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Finite Elements in Autodesk Inventor Nastran

Autodesk Inventor Nastran offers a range of useable elements building finite element models from created geometry. There are three main groups of finite elements available in Inventor Nastran.

  • Solids
  • Shells
  • Lines

Inventor Nastran supports different combinations of mesh, such as:

  • Solid-beam combined mesh. For example, the concrete slab case where the reinforcement beams are meshed within the solid mesh by selecting their edges, as shown in the image below.

  • Shell-beam combined mesh. Here, we can have two different cases of combined mesh of shells and beams:
    • Example 1: An aircraft wing with the skin meshed with shells and the C spars meshed as beams with C cross-section as shown below.

    • Example 2: A heat exchanger which consists of plates meshed as shells and intersecting tubes/pipes meshed as pipe elements. For connectivity we need to have intersecting 3D point with mesh control as explained in the image below.

      The heat exchanger with the cross-section displayed is shown below.

  • Solid-Shell combined mesh well known as Skinned mesh.

  • Solid-Shell-beam combined mesh well known as Mixed mesh.

  • Shell-Shell combined mesh well known as Shell continuous mesh.

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