the Thicken Mesh command thickens the 2D elements.

Specifying a thickness value for the mesh

You must carefully consider the thickness value to use for the mesh. In general, the thickness value that you specify should be smaller than 0.1% of the overall element size for the 2D mesh. For example, if your overall element length was 2mm, an appropriate thickness value would be 0.2 mm. Specifying a larger thickness value can be particularly problematic in sharp corners where overly thick elements may intersect themselves.

Note:

The software issues a message if the thickness value you specify is too large for the model. You can have the software automatically calculate an appropriate thickness value, or you can cancel the operation.

When the software thickens the mesh, it offsets each element in the selected mesh to 1/2 of the specified thickness value in each direction.

Using the Thicken Mesh command in acoustic meshing workflows

With a Simcenter Nastran Acoustic or Vibro-Acoustic analysis, you can use the Thicken Mesh command to generate a closed and manifold mesh whose outer skin defines the interior boundary of the fluid domain. You can then use the Convex Mesh command to generate the convex mesh around the thickened mesh to define the outer boundary of the fluid domain. For more information, see Convex meshes for FEM acoustics analyses.

The Thicken Mesh command is also helpful to use before you use the Solid from Shell command to generate the acoustic fluid mesh between the inner boundary of the fluid and the convex mesh. Thickening the shell mesh ensures that the software creates the acoustic elements on either side of features, such as ribs, and not through the features. When you thicken the shell mesh, the software cannot use any of the nodes in the shell mesh to create the acoustic elements. If you do not thicken the mesh, the solid elements may penetrate the shell mesh.

Working with the thickened mesh

The Thicken Mesh command creates a thickened version of the original 2D mesh. The new mesh contains the same type of elements as the existing mesh.

The mesh that you create with the Thicken Mesh command is entirely FE-based and is not associated with the underlying geometry. The software does not update FE-based meshes if the underlying part geometry is modified. Additionally, you cannot modify a mesh that you create with the Thicken Mesh command.

The software stores meshes created with the Thicken Mesh command in a new 2d_thicken_mesh node in the Simulation Navigator.

Where do I find it?

Application	Pre/Post
Prerequisite	A FEM file or a component FEM within an assembly FEM file as the work part and displayed partAn existing mesh of 2D elements
Command Finder	Thicken Mesh

How do I

Reset node and element IDs

Learn more

Manually creating elements

Extruding elements

Projecting elements

Reflecting elements

Revolving elements

Rotating elements

Translating elements

Splitting shell elements

Swapping the diagonals between triangular elements

Splitting 1D elements

Detaching elements from a mesh

Attaching elements into a mesh

Creating a mesh from a cloud of points

Rib detection and removal within a mesh

Convex meshes for FEM acoustics analyses

Acoustic chamber meshes for panel transmission loss analyses

Open duct end meshing for acoustics

Combining triangular elements

Modifying element order

Modifying the type of elements

Moving nodes in 2D elements

Modifying element labels

Modifying element connectivity

Deleting elements

Extracting elements from a mesh

Locking and unlocking a mesh

Quick links

Command reference

Pre/Post video examples

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Thickening a 2D mesh , Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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