Specifying ALE adaptive mesh controls for an Abaqus/Standard analysis

You use the Edit ALE Adaptive Mesh Controls dialog box to customize various aspects of the adaptive meshing and advection algorithms applied to an adaptive mesh domain. For more information, see ALE adaptive meshing and remapping in Abaqus/Standard.

  1. From the main menu bar, select OtherALE Adaptive Mesh ControlsCreate.

    A Create ALE Adaptive Mesh Controls dialog box appears.

  2. In the dialog box, type a name for the ALE adaptive mesh controls, and click Continue.

    The Edit ALE Adaptive Mesh Controls dialog box appears.

  3. Click the arrow to the right of the Smoothing algorithm field, and select a method for calculating adaptive mesh smoothing:

    • Select Determined by analysis product to accept the default for the analysis product you are using (in this case, Abaqus/Standard).

    • Select Enhanced algorithm based on evolving geometry to use geometrically enhanced forms of the basic smoothing algorithms as a technique to mitigate distortion. These forms are heuristic and based on nodal locations only. Due to their heuristic nature, geometric enhancements may not always improve the mesh smoothing.

    • Select Conventional smoothing to use the conventional forms of the smoothing algorithms.

    For more information on adaptive mesh smoothing, see The ALE adaptive mesh sweeping algorithm.

  4. Calculation of the new mesh in Abaqus/Standard is based on some combination of two basic smoothing methods: original configuration projection smoothing and volume smoothing. You must specify the weighting factor for each method in the Volumetric and Original configuration projection fields. For more information, see Combining smoothing methods.

  5. In the Initial feature angle field, enter the initial geometric feature angle, θI, in degrees (0∘≤θI≤180∘). This angle is used to detect geometric edges and corners. The default value is θI=30∘. Setting θI=180∘ will ensure that no geometric edges or corners are detected or enforced.

    For more information, see Controlling the detection of geometric edges and corners.

  6. In the Transition feature angle field, enter the transition geometric feature angle, θT, in degrees (0∘≤θT≤180∘). This angle is used to determine when geometric edges and corners should be deactivated to allow remeshing across them. The default value is θT=30∘. Setting θT=0∘ will ensure that no geometric edges or corners are deactivated.

    For more information, see Controlling the activation and deactivation of geometric edges and corners.

  7. Click OK to save the named set of controls and to close the editor.