Abstract: Interactive assembly based on rigid body geometric model is widely used in product assimilability testing, assembling process planning and operation training. Due to the difficulties on calculating the part deformation and stress during assembling process, the deformable parts assembling simulation is still a problem in the area of virtual assembly. The deformation during assembling is more important for thin-wall structures, such as aircraft body, ship body and so on. The numerical methods as a finite element method (FEM) can’t meet the requirement of computing speed during interactive assembling simulation. Other methods based on spring-mass model can’t be used to calculate bending effect of a thin-wall part. A mechanical model based on planar triangles gird of thin-wall part is proposed to calculate the elastic deformation. From the planar triangular element, a high-order Laplace deform method is used to construct the basic equation for elastic deformation computing. The comparison of our model and typical shell model of FEM shows that our computing model has a higher efficiency and a better integration with the interactive virtual assembly system for calculating the deformation and stress of thin-wall structures.

Key words: Assembling deformation, Assembling simulation, Thin-wall structure, Virtual assembly