Mid-surface abstraction for complex thin-wall models based on virtual decomposition

Abstract

Mid-surface abstraction is an effective simplification method for thin-wall models. A mid-surface model after abstraction can reduce the complexity of finite element analysis greatly. There are some methods for mid-surface abstraction. However, they are not satisfactory to handle complex models. To address this problem, this study proposes a mid-surface abstraction approach based on virtual model decomposition. The concept of face group pair is proposed to help virtually decompose thin-wall models into several virtual simple parts, and the connections between the parts are classified into three types. The topological boundary edges of the mid-surface model are then generated correctly with the help of the connection types. Meanwhile, an improved mesh-based discrete method is proposed to calculate the geometry of the mid-surface with high accuracy. Finally, some typical complex models are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords:

• mid-surface abstraction
• virtual model decomposition
• complex thin-wall model
• face group pair

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors appreciate the support from the NSF of China [61173126]; the 863 High-Technology Project of China [2011AA110804]; Key Project of Science and Technology of Zhejiang Province [2014C01052]; the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China [LY12F02004].