FEM Mesh has no Volumes

[cooltrooper]

Hi there,

I'm trying to run a FEM analysis on a model based from an STL file.

My process:

1) repair mesh if needs
2) create shape from mesh
3) refine shame
4) convert to solid.

Then in FEM when creating a mesh it refuses to create any volumes. Only surfaces.

File attached

Thanks in adavnce

[bernd]

I'm on the way ... Jus two hints ... Have you run Part check geometry on it? Is is really a valid solid?

[bernd]

yep, Part --> check geometry shows there are holes in the Shape, thus it is not a valid Solid, because the Shell is not closed ...

Screenshot_20180610_055512.png (48.95 KiB) Viewed 1104 times

[bernd]

BTW: which version of FreeCAD do you run? You should have at least 0.17 Release Roland !

[cooltrooper]

Aha,

I'll try to fix this and give it another go.

Thanks again

[UR_]

Because of the sheetmetal like structure, it will be better to go not for a solid but for a shell.

shell.png (188.06 KiB) Viewed 1049 times

repaired.FCStd

(386.53 KiB) Downloaded 24 times

done with:
OS: Windows 10
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.18.13892 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: 23f58f1afc710c6189ac44414c8696e8e838535c
Python version: 2.7.14
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.2.0
Locale: German/Germany (de_DE)



workflow:
- downgraded your "solid"
- deleted unneeded faces (all the tiny ones)
- repaired some gaps
- upgraded to shell
- ready to FEM

[cooltrooper]

I'm interested why you recommend the shell over solid? Presumably you can still set the shell thickness to model sheet metal?
Is it more accurate?

As a side note I found the model error in autocad and smoothly sailed into fem (solid). So thank you all for your help. didn't notice the error