Analysis of three-dimensional components with mixed beam and shell elements

This section details our first case study, which centers around an analysis that involves a mixture of beam elements and shell elements.

As you will recall, we pointed out the attributes of the beam element in Chapter 3, Analyses of Beams and Frames, while those of the shell elements were described in Chapter 5, Analyses of Axisymmetric Bodies. Although their dimensionality is different (one being a line-based element and the other being a triangular element), both of these elements as implemented in SOLIDWORKS Simulation have six degrees of freedom (DOFs) per node. Notably, these DOFs are the three translational displacements along the X, Y, and Z axes, and the three rotational displacements about these three axes. Putting these two elements together in the first case study, therefore, represents a good starting point in the exploration of analyses with mixed elements. Overall, the compatibility of the...