Viewing adaptive meshing results

After the Adaptivity iterations are complete, you can review the results of the adaptive solution in the Post Processing Navigator. These results always show the current state of your model.

You can use options in the Post Processing Navigator to create contour plots of the mesh error values, such as stress or temperature, as well as of the mesh refinement level results.

Location of adaptivity results in the Post Processing Navigator

The location of results from an adaptive analysis depends on your solver.

Solver	Location of results in the Post Processing Navigator	Example
Structural solutions with Simcenter Nastran, MSC Nastran, Abaqus, or ANSYS	Both the error norm results and the mesh refinement level results are located under the adaptivity solution node.
Structural steps within Multiphysics solutions	Both the error norm results and the mesh refinement level results are located under the Multiphysics solution node.
Thermal analyses with Simcenter 3D Thermal or thermal steps within Multiphysics solutions	The temperature error norm results are located under the thermal solution node.The mesh refinement level results are located under the adaptivity solution node.

Mesh refinement map results are always enveloped

The software envelopes the results to find the highest error values that it finds across all time steps and subcases, or across all modes in a normal modes analysis, to produce the mesh refinement map. For example, for a transient thermal analysis, the software uses the highest temperature error at any node in any time step to create the refinement map. Enveloping the results for multiple time steps or subcases ensures that the mesh that the software produces from the refinement map is suitable throughout the entire analysis.

For Multiphysics analyses that include both structural and thermal accuracy parameters, the software envelopes the highest structural error value along with the highest temperature error value to produce the refinement map. It uses that refinement map to produce a mesh that minimizes errors for both the structural and thermal solutions.

Viewing mesh refinement levels

The Mesh Refinement Level results show the following:

• The combined results for all computed error results.

• The level of refinement necessary at each node based on those computed error results.

The following graphic shows an example of a model that has not yet converged. Notice how the contour plot of the mesh refinement levels (3) shows the combined effects of both the strain energy and stress error result.

(1) Strain energy error norm results (2) Stress error norm results (3) Mesh refinement level results

When a solution converges, all mesh refinement levels are equal to 1.

Learn more

Adaptive meshing

Adaptive meshing workflow

Supported solution types for adaptive meshing

Pre-processing requirements for adaptive meshing

Specifying accuracy parameters for adaptive meshing

Specifying the mesh parameters for adaptive meshing

Singularities in adaptive meshing

Understanding the adaptive refinement process

Excluding parts of the model from adaptive meshing

Refining specific parts of an adaptive mesh

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Viewing adaptive meshing results, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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