Discrete beams, like discrete springs, require valid mass at the nodes to compute the timestep. Unlike continuum based elements, the length of the discrete beams, are not used in the timestep calculations. Hence realistic density in the discrete beam material model must be used. There are two methods this can be achived. Density (RHO) in…
In 2D shell elements, the stress in the normal (fiber) direction is iteratively reduced to zero to meet the plane-stress condition. The strains are however nonzero in the fiber direction and will be linear though the thickness. Under membrane straining, LS-DYNA allows an option to account for the reduction in the shell thickness in the…
In many situations, we tend to change the mesh density to study its effect on simulation responses. Two issues things that are seldom addressed are the contact thickness and the mass-scaling which blend in with the true effects of the mesh refinement. As stated in some of the earlier posts, LS-DYNA computes the contact thickness…
Default element sorting for 3-noded shell elements uses the collapsed BT formulation which is not recommended but is maintained for backward compatibility. The first option that LS-DYNA offers is to sort these elements to use a C0 triangular shell formulation which may provide better answers than the default formulation. LS-DYNA 971 (R3 and later) now…
In any wave propagation code, such as LS-DYNA, which belongs to a family of ‘Hydro’ codes, bulk viscosity is essential to treat shocks. Smooth initial data can lead into shock discontinuities and if left untreated can result in severe instabilities. LS-DYNA has the capability (performed by default) to automatically detect the shocks and treat them…
Discrete springs provide a easy way to model complicated systems by using their responses in the material definitions. This post brings attention to the way LS-DYNA handles the default behavior in tension or compress when the material input does not pass through the origin (0,0) but simply begins from origin. When only one of either…
Mass-scaling is a term that is used for the process of scaling the element’s mass in explicit simulations to adjust its timestep. The primary motivation is to change (usually increase) the global compute timestep which is limited by the Courant’s stability criteria. LS-DYNA allows two different types of mass-scaling using the DT2MS parameter from *CONTROL_TIMESTEP…
*INTERFACE_SPRINGBACK provides an easy way to store a part’s state at the end of a simulation for later use. The part’s state consists of element history variables such as stress and strain tensor (in the form of *INITIAL_STRESS/*INITIAL_STRAIN) and also nodal values such as its final coordinates (*NODE). Optionally, when using the THICKNESS option, it…
Among several simple yet powerful techniques available in LS-DYNA, switching of bodies that affects their deformability (at run time) is certainly one of them. Switching of bodies with negligible internal strains to a rigidbody at user’s specification can be useful to eliminate the calculation of element-centered variables such as stresses, which in many applications could…
Element count in finite element simulations are increasing faster than the “Moores law” used in chips. There are several reasons for this increase among which the single-model-multi-loadcase philosophy is certainly one of them. Earlier approach of building load-case-dependent models were both cumbersome, data duplication and big challenges for design change integrations. In today’s simulations, one-model…
