8.5.

2017 ConvergenceTesting

ANSYS BASIC
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Introduction

StartingupANSYS
FEMConvergenceTesting

ANSYSEnvironment

Introduction

ANSYSInterface

ConvergenceTesting

Afundamentalpremiseofusingthefiniteelementprocedureisthatthebodyissubdividedupintosmalldiscreteregionsknownas
finiteelements.Theseelementsdefinedbynodesandinterpolationfunctions.Governingequationsarewrittenforeachelementand

Saving/RestoringJobs

theseelementsareassembledintoaglobalmatrix.Loadsandconstraintsareappliedandthesolutionisthendetermined.
ANSYSFiles

TheProblem

PrintingResults

WorkingwithPro/E Thequestionthatalwaysarisesis:HowsmalldoIneedtomaketheelementsbeforeIcantrustthesolution?

Whattodoaboutit...
Index

Ingeneraltherearenorealfirmanswersonthis.Itwillbenecessarytoconductconvergencetests!Bythiswemeanthatyoubegin
withameshdiscretizationandthenobserveandrecordthesolution.Nowrepeattheproblemwithafinermesh(i.e.moreelements)

Contributions andthencomparetheresultswiththeprevioustest.Iftheresultsarenearlysimilar,thenthefirstmeshisprobablygoodenoughfor

thatparticulargeometry,loadingandconstraints.Iftheresultsdifferbyalargeamounthowever,itwillbenecessarytotryafiner
Comments

meshyet.
MecE563
TheConsequences

MechanicalEngineering

UniversityofAlberta Finermeshescomewithacosthowever:morecalculationaltimeandlargememoryrequirements(bothdiskandRAM)!Itisdesired
tofindtheminimumnumberofelementsthatgiveyouaconvergedsolution.

BeamModels

ANSYSInc.

Forbeammodels,weactuallyonlyneedtodefineasingleelementperlineunlessweareapplyingadistributedloadonagiven
framemember.Whenpointloadsareused,specifyingmorethatoneelementperlinewillnotchangethesolution,itwillonlyslow
Copyright2001 thecalculationsdown.Forsimplemodelsitisofnoconcern,butforalargermodel,itisdesiredtominimizethenumberof
UniversityofAlberta elements,andthuscalculationtimeandstillobtainthedesiredaccuracy.

http://www.mece.ualberta.ca/tutorials/ansys/AU/Converge/Converge.html 1/2
8.5.2017 ConvergenceTesting

GeneralModels

Ingeneralhowever,itisnecessarytoconductconvergencetestsonyourfiniteelementmodeltoconfirmthatafineenoughelement
discretizationhasbeenused.Inasolidmechanicsproblem,thiswouldbedonebycreatingseveralmodelswithdifferentmeshsizes
andcomparingtheresultingdeflectionsandstresses,forexample.Ingeneral,thestresseswillconvergemoreslowlythanthe
displacement,soitisnotsufficienttoexaminethedisplacementconvergence.

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