Structural & Thermal

Structural & Thermal

How can I connect a shell to a volume ?

    • FAQFAQ
      Participant

      Solid elements have 3 dofs per node (displacements in 3 orthogonal directions), whereas shell elements have 6 dofs (3 displacements, 3 rotations). Therefore 3D bodies and shells should not be connected through mesh connection. Contact must be used between the 3D body and the shell. MPC formulation is most advisable. The contact surface/edge should be on the shell side and the target surface must be on the solid side. Constraint type options (couple U to ROT / uncouple U to ROT) allow to define how the dofs are coupled. Keywords : shell-solid assembly, connect