Recreate the O-Ring's Mesh

Recreate the O-ring's mesh using hybrid hexahedral ("brick") elements.

Hybrid elements are better suited for use with incompressible and almost incompressible material behavior that is observed for hyperelastic materials. Near-incompressible behavior occurs when the bulk modulus is much larger than the shear modulus (for example, in linear elastic materials where the Poisson's ratio is greater than 0.48) and the material exhibits behavior that approaches the incompressible limit. In other words, a very small change in a material's displacement produces an extremely large change in pressure. Therefore, a purely displacement-based solution is numerically too sensitive (for example, computer round-off errors may cause the method to fail.)

  1. In the Mesh Part Manager, right-click the O-ring's mesh representation, and select Delete.
    The app deletes the original O-ring mesh.
  2. From the Mesh section of the action bar, click Sweep 3D Mesh .
  3. Create a mesh for the O-ring using hexahedral elements.
    1. Select the O-ring as the support.
    2. Select Initialize from Geometry.
    3. Under the Distribution section, select Layer size, and confirm that the value is set to 0.488 mm.
    4. Select Edit all parameters.
    5. For the Element shape, click Hex Only to use hexahedral elements exclusively, and click OK.
    6. Click Mesh.
      The app meshes the O-ring.
    7. Click OK.
    All mesh definitions are now current.

    Tip: If the mesh of a part is not current, in the Mesh Part Manager, click Update in the appropriate mesh row.
  4. Click OK to close the Mesh Part Manager.
  5. From the standard area of the action bar, click Scenario .
    Structural Scenario Creation opens.
  6. From the standard area of the action bar, click Feature Manager .
  7. In the Scenario tab, double-click the row with Global Element Map listed in the Type column.
    The Element Type Assignment dialog box appears.
  8. From the Linear Brick options, select C3D8H.
  9. Click OK.
    The app applies the formulation of the 8-node linear brick hybrid element to the O-ring mesh.
  10. Save your work.