Dividing Only Surfaces 1

[cranisch]

I want to model a roller for a bearing. The bearing is to be calculated in Ansys Workbench and all the components are to be meshed in the latter one. I want to create all of my components in Pro/Engineer and did this already. I've created the roller as a revolved part because I can change its dimensions very easy this way. But as long as just a small part of it (the contacting area) needs to be meshed fine the remaining volume can be meshed coarsely. For this purpose I want to subdivide the surface of the revolved part somehow into particular areas. I already tried to revolve just an angle of 30degree and patterned the body 12times to completely 360degrees. But then also the volume is subdivided into 12subparts which are seperated by internal surfaces and this causes a lot of problems for the automatic mesher in Ansys WB.
So what I need is a revolved part in Pro/Engineer where I can somehow divide just the surface in smaller areas. Does anyone have an idea how to deal with this problem?
I am using Wildfire 3.0.

Remark: When wou revolve a sketch about 360degrees Pro/E automatically divides the resulting surface into two parts as you can see if you check the resulting component. Maybe this could give someone a glue?!

 

[dgallup]

I would make a seperate part for the region of the bearing where you want the fine mesh then intersect (subtract) it from the rest of the bearing. You could make it a revolved feature of just 30 degrees but give it an ID & OD so it does not go all the way to the center line. I believe you can get Ansys to treat this as one part with the proper constraints.

 

[cranisch]

I think this is quiet laborious. Maybe it is much easier to introduce edges somehow to the revolved part that would enforce Pro/E to divide just the surface. Any suggestions?

 

[dgallup]

You can create a surface but I don't think your auto mesher in Ansys is going to know what to do with it.

 

[cranisch]

What do you mean by creating a surface. An additional one for the part? I think if the surface belongs to the part and there are no gaps then the mesher should be able to deal with it.

 

[gb420917]

There is an easier way to approach your problem in workbench you need to create a local co-ordinate system around the are in question this may take a few attempts to get the location correct based on your global co-ordinate system if there isn't a suitable edge locally you can pick, then in the mesher you can use the sphere of influence option to control the mesh density around your contact area you can also control the part/parts being influenced. Option b is to make the roller fron two parts and then you can refine the meshes independantly.

 

[dgallup]

You can create surfaces, datum curves, etc in Pro/E aw well as solids. However, I think the automesher in Ansys only deals with solids. I could be wrong, I don't use Ansys. That is why I recommended making another part where you want to refine the mesh and subtract it from the roller. That is what I would do in Patran. Very simple.

 

[cranisch]

I made it now in a diffrent but compareable way to what dgallup mentioned.
So what I did now and what fits more to an Ansys topic:
Use Ansys Geometry Designer, import the parts from Pro/E, sketch the subdivisions as lines in a normal plane and use the extrude feature to create an imprint.
Compared to the method in Pro/E that is described above you obtain one avantage in Ansys Geometry: the volume is not divided but only the surfaces. Due to this the mesher is able to do his job much more efficient.

Tanks for helping!