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Nivrutti Garud,
Engineer,
Satyam Engineering Services Ltd.
Secunderabad.
E-mail: nivrutti_garud@satyam.com
Error Estimation:
For mesh convergence to the exact results the elements must be complete and
compatible. Using compatible elements mean that in the finite element problems
the displacements and their derivatives are continuous across element
boundaries. And the elemental stresses are calculated using derivatives of the
displacements and must be continuous across the element boundaries. But the
stresses obtained at an element edge (or face), when calculated in adjacent
elements may differ substantially if a course finite element mesh is used [1]. This
stress difference across element boundary decrease as the finite element mesh
is refined.
The stress jumps or stress difference across the element boundaries of the body
are of course a consequence of the fact that stress equilibrium is not accurately
satisfied unless a very fine mesh is used. Thus this stress jumps or stress
gradient across element boundaries can be used as the measure of
descretization error for a given mesh [1,2,3].
Error = ((Si(max)-SJ(min))/Smodelmax)*100
Where
Following example gives the error estimation for given four elements. Element i is
the element for which the stress is maximum and element j is element for which
stress is minimum.
Error = ((Si-Sj)/Si)*100
Element i
Element j
Error = ((Siu-Sia)/Smodelmax)*100
80
10000N on
40 20 this face.
Observation 1:
The averaged nodal stress (using PLNSOL command in ANSYS) and
unaveraged nodal stress (using PLESOL command in ANSYS) contours are
given in Figure 3 and Figure 4 respectively. It can be seen that the maximum
averaged nodal stress (using PLNSOL command) and maximum unaveraged
stress (using PLESOL command) are not at the same node location. These
stress values are at different node locations and hence can not be used directly
for error estimation. In the present work the averaged and unaveraged stress at
the same node location was considered for the error estimation.
Figure 3. Stress plot-using PLNSOL.
Conclusions:
1. Error using elemental stress gradient is more accurate method as the element
results are absolute results (No averaging is done). Also comparing this method
with nodal stress method this method is error free method and gives fairly good
error estimation. This method is also suggested in literature (Books) very
commonly.
2. Error using nodal stress has some disadvantages and gives zero error when
the node is not shared by two or more elements, hence care must be taken
before concluding the error.
3. This study does not throw any focus on accepted range of error, but gives fair
idea about error estimation. Study can be further extended to get the range of
accepted error values.
4. The methods discussed in the paper gives fair idea about importance of mesh
convergence and methods of error estimation. This will help analyst to
understand and analyze the results of his solution.
REFRENCES:
3. NAFEMS
A finite Element Primer