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Using Sheet Metal Bodies in SOLIDWORKS Simulation
The use of sheet metal bodies in SOLIDWORKS Simulation provides
a streamlined study setup workflow. The nature of sheet metal
geometry lends to the utilization of shell elements to represent
their shape in a simulation study. The use of solid elements is
prohibitive due to the large aspect ratio difference between the
span and thickness of sheet metal bodies. Their usage would lead to
a very large mesh size and corresponding computational effort.
Shell elements allow for the creation of a mesh with high surface
fidelity while limiting the required system resources needed for
the calculation. This document will cover how sheet metal bodies
can be used to simplify the creation of a linear static
analysis.
Model Creation The streamlined study setup in SOLIDWORKS
Simulation requires the geometry to be created using SOLIDWORKS
sheet metal entities. This can be accomplished by creating a new
model constructed with sheet metal features (base flange, edge
flange, miter flange, etc.) or an existing solid body can be
converted into a sheet metal body by using the convert to sheet
metal and insert bends features. This allows for working with
imported solid body geometry. A planar surface is selected in the
convert to sheet feature to represent the fixed surface for the
flat pattern. Model edges can be selected to specify where the
bends will take place. The software will automatically rip
appropriate edges so that the body can be flattened properly. A
sketch can also be used to create a rip across a solid surface so
that it can be unfolded.
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Linear Static Analysis
Shell Definition During the creation of a linear static
analysis, sheet metal bodies are automatically converted into shell
entities. A surface body is created at the mid-plane of each sheet
metal body for utilization in the shell definition and the offset
condition is set to middle surface. The shell thickness is tied to
the thickness defined for the sheet metal body and cannot be
manually changed. Changing the thickness of the sheet metal body at
the part modeling level will update the shell definition. This
process ensures that the resulting shell mesh will always match the
underlying solid geometry during the calculation.
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Contact Conditions Sheet metal bodies simplify the setup of
contact conditions by utilizing the automatic bonding created by
the global contact condition. The following scenarios make use of
automatic bonding:
A face to face coincident contact between sheet metal bodies
Edges of a shell body which are in direct contact with a sheet
metal surface A face to face coincident contact between a solid
surface and a sheet metal surface
The bonding is applied to the mid-surface of the shell mesh
created for the sheet metal body. This results in an incompatible
mesh being created due to the physical gap between the shell
element mid-surface and the interfacing entities. This can lead to
an inconsistent bonded region. Refining the mesh in the contact
region will result in a more complete description of the bonded
contact. The finer mesh allows for more elements and nodes to
participate in the incompatible bonding algorithm. When bonding a
shell edge to a sheet metal surface, the software rigidly connects
each node point along the shells edge to the nearest elements face
on the sheet metal body. To improve accuracy, the element size on
the sheet metal surface should be equal to the shell thickness.
The global no-penetration contact condition does not apply to
contact regions involving sheet metal bodies meshed with shell
elements. Local no penetration contact sets need to be created and
will work for the following scenarios:
Contact between the exterior surfaces of sheet metal bodies
Contact between edges of a shell body and a sheet metal surface
Contact between a solid surface and a sheet metal surface
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Fixtures and Loads Using sheet metal bodies simplifies the
workflow of setting up boundary conditions since fixtures and loads
can be applied to any edge or surface on a sheet metal body. A
fixture or load that is applied to the exterior surface of a sheet
metal body is projected onto the mid-surface of the shell mesh
created for the sheet metal body. A boundary condition applied to
the thickness surface of a sheet metal body is projected onto the
edge of the mid-surface shell mesh.
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Meshing Meshing sheet metal bodies with shell elements greatly
reduces the overall size of the mesh. Shell elements only mesh the
exterior surfaces of sheet metal geometry and take into account the
thickness during the calculation. The number of elements and nodes
in the mathematical model is dramatically reduced by not having to
mesh the volume of a sheet metal body. This limits the number of
degrees of freedom in the calculation resulting in greater
computational efficiency.
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Benefits
Simplifies the analysis setup when shell elements are needed due
to system and time constraints
Large reduction in the overall mesh size while maintaining a
good surface mesh fidelity, which lowers the system memory
requirements and results in a faster solution
Multiple what-if scenarios can be run to explore the design
space in a shorter amount of time due to the reduced computational
effort