Model Preparation

Dedicated Altair pre-processor tools for crash integrate a large number of model checkers. These tools also include automatic correction algorithms. The most common checks before running a model are related to:
  • Mesh quality
  • Spring definition
  • Intersections and penetrations in interface definition
  • Checking the incompatible kinematic conditions:
    • No common secondary nodes between rigid bodies
    • Only "free" main node
    • Spherical inertia for the small ones
  • Mass and center of gravity
  • Thickness of the parts
  • Initial velocity value and direction
  • Rigid wall normal
  • Material law: units system consistency
  • Free nodes
  • Monitored volume:
    • Closed volume
    • Positive volume
  • Connectivity between parts
  • Mesh sizes between connected parts

Some basic rules to create a valid model are presented.

Mesh Quality

The Mesh Recommendations discussed in Finite Elements should be respected. The shell mesh must be as homogenous as possible. It is not recommended to use different shell formulations for a given physical part. For very fine meshes, it is recommended to use fully-integrated elements or a physical stabilization method (/PROP/SHELL). Triangle shells are avoided. If the mesh includes triangles due to a difficult mesh, it is recommended to reduce its number to 5% per part.

Spring Definition

Non-physical or bad definition of springs is a common problem in crash models. In fact, the properties of springs must be consistent in mass, inertia, stiffness and length. Actually, a spring must have a physical behavior:
  • With regard to mass distribution over a one-dimensional bar, the inertia will have upper and lower limits: (1)
    m l 2 12 ≤I≤ m l 2 4 MathType@MTEF@5@5@+= feaagKart1ev2aqatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq=Jc9 vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0=yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr=x fr=xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaWaaSaaaeaaca WGTbGaamiBamaaCaaaleqabaGaaGOmaaaaaOqaaiaaigdacaaIYaaa aiabgsMiJkaadMeacqGHKjYOdaWcaaqaaiaad2gacaWGSbWaaWbaaS qabeaacaaIYaaaaaGcbaGaaGinaaaaaaa@4230@
    The lower limit is the inertia of a uniform mass distributed bar. The upper limit gives the inertia of a bar with two extremity masses m/2. As the springs are also used to model bolts and spot welds, you can go beyond these limitations and write:(2)
    0.01m l 2 ≤I≤100m l 2 MathType@MTEF@5@5@+= feaagKart1ev2aqatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq=Jc9 vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0=yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr=x fr=xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaaGimaiaac6 cacaaIWaGaaGymaiaad2gacaWGSbWaaWbaaSqabeaacaaIYaaaaOGa eyizImQaamysaiabgsMiJkaaigdacaaIWaGaaGimaiaad2gacaWGSb WaaWbaaSqabeaacaaIYaaaaaaa@44E1@
  • The cross-section of a spring can be computed either by S = K l E MathType@MTEF@5@5@+= feaagKart1ev2aqatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq=Jc9 vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0=yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr=x fr=xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaam4uaiabg2 da9maalaaabaGaam4saiaadYgaaeaacaWGfbaaaaaa@3A70@ or S= m ρl MathType@MTEF@5@5@+= feaagKart1ev2aqatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq=Jc9 vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0=yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr=x fr=xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaam4uaiabg2 da9maalaaabaGaamyBaaqaaiabeg8aYjaadYgaaaaaaa@3B88@ . If the ratio between the two computed values is greater than 100, the inconsistency may result some trouble.
  • In the spring property, for a negative strain the force must be negative and for a positive strain, it must be positive. Otherwise, the spring generates energy during computation.
  • If the tangent stiffness is negative for a nonlinear elastic spring, there is a risk of instability especially if vibrating in the negative slope zone (energy error may become positive and increase).
  • If the maximum slope of the curve (so the maximum stiffness) is greater than the initial stiffness, unloading in the zone of maximum slope will be false (see Modeling Tools).

Beam Consistency

In addition to the beam assumption length/depth > 10, the following recommendations define a consistent beam:(3)
L> A MathType@MTEF@5@5@+= feaagKart1ev2aqatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq=Jc9 vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0=yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr=x fr=xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaamitaiabg6 da+maakaaabaGaamyqaaWcbeaaaaa@38B1@

0.01 A 2 < I y <100 A 2 0.01 A 2 < I z <100 A 2 0.1( I y + I z )< I x <10( I y + I z ) MathType@MTEF@5@5@+= feaagKart1ev2aqatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq=Jc9 vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0=yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr=x fr=xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGceaqabeaacaaIWa GaaiOlaiaaicdacaaIXaGaamyqamaaCaaaleqabaGaaGOmaaaakiab gYda8iaadMeadaWgaaWcbaGaamyEaaqabaGccqGH8aapcaaIXaGaaG imaiaaicdacaWGbbWaaWbaaSqabeaacaaIYaaaaaGcbaGaaGimaiaa c6cacaaIWaGaaGymaiaadgeadaahaaWcbeqaaiaaikdaaaGccqGH8a apcaWGjbWaaSbaaSqaaiaadQhaaeqaaOGaeyipaWJaaGymaiaaicda caaIWaGaamyqamaaCaaaleqabaGaaGOmaaaaaOqaaiaaicdacaGGUa GaaGymamaabmaabaGaamysamaaBaaaleaacaWG5baabeaakiabgUca RiaadMeadaWgaaWcbaGaamOEaaqabaaakiaawIcacaGLPaaacqGH8a apcaWGjbWaaSbaaSqaaiaadIhaaeqaaOGaeyipaWJaaGymaiaaicda daqadaqaaiaadMeadaWgaaWcbaGaamyEaaqabaGccqGHRaWkcaWGjb WaaSbaaSqaaiaadQhaaeqaaaGccaGLOaGaayzkaaaaaaa@639D@

Intersections and Penetrations in Interfaces

Initial mesh intersections create unrealistic connections. Moreover, this can cause locking situations leading to computation failure.

Initial penetrations are due to the interface gap definition. They lead to unrealistic and uncontrolled internal forces which may cause local plastic strains in the beginning of the computation. The structure is then locally less stiff.

Altair pre-processor tools can be used to detect and remove intersections and initial penetrations. A model containing many initial penetrations cannot be considered as valid. After corrections, if a few number of initial penetrations remain, the flag Inacti =1 can be activated in /INTER/TYPE7. In this case, the interface stiffness for the nodes initially penetrated is deactivated.

If only small initial penetrations remain (less than 5% of the gap), the variable gap in time can be used by setting the flag Inacti =5; which is better than Inacti =1.

Rigid Body Definition

The following recommendations should be pointed out:
  • Never use a node of the mesh as a main node for a rigid body
  • A rigid body made of two secondary nodes requires using the spherical inertia flag (Ispher =1 in /RBODY)
  • Be aware that the main node may move when initializing the rigid body in Radioss Starter

Most of rigid body definition problems can be detected and corrected using Altair pre-processor tools.

Incompatible Kinematic Conditions

Incompatible conditions may results in an increase of the total energy and non-reproducibility of results in parallel computation even if /PARITH/ON is used. Radioss Starter detects the potential incompatible conditions that must be controlled by you.

Parallel Computation

The option /PARITH/ON must be used when using multi-processors. If it is not used, the problems will be difficult to reproduce and may appear and disappear.

Comments

  1. Using Inacti =1 makes the model softer.
  2. Never put free nodes in the interfaces. The selection of surfaces in interface definition must be done with shells and solids elements (or parts) and not nodes.