Engineering Solutions

Mass Calc panel

Mass Calc panel

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Mass Calc panel

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Use the Mass Calc panel to obtain the mass, area, and/or volume of a selected group of elements, solids, or surfaces.

Note:Because materials can only be assigned to mesh, you cannot find the mass of a geometric entity (surface or solid) — only its area, or surface area and volume.

 

Subpanels and Inputs

The Mass Calc panel contains the following subpanels and command buttons:

hmtoggle_arrow1Elements

Panel Inputs

Input

Action

elems/comps

Use the switch to choose which type of entity to select.

Note:In either case, elements are selected--but comps selects all elements within the  specified components.

Next, indicate the entities you want included in the calculation by picking them on your model, or click the data type and choose from the extended entity selection menu.

area =, volume =, total mass =

These read-only text fields display the relevant totaled data for the selected elements once you click calculate.

 

Comments

Mass from 1D elements other than that of true mass elements (config. 1) is omitted from this calculation.

Mass from 2D or 3D elements is calculated by multiplying each element’s volume by the density rho specified for its component. The volume of a two-dimensional element is its surface area times the thickness specified for its component. The surface area of a two-dimensional element and the volume of a three-dimensional element are calculated using Gaussian quadrature with the patterns of Gauss points that are described with the Jacobian ratio element quality check on the Check Elements panel.

 
hmtoggle_arrow1Surfaces

Panel Inputs

Input

Action

surfs

Indicate the surfaces you want included in the calculation by picking them on your model, or click the data type and choose from the extended entity selection menu.

area =

This read-only text field displays the total area of the selected surfaces once you click calculate.

 

Comments

Because materials can only be assigned to elements, it is not possible to calculate the mass of an area within Engineering Solutions because the density cannot be assigned to it.  If you wish to find the mass of a 2-D shell based on assigned material properties, you would need to mesh the surface, assign a material to the resulting mesh, and then perform a mass calculation on the elements instead of the surfaces.

 
hmtoggle_arrow1Solids

Panel Inputs

Input

Action

solids

Indicate the solid entities that you want included in the calculation by picking them on your model, or click the data type and choose from the extended entity selection menu.

area =, volume =

These read-only text fields display the relevant totaled data for the selected solid elements once you click calculate.

 

Comments

Because materials can only be assigned to elements, it is not possible to calculate the mass of a solid within Engineering Solutions because the density cannot be assigned to it.  If you wish to find the mass of a 3-dimensional object based on assigned material properties, you would need to tetramesh or hex-mesh the solid, assign a material to the resulting mesh, and then perform a mass calculation on the elements instead of the solids.

 
hmtoggle_arrow1Command Buttons

The following action buttons appear throughout the subpanels:

Button

Action

calculate

Once entities have been selected, clicking this button performs the relevant calculations and populates the output fields for area, volume, and/or total mass as appropriate to the entity type.

return

Exits the panel

 

 

See Also:

Alphabetical List of Panels