How to offset a shell mesh which is irregular in shape ?

[VaidehiChennubhotla]

Hi,

I am working on a composite layered structure with a shell layer-solid layer-Shell layer sandwich structure. How to offset the shell layers on both sides by 0.25mm without having to re-create shell offset layer and rebuild the boundary conditions, surfaces, nodes on that shell layers ? The structure is a little curvy so which offset method could be used to offset the shell layers ?Is there any offset method or should the model be rebuilt from scratch ?

I tried the section manager-> edit and apply shell thickness and offset from section value(offset=0.16665 trial and error) and assigned a thickness of 1.5 for the shell layer. But because I have curvy shape for the shell structure, it is penetrating into the solid layer as shown below.

I know there is an option in part module->tools->node->edit. But because of curvy shape if I give z coordinate for offset value as shown below, it will still penetrate at some locations in x and y directions. Does any one know how to offset the shell layer by 0.25 mm in this situation ?

Many thanks for any help!

Regards,

 

[FEA way]

You could use the distribution feature to specify shell offsets on element-by-element basis. But some intersections due to curved geometry shouldn’t be a problem.