Apply adaptive mesh refinement

Adaptive mesh refinement is an automated way to apply local mesh refinement. This option is available for the following study types:

  1. Click settings icon (Simulation workspace > Setup tab > Manage panel > Settings) to open the Settings dialog.

  2. In the Settings dialog, select Adaptive Mesh Refinement from the left column to access the Adaptive Mesh Refinement settings in the right column.

  3. Move the slider to enable an appropriate level of adaptive mesh refinement. The options are:

    • None - disables adaptive mesh refinement. This is the default setting.
    • Low, Medium, or High - increasing the level of refinement has the following effects on the preset settings:
      • The Maximum Number of Mesh Refinements increases.
      • The Results Convergence Tolerance decreases.
      • The Portion of Elements to Refine increases.
    • Custom - activates the individual input fields in the dialog so that you can specify your own custom refinement settings.

  4. Click OK to accept the changes and close the dialog.

Refinement Settings

Refinement setting Action Study Type
Maximum Number of Mesh Refinements Set the maximum number of mesh refinement and solution iterations you want the program may attempt, to prevent excessive analysis times. Good results are generally achieved in < 8 refinement steps. All
Results Convergence Tolerance (%) Set a % tolerance below which no further refinement should occur. The smaller the value, the more accurate the result, but the longer the analysis.

Important: The Maximum number of mesh refinements takes precedence over the Results Convergence Tolerance %.		 All
Portion of Elements to Refine (%) Set a % of elements to refine. This refers to elements in critical regions of the model. For example, at 5%, only the those elements in the top 5% with regard to the critical result are refined. - Static stress - Thermal - Thermal stress
Frequency Mode Specify which vibration mode to use as the basis of the refinement process. Modal frequencies
Results for Baseline Accuracy Select an option from the drop-down list. The options depend on the study type:

- von Mises Stress This option is the default for assessment of the mesh/results accuracy. von Mises stresses are compared for each iteration. This option is appropriate when you are comparing equivalent stresses to the yield strength of the material as a failure criterion.

- 1st Principal Stress Choose this option to base the mesh/results accuracy assessment on the 1st principal stresses. This option is appropriate when you are comparing principal stresses to the ultimate tensile strength of the material as a failure criterion and the critical stresses are tensile (positive).

- 3rd Principal Stress Choose this option to base the mesh/results accuracy assessment on the 3rd principal stresses. This option is appropriate when you are comparing principal stresses to the ultimate tensile strength of the material as a failure criterion and the critical stresses are compressive (negative).

- Displacement, Total Choose this option to base the mesh/results accuracy assessment on the total displacements. Generally, displacement results converge more easily than stress results do. Therefore, comparing the stress results between iterations is generally more conservative.

- Heat Flux Choose this option to base the mesh/results accuracy assessment on the heat flux results.

- Temperature Choose this option to base the mesh/results accuracy assessment on the temperatures.		 - Static stress - Thermal - Thermal stress
Parent page: Adaptive Mesh Refinement