Shell Mesh (FEM mode)
The software can mesh shell or quilt surfaces by using two-dimensional triangular or quadrilateral elements. There are three methods of shell meshing:
• Midsurface— Sandwiches features between previously defined surface pairs. The software then creates a shell model by compressing the surfaces to a specified surface, and applies the shell mesh to this compressed surface.
• Shell— Applies a triangular or quadrilateral shell mesh to quilt surfaces previously defined as simple or advanced
shell idealizations. You can use this method on its own or with solid models to form a mixed mesh, provided the solid model has quilts defined as shell idealizations.
• Boundary— Applies the shell mesh directly to the part surfaces. The interior of the part has no mesh.
The Shell Element Type option list includes two element types you can use to shell-mesh models—triangles and quadrilaterals.
• Triangles— Meshes the surfaces with triangles.
• Quads— Meshes the surfaces with quadrilaterals. In this case, triangles appear only in areas where the mesh generator could not use quadrilaterals.
Note that, for models that contain simple or advanced shell idealizations as well as midsurface or boundary shells, you can define only one element type. Creo Simulate applies this element type throughout the model.
An
example of shell meshing shows the results of meshing the model with different types of elements.
You can also create a
partial shell mesh, where the software meshes all paired surfaces, but ignores the unpaired ones.