Mesh enhancing parameters (CURV_SMOOTH and BEAD_NODE_SMOOTH)

These two parameters control the filter radius of two mesh enhancing features in SIMULIA Tosca Structure.bead.

Important: It is recommended not to change these parameters.

Curvature smoothing (CURV_SMOOTH) filters the optimization direction, so that normals in areas with high curvature do not cross, which results in poor or useless mesh. Default is 5.0, which means the filter size is 5 times the middle element edge length. In case of mesh problems try setting this value higher, eg. CURV_SMOOTH = 10.0.

The following figure shows CURV_SMOOTH for values 1.0 (a), 5.0 (b) and 10.0 (c).

The node smoothing (BEAD_NODE_SMOOTH) ensures that the optimization displacement of neighboring nodes does not become too great. This is especially an issue near boundaries or active design variable constraints. Default is 0.25*BEAD_WIDTH. Values between 0.0*BEAD_WIDTH and 0.5*BEAD_WIDTH (entered as absolute values in mm) are allowed.

The following figure shows BEAD_NODE_SMOOTH for values 0.0*BEAD_WIDTH (a), 0.25*BEAD_WIDTH (b) and 0.49*BEAD_WIDTH (c).