Designstar gap elements

[dozer]

Has anybody modeled anything in Designstar 4.0 with components that have an initial gap, but will close with loading? I've tried numerous times with no luck. I've talked to technical support and got the supposedly correct settings but it still didn't work.

To give an example, I modeled a 1" diameter pin in a 1.0625" hole. When I look at the deformed shape the pin has moved through the material surrounding the hole. No, it's not a scaling problem, it's wrong.

I think it's a bug but hopefully somebody can prove otherwise. Speaking of bugs (maybe this should be another thread), does anybody know where the Designstar bugs are documented?

 

[jeeleong]

Hi!

I am not a Designstar user.

Your promblem is a contact problem with an initial gap. You will need to know if Designstar can actually solve such problems first before going any further.

I hope this helps.

 

[JGalliera]

Dozer, can you send me the problem so that I can take a look at it. My email address is Joe"at"SRAC"dot"com.

There is a specific bulletin board for COSMOS Users on Topica. You can subscribe by:

http://www.topica.com/lists/cosmosfea/subscribe

 

[JGalliera]

I would recommend going through the tutorials available in DesignSTAR regarding contact problems. That should help you out in learning how to correctly implement contacts in DS.

 

[dozer]

Thanks Joe. Just to let everyone know. Modeling the contact as surface to surface rather than node to node was the key. When the mesh between the two contacting surfaces doesn't match, surface to surface is the way to go.