An FE mesh refinement can be used to influence the generation of an FE mesh for a specific area in order to increase the result accuracy or to reduce the calculation time, for example.
If there is no mesh refinement defined, the global mesh settings apply to the model. However, you can use the mesh refinements to mesh important areas in order to achieve a more precise discretization in a connection area, for example. A mesh refinement may influence the result accuracy or the calculation time. Thus, you can reduce the number of finite elements to achieve a shorter calculation time, or increase the number of finite elements in a region to increase the accuracy of the results.
Usage in Program
In principle, there are four different types of FE mesh refinements available in the program:
- Nodal Mesh Refinement – refinement areas around a node
- Line Mesh Refinement – refinements along a line
- Surface Mesh Refinement – refinements on a surface
- Solid Mesh Refinement – refinements in a solid
It is recommended to perform the analysis of FE mesh quality on a model in order to examine the impact of the FE mesh size on the result. Thus, you can find the optimum between the required accuracy and the computing time.