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Adapting FE-Meshes to real, 3D surface detected geometry data to improve FE-simulation results

Katona S, Sprügel T, Koch M, Wartzack S (2015)

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Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Conference contribution, Conference Contribution

Publication year: 2015

Pages Range: -

Conference Proceedings Title: Summary of Proceedings

Event location: San Diego, Kalifornien

ISBN: 978-1-910643-24-2

URI: https://www.mfk.uni-erlangen.de?file=pubmfk_563780b5b6f6d

Abstract

Today’s product development process is picking up the pace. To avoid
performing complex and expensive testing including all iterations of the
product development with a real prototype, various FE-simulations
(finite element) for the functional validation of the desired characteristics
are made. The discretization of a developed component and the use of
the simulation conditions, like taking different non-linearities (i.e.
material behavior, contact situations, large deflections etc.) into
account, is a tremendous effort and is necessary to get precise and
significant results.
In general, every constructed component shows differences to its ideal
geometry of the designed CAD-model (Computer Aided Design), i.e.
due to deformations in the production process. Depending on the
manufacturing process, random deviations and the component size,
these differences can vary. In cutting processes the value is relatively
small, but using forming (i.e. deep-drawing or bending) and casting
techniques (i.e. die casting or injection molding) process-related effects
like spring back and shrinkage or warpage occur and can trigger bigger
deformations. Despite knowing the effects of deformations, due to the
production process mentioned above, the product developer always
uses the non-deformed design model of a CAD-system for the FEsimulation
of a component. It seems rather doubtful that further
refinement of simulation methods makes sense, if the real
manufactured geometry of the component is not considered for in the
simulation.
For an efficient exploit of the potential of simulation methods, an
approach has been developed which offers a geometry model for
simulation based on the existing CAD-model but with integrated
production deviations as soon as a first prototype is at hand. Thus, a
functional validation of the real geometry can easily be performed.

The approach in this article is to detect the occurring deformations of a
near-series produced prototype with a high-resolution optical measuring
instrument and to use that data for simulation purposes. The whole
reverse engineering (RE) process including data preparation, complex
surface reconstruction and furthermore a complete new simulation
preprocessing is omitted due to lack of capacity. Therefore, the
detected data (either point cloud or polygonal model) is used directly for
the creation of an adapted FE mesh.
The presented method describes an opportunity to automatically adapt
existing FE-meshes, generated with the non-deformed CAD-model, to
the deviated geometry caused by production. Thereby 3d surface scans
and relevant algorithms are used. Therefore, the surface nodes are
extracted from an ANSYS input file. A measurement of the deviation to
the scanned model at each node position (point cloud or polygonal
model) takes place by using a comparison point within the software
PolyWorks. Afterwards a preload-step is defined, in which the deviation
of every surface node is applied as a displacement. The mesh
emerging from this preload-step with its new nodes coordinates is the
basis for further simulations with real geometry. Herewith, a completely
new input file with the new mesh and the identical content of the initial
input file based on the ideal CAD-model (considering material definition,
forces, boundary conditions etc.) is created. As a result, an FE-model
with real geometry is available and can be used directly for a simulation
without spending a lot of time on additional preprocessing. The
advantage can be seen in the omission of a complex creation of a new
model for simulating the real manufactured geometry. Comparative
analysis between ideal and real geometry is simple, when using this
approach in the product development process.

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How to cite

APA:

Katona, S., Sprügel, T., Koch, M., & Wartzack, S. (2015). Adapting FE-Meshes to real, 3D surface detected geometry data to improve FE-simulation results. In Summary of Proceedings (pp. -). San Diego, Kalifornien, US.

MLA:

Katona, Sebastian, et al. "Adapting FE-Meshes to real, 3D surface detected geometry data to improve FE-simulation results." Proceedings of the NAFEMS World Congress 2015, San Diego, Kalifornien 2015. -.

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