Hi There,

I'm about to do a bunch of FEA tests on self welded sheet metal parts (ie. a single part has welds between its own flanges) and am getting the impression that I will need to remodel all the parts for the FEA studies.  The welds don't exist in the parts as features (they are detailed in the drawings).

Does anyone have a simple way of filling gaps between flanges on sheet metal parts for FEA?  I have tried both solid features and building up surfaces to enclose and solidify the space but both methods have failed due to shard shaped gaps at the base of the inside fillet radius of the folds.  There also does not appear to be any way of creating additional mesh within simulation.  I'm hoping model reuse isn't just a pipe dream!

Best Regards,

Shane Harvey