PROPPED CANTILEVER MESH CONVERGENCE STUDY USING HEXAHEDRAL ELEMENTS - Presentation

The Task Group on Computational Modelling for Explicit Analyses in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code committee was set up in August 2008 to develop a quantitative finite element modelling guidance document for the explicit dynamic analysis of energy-limited events. This guidance document will be referenced in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section III Division 3 and NRC Regulatory Guide 7.6 as a means by which the quality of a finite element model may be judged. In energy limited events, which the guidance document will address, ductile metallic materials will suffer significant plastic strains to take full advantage of their energy absorption capacity. Accuracy of the analyses in predicting large strains is therefore essential. One of the issues that this guidance document will address is the issue of the quality of a finite element mesh, and in particular, mesh refinement to obtain a convergent solution. That is, for a given structure under a given loading using a given type of element, what is the required mesh density to achieve sufficiently accurate results. One portion of the guidance document will be devoted to a series of element convergence studies that can aid designers in establishing the mesh refinement requirements necessary to achieve accurate results for a variety of different elements types in regions of high plastic strain. These convergence studies will also aid reviewers in evaluating the quality of a finite element model and the apparent accuracy of its results. The first convergence study consists of an elegantly simple problem of a cantilevering beam, simply supported at one end and built in at the other, loaded by a uniformly-distributed load that is ramped up over a finite time to a constant value. Three different loads were defined, with the smallest load to cause stresses that are entirely elastic and the largest load to cause large plastic deformations. Material properties, loading rates and boundary conditions were also defined. A number of the members of the Task Group analysed the problem. The results were collated and compared, and this paper presents some preliminary results of this study.