A Feature and Script Based Integration of CAD and FEA to Support Design of Variant Rich Products

The focus of the research presented in this article has been an integration of a CAD-system and a FEA pre-processor to automatically develop a complete FEA-models in order to make simulation based design possible. The article presents a prototype system that was developed to automate the simulation of the behavior of ski-racks mounted on cars during collision. This type of simulations requires mesh models containing structured mesh, an issue solved in the presented system and that is presented in the article. It is also shown how to make it possible to introduce contacts, loads, constraints, and other FEM-properties based on CAD-geometry