Accounting for Errors using PTdSF Contact Force

Shaun Smith
Shaun Smith New Altair Community Member
edited September 2021 in Community Q&A

Hi Everyone,

 

I am running a simulation at the moment that involves a conveyor belt and am using PTdSF Force Contacts to define the contacts between the belt (which is a flexbody) and the idlers that the belt runs over. Since these idlers are cylinders I need to use several PTdSF contacts to simulate the cylinders of the idler contacting the belt (as they can only be defined as sphere from my understanding). 

 

I was wondering if there is any way to get around the errors associated with the PTdSF contacts going outside the defined range of the deformable surface? In order to make the simulation realistic I need to the entire idler to have contacts defined and during the simulation it is guaranteed that these will not always be within the range of the deformable surface.

 

I'm happy to share files/images if it helps but I just need to figure out a way to get around this error.

 

Thanks in advance!

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Answers

  • Scott Ziemba_21777
    Scott Ziemba_21777
    Altair Employee
    edited September 2021

    Hi Shaun,

    It may be that your particular use case/problem setup is pushing the boundaries of the feature capability?  It is difficult to say without reviewing the model first-hand.

    Are you convinced this approach is the best way to achieve the objective? There is also a Belt/Pulley toolkit (icon on vertical ribbon bar), where you could mimic a conveyor system.  You can have a belt/pulley layout representation where either A) the belt is modeled as NLFE (Non-Linear Finite Element) or B) the belt is discretized into smaller bodies and connected together with joints and force representations.  The latter mimics a belt reasonably well, but also brings the advantage of being able to define contacts between the belt and the bodies riding on the belt.  The bodies can ride on the belt and fall off at will.  Note: if you want to have multiple conveyors at varying angles to one another (hand-off), you may have to define your own reference frame "Marker" that gets used in the Belt/Pulley dialog.

    If this approach is not acceptable for your situation, I might suggest you submit a support inquiry to Altair support.

     

    Scott Z

     

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