Rapid mesh generation for finite element analysis of investment castings

摘要

FASTCAST is a Sandia National Laboratories program to produce investment cast prototypical hardware faster by integrating experimental and computational technologies into the casting process. FASTCAST uses the finite element method to characterize the metal flow and solidification processes to reduce uncertainty in the mold design. For the casting process to benefit from finite element analysis, analysis results must be available in a very short time frame. By focusing on the bottleneck of finite element model creation, automated mesh generation can drastically reduce the time span between geometry definition (design) and accurate analysis results. The increased availability of analysis results will diminish the need for trial and error approaches to acquiring production worthy mold and gating systems for investment casting. The CUBIT meshing tool kit is being developed to address the need for rapid mesh generation. CUBIT is being designed to effectively automate the generation of quadrilateral and hexahedral elements. It is a solid-modeler based, two- and three-dimensional preprocessor that prepares solid models for finite element analysis. CUBIT contains several meshing algorithms including two- and three-dimensional mapping, two- and three-dimensional paving (patented), and a general two and one-half dimensional sweeper based upon the plastering algorithm. This paper describes progress in the development of the CUBIT meshing toolkit.