To couple and decouple components, you have to recreate the assembly topology in the design area, by adding components, linking the interfaces, and adding stiffness information and loads. The idea behind the design area is to allow you to visualize the assembly in the simplest possible way. For this reason, we have decided to leave out all the complexity of the 3D to let you work with a simpler but effecting 2D environment. A 3D viewer will be implemented in a later stage, to allow you to better visualize components orientation, etc.
You need to add all component substructures of your assembly in the design area. Components can be generated either from tests or simulations. If desired, you cal also add lodas, such as Blocked Forces.
To add components and loads to the design area, complete the next steps:
To rigidly connect components, you need to add links between their respective interfaces.
To create a rigid link between two interfaces, complete the next steps:
You can create a compliant link by adding stiffness to a rigid link.
If you want to have a compliant coupling between two interfaces, you have to add a stiffness model to an existing link.
To create a compliant link between two interfaces, complete the next steps:
You can also add (off-diagonal) synthetic stiffness to a link, by building a stiffness model directly in COUPLE. The stiffness model builder allows you to add stiffness and damping between any pair of interface DoFs (including cross stiffness).
To add synthetic stiffness, complete the next steps:
You can change the stiffness units in the Preferences.
Instead of directly creating the final assembly with all the components, you can also create an empty topology of the assembly and fill it in with components, loads and stiffness at a later stage. You can also create interfaces and link blueprints in advance.
You can add empty blueprints to the design area that you can fill with components or loads at a later stage.
To add a blueprint to the design area, complete the next steps:
You can add interfaces to the empty blueprints in order to link them with other blueprints.
To add interfaces, complete the next steps:
When adding models to the empty blueprints, you also need to correctly map the interfaces.
To add models to the blueprint, complete the next steps:
You can edit the interface mapping of existing components in the Inspector.
Each different topology is called variant. In COUPLE, you can create and study multiple variants simultaneously.
You can create a new variant in a new tab.
To create a new variant, complete the next steps:
If your next variant is similar to an existing one, you can duplicate a variant and edit it.
To duplicate an existing variant, complete the next steps:
You can rename the variants.
To rename variants, complete the next steps:
You can easily delete a variant.
To delete a variant, complete the next steps:
You can delete all variants except the current one, by right clicking on the variant tab and selecting Delete All Other.
In COUPLE, you can also decouple components from assemblies. This is needed, for example, when you need to decouple transmission simulators from a component.
To decouple a component from an assembly, complete the next steps:
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