Notes

From selected elements, EEMBED identifies embedded elements that are partially or completely enclosed within other (base) elements, determines the interior intersection surfaces between the embedded and base elements, and generates special-purpose REINF265 reinforcing elements representing the bonded connection stiffness of the interior intersection surfaces.

Supported base elements are 3D structural solids (SOLID185, SOLID186, SOLID187, and SOLID285), thermal solids (SOLID278, SOLID279, and SOLID291), and coupled-field solids (SOLID225, SOLID226, and SOLID227). Supported embedded elements are 3D structural links and beams (LINK180, BEAM188, and BEAM189), thermal link (LINK33), and coupled-field link (LINK228).

Before issuing EEMBED, define the base and embedded elements, then select the elements to be included for embedded connections. Mesh conformity between the base and embedded elements is not required. A combination of supported base and embedded element types is allowed.

The command has no arguments. Simply issue the command to perform the embedding procedure.

You can inspect newly created reinforcing element types, sections, and elements (ETLIST, SLIST, ELIST, or EPLOT).

Do not issue other preprocessing commands (such as ET, E, EMODIF, and SECTYPE) to create or modify the special-purpose reinforcing elements, element types, and sections.

Elements generated by EEMBED are not associated with the solid model.

Reinforcing elements do not account for subsequent modifications made to the base and embedded elements. To avoid inconsistencies, issue EEMBED only after the base elements are finalized. If you delete or modify base or embedded elements (for example, via EDELE, EMODIF, ETCHG, EMID, EORIENT, NUMMRG, or NUMCMP), remove all affected reinforcing elements and associated sections, and reissue EEMBED.

EEMBED creates new reinforcing sections (of Subtype = GCON) containing details about the created REINF265 elements, then applies them to all newly generated special-purpose REINF265 elements. The number of new reinforcing sections depends on the number of new REINF265 elements. (You can examine the properties of new sections (SLIST).) The program sets the ID number of the newest reinforcing section to the highest available section ID number in the model. After issuing EEMBED, the command shows the highest-numbered IDs (element type, element, and section). Do not overwrite a new reinforcing section when defining subsequent sections.

If performing a subsequent structural analysis after the thermal analysis, you can use EEMBED to convert the reinforcing elements for the structural analysis, as follows:

Degree-of-freedom boundary conditions cannot be directly applied on embedded LINK/BEAM nodes.

If the base elements are notably coarser than the embedded members, the accuracy of results may be affected, especially in regions where sharp solution gradients occur. This condition is generally referred to as “base mesh underloading”. To overcome the issues related to base mesh underloading, use a sufficiently refined base mesh. The MSHOPTIM command can also help to get the sufficiently refined base mesh according to the embedded members. For more details about the requirements and limitations, refer to the MSHOPTIM command.

For more information about using this command, see Direct-Embedding Workflow in the Structural Analysis Guide.

Menu Paths