A software platform for the analysis of porous die-cast parts using the finite cell method

Due to the die-cast technology the manufactured parts contain unavoidable imperfections such as cavities and pores with a length scale much smaller than the size of the produced parts. Such imperfections can reduce the load bearing capacity as well as the lifetime of a part and, consequently, have to be taken into consideration during the design process. But, to include the huge amount of small scale pores in a classical finite element simulation requires an extremely refined mesh and results in a computational effort, which may exceed the capacity of todayt"s computer hardware. An alternative approach is the application of the finite cell method (FCM), which can operate with non body-fitted hexahedral or tetrahedral meshes, meaning that the finite element mesh does not have to be aligned to the geometry of the structural part. The pores are taken into account in form of a STL data set (STL: standard tessellation language) coming from computed tomography (CT) or other sources, such as from a cast simulation procedure. The paper deals with the development of a software platform, which combines the FCM with the widely used commercial finite element package Abaqus. The overall workflow along with specific implementational details are discussed. Finally, academic benchmark problems are used to verify the developed software platform.