From the course: SOLIDWORKS: Simulation for Finite Element Analysis
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Meshing objectives - SOLIDWORKS Tutorial
From the course: SOLIDWORKS: Simulation for Finite Element Analysis
Meshing objectives
- [Instructor] The finite element analysis method discretizes the continuous CAD geometry into large numbers of small elements. The shape of these elements is very important. Badly shaped elements will result in numerical inaccuracy and possible failure of the analysis run. The total number of elements has also to be kept within reasonable bounds. The solution time and memory requirements of the analysis are roughly proportional to the number of nodes squared. If the element numbers and hence node numbers are uncontrolled, we can rapidly run into very long run times. The first thing we will consider is element quality. SOLIDWORKS uses tetrahedral elements for solid meshing. The ideal shape for a tetrahedral element has 60 degrees including angles at all vertices, or we can describe this as having equal length edges. As the distortions increase away from this perfect shape, the result is increasingly poor numerical representation of the displacements and the stress field within the…
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