Alternative Meshing Strategy when Transferring Results to FEA

Issue

One of the key steps of transferring Autodesk® Simulation CFD results to FEA boundary conditions is to create the mesh on the FEA model. In some cases, this can be difficult because of problems importing the geometry into the FEA tool or simply with the meshing functions in the FEA system.

Solution

An alternative approach is to use Autodesk® Simulation CFD to generate the mesh on the solid model, and then import the mesh into the FEA system.  

Basic Guidelines for this process: 

1. Mesh only the parts that are to be included in the FEA analysis. Suppress the other parts (such as the flow region and extensions on openings).
2. Disable Mesh Enhancement. This is important because some of the elements created during Mesh Enhancement are not supported by the export file.
3. To export the mesh from Autodesk® Simulation CFD, click File > Export > Universal Mesh. This saves the mesh to an I-deas® universal file (".unv"). 
4. In the FEA tool, assign the boundary conditions directly to the nodes (for temperatures) or element faces (for pressures). If the assembly contains multiple parts, it may be difficult to assign boundary conditions to just the desired part. This step is essential, however, and without it the process will fail. After this step is completed, export the appropriate FEA deck.
5. In Autodesk® Simulation CFD, click File > FEA mapping to transfer the results. This creates a new FEA deck which you can import into your FEA model.