Creating Nodes in CATIA V5 FEA

[erau_paul]

I am trying to run 2D FEA on our chassis design in CATIA V5. I cannot figure out how to create a node and joint them to lines. I have done 3D FEA in V5 but never 2D.

Thanks!

[erau_paul]

I am trying to run 2D FEA on our chassis design in CATIA V5. I cannot figure out how to create a node and joint them to lines. I have done 3D FEA in V5 but never 2D.

Thanks!

[Crispy]

So you are trying to connect your suspension wireframe to a chassis surface?

If so, I normally have a small area of the surface (size of the interface) that I rigidly connect to the end of the wireframe. Then you release the appropriate DOFs to let the suspension travel.

I made these interface areas in surface design, not in the FEA or meshing toolboxes.

Did this help?

[erau_paul]

I guess I didn't explain my situation well enough (actually I messed up explaining it). I am trying to do 1D FEA. I create a beam mesh on each line that represents a chassis tube and then apply a 1D property to it. However I do not know how to link lines (that represent chassis members) together at nodes (points). It tells me that the point needs a mesh but I cannot find anything about creating mesh on a point.

[Crispy]

Got it,

You should "join" all of the lines, I believe this can be done in the wireframe workbench. Include everything, chassis suspension, whatever, as long as it is a line. Then in the structural analysis workbench, you mesh the whole thing as one part, and apply a 1-d property to the whole mesh.

Once you have done this, right click on the 1-d property you have made and you can define local 1-d properties for individual or groups of tubes within the join. If you want to include suspension links, you need to remove the proper degrees of freedom from the ends to make the joints act like ball joints, this is also done in the local 1-d properties.

I recommend starting with something really simple (like a wire pyramid) and getting it to work before you move onto the whole chassis. Controlling the DOFs can be tricky and is very important, so make sure you understand how it works.

[Garre88e]

Thanks, that works great! However, is there a way to have the loads and clamps be applied to points instead of the lines? Ive tried but cant figure out how it should be done.

Thanks,
Brian

[Crispy]

I always apply loads at the endpoints of lines or verticies, not to actual "points", and I have never had problems. For FEA, I don't think there is any reason to use "points" so I don't include them in the join.