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Objective:

Learn how to create a surface mesh of a gyroid body and tie it to a solid mesh

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Applies to:

  • FE Surface Mesh
  • Tie Constraints
  • Gyroid Body

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Procedure:

  1. Shell a Gyroid Body: Use the Gyroid Body block with the Set Body Bounding Box. We use the Set Body Bounding Box as the Gyroid Body block creates an infinite field.
Note: Set Body Bounding Box is only used to visualize the infinite field in the defined Bounding Box. You must use a Boolean Intersect block to intersect it to the design space.
An image of a gyroid model next to the nTop notebook. If you use a Graph Unit Cell, you can use the faces as mesh property to obtain the shell mesh you need. A image of a periodic lattice block and its properties panel. The image is showcasing how this lattice type allows the user to extract a faces as mesh property chip. The Faces as Mesh property chip visualized as a mesh
  1. Creating a Surface Mesh from the Gyroid Body
Use a combination of Mesh from Implicit by DC and Remove Mesh Faces by Body blocks as input for FE Surface Mesh. The image shows an nTop notebook with two meshes. One mesh is generated from the Mesh from Implicit by DC block. A Remove Mesh Faces by Body block is then used to extract only the surface mesh. I suggest reviewing this article to learn more about meshing (Methods for creating surface meshes).
  1. Creating a Solid Mesh: We create Solid Domains with Solid Attributes for the Top and Bottom Boxes.
The image shows an nTop notebook next to a model of a gyroid in between two blocks. The model is a Simulation model, showcasing the connection nodes between the gyroid and the blocks.
  1. Connecting the Surface and Solid Mesh: Use the Tie constraints to connect the Surface Mesh to the top and bottom bodies.
Use the Simulation Model model with three domains (Top, Bottom, and Gyroid). We are choosing appropriate Shell and Solid attributes. (How to create an fe model for a simple shell lattice) The first tie constraint is used to connect the Top and Shell Mesh, and similarly, the second one is for the bottom. (Methods for connecting multiple FE meshes in an fe model) The image shows an nTop notebook next to a model. The image highlights the Tie Constraint blocks that are used to connect the separate FE Meshes through contacting nodes.These nodes are connected using Tie Constraints. The static analysis results of the Simulation Model And that’s it! You’ve successfully created a shell mesh of the gyroid body. Are you still having issues? Contact the support team, and we’ll be happy to help!

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Download the Example file:

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