Patent · US Expired

Method and system for controlling hourglass deformations of solid elements in finite element analysis

US7392163B1 · kind B1 · utility

9Cited by
4References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateMar 25, 2004
Grant dateJun 24, 2008
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 8, 2026

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F30/23
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Hourglass deformations due to zero-energy or hourglass modes in rank-deficient solid elements must be effectively controlled, or the deformations may grow large and produce an unrealistic deformed geometry. Traditional methods of hourglass control allow error to accumulate by measuring hourglass deformation with incremental terms throughout a solution, which may produce inaccurate results due to unrealistic hourglass deformations. The present invention discloses a new method to control hourglass deformation without any incremental accumulations. Instead the nodal forces to resist hourglass deformations are calculated basing on the initial nodal coordinates and current nodal coordinates at each cycle. The present invention is implemented in a finite element software product.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.