Research On CAD/CAE Intergration For FEA Of CNC Machine Tool

During the finite element analysis (FEA) process of machine tool and its main structural components, analysis information reentering and non-intelligence operations take a lot of time. With the widely application of CAD/CAE in the field of machine tool design, the information integration of CAD/CAE becomes the universal requirement of engineers, which can achieve the automatic and intelligent FEA of machine tool. Base on the FEA process and its characteristic, some key technology problems are researched, including CAD/CAE integration, analysis feature modeling and the software system for rapid FEA of machine tool, in order to realize rapid and efficient FEA of machine tool. The main achievements are as follows:(1) An analysis feature-based CAD/CAE approach is proposed. This approach uses analysis feature as information carriers, which implements the CAD/CAE integration by analysis feature modelinig and mapping between analysis feature and APDL.(2) A object-oriented model of analysis feature and its defination knowledge base are established, which are based on the research of equivalent modeling approach of machine tool joints and related information in the FEA process of machine tool.(3) A mapping ralationship between analysis feature and APDL is established, which is based on the research of using APDL to realize the automatic FEA of machine tool in ANSYS system. In addition, a mapping knowledge base related is also created.(4) On the CAD platform of SolidWorks, with VB.NET as development tools, the software system for rapid FEA of machine tool has been developed. This system is operation convenient because of its friendly interface, and has been successfully applied for FEA of machine tool, which significantly improves the FEA efficiency.