solution to extract a shell from a solid component top surface

Rahul_P1

I'm looking for a solution to extract a shell from a solid component. But it must be
one of the solid's surfaces, not the midsurface. Further more, is it possible to thick up
that shell just in one direction during a size optimization. I attatched a file for better understanding. Thanks for your help!

Rahul_P1

If you have a solid geometry, you can take only one surface of the solid and shellmesh this. If the solid geometry is more complex than in your picture, you can easily select all surfaces on one side by selecting one surface and selecting 'by face' in the advanced selection menue. To be physically correct you need to define an offset value for all shell element or on the property.
This is also the small difficulty for size optimisation. You need to create 2 DESVARS for each Shell: Thickness and ZOFFS. These can be linked so that the offset is allways half the thickness. done!