In StressCheck, Triangle (3-sided) elements and Quadrilateral (4-sided) elements are available for meshing geometric surfaces and curves for subsequent engineering simulations. The following are the requirements (and limitations) for using Triangle and/or Quadrilateral elements in Planar, Extrude, Axisymmetric and 3D analyses.

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In order to generate an automatic mesh (automesh) for a sheet or solid body, at least one global MeshSim automesh record must be active and associated with the sheet or solid body. The MeshSim automesh inputs depend on the version of StressCheck.

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The "Size/Local Size" parameter is typically the absolute size of the elements in and around the assigned point/curve/surface after Local automeshing (Create > Mesh > Local/Local Size).

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When automeshing a complex 3D solid body, the goal should always be to use the minimum mesh refinement, combined with p-extensions, to converge in the data of interest in as few degrees of freedom (DOF) as possible.

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Before we explore the answer to this question, let’s review a two important definitions regarding finite element method implementations: Mapping and Isoparametric Elements.

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In general, it is recommended not to exceed a polynomial level (p-level) of p = 5 when solving a model with quadratically mapped (i.e. "Isoparametric" or "Isopar") elements.

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To delete all automesh objects (elements and nodes) without deleting a global automesh record use Select > Mesh > Auto and click Delete:

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When CAD files imported into StressCheck have very small geometric features, these are sometimes suppressed by the MeshSim automesher, resulting in elements not associated with the geometric surfaces in regions near the small features.

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In some cases, the MeshSim automesher may fail and provide the following error message (or similar): "MeshSim meshing error. Problem meshing face 1464095 at (0.059494844831943255, 0.14298635089067505, -0.011241197933960261)"

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When extracting stress intensity factors (SIF's or K's) along a crack front that has been automeshed with tetra elements, the recommendation is to have two layers of refinements close to each other to reduce the aspect ratio of the tetras in the region of extraction; this mesh refinement strategy will minimize the mapping effect in the results and is applicable both for SIF and J-integral extractions.

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