Learning Forum

[nm2141]

Dear All,

I have my 3D model in STL format. The model is imported to the Ansys workbench to perform its compression test using Static Structural module. When I want to mesh the 3D model, the following error is occured:

"The mesh generation did not complete due to poor quality elements or incorrect input...."

Can you please inform of the solution? Or is there any way to create the volume mesh on the 3D model and then import it to the Ansys for its further analysis?

Thank you.

[peteroznewman]

Below is a link to the Google Search results of this site to help answer your question.
https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aforum.ansys.com+convert+STL+to+Geometry

[nm2141]

Thank you Peter for sharing the link. Can you please inform me of the following as well?
My 3D structure file is almost 1.5 GB size.
What should be considered to make its processing on Ansys workbench smooth without any problem?

Thanks

[peteroznewman]

Does your structure have one or more planes of symmetry? If so, you should cut the model in 1/2 or in 1/4 to reduce the size.
Does your structure have a repeating unit cell that is copied into a larger array? If so, you should cut out a unit cell for geometry preparation and recreate an array after cleaning up the geometry.
File size is not a good measure, is that the size of the STL file? That is not important since you can replace that with geometry. Plan to spend many days creating high quality geometry.
The important measure is how many nodes did it take to fill the volume with elements. Your computer has a limited amount of RAM and will not solve problems that have too many nodes. Even if you have a very large amount of RAM, you have a limited time to wait for the solution.
Please reply with an image of your structure if you can.

[nm2141]

@peteroznewman
Many thanks for your response.
Yes it is the size of the STL file. I attached a screenshot of its 3D structure.
My model is a 3D structure of a metal foam obtained from the micro-ct scan imaging. It does not have a repeated unit cells. The cells are erratic and the metal foam structure is composed of two different layers.
If I want to cut it to 1/2 or 1/4, it may lose the graded geometry and I may not give an accurate results (?). I want to model its compression test to repeat the experimental results with an almost accurate output.
Thank you.

[peteroznewman]

I am familiar with micro-ct scan data and the problems generating a mesh for it. This body has too much detail to mesh the entire solid. I recommend going back to the ct imaging workstation and slicing from the center a cube that is only 1/10 of the diameter and exporting that to an STL file to get an idea of how hard this is going to be to mesh.

[nm2141]

Thanks