Model Geometry and Finite Element Mesh Definition

FEMGEN will automatically generate a finite element mesh of nodes and geometric element types. These geometric element types are related to the analytical element names of a particular analysis package by an element variant number. The element variant mappings may be displayed by using the FEMGEN command 'UTILITY TABULATE FE PATRAN', and the mappings for PATRAN are shown below:

ELTYPE PATRAN ELEMENT VARIANTS

BE2 1=BEAM 2=BAR

BE3 1=BEAM 2=BAR

TR3 1=TRI

QU4 1=QUAD

TR6 1=TRI

QU8 1=QUAD

PE6 1=WEDGE

HE8 1=HEX

PE15 1=WEDGE

HE20 1=HEX

Element variants are assigned using the command 'MESHING TYPES part ELTYPE variantno'. The variant number is optional and the default is 1. It is also possible to specify an element variant by using its name directly, i.e. 'MESHING TYPES part QUAD'.

The interface checks and corrects the jacobian for all elements and performs element node renumbering according to the PATRAN conventions.