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Module 07: Mesh Nonlinear Adaptivity

ANSYS Mechanical Basic Structural Nonlinearities

1 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 Module 07 Topics

1. Background on Rezoning
2. Introduction to Mesh Nonlinear Adaptivity
3. Understanding the Criteria
─ Energy Based
─ Position Based
─ Contact Based
─ Mesh-Quality Based
4. Procedure
5. 3D Nonlinear Adaptivity Example
6. Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations
Refer to Chapter 5 of the Mechanical APDL Advanced Analysis Guide for
additional information
2 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016
 07.01 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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 07.02 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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 07.02 Introduction to Mesh Nonlinear Adaptivity
• Supported in MAPDL:
─ NLADAPTIVE
─ NLMESH
• Supported in WB-Mechanical GUI

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 07.02 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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 07.03 Understanding the Criteria

• 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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 07.03 Understanding the Criteria
Energy-Based Criterion

During a substep, if an element’s 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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 07.03 Understanding the Criteria
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).

9 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 07.03 Understanding the Criteria
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 element’s 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).

10 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 07.03 Understanding the Criteria
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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 07.03 Understanding the Criteria
Contact-Based Criterion : (cont’d)

Contact Surface Wear (MAPDL only) :

Wear distorting elements at interface
During a substep, when the amount of wear at a contact
element exceeds a user defined critical value, the mesh is
morphed at the interface to improve the quality of the
mesh.
• Only applies to contact elements having surface wear,
Adaptive Mesh Morphing improves mesh
specified via the TB,WEAR command.
• User defines critical ratio of magnitude of wear at the
contact element to the average depth of the solid
element underlying the contact element.

12 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 07.04 Procedure
• When the defined criteria are met, mesh modification occurs either by a
combination of spitting 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 3-0D 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.
13 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016
 07.04 Procedure

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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 07.04 Procedure

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)
• Box (Position)
* Note: Equivalent to ‘NLAD, , , Criterion’ in MAPDL

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 07.04 Procedure

When Criterion is defined as‘skewness’, additional mesh

control options become available in the ‘Details Window
of Analysis Settings’ Branch.
• Refer to NLMESH command for details.

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 07.04 Procedure

Checking Frequency can be strategically activated/deactivated at user defined

time intervals.

* Equivalent to ‘NLAD,,ON ,,,1’

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 07.04 Procedure

After solving, a special column ‘Changed Mesh’ will appear in Tabular Data indicating when
Mesh modifications occurred during the solve.

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 07.04 Procedure
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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 07.04 Procedure

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.

20 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 07.04 Procedure

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.

21 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 07.05 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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 07.05 3D Nonlinear Adaptivity Example

Set Nonlinear Adaptivity and related Analysis Setting specifications as follows:

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 07.05 3D Nonlinear Adaptivity Example

• With these changes, model will solve after several automatic mesh modifications
and restarts.

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 07.05 3D Nonlinear Adaptivity Example
Postprocessing procedure is same as for any conventional Structural Analysis with multiple
results sets.

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 07.06 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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 07.06 Nonlinear Adaptivity Limitations

• The following materials properties are not supported:

– Cast Iron
– Concrete
– Cohesive Zone
– Damage
– Microplane
– Shape Memory Alloy
– Swelling

27 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 07.06 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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 07.06 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.

29 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 07.06 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.

30 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 07.06 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.
31 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016
 07.06 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.

32 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016

 07.06 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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 07.06 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.

34 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. May 31, 2016