4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

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What is Convergence in Finite Element Analysis?

It is a common question to ask if the solutions obtained through FEA

(https://www.simscale.com/product/fea/) simulations are converged. What does this convergence
mean? In this article, we will address this issue to discuss in details as to what convergence means.

A typical engineering design involves prediction of de ections / displacements, stresses, natural

frequencies, temperature distributions etc. These parameters are used to iterate on material
parameters and/or geometry etc. for optimization of behavior. Traditional methods, like hand
calculations, involved idealization of physical models using simple equations to obtain solutions.
However, these approximations oversimplify the problem and the analytical solution can only
provide conservative estimates. Alternatively, FEM and other numerical methods are meant to
provide engineering analysis that considers much greater detail that would otherwise be
impractical with hand calculations. FEM divides the body into smaller pieces enforcing continuity
of displacements along these element boundaries. More information on how FEM works
(https://www.simscale.com/blog/2016/10/what-is- nite-element-method/) and how to learn
FEM (https://www.simscale.com/blog/2016/11/learn- nite-element-analysis-fea/) can be found
in the earlier SimScale articles.

For those using FEM, the term convergence is often heard. So what does this mean? In this
article, we address issues that are related to this term. Most linear problems, do not often need an
iterative solution procedure. Yet, mesh convergence is an important issue that needs to be
addressed. Additionally, in nonlinear problems, convergence in the iteration procedure also needs
to be considered.

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4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

Mesh convergence: h- and p-re nement

One of the most overlooked issues in computational mechanics that affect accuracy, is mesh
convergence. This is related to how small the elements need to be to ensure that the results of an
analysis are not affected by changing the size of the mesh.

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig01.png)

Fig 01: Convergence of quantity with increase in degrees of freedom

As shown in Fig. 01, it is important to rst identify the quantity of interest. At least three points
need to be considered and as the mesh density increases, the quantity of interest starts to
converge to a particular value. If two subsequent mesh re nements do not change the result
substantially, then one can assume the result to have converged.

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(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig02.png)

Fig 02: Mesh re nement of a structure

Going into the question of mesh re nement, it is not always necessary that the mesh in the entire
model be re ned. St. Venants Principle enforces that the local stresses in one region do not affect
the stresses elsewhere. Hence, from a physical point of view, the model can be re ned only in
particular regions of interest and further have a transition zone from course to ne mesh. There
are two types of re nements (h- and p-re nement) here as shown in Fig. 02. h-re nement relates
to the reduction in the element sizes while p-re nement relates to increasing the order of the
element.

However, here it is important to distinguish between geometric effect and mesh convergence.
Especially when meshing a curved surface using straight (or linear) elements will require more
elements (or otherwise mesh re nement) to capture the boundary exactly. As shown in Fig. 03,

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4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

mesh re nement leads to signi cant reduction in errors.

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig03.png)

Fig 03: Reduction in error with h-re nement of the curved surface

Such a re nement can allow an increase in the convergence of solutions without increasing the
size of the overall problem being solved.

Convergence in presence of singularities

After the above section, it can start to feel obvious that once the stress converges in a particular
part of the structure, using the same element size elsewhere should lead to converged solutions.
However, this is not a valid assumption.

Most models often have corners, both internal and external where the radius is assumed to be
zero. This is also the case in the presence of cracks. Here the stresses are theoretically in nite.
Now can you guess why airplane windows do not have corners but are rounded at the edges?

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4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig04.png)

Fig 04: Increase in stresses, towards in nity, with mesh re nement around a singularity

In the presence of the singularity, the mesh needs to be re ned around the singularity. However,
the more the mesh is re ned, the stress continues to increase and tend towards in nity, as shown
in Fig. 04.

Hence, in the presence of llets, it is generally more reasonable to assume an actual radius and
then re ne the region using a suf cient number of elements. For more details on mesh
singularities, we could recommend a recent article on the SimScale blog titled Mesh size in uence
on mechanical stress concentration (https://www.simscale.com/blog/2016/12/mesh-mechanical-
stress-concentration/).

Convergence during locking

One of the other commonly encountered problems in nonlinear problems is related to locking:
volumetric and shear locking effects. Volumetric locking is commonly encountered in problems
related to incompressibility in hyperelasticity and plasticity problems. Alternatively, shear locking
is generally encountered in bending dominated problems.

