Zero-Thickness Mesh Offset Cohesive Layer

[Samanlandra]

Hello everyone!

There seems to have been quite a few questions on this topic: I was wondering if someone had any success with creating a zero (or small) thickness using the mesh offset tool and if you had any hints for another person struggling with it? Or, if you could recommend an option which works better than the mesh offset technique for creating a layer on a very oddly-shaped, orphan mesh?

Thank you!

 

[Samanlandra]

My most common errors are these two:

44000 elements have missing property definitions. The elements have been identified in element set ErrElemMissingSection.

The volume of 61600 elements is zero, small, or negative. Check coordinates or node numbering, or modify the mesh seed. In the case of a tetrahedron this error may indicate that all nodes are located very nearly in a plane. The elements have been identified in element set ErrElemVolSmallNegZero.

Which I would think would have a simple enough solution-just assigning properties and checking element type-but I can't get it to work. I must be doing something wrong.

 

[Samanlandra]

For anyone interested,

I found that by defining the interior elements of the orphan mesh, the exterior elements (as Abaqus would not let me define both of these simultaneously) of the original orphan mesh, and the 'new' zero-offset mesh set, I could get the job to run without aborting; without the error referring to missing property definitions. My meshes turned yellow (the traditional Abaqus indication of a mesh that's over-defined, as I understand it), but I have found no other method for avoiding that error.

Downside: my results, however, currently don't reflect a cohesive layer. I'll be working on that.

If anyone's having a similar problem, hope this helps!