CONTACT SURFACE DEFINITION CREATION INVOLVING LOW ORDER AND QUADRATIC FINITE ELEMENTS IN A NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF AN IMPACT EVENT

摘要

Methods and systems for creating a contact surface definition involving lower order and quadratic finite elements (QFE) in a FEA model used for numerically simulating an impact event are disclosed. FEA model is organized by one or more groups of finite elements. Each group represents one of the product's parts and is identified by a part ID. Further, the FEA model is configured with one or more contact surface definitions for detecting contacts amongst the parts due to the impact event. For each determined group that is determined to contain QFE, a new group is created. The new group is associated with a unique part ID. Contact segments for the new group are then generated in accordance with a set of predefined rules for subdividing one or more geometric shapes associated with the QFE. Contact surface definitions are updated by replacing each determined group with the new group.

主权项

1. A method of numerically simulating structural behaviors of a product in an impact event comprising:
receiving, in a computer system having a finite element analysis (FEA) application module installed thereon, a FEA model representing a product to be used in a time-marching simulation of an impact event, the FEA model being organized in one or more groups of finite elements with each group, identified by a part identifier (ID), representing one of the product's parts and the FEA model being configured with one or more contact surface definitions, wherein each the contact surface definitions comprises at least one of the groups; determining which one or ones of the groups containing quadratic finite elements; creating a new group for each determined group; associating the newly created group with a unique part ID based on said each determined group's part ID; generating contact segments for the newly created group in accordance with a set of predefined rules for subdividing one or more geometric shapes associated with the quadratic finite elements in said each determined group; assigning element properties to said newly created group based on said quadratic finite elements' properties in said each determined group; updating the contact surface definitions by replacing said each determined group with the newly created group; and obtaining simulated structural behaviors of the product by conducting the time-marching simulation in the computer system using the FEA model along with the updated contact surface definitions for detecting contacts amongst the parts due to the impact event.