Bead width (BEAD_WIDTH)

A geometric parameter for the stiffeners is the bead width. The optimization system automatically determines a bead width based on the element edge length and the thickness of the shell structure. Default BEAD_WIDTH=2*max(2*height_of_bead, 3.2*mean_edge_length) of the elements attached to design nodes. The user can define own values for the bead width the OPT_PARAM command.

Important: The value for the bead width is used for internal filtering. The generated beads will not have the exact width specified by the user. Because bead optimization is a very ill-posed optimization problem (many "optimal" solutions), it is recommended that a couple of optimizations are done with different BEAD_WIDTH’s.