Bonding shell elements face to face

SnuggleKittens

Hi all,

Just wondering if it's possible (maybe in Calculix?) to model something like this with shell elements all bonded together:

It's basically several thin plates of different sizes all bonded together face to face.

Cheers,

Victor

It should be possible with various ways:

• Bonded contact with CCX and the Elastic option
  
• Internal solver with bonded contact
  
• Merge the nodes of the 3 layers and use Shell offset in element properties to position them.
  
• Laminate material also with Shell offset to align the 3 different thickness regions
  
• If they're all the same material, a single plate with different thickness in each region and Shell offset to align them
  

SnuggleKittens

Hi Victor! Thanks for the reply!

I managed to get it working with both ccx and internal with bonded contacts.

I should mention i'm mainly interested in thermal stresses and deflection caused by CTE mismatches. I understand Shell offset might not be an option here (is this the case with CCX also?).

Also loving Mecway! keep up the great work

Victor

Good to hear. Shell offset works for differential thermal expansion with the CCX solver but not internal. I would prefer to use solids for that if possible though. Or at least validate part of it against a solid model if your structure is too complex.