Mapping Elements to Surfaces for Symmetric Plies

Hello everyone,

 

I have a question that I don't know if it's possible to solve this way but, here it goes anyway.

 

The model I'm trying to optimize using Optistruct is a wing loaded with a pressure on its top skin. It has a symmetry plane along the XZ axis. You can see this below:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

 

This is the base geometry of the wing imported to Hyperworks through an STP file.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

 

Here, you can see the symmetry plane displayed on CATIA.

 

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The load is a pressure that I apply on the surfaces I want and then I map them to the nodes corresponding to the surfaces using BC -> Loads on Geometry

 

See below:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

 

The pressures applied to the surfaces

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

 

The mapped loads after using BC -> Loads on Geometry.

 

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After running a free sizing optimization the result I get for the plies is not completely symmetric (although I constrained my design variables to be symmetric). See below:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

 

As you can see, to the edge the ply is definitely not symmetric.

 

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So, what I would like to know is:

 

Is it possible to, first, mesh half the surfaces and then duplicate half the nodes using the symmetry plane; After this I would like to map the symmetric nodes I created to the existing half surface that was not meshed so I could apply the pressure load to the full surface and then map it to the existing nodes.

 

The goal is to have a completely symmetric mesh so that maybe Optistruct has an easier time creating symmetric plies.

 

Thank you very much!

 

Gonçalo Pimenta