Research on modelling of intake tower in three-dimension CAD software and simulation analysis in FE software

Hongyang Zhang 

North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou, China

ANSYS is one of the most influential finite element analysis software in the world because of its very powerful calculation and analysis ability, but its pre-process function is weak relatively. SolidWorks is the three-dimension parametric feature modelling software of 100% feature modelling and 100% parameterization, which provides product-level automated design tools. In this paper, combining with the intake tower, it discusses the method of modelling in three-dimension CAD software SolidWorks and the interface processing between SolidWorks and the ANSYS code, which decreases the difficulty in modelling complicated models in ANSYS. In view of the function of the birth-death element and secondary development with APDL (ANSYS parametric design language), simulation analyses of thermal field and stress during the construction and impounding periods were conveniently conducted.