I have attempted to simulate additive manufacturing using ANSYS APDL. I have already applied an element type of SOLID278 with relevant material properties for aluminum 7075. I have also used 'Mapped Meshing' due to my design parameters. In addition to this, I have used the 'Element Birth and Death Technique' with a 'DO* LOOP' to simulate the additive manufacturing of 'Laser Cladding'. However, after running my PYANSYS code, I am running into this error where physical gaps are visible once the simulation is complete (shown in the image below). I would appreciate the solution to this cause.
I have done the simulation for a small section of my model and it works fine. However, the full simulation includes this error of missing elements.
The following code below is my code used for the full process in ANSYS APDL:
!----------------!Pre-processing----------------
/PREP7
!*
ET,1,SOLID70 !Thermal 3D element
!----------------!Defining Material Properties----------------
!*
/UNIT,SI
MPTEMP,,,,,,,,
MPTEMP,1,0
MPDATA,EX,1,,71.7e09
MPDATA,PRXY,1,,0.32
MPTEMP,,,,,,,,
MPTEMP,1,0
MPDATA,KXX,1,,130
MPTEMP,,,,,,,,
MPTEMP,1,0
MPDATA,C,1,,960
MPTEMP,,,,,,,,
MPTEMP,1,0
MPDATA,DENS,1,,2810
!----------------!Geometry----------------
/PREP7
K, ,0,0,0, !Modelling with Keypoints to create geometry
K, ,0.004,0,0,
K, ,0.005,0,0,
K, ,0.005,0,0.002,
K, ,0.004,0,0.002,
K, ,0,0,0.002,
K, ,0,0.004,0,
K, ,0.004,0.004,0,
K, ,0.005,0.004,0,
K, ,0.005,0.004,0.002,
K, ,0.004,0.004,0.002,
K, ,0,0.004,0.002,
K, ,0,0.005,0,
K, ,0.004,0.005,0,
K, ,0.005,0.005,0,
K, ,0.005,0.005,0.002,
K, ,0.004,0.005,0.002,
K, ,0,0.005,0.002,
!*
CYL4,0.005,0.005,0.0005, , , ,0.002 !Create Cyclinder
lplot
KL,7,0.5, ,
KL,2,0.5, ,
!*
/REPLO !Create Volumes from Keypoints
V, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12
V, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11
V, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18
V, 14, 21, 25, 17, 8, 28, 27, 11
V, 8, 28, 27, 11, 9, 19, 26, 10
!*
FLST,2,2,6,ORDE,2 !Substract Cyclinder from Main Volume
FITEM,2,5
FITEM,2,-6
VSBV,P51X, 1
!----------------!Optimised Mesh (Mesh Size 0.4mm)----------------
lplot
FLST,5,41,4,ORDE,10
FITEM,5,9
FITEM,5,11
FITEM,5,-40
FITEM,5,42
FITEM,5,-43
FITEM,5,45
FITEM,5,47
FITEM,5,-48
FITEM,5,50
FITEM,5,-54
CM,_Y,LINE
LSEL, , , ,P51X
CM,_Y1,LINE
CMSEL,,_Y
!*
LESIZE,_Y1,0.0004, , , , , , ,1
!*
!----------------!Creating the Mesh (0.4mm)----------------
FLST,5,5,6,ORDE,4
FITEM,5,2
FITEM,5,-4
FITEM,5,7
FITEM,5,-8
CM,_Y,VOLU
VSEL, , , ,P51X
CM,_Y1,VOLU
CHKMSH,'VOLU'
CMSEL,S,_Y
!*
!*
VCLEAR,_Y1
VMESH,_Y1
!*
CMDELE,_Y
CMDELE,_Y1
CMDELE,_Y2
!*
!----------------!Solutions-Settings----------------
/SOL
TUNIF,293, !Uniform temperature
TREF,293, !Reference temperature
KBC,0 !Ramped loading
NEQIT,100 !No. of iteration
!*
ANTYPE,4 !Define model Transient Analysis
!*
TRNOPT,FULL !Define Solution Method
LUMPM,0 !Use of 'Lumped Mass approx.'
!*
NROPT,FULL !Specify Newton-Raphson as Full Transient Analysis
TIME,1 !End of Time Step
!----------------!Kill all ELEMENTS----------------
!*
FLST,5,114,1,ORDE,2 !Select all NODES
FITEM,5,1
FITEM,5,-114
NSEL,S, , ,P51X
ESLN,S !Select all ELEMENTS attached to those NODES
/GRAPHICS,FULL !Turn Off POWERGRAPHICS
EKILL,ALL !Deactivate all ELEMENTS
ESEL,S,LIVE !To confirm success of EKILL command: Select all 'Live ELEMENTS'
/REPLO
!----------------!DO LOOP COMMAND----------------
*set,user_time,0
!*do,variable_z,0,0.002,0.001
!*do,variable_y,0,0.005,0.0012
*do,variable_x,0,0.0012,0.0012
NSEL,S,LOC,X,1*variable_x,0.0012+variable_x
NSEL,R,LOC,Y,1*variable_y,0.0012+variable_y
NSEL,R,LOC,Z,1*variable_z,*0.001+variable_z
ESLN,S
EALIVE,ALL !Re-Activate Selected NODES
SFE,ALL, ,HFLUX, ,10e05
!DELTIM,0.1,0,0 !Time step size, 0.1 s
user_time=user_time+1
TIME,user_time !Total time, 1 s
AllSEL,ALL
SOLVE
SFEDELE,all,all,all !Removing surface element load
/GRAPIHCS,POWER !Turn On POWERGRAPHICS
esel,s,live
eplot
*enddo
!*enddo
!*enddo
In the input file these lines indicate that all the nodes are to be selected. But the
'picker'style input is only selecting 114 of the 1248 nodes in the model. So here:Instead of selecting elements based on some node picking, why not just select all elements and kill them: