Appendix A: Mesh Nonlinear Adaptivity

16.0 Release

ANSYS Mechanical
Introduction to Structural Nonlinearities
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 Mesh Nonlinear Adaptivity

Introduction to Mesh Nonlinear Adaptivity Procedure

Understanding the Criterion Example Demo
Energy Based
Position Based Limitations
Contact Based
Mesh Quality Based

Generating the new Mesh

Refer also to Chapter 5 of MAPDL Advanced Analysis Guide

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 Background on Rezoning
Many applications can benefit from the ability to strategically modify a
mesh during solution, based on certain criteria to:
Simulate challenging large deflection/distortion which otherwise cannot be
solved

Improve the accuracy of simulation results.

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 Introduction to Mesh Nonlinear Adaptivity
Unlike manual rezoning, mesh nonlinear adaptivity is completely
automatic, requiring no user input during solution.

Automatic
During
Solution

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 Introduction to Mesh Nonlinear Adaptivity
Supported in MAPDL:
NLADAPTIVE
NLMESH
Supported in WB-Mechanical GUI

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 Introduction to Mesh Nonlinear Adaptivity
Insert Nonlinear Adaptive Region prior to
executing the SOLVE:
Scope the Geometric features to be
included in adaptive remeshing
Define the Criterion which triggers mesh
modification
Define the checking frequency and range
of application
Equally Spaced Points
Specified Recurrence Rate

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 Understanding the Criterion
To use Nonlinear Adaptivity most effectively, it is very important to
understand the Criterion that will trigger mesh modification
Energy Based
Position Based
Mesh Quality Based (Skewness)
Contact Based (available via MAPDL only)

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 Understanding the Criterion
Energy-Based Criterion:
During a substep, if an elements strain energy is greater than or equal to
the mean strain energy of components to which the element belongs, times
a user-defined factor, then the element is split and remeshed.
Refines the mesh to achieve high-accuracy simulation in regions where a
high concentration of stress exists and elements are too large.
Applies to current technology 2D elements and 3-D linear tetrahedral
elements (SOLID285).

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 Understanding the Criterion
Position-Based Criterion:
During a substep, if all nodes of an element are within a user defined region, the
element is split and remeshed.
Refines the mesh in regions where it is difficult to predict which elements of
the model will be present, or move in to. For example, a small cavity filled by
the deformation of a compressed seal
Applies to current technology 2D elements and 3-D linear tetrahedral
elements (SOLID285).

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 Understanding the Criterion
Mesh-Quality-Based Criterion
Mesh quality is defined by element skewness:
Where
Vel is the volume of the element under calculation
Vreg is the volume of the standard tetrahedral linear element inscribed in the same
sphere as the element under calculation.
Ideal Shape: Skewness = 0 because Vel = Vreg (standard tetrahedral element)
Worst shape: Skewness = 1 because Vel=0 (Flat element)
When an elements skewness is >= the user defined threshold, that element is
identified as a seed element to be remeshed.
Only applies to 3-D linear tetrahedral elements (SOLID285).
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 Understanding the Criterion
Contact-Based Criterion (MAPDL only) : Number of Contacting Elements
If the number of contact elements in contact with the
target element is less than the defined value, the
underlying element is split. Contact elements on the
faces of the solid elements are regenerated as well.
If contact elements are moving away from target, no
splitting occurs.
This criterion is used to allow a contact region to follow
the geometry of targets more accurately.
Component that bears the criterion consists of target
elements only

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 Understanding the Criterion
Contact-Based Criterion : (contd)
Contact Surface Wear (MAPDL only) :
During a substep, when the amount of wear at a
contact element exceeds a user defined critical Wear distorting elements at interface
value, the mesh is morphed at the interface to
improve the quality of the mesh.
Only applies to contact elements having surface
wear, specified via the TB,WEAR command.
Adaptive Mesh Morphing improves mesh
User defines critical ratio of magnitude of wear at
the contact element to the average depth of the
solid element underlying the contact element.
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 Generating the New Mesh
When the defined criteria are met, mesh modification occurs either by a
combination of splitting followed by morphing or by general remeshing:
During splitting, the current elements are divided into elements having a
half-edge length.
Some transition layers are created automatically to
connect the refined regions to the unrefined regions.
For 3-D tetrahedral element, some topology changes
and morphing occur during splitting to improve the
quality of the new mesh.
For 2-D meshes, morphing is only done after the
element-splitting operation.
Splitting applies to Energy-based, Position-
based and Contact-based criterion.
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 WB-Mechanical Procedure- Nonlinear Adaptivity
In WB-Mechanical:
Insert Nonlinear Adaptive Region in
Structural Environment branch:
Scope the Geometric features to be included
in adaptive remeshing
Define the Criterion which triggers mesh
modification
Define the Checking frequency and range of
application
Equally Spaced Points
Specified Recurrence Rate
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 WB-Mechanical Procedure- Nonlinear Adaptivity
For 3D structural analysis, Criterion *
options available are:
Energy (Strain Energy)
Box (Position)
Skewness (Mesh)

For 2D structural analysis Criterion *

options are limited to:
Energy (Strain Energy)
* Note: Equivalent to NLAD, , , Criterion in MAPDL
Box (Position)
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 WB-Mechanical Procedure- Nonlinear Adaptivity
When Criterion is defined asskewness, additional
mesh control options become available in the
Details Window of Analysis Settings Branch
Refer to NLMESH command for details

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 WB-Mechanical Procedure- Nonlinear Adaptivity
Checking Frequency can be strategically activated/deactivated at user
defined time intervals

* Equivalent to NLAD,,ON ,,,1

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 WB-Mechanical Procedure- Nonlinear Adaptivity
After solving, a special column Changed Mesh will appear in Tabular Data
indicating when Mesh modifications occurred during the solve

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 WB-Mechanical Procedure- Nonlinear Adaptivity
Create User Defined Results (using the PNUMELEM Expression) to view the new
elements that have relatively larger element identities than the original element
identities.

