PROCESSING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR STRUCTURE DATA REPRESENTING A PHYSICAL STRUCTURE

• US 20090259329A1
• Filed: 04/02/2009
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DAA Draexlmaier Automotive Of America, LLC
• Original Assignee: DAA Draexlmaier Automotive Of America, LLC
• Inventors: Patnala, Manoj Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,401,827 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/98
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 50/00 Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/10 Numerical modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/23 using finite element methods [FEM] or finite difference methods [FDM]

Abstract

A processing device and a method for processing structure data representing a physical structure are disclosed to obtain information about physical properties of the physical structure faster and with high quality and accuracy. The processing device for processing structure data representing a physical structure comprises an obtainer module for obtaining structure data representing a physical structure; a parts defining module for subdividing said structure data into at least two parts including a connection part and a material part; a meshing module for generating a mesh model approximating said physical structure by transforming said connection part and said material part into mesh elements having different sizes, wherein the mesh element sizes of said connection part are smaller than the mesh element sizes of said material part; and a processing module for processing said mesh model to estimate physical properties of said physical structure.

Claims

1. Processing device for structure data representing a physical structure, comprising:

an obtainer module for obtaining structure data representing a physical structure;

a parts defining module for subdividing said structure data into at least two parts including a connection part and a material part;

a meshing module for generating a mesh model approximating said physical structure by transforming said connection part and said material part into mesh elements having different sizes, wherein the mesh element sizes of said connection part are smaller than the mesh element sizes of said material part; and

a processing module for processing said mesh model to estimate physical properties of said physical structure.

2. Processing device of claim 1, wherein the meshing module is adapted when transforming said connection part in mesh elements to progressively increase the mesh element size from the center of the connection part.

3. Processing device of claim 1, wherein said material part comprises at least one of a viscoelastic material part and an elastic plastic material part, said viscoelastic material part and said elastic plastic material part having different mesh element sizes.

4. Processing device of claim 1, wherein said connection part includes at least one of a screw, a clip, a snap and a base part of a screw, a clip, and a snap.

5. Processing device of claim 1, further comprising:

an identifier module for identifying at least one of said connection part and material part in said structure data.

6. Processing device of claim 5, wherein said identifier module is adapted to identify at least one of a screw, a clip, a snap, a viscoelastic material part and an elastic plastic material part.

7. Processing device of claim 1, further comprising

a link defining module for defining nodes of mesh elements and for linking selected nodes of selected mesh elements to form at least one link representing a force.

8. Processing device of claim 7, wherein the link defining module is adapted to determine an area of overlap between said connection part and another part, said area comprising touch points representing said nodes.

9. Processing device of claim 1, wherein the processing module is adapted to process said mesh model using a Finite-Element-Analysis-program for computer-aided numerical simulation of said physical structure.

10. Processing device of claim 9, wherein the Finite-Element-Analysis-program is adapted to perform at least one of a surface contact algorithm and an edge contact algorithm and the mesh model is adapted to take into account at least one of a fully integrated element formulation and a partially integrated element formulation.

11. Processing device of claim 9, wherein the Finite-Element-Analysis-program is an explicit code based on energy balance.

12. Processing device of claim 1, further comprising

a production unit for producing the physical structure according to the structure data corresponding to the mesh model associated with desired physical properties.

13. Processing method for structure data representing a physical structure, comprising:

obtaining structure data representing a physical structure;

subdividing said structure data into at least two parts including a connection part and a material part;

generating a mesh model approximating said physical structure by transforming said connection part and said material part into mesh elements having different sizes, wherein the mesh element sizes of said connection part are smaller than the mesh element sizes of said material part; and

processing said mesh model to estimate physical properties of said physical structure.

14. Processing method of claim 13, wherein transforming said connection part in mesh elements includes progressively increasing the mesh element size from the center of the connection part.

15. Processing method of claim 13, wherein said material part comprises at least one of a viscoelastic material part and an elastic plastic material part, said viscoelastic material part and said elastic plastic material part having different mesh element sizes.

16. Processing method of claim 13, wherein said connection part includes at least one of a screw, a clip, a snap and a base part of a screw, a clip and a snap.

17. Processing method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying at least one of said connection part and material part in said structure data.

18. Processing method of claim 13, further comprising

identifying at least one of a screw, a clip, a snap, a viscoelastic material part and an elastic plastic material part.

19. Processing method of claim 13, further comprising

determining an area of overlap between said connection part and another part, said area comprising touch points representing nodes.

20. Processing method of one of claim 19, further comprising

linking said nodes of selected mesh elements to form at least one link representing a force.

21. Processing method of claim 13, wherein a Finite-Element-Analysis-program is used for processing said mesh model for computer-aided numerical simulation of said physical structure.

22. Processing method of claim 21, further comprising

performing at least one of a surface contact algorithm and an edge contact algorithm by the Finite-Element-Analysis-program and taking into account at least one of a fully integrated element formulation and a partially integrated element formulation in the mesh model.

23. Processing method of claim 21, wherein the Finite-Element-Analysis-program is an explicit code based on energy balance.

24. Processing method of claim 13, further comprising

producing the physical structure according to the structure data corresponding to the mesh model associated with desired physical properties.

25. A program including instructions adapted to cause data processing means to carry out the method of claim 13.

26. A computer readable medium, in which a program is embodied, where the program is to make a computer execute the method of claim 13.

27. A computer program product comprising the computer readable medium according to claim 26.