Surface skinning is a technique that can be used to obtain more accurate results at the surface of a solid body without overly refining the mesh. Results for solid elements are calculated at integration points located inside the element, some distance away from the element surfaces. CATIA V5 determines the results at the nodes, which are displayed in results images, by extrapolating integration point values using the element shape functions. If an element is located in an area of high stress gradients and the material property includes plasticity, it is possible that the stresses extrapolated to the nodes can exceed the stresses permitted by the material law. One way to improve the stress results is to refine the mesh. Another option is to use the surface skinning technique.
With surface skinning you create a two-dimensional mesh at the same location as the surface of the solid mesh. Because the two-dimensional mesh has integration points located exactly at the surface of the solid body, it is able to capture the surface results with greater accuracy than the solid mesh. In most cases you will find that the surface results for the solid and two-dimensional meshes are the same or very similar.
This task shows you how to create a surface skin using a tetrahedron filler mesh from a surface mesh.
Create the solid part in CATIA V5.
Mesh the surfaces with 2D elements in the Nonlinear Structural Analysis, Thermal Analysis, or Advanced Meshing Tools workbench. See Creating Mesh Parts for more information.
Use the Tetrahedron Filler tool in the Advanced Meshing Tools workbench to mesh the solid from the surface mesh.
See Tetrahedron Filler in the CATIA V5 Advanced Meshing Tools User's Guide for more information.
Assign membrane elements to the 2D mesh, as described in Assigning Membrane Properties to Surfaces.
When you create the job, you must specify that Abaqus for CATIA V5 writes an input file as a single part (the default setting).
See Configuring an Abaqus Analysis for more information.