Specifying Number of Elements - Surface Mesh

Burner2k
Burner2k Altair Community Member
edited October 2020 in Community Q&A

Hi,
I have two surfaces as shown below. The upper surface (green color) & lower surface (Brown) are offset from each other not just in vertical (+Z pointing UP from brown to green) but also in horizontal direction. Sorry I did not realize while taking screenshots about the challenge in making out primary axes orientations.

 

02.JPG.889a572abd6008177c68696abd13d866.JPG

 

I dunno if this picture helps to get a better idea. Please note that I created this picture solely to illustrate the set up of the two surfaces. The below picture is NOT representative of the geometry I am having issues with.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>01.thumb.JPG.1c6c403f0d9830b12aa208d6f7b14d2d.JPG

 

The surfaces are nearly equal in area but are not quite. I need to mesh the surfaces using quad elements and connect them using 1D elements. I have many other surfaces which will be needing similar connection and hence plan on using Linear 1D option. The problem is that I just cannot get equal number of elements in both surfaces. Even though I give similar edge mesh density to the lower surface while meshing, I am getting around 3 less elements count (The upper surface has 42 & lower I get 39) and makes it impossible to use Linear 1D option.

 

I also tried projecting/translating the elements from upper to loweer surface but as shown below, the results are not satisfactory.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>03.thumb.JPG.49380a8d3f165ac1ae994fc1f2f2cea9.JPG

 

So wondering if I there is a way in which I can specify the number of elements I want in a surface during meshing itself? Or please suggest a way in which I can get equal number of elements. Or is there a way in which I can quickly create 1d elements between each node of the upper & lower surface without spending inordinate amount of time. I have at least another 40 similar surfaces where 1D connections may be needed.

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Answers

  • Simon Križnik
    Simon Križnik Altair Community Member
    edited September 2018

    Hi Burner2k,

     

    after projecting the original mesh to surface, you could project those edge nodes to line in order to close the gap.

     

  • Burner2k
    Burner2k Altair Community Member
    edited September 2018

    Ivan, thats a pretty good suggestion. Will try it out for the above & other cases. Hopefully, they will work. Thanks

  • Simon Križnik
    Simon Križnik Altair Community Member
    edited September 2018

    This method will slightly change the element proportions near projected edge nodes (compared to the base mesh).

    If the gap is too big it might lead to linear 1D elements at those edges not in alignment with the rest.

    But I hope it will Hyperwork ;)/emoticons/default_wink.png' srcset='/emoticons/wink@2x.png 2x' title=';)' width='20' />

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