Practical FEA MESHING

Practical FEA

MESHING

@DominiqueMadier
Practical FEA MESHING

WHAT YOU SHOULD LEARN

ABOUT MESHING
Plan the Meshing
Define the Elements Size
Mesh Refinement (Why & How)
Why do Mesh Refinement
The Mesh Refinement Process
Advantages & Disadvantages
Mesh Refinement Techniques
Convergence Study Methodology
1D Meshing Rules
2D Meshing Rules
3D Meshing Rules
Physical Interfaces and Mesh Transition

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

REMINDER:
WHY TO DO MESHING?
Reality: continuous system subjected to
continuous phenomena

Infinite number of points

3 translations and 3 rotations per point
Infinite number of equations

Governed by PDEs
Cannot be solved by a computer

Model: discrete system

Finite number of nodes

3 translations and 3 rotations per node
Finite number of equations

Governed by Matrix Equations

Can be solved by a computer

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

PLAN THE MESHING

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

MESH REFINEMENT
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF MESH REFINEMENT

COMPUTING TIME ∝ SQROOT(NUMBER OF DOFS)

It does not make sense to increase computing time by a factor of

2 or 3 to improve the accuracy by 1%.

The key is to know your problem well, to achieve accuracy

where it is needed.

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

MESH REFINEMENT

MESH REFINEMENT TECHNIQUES

The Global Element Size Reduction

The Local Element Size Reduction

Increasing the Order of the Elements

Manual Mesh Adjustment

Global Adaptive Mesh Refinement

Local Adaptive Mesh Refinement

Mesh Refinement by Splitting a Coarse Mesh

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

MESH REFINEMENT
CONVERGENCE STUDY METHODOLOGY
WHY?
From a numerical accuracy standpoint, a converged mesh is one that
produces no significant differences in the result when mesh
refinement is introduced.

Mesh convergence is a concern when producing a model to capture

peak stress or strain.

A convergence study must be conducted for the regions of peak

stress to ensure that the mesh size is sufficiently fine to correctly
capture the critical stress.

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

MESH REFINEMENT

CONVERGENCE STUDY GUIDELINES

Your organization should maintain a database on mesh

convergence applied to its domain of activity.

Coarse mesh produces inaccurate results. Estimate the deformed

shape of your structure for a given loading before running your
model.

Plan the convergence study.

Mesh convergence must be demonstrated by decreasing the

mesh density between successive runs.

Do not use the results of a convergence study from another

model, except in the case of similar stress gradients.

Identify the critical regions with a coarse mesh.

Select the appropriate element types.

Identify the smallest details that must be captured.

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

2D MESHING RULES
WHY MESH 2D INSTEAD OF 3D?

If a high-quality mesh is required, a shell mesh is easier to create

than a solid one.

2D model is using fewer resources (less RAM, disk space, and CPU
time), especially for nonlinear analysis and larger models.

Rather than actually modeling the thickness with additional nodes

and elements, 2D models capture wall thickness as a
mathematical value, resulting in fewer equations to solve.

Easier to change the thickness since the thickness is a property

associated with the shell element.

Post-processing with 2D elements is easier and faster than with

solid elements.

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

2D MESHING RULES
THE FOUR MOST COMMON 2D MESHING ERRORS

Geometrical Deviation (Do not generate fatal error)

Wrong Shell Normal Orientation (Do not generate fatal error)

Free Edges (Can generate fatal error)

Duplicate Elements (Do not generate fatal error)

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

3D MESHING RULES
TWO METHODS OF MESHING A SOLID
WITH TETRAHEDRAL ELEMENTS

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

3D MESHING RULES

HEXAHEDRAL MESHING TECHNIQUES

The hexahedral element (also called brick, or HEX element) has

been employed intensively by many organizations for meshing
solid parts.

However, over the years, the algorithms of TET elements,

especially quadratic elements (TET10), have improved
significantly; consequently, the same accuracy can now be
achieved using TET10 or HEX8 elements.

Nevertheless, there are still advantages in using brick elements

instead of tetra elements. The main advantage is the fact that a
brick mesh will generate far fewer elements and nodes in
comparison to a tetra mesh (in the order of ½ for elements and
1/50 for nodes); there will therefore be an enormous reduction in
computing time and an easier handling of the model in pre- and
post-processing.

The great disadvantage of brick elements is that generating a

solid mesh for a complex solid is time-consuming and requires
experience and patience, because brick meshing supports only
manual commands; automatic meshing is not available for this
purpose in pre-processing software.

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

Practical FEA MESHING

HOW TO DO A MESH TRANSITION?

Mesh transitions may simply be used to:
Connect regions having different mesh densities
Connect different element types, for example, a beam element to
a solid element
Make required transitions to model the geometry of the structure

To ensure that your FEA will produce good results, simply follow
these two basic rules when a mesh transition is required:

Never create a mesh transition in a region where there is a stress

gradient
Never create a mesh transition in a region of interest

A mesh transition is not a wrong modeling technique, but it

must not occur near a region of interest

@DominiqueMadier Share your thoughts

 Learn More

MESHING
THE BOOK
Learn about Meshing in the Chapter 8
of the book “Practical Finite Element
Analysis for Mechanical Engineers”.

THE COURSES
Find all the details about Meshing in
the FEA Academy "Practical
Basic FEA" course.

THE ACADEMY
WWW.FEA-ACADEMY.COM

@DominiqueMadier