Cylinder full of plastic rings

[rodolfonobrega]

Hi, everybody, fine?

I have one project to do, and in this projec i need several plastic rings made with the torus function in random position within a hollow cylinder!

 

i tried to do this with the array 3d but not success =/

 

can Anyone help me, please?!

 

Thanks a lot

[ReMark]

As soon as you post a copy of the actual drawing file we can. If the file size is too large you'll have to upload it to a file sharing service like DropBox and provide us with a link to download it.

[JD Mather]

... in random position....i tried to do this with the array

 

Random and array do not sound like logical friends.

 

I can think of a couple of ways - but a lot of work in AutoCAD, less work (but not automatic) in Inventor.

[neophoible]

How new to AutoCAD and/or 3D Modeling are you? It sounds like you can make a ring. Copying, Rotating (3D), and Moving are about all you really need to be able to do for something like this. Are you needing this to be very accurate so that the rings just touch as in a real world situation?

[rodolfonobrega]

in fact, I need to put those plastic rings (black in the attached file) into the cylinder, must fill the cylinder with them. This is a research project in civil engineering, is a part of a biological filter. I need this drawing and then cut it and show how it is inside.

 

Thanks a lot for all the answers.

Plastic Rings.dwg

[Dadgad]

Welcome to CADTutor.

Having clarified that it is biological, sounds like ARRAY is off the table, as it will arrange things logically.

If this were a puzzle to see how many you could get into the volume, array would be the way to go,

as it would yield the highest count. Being truly random makes this much more difficult.

In your drawing, it looks like you did not use the TORUS command to create your ring?

I would suggest using 2D wireframe rather than the REALISTIC visual style as you work on this.

 

Hold the presses! Might the rings want to be stood (3d Rotated 90 degrees) on edge and radially aligned around the center point of the cylinder.

That might be the key, as that would give you high count, and an arrayable configuration, seems like it would also be pretty effective for filtration.

[rodolfonobrega]

relative to the ring, no longer will use the torus, my supervisor had told me they were plastic rings, but then sent me a picture of how these rings are really and I drew one!

 

Then do not really have an option to do this automatically?

 

I was thinking of creating a random portion rotating them, render and then create a texture with the generated picture!

[Dadgad]

Please post the EXACT wording of the assignment.

[rodolfonobrega]

I'm thinking of creating a massive cylinder with texture of these rings, I think when I do a cross-section, this well-simulating "cylinder full of rings," what do you think?

My ideia is make a image like these:

I'm trying to render overlapping rings to each other, but the image is out bad, I still do not know very well mess with lighting, I'm reading something about now!

 

my crazy random plastic rings to render:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4KIiWdUXNu-MktvSkg2aFZzNzg/view?usp=sharing

[Dadgad]

What you are making is better described as a cylinder randomly filled with cylinders (with holes).

Sorry I can't really suggest a best way to do this, it is rather far afield of all the steel modeling I usually do, and I have never done any rendering.

A rather daunting task from the looks of it.

Perhaps confusing would be more accurate, I just can't seem to figure out where to start drawing something random.

 

No doubt another forum member will be better equipped to help you with this interesting case.

I will be curious to see what suggestions are made and approaches considered.

 

I just revisited your drawing and noticed that you are in Perspective view, I would suggest using Parallel at this point.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Dadgad

[JD Mather]

I'm thinking of creating a massive cylinder with texture of these rings,....

 

What are your intended units? (It is currently meters, so you do in fact have a massive cylinder).

[ReMark]

Sounds similar to a packed column in a distillation system that might be filled with Raschig rings. The purpose of the packed column is for increasing the surface area in a chemical process. Unless you have a system that can handle the increased file size I'd find another way to "represent" the rings.

 

You're doing this for a civil engineering / biological project? Why aren't you using granulated activated charcoal, sand, or even zeolite pellets?

[Dadgad]

Sounds similar to a packed column in a distillation system that might be filled with Raschig rings. The purpose of the packed column is for increasing the surface area in a chemical process. Unless you have a system that can handle the increased file size I'd find another way to "represent" the rings.

 

You're doing this for a civil engineering / biological project? Why aren't you using granulated activated charcoal, sand, or even zeolite pellets?

 

ReMark rises to the occasion, sounds like you've been down this road before!

I am still curious to see if anybody has a clever technique to model this randomly, although, as suggested in your response, maybe actually modeling it is a waste of time and energy, as it is less important than a graphic representation.

Come to think of it though, if the rings will be used, and the desired effect is to maximize the surface area of the rings for the chemical process, then the greatest number of rings would be achieved using a non-random distribution, would it not?

[rodolfonobrega]

Sounds similar to a packed column in a distillation system that might be filled with Raschig rings. The purpose of the packed column is for increasing the surface area in a chemical process. Unless you have a system that can handle the increased file size I'd find another way to "represent" the rings.

 

You're doing this for a civil engineering / biological project? Why aren't you using granulated activated charcoal, sand, or even zeolite pellets?

 

Yes, it's a biological reactor, a research project of my civil engineering course, we are doing tests with this type of reactor, then the water will go through other processes! The fate of this water is agriculture! Thanks for all who were willing to help!

[lrm]

What is your final goal? Do you want a geometry model that looks fairly good or something precise? I understand that after filling the column you want to take a section cut. The result will be a visual aid in understanding where the voids and where the fluid can flow through the filter. If this is the case an approximate solution may be sufficient. If you plan to do a CFD analysis, you may want a more precise model.

 

I suggest using Inventor to do the project as it has a good interference detection capability for assemblies. The following process is tedious but can yield satisfactory results.

After modeling a ring (as a simple ring, it can be changed later to more complex geometry by editing the part definition of the ring) and the column as Inventor parts, create an Inventor assembly consisting of the column and 10 - 20 instances of the ring. Rotate each ring instant by some random amount using Free Rotate. Next create one layer of rings in the column by manually positioning the rings and eyeballing their location next to each other. You can do a preliminary interference analysis at this stage. Save the assembly and create an Inventor drawing that contains a base view of the assembly and a section view. You can adjust the location of the sectioning plane or make multiple sections to further evaluate clearance and interference between rings. Add more rings and analyze as needed. Good luck!

[Dinochrome]

This seems like it would work well for removing coarse solids from effluent.