Grancha
Industrial
- Aug 19, 2011
- 9
Is there a way to calculate the unmeshed volume inside a pressure vessel? I have an axisymmetric thinwalled vessel that I'm modelling in APDL with Shell209 elements. As the vessel is pressurised it inflates slightly and I would like to know what the final enclosed volume is.
Calculating the pre-inflation volume is easy; define the (axisymmetric) volume as an area, run ASUM to get the enclosed area(A) and centroid(C), then apply Pappus's centroid theorem (2pi*C*A).
If I could define an area from the deformed shape I could do the same after the simulation runs, however as I'm not meshing the area defined to get the initial volume (it will all be gas at a constant pressure), it disappears once the model is solved.
Is there a way to find the deformed area, or to use the deformed shell as one side of a new area?
Calculating the pre-inflation volume is easy; define the (axisymmetric) volume as an area, run ASUM to get the enclosed area(A) and centroid(C), then apply Pappus's centroid theorem (2pi*C*A).
If I could define an area from the deformed shape I could do the same after the simulation runs, however as I'm not meshing the area defined to get the initial volume (it will all be gas at a constant pressure), it disappears once the model is solved.
Is there a way to find the deformed area, or to use the deformed shell as one side of a new area?