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 WB-Mechanical Procedure- Nonlinear Adaptivity
All results are automatically saved to one jobname.rst file in working directory.
A separate file is saved for each modified mesh.
With Energy, Position and Contact based
Criterion, these are Binary database files with
rdxx extensions.
With Mesh-Quality-Based (skewness)
Criterion, these are ASCII CDB files.
*000x.cdb contains complete mesh
*000x_gmx.cdb contains only newly created
elements

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 WB-Mechanical Procedure- Nonlinear Adaptivity
For each mesh modification, mesh quality matrics stats are recorded in the Solver
output comparing previous mesh with new mesh
Source Column represents previous mesh

Target Column represents modified mesh

In general, lower Skewness and Aspect

Ratio values for the Target mesh, indicate
improved quality

If these stats indicate a deterioration of the

mesh, try adjusting NLMESH options.

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 3D Nonlinear Adaptivity Example
Rigid body engaging with flexible nonlinear body with large displacement fails
to converge with element distortion errors at about 60% of the total load

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 ... 3D Nonlinear Adaptivity Example
Set Nonlinear Adaptivity and related Analysis Setting specifications as follows:

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 ... 3D Nonlinear Adaptivity Example
With these changes, model will solve after several automatic mesh modifications and
restarts

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 ... 3D Nonlinear Adaptivity Example
Post Processing procedure is same as for any conventional Structural Analysis with
multiple results sets

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 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
Cannot be used in combination with the following features/conditions on the same part:
Cyclic Symmetry
Contact Formulations: Normal Lagrange (3D), MPC, and Beam
Contact Behaviors: Auto Asymmetric
Point Mass, Beam Connection, Joints, Spring, and Bearing
Remote Force, Remote Displacement, Moment, Thermal Condition, and Remote Point
Spatially varying boundary conditions
Cannot be used in combination with the following boundary conditions:
Coupling
Constraint Equation

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 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
The following materials properties are not supported:
Cast Iron
Concrete
Cohesive Zone
Damage
Microplane
Shape Memory Alloy
Swelling

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 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
Mesh nonlinear adaptivity via splitting or refinement, in general cannot repair
an already distorted mesh.
In some cases, it can exacerbate mesh distortion by creating smaller elements.
Original Mesh After 1st Mesh Refinement

To reduce the effect, the code uses built-in morphing and topology repair after
splitting; even so, mesh quality improvement is slight.
Avoid splitting or refinement in highly distorted regions, therefore, as doing so may
lead to convergence problems.

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 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
Combinations of criteria might be required for applications involving complex
geometry under complex loading (i.e. local deformations in buckling or rubber
seal problems)
The contact-based criterion should be used only when solid elements touch target
elements and more elements/nodes are necessary to simulate details of contact
boundaries and filling.
The position-based criterion should be used for refining elements moving in to
particular regions (for example, small cavities).
Without a fine enough mesh and a sufficient number of degrees of freedom, the
simulation might not accurately predict the behavior of material moving into such
regions.

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 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
Mesh nonlinear adaptivity via the general remeshing method does not support
self contact robustly.
Self-contact penetration means that volume intersections
exist in an atomic remeshing region. Remeshing failure occurs
if this conditions exists at any time during the nonlinear
adaptivity simulation process.

To prevent self-contact penetration, split the original region

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 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
Unstable Material
Most nonlinear material models, especially those employing
hyperelastic materials, have their own applicable ranges.
When a deformation is too large or a stress state exceeds
the applicable range, the material may become unstable.
The instability can manifest itself as a mesh distortion, but
nonlinear adaptive region cannot help in such cases.
While it is sometimes difficult to determine when material is unstable, you can check
the strain values, stress states, and convergence patterns. A sudden convergence
difficulty could mean that material is no longer stable.
The program also issues a warning at the beginning of the solution indicating when
hyperelastic material could be unstable, although such a warning is very preliminary
and applies only to cases involving simple stress states.
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 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
Unstable Structures D
For some geometries and loads, a deformation
may cause a "snap-through," or local buckling. A C
KT=
0
O B

Such behavior can also manifest itself as a mesh distortion, but one that nonlinear
adaptive region cannot repair.
The effect can be detected by closely checking the deformed region or the load-
versus- time (displacement) curve.

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 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
Nonlinear Adaptivity cannot resolve numerical Instabilities
The constraints can include kinematic constraints such as applied displacements,
couplings, and constraint equations, and volumetric constraints introduced by fully
incompressible material in mixed u-P elements.
In many cases, numerical instability is apparent even in the early stages of an analysis.

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 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
Nonlinear Adaptivity does not supported :
Distributed ANSYS Solver
WB-Mechanical Convergence Tools
When used during a restart, the Nonlinear Adaptive Region object does not
support Named Selections if your model contains a mesh change prior to the
restart point.
If analysis failed to converge and you are adding a new Nonlinear Adaptive
Region object, it is necessary that the contact object property, Behavior, was
set to either Symmetric or Asymmetric for the initial solution that was
processed.

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