The evaluation of the mechanical behaviour of a product through a FE simulation requires an adaptation of the shape represented in its CAD model. During this shape modification process, several shape sub-domains are removed to simplify the subsequent mesh generation and FE solving tasks. The removal of a shape sub-domain is always driven by a specific mechanical criterion. In the proposed approach, the preparation of the simulation model takes place in a software environment based on a mixed geometric representation, which considers as reference polyhedral models but enables to keep the semantics of the input CAD models. We developed efficient complex operators for handling shape sub-domains by combining basic operators acting on the polyhedral model with different kinds of mechanical criteria and semantic information. These operators enable to respect user’s purposes and hypotheses as well as the specifications of the targeted mechanical problem. In this paper, we illustrate the various aspects and information involved in their definition and use.

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