Automated static structural FEA environment in MATLAB using Solid Edge and Femap

Nowadays, CAD and FE software are getting integrated to each other. However, these new integrated pieces of software cannot be customized enough to analyze different optimization methods or model behavior. In this paper, a MATLAB environment is developed that connects to C# and VB programs, which use Solid Edge and Femap API functions, in order to automate the geometry modification and the FE model building and solving functions. A simple static structural size optimization problem is solved with the fmincon solver of MATLAB

GEOMETRICALLY CONSISTENT MESH MODIFICATION

Abstract. A new paradigm of adaptivity is to execute refinement, coarsening, and smoothing of meshes on manifolds with incomplete information about their geometry and yet preserve position and curvature accuracy. We refer to this collectively as geometrically consistent mesh modification. We discuss the concept of discrete geometric consistency, show the failure of naive approaches, and propose and analyze a simple algorithm that is geometrically consistent and accuracy preserving. Key words. Mesh modification, manifold, parametric finite elements, accuracy preserving