fe-Modeling of Solid and Shell

[enthu1980]

Hi All,

I am finding difficulty in modeling of a car parts using 3D and 2D mesh. The problem comes at the interface of solid and shell elements. The reason I think is the degrees of freedom. So can anybody suggest me how to model in such a case?

 

[corus]

The shell will only be pinned to the solid and hence is free to rotate. To overcome this you could try embedding the shell into the solid or tieing the edge nodes of the shell to several nodes of the solid surface to provide some rotational stiffness.

corus

 

[TheRaptor]

Hi Enthu,

The problem, as you rightly guessed is because of the difference in the degrees of freedom of the solid and shell elements. This has been a topic of discussion for quite a few years now.

My suggestion would be to overlap the plates (shells) with the solids or create an interface between the two. (The coating mesh concept) This is very similar to what Corus suggested about embedding the shell with the solids.

In real life scenario, these overlaps/angles would signify welded joints.

Cheers.

 

[bassmanjax]

Hi Enthu

You haven't specified which code you are using, but if it is ABAQUS, you can use *SHELL TO SOLID COUPLING to join a shell & solid mesh together.

Regards

Martin

 

[TheRaptor]

Even in MSC.MARC, The EXPAND option will create Hex8 elements from simple Quad4's. This is probably one of the simplest methods of connecting 2D and 3d elements..