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Equation 1:
July 11, 2017
by: Christina Capasso Jamerson
The equation for the acoustic wave speed is different for each element type but its simplest
form is listed in Equation 2.
Equation 2:
July 4, 2017
by: Christina Capasso Jamerson
Mass scaling is an automated procedure whereby the code increases the time step by
scaling up the density in the specific elements that are controlling the time step. The user
specifies a minimum time step size and the density in those elements that have time steps
smaller than this value are increased to the point where the time step is equal to this value. (/blog/speeding-your-analysis-%E2%80%93-part-3)
While this is a very effective tool, its not without its drawbacks.
Mass scaling is a tried and proven method for reducing run times in quasi-static analyses
where the velocity is low and the kinetic energy is very small relative to the internal energy
June 26, 2017
(please refer to my previous blog post,How Can Explicit Solvers Help with Stubborn by: James Kosloski
Nonlinear Statics Model (/blog/how-can-explicit-solvers-help-stubborn-nonlinear-statics-models) for more
information on quasi-static analyses). But what about truly dynamic analyses where an
Speeding Up Your Analysis
Part 3 (/blog/speeding-your-
accurate mass distribution is critical to the solution?
analysis-%E2%80%93-part-3)
It is still possible to use mass scaling effectively for such models, but it should be done
judiciously. As a rule of thumb, mass can be added to non-critical regions of the model as READ MORE (/BLOG/SPEEDING-YOUR-ANALYSIS-
%E2%80%93-PART-3)
long as it doesnt significantly increase the overall mass of a part. Validation requires
checking both the relative increase in mass as well as the location of the added mass. Only
very small amounts of mass should be added in locations where critical results are being TAGS: Hardware (/blog?tid_1=Hardware) / FEA
The two meshes were run with different levels of mass-scaling. The plastic strain distribution
for the default mesh without any mass scaling is shown in Figure 2. All of the plastic strain
occurs in the through holes. We can safely assume, then, that scaling the mass in the small
elements at the top of the ball in the second mesh should not affect the critical results
because these elements are relatively far from the critical regions.
A comparison of solutions for the two different meshes and different mass scaling values is
provided in Table 1. Notice that a small amount of mass scaling (dt = 3.e-7) assigned to the
default mesh has a minimal impact on the plastic strain, while a larger amount of mass scaling
(dt = 6.e-7) has a significant effect, even though it only causes in increase of 0.19% in the
mass of the ball. However, for the model with the fine mesh at the top, a significant increase
in mass scaling (dt = 3.e-7 s up from 1.e-7 s) causes only a minor change in plastic strain
while resulting in nearly a 60% drop in run time! In this case, all of the mass scaling was
applied to the smallest elements at the top of the ball, far from the through holes, as shown in
Figure 3.
In conclusion, mass scaling is a proven and effective tool for reducing run times in explicit
dynamics analysis (/fea-services/explicit-dynamics-analysis) , especially in models that have complex
geometry and small features that make mesh coarsening difficult. While mass scaling is
simple to apply, it needs to be done judiciously in models that are not quasi-static. Analysts
(https://caeai.com) should check both the amount of mass scaling as a percentage of part mass
and the location of the mass scaling to make sure that artificial mass is not being added to
critical regions. Small percentage increases in mass applied to critical locations can
significantly impact the accuracy of critical results. What good are results obtained quickly if
they arent accurate? It is always wise to run your model once without mass scaling and
compare critical results to quantify the effects of mass scaling.
I am most interested in feedback from those of you that have used mass scaling in explicit
dynamics analysis. Have you found mass scaling to be a valuable tool for speeding up your
runs without sacrificing accuracy?
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