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4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

For more discussion on volumetric and shear locking, we can refer one to our articles on the
SimScale blog Modeling elastomers (https://www.simscale.com/blog/2016/08/tips-modeling-
elastomers-using-fem/) and Meshing in FEM (https://www.simscale.com/blog/2016/07/mesh-
cad-model-structural-analysis/) respectively.

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig05.png)

Fig 05: Standard problem with internal pressure being considered for testing volumetric locking

Fig. 05 shows a standard problem to test incompressible effects. Here a small pipe with internal
pressure is considered and such applications are commonly found in various places including
human arteries. Only a quarter of the model needs to be considered due to symmetry in the
problem. Now, as the Poisson ratio tends to 0.5, the bulk modulus tends to in nity and thus the
material demonstrates incompressibility. Here, second order elements are preferred or in other
words, a p-re nement is required. Fig. 06 shows the behavior of different element types with an
increase in Poisson ratio.

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(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig06.png)

Fig 06: Convergence in volumetric locking problems.

Similarly, Fig. 07 shows a simple beam bending problem where a moment is being applied on the
free end. The de ection at the free end of the beam is considered and this problem even has an
analytical solution for comparison. Fig. 07 shows the convergence of the de ection for different
kinds of elements.

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4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig07.png)

Fig 07: Shear locking in beam bending problem and convergence for different elements

How to measure convergence?

So now the importance of convergence has been discussed, how can convergence be measured?
What is a quantitative measure for convergence? The rst way would be to compare with
analytical solutions or experimental results.

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig08.png)

Fig 08: De nition of errors

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4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

As shown in Fig. 08, several errors can be de ned for displacement, strains, and stresses. These
errors could be used to compare and they would need to reduce with mesh re nement. However,
in a FEM mesh, the quantities are calculated at various points (nodal and Gauss). So in this case,
where and at how many points should the error be calculated?

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig09.png)

Fig 09: Error norm and comparison with the element size

Hence, alternatively, norms are de ned such that the averaged errors over the entire structure or
part of the structure can be calculated. As shown in Fig. 09, the error norms can also be compared
to the size of the element. Here c is a constant of proportionality while h is the element size, as
de ned in Fig. 09. Hence, several errors like L2 and Energy error norms can be de ned as below:

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4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig10.png)

However, in real practical applications, a non-dimensional version of the same is more useful to
assess the actual degree of error. Hence, here the root-mean-square value of the norms as de ned
below are used to plot the reduction in error.

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig11.png)

The nal topic is at what rates do these errors ideally decrease. If we are using a linear or
quadratic or cubic elements, how does one judge if the error is decreasing at the right speed or
otherwise the quality of algorithms coded? As shown in Fig 10, the L2-norm error decreases at the
rate of p+1 and energy-norm at the rate of p.

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4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

(https://clqtg10snjb14i85u49wifbv-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/12/Fig12.png)

Fig 10: Convergence rates for different error norms

Conclusion
I hope this article has given a comprehensive overview of convergence, convergence rates and
how to judge these aspects in an FEA simulation. Convergence plays an important role in the
accuracy of solutions obtained using numerical techniques like FEA and needs to be
comprehensively analyzed in any given problem.

SimScale is the world's rst cloud-based simulation platform, enabling you to perform CFD, FEA, or thermal
analyses. Sign up for the 14-day free trial (https://www.simscale.com/product/pricing/) and join the community
of 70 000 engineers and designers. No payment data required.

Ajay Harish

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4.3.2017 WhatisConvergenceinFiniteElementAnalysis?HowisitCalculated?

Ajay Harish is a Doctoral candidate with Prof. habil. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c.mult. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Peter Wriggers at the
Institute of Continuum Mechanics (Leibniz Universitt Hannover, Germany). His primary focus of research
includes constitutive modeling of soft materials - granular materials - composites, nonlinear fracture mechanics,
contact mechanics and automation of computational modeling. His of cial pro le can be found on IKM Website
(https://goo.gl/hKWoMa). More information can be found on his personal website
(http://www.ajaybharish.com).

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

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