AN ERROR ANALYSIS AND MESH ADAPTATION METHOD FOR SHAPE DESIGN OF STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS

作     者：CHANG, KH CHOI, KK 

作者机构：Department of Mechanical Engineering Center for Simulation and Design Optimization of Mechanical Systems College of Engineering The University of Iowa Iowa City IA 52242 U.S.A. 

出 版 物：《COMPUTERS & STRUCTURES》 (计算机与结构)

年 卷 期：1992年第44卷第6期

页      面：1275-1289页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 0814[工学-土木工程] 0812[工学-计算机科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 

主　　题：Structural members 

摘      要：A finite element error analysis and mesh adaptation method that can be used for improving analysis accuracy in carrying out shape design of structural components is presented in this paper. The simple error estimator developed by Zienkiewicz is adopted in this study for finite element error analysis, using only post-processing finite element data. The mesh adaptation algorithm implemented in ANSYS is investigated and the difficulties found are discussed. An improved algorithm that utilizes ANSYS POST1 capabilities is proposed and found to be more efficient than the ANSYS algorithm. An example is given to show the efficiency. An interactive mesh adaptation method that utilizes PATRAN meshing and result-displaying capabilities is proposed. This proposed method displays error distribution and stress contour of analysis results using color plots, to help the designer in identifying the critical regions for mesh refinement. Also, it provides guidance for mesh refinement by computing and displaying the desired element size information, based on error estimate and a mesh refinement criterion defined by the designer. This method is more efficient and effective than the semi-automatic algorithm implemented in ANSYS, and is suitable for structural shape design. This method can be applied not only to set-up a finite element mesh of the structure at initial design but to ensure analysis accuracy in the design process. Examples are given to demonstrate feasibility of the proposed method.