Nonlinear FEA

Tips & Tricks

1 2013 ANSYS, Inc. December 28, 2015 Release 14.0

 Introduction
F F
Linear structures Hookes Law: F = Ku
u K
K
u
F KT
Nonlinear structures:

u
Geometric 3 types of nonlinearities Contact

Material

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 Gradual implementation of nonlinearities

When does
divergence
occur!?! In case of non
convergence
Converged!!!
Analyze the last
Analyze results
Converged!!! Converged Substep
Analyze results
Converged!!!
Analyze results

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 Technical verifications
Contact Type Iterations Normal Behavior (Separation) Tangential Behavior (Sliding)
Bonded 1 No gaps No Sliding Linear contacts
No Separation 1 No gaps Sliding Allowed
Frictionless Multiple Gaps Allowed Sliding Allowed
Non Linear
Rough Multiple Gaps Allowed No Sliding
Frictional Multiple Gaps Allowed Sliding Allowed contacts

Technical verifications that should be done or prepared before the solve:

Contact tool (initial information about contacts and their real constants),
Newton-Raphson Residuals (to isolate the problem),trackers
During the solve: Check the different Solver Output data

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 Technical verifications
After applying the Boundary conditions, the user has a good idea on
how the structure will respond. The Max DOF Increment, which is the
largest change detected in the Degree of Freedom of interest over the
last two equilibrium iterations, is a very good indicator. The user can
check if this indicator is compatible with the applied load. Additionally,
in order to converge, the Max DOF Increment must be stabilized.

Newton-Raphson Residuals
give a graphic identification
of the zones where the
equilibrium between
external and internal loads
is not achieved

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 Technical verifications
Trackers: live tracking to review substep results during run on deformation & contacts

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 Auto Time stepping & Line Search
The first thing to try for all non linearities is to apply the load incrementally. Convergence
can be achieved much easier if the initial external loads were lower and increased gradually.

The initial loads are divided

by Initial Substeps
If the convergence is
achieved more easily, we
F
allow the solver to divide
the loads by Minimum
Substeps
F1 F1 = F/20
max Fn = F/2 If the convergence is more
min Fn = F/100 complicated, we allow the
ustart u solver to divide the loads by
Maximum Substeps

The Line Search can help the model to

converge. Using it is very advisable

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 Contact nonlinearities
You find below the recommended
parameters of a Non Linear contact
We must pay attention to the choice of the Contact and the Target.
Concave (C) vs plane or convexe (T)
Fine mesh (C) vs coarse mesh (T)
Flexible (C) vs rigid (T)
Small surface (C) vs big surface (T)
Lower order (edge) (C) vs Higher order (surface) (T)
The Lagrange coefficient , which is calculated by the solver, is
added to control the springs restoring force ; = +
Allows the user to control the springs stiffness by adding a
multiplier factor FKN; = +
We can reduce the stiffness by putting for instance 0.1, 0.01
instead of 1 to help the convergence but the penetration should be
reviewed and validated. Otherwise, if less penetration is seeked we
can increase the stiffness by putting for example 10, 100, 1000
If the pinball is not large enough to detect the Target surface when
the Contact nodes are penetrating it. We must put a manual radius
It depends on the situation:
Adjust to Touch: project the Contact nodes to the Target
important when not cleaned geometry, at t=0 the contact is closed
Add offset, Ramped Effects is better for NL contacts
A positive offset value allows Shrink-fitting modelisation
A negative value allows to add a gap
Add offset, No Ramping is not advisable for NL contacts
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 Material nonlinearities

For material nonlinearity, we can

deactivate the non linear effet on
one or more bodies as shown here

We must pay attention to the Unit System when entering the points coordinates in a plastic law

For a Multilinear material law, the values entered for the deformation correspond to the plastic deformation

The ratios between the tangent modulus and the Young modulus must not exceed 100

For high order plasticity, we must use the true stress-strain data rather than the engineering stress-strain data

For both Multilinear and Bilinear laws, the slope of the last line defining material behavior must not be too low

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 Some error messages

An oscillating convergence plot indicates a Contact

Stiffness problem

- Review Newton Raphson Residuals

- Post Process the available results
- If it concerns a contact region,
contact definition shall be reviewed.
- Try to originally distort the mesh to
get a better element quality in the end

- Initialize the loading with a small displacement to

prevent non-convergence crash and get a result to
post-process and check what is going wrong.
- For contact-only constrained parts, run a Static
Standard Gravity first and post-process contact
status, or run a modal analysis. 9
 Guideline summaries
Do not add all the nonlinearities at the same time, post process gradually the results to a better understanding

Try to add more substeps and analyse the evolution of the convergence with the different substeps numbers

Use the trackers for the problematic contacts to track some strategic points deformations

Turn on at least 3 or 4 Newton-Raphson Residuals before running the solve in the solution information

Verify all the Solution Output data and check for warning and error messages

Always verify the contacts initial information and the choice of contact and target sides for NL contacts. Review
slide 7 for the different parameters. Think of reducing the FKN in order to help for convergence and check
the penetration value on the contact results.
Use aggressive shape checking for nonlinear contact problems.

More information on the Customer Portal:

- NL Generalities
- NL Materials
- NL Contacts

Customer Trainings and Registration:

- http://www.ansys.com/Ansys/en_us/Support/Training+Center

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