Page History

...

In order to have a little more control over what mesh ANSYS creates for us, we will set the starting element size for SmartSizing rather than use the default. Smartsizing will take this starting element size and modify/vary it over the geometry to account for curvature and corners. Under Size Controls, click the Set button next to Global. Enter an element edge length of 0.12 and click OK. The specified smart size of 4 and edge length of 0.12 are the result of an iterative process. You should experiment with different settings for these parameters to study the effect of the mesh on your solution, as discussed in Step 9. The goal is to obtain a solution that doesn't change as you refine the mesh.

Select Areas to be meshed with a Quad shape using the Free mesher. Click Mesh. Pick the front face of the crank and the pedal shaft.

...

You'll get the following warning:

 
Elements that exceed shape warning limits can lead to degraded accuracy. Here it is a small concern since only 1 element out of 682 is causing the warning. So it is reasonable to press on.  In general, it is always a good idea to pay close attention to the warnings and understand their effect on your solution. As a veteran in these things, I can attest that ignoring warnings can come back to bite you in incovenient parts of the anatomy. Close the warning window.

 Feel The specified smart size 4 and edge length of 0.12 are the result of a iterative process. ANSYS uses a sizing algorithm that creates smaller mesh elements in areas of potentially high stress concentration (e.g. curved regions) to improve solution accuracy. Selecting a smaller (finer) smart size will decrease element size close to the cutout curves. Specifying an edge length provides a uniform size for the rest of the area being meshed. In this case, since the material above and below the cutout act as beams, we want at least two mesh elements in the vertical direction. Feel free to experiment with the mesh tool parameters.

...