AMESH - Multi-Region Finite Element Meshing for Casting Processes

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

MESH/GRID
GENERATION
SOFTWARE
SURVEY

Contact: Shawn Mahaney

Email: shawnekk@mail.ic.net

Web Site: http://ekkinc.com/software/kent/kent.html

Availability: Commercial Code, Stand-alone Mesh/Grid Generator

Customer Support: Yes

Approximate Number of Users: 50

Pricing: $15,000 annual lease

Platform: UNIX (LINUX, SGI, HP, Sun)

DOS., Native NT in 1999

Input: IGES

IGES wireframe, STL. Also imports many other mesh formats.

Engineering Discipline:

Metal casting

Elements: Tetrahedra, Hexahedra, Pyramid, Wedge (Prism)

Surface Meshing: Yes

Tri/Tet Method:

Quad/Hex Method: Sweeping

Meshes are either a layered extrusion of a 2-D quad/tri mesh with deformation and multi-region boundaries, or an all-hexahedral mesh with nodes fitted to surfaces and tet/pyramid elements used to cut the hex elements as needed.

Element Sizing Method: Manual, Automatic based on feature sizes

Fully manual, global size tolerance, or feature size

Other Features: Refinement

Localized refinement achieved through batch-file editing for quick regeneration.

Comments:

Elements: Primarily hexahedral and wedge (user may force all-hexahedral), 4 and 5-noded elements supported. Tet elements are used only to fit complex geometry, usually where different casting/mold components meet.

AMESH was written to cope with the particular challenges of casting process simulation, where part, mold, and gating must meshed simultaneously with perfect connectivity. Often the molds are complex dies with slides and cooling lines which must be differentiated so that proper heat transfer coefficients can be applied. Because modeling for casting is often the most challenging meshing problem, AMESH models are frequently used for everything from casting process simulation to product analyses like internal airflow and product stress analysis.