Granted Patent B1

US 9,323,869 · App. 13/864,147 · Granted Apr 26, 2016

Inventor: Kunaseelan Kanthasamy (Irvine, CA)

Assignee: MSC.Software Corporation

G06F17/50G06F17/5018G06F17/5009G06F2217/16

Abstract

Claims (41)

1. A method for shape optimization, comprising:

receiving information regarding a model that represents one or more physical objects to be manufactured, the information comprises a finite element mesh, geometric parameters, geometric constraints, and manufacturing constraints of the model;

generating a morphed mesh that results in an updated finite element mesh in order to meet specified model characteristics;

wherein generating the morphed mesh comprises:

displacing nodes located at boundary regions of the model;

determining a displacement of interior nodes of the finite element mesh using an interpolation of boundary node displacement;

moving boundary nodes of the finite element mesh using a displacement vector representative of geometric inconsistencies; and

moving the interior nodes to new positions by adding the displacement vector to coordinates of the interior nodes.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the morphed mesh further comprises:

maintaining geometric constraints of the morphed mesh to be the same as the finite element mesh.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the interpolation is a weighted displacement interpolation from the boundary node displacements.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein a weighted factor of the interpolation is one of: a uniform weighted factor, proportional to a distance of displacement, or an inverse of distance of displacement.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the morphed mesh complies with the manufacturing constraints of the model.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the morphed mesh may be formed of a mix of one or more of a triangular, tetrahedral, quadrilateral, prism, and hexahedral elements.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the boundary node displacement corresponds to the nodes located at the boundary regions.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specified model characteristics correspond to the information received.

9. A mesh generation system, comprising a processing circuit configured to:

receive information regarding a model that represents one or more physical objects to be manufactured, the information comprises a finite element mesh, geometric parameters, geometric constraints, and manufacturing constraints of the model;

generate a morphed mesh resulting in an updated finite element mesh to meet specified model characteristics;

wherein generating the morphed mesh comprises:

displacing nodes located at boundary regions of the model;

determining a displacement of interior nodes of the finite element mesh using an interpolation of boundary node displacement;

moving boundary nodes of the finite element mesh using a displacement vector representative of geometric inconsistency; and

moving the interior nodes to new positions by adding the displacement vector to coordinates of the interior nodes.

10. The mesh generation system of claim 9 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to repeat updating the finite element mesh using a previous updated finite element mesh.

11. The mesh generation system of claim 9 , wherein the interpolation is a weighted displacement interpolation from the boundary node displacements.

12. The mesh generation system of claim 11 , wherein the weighted displacement interpolation uses one of: a uniform weighted factor, proportional to a distance of displacement, or an inverse of the distance of displacement.

13. The mesh generation system of claim 8 , wherein the updated finite element mesh complies with the geometric constraints and manufacturing constraints of the model.

14. The mesh generation system of claim 9 , wherein the method is repeated until the updated finite element mesh complies with the geometric constraints and manufacturing constraints of the model.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having machine instructions stored therein, the instructions being executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving information regarding a model that represents one or more physical objects to be manufactured, the information comprises a finite element mesh, geometric parameters, geometric constraints, and manufacturing constraints of the model;

generating a morphed mesh to provide an updated finite element mesh in order to meet specified model characteristics;

wherein generating the morphed mesh comprises:

displacing nodes located at boundary regions of the model;

determining a displacement of interior nodes of the finite element mesh using an interpolation of boundary node displacement;

moving boundary nodes of the finite element mesh using a displacement vector representative of geometric inconsistencies; and

moving the interior nodes to new positions by adding the displacement vector to coordinates of the interior nodes.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations are repeated using the updated finite element mesh.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the interpolation is a weighted displacement interpolation from the boundary node displacements.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the weighted factor of the interpolation is one of: a uniform weighted factor, proportional to a distance of displacement, or an inverse of distance of displacement.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the updated finite element mesh complies with the geometric constraints and manufacturing constraints of the model.

Assignments (9)