Distance between contour lines.

[D Higgins]

Hello,

Im have simulated the heat transfer process during Selective Laser Melting. I want to be able to measure the size of the melt pool dimensions. I have set a maximum contour limit to the melting temperature so the melt pool can be seen.

Is it possible to measure the distance between two conour lines and therfore get the melt pool length, depth?
Using Query->Distance I can only measure the distance between two nodes. The size of the mesh limits the disance so I cannot obtain an accurate measurement.

I have thought of using image processing software to interpolate the distance as I know each element's distance. Alternatively I was thinking of writing a script to read the output data, find the max temperature and loop through each node until the temperature is less than the melt temperature. However, I believe this method will again be limited by the size of the mesh.

Could anyone comment on what menthod would be appropriate for my problem or suggest an alternative?

Thanks,

Daniel

 

[FEA way]

As you say, Abaqus can measure distance only between nodes. So either increase the mesh density and run the analysis again (if it doesn’t take too long to complete and if you can accept the fact that there will still be some error in measurement) or use external image processing software/scripting. What can be also helpful for you (especially when using image processing approach) is changing the contour type to Line.

 

[D Higgins]

Thanks for the help. I'll change to a line contour and try using external image processing.

 

[IDS]

You might find this helpful:

https://newtonexcelbach.com/2010/04/14/how-to-digitise-a-scanned-image/

Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services

http://newtonexcelbach.wordpress.com/