Global-Local Analysis Using StressCheck, HyperMesh,

HyperView and OptiStruct

Olcay Met, HyperWorks Application Specialist, Altair Canada 550 Beaurmont #502, Montreal, QC H3N 1V1, Canada
Brent Lancaster, Principle Support Engineer, ESRD, Inc. 111 W. Port Plaza #825, St. Louis, MO 63146 USA

Abstract
Several applications in structural design involve situations where the detailed
response of a section of a large structure is of interest to the designer.
Hence designers conduct local analysis for detailed stress states for specific
structural regions using independent, refined local models which exploit
information from less-refined global models.
Global-Local Analysis with proper solution verification can be achieved by
using solely HyperWorks products. However, HyperWorks products implement
traditional h-version FEA, which involves re-meshing of the local component
to achieve convergence and is thus typically cost-prohibitive for complex
simulations.
StressCheck utilizes p-version FEA (increase element polynomial orders
instead of re-meshing), an approach which requires fewer degrees of freedom to achieve convergence and hence is much faster than the
traditional approach. Since HyperMesh can handle large models such as a full-scale aircraft, and StressCheck is ideal for component-scale
design and analysis, designers can benefit from HyperWorks-ESRD collaboration.

Global Analysis Process with HyperWorks

Global-Local analysis plays an important role in most of the design
processes. As Global-Local analysis demands, component free-body
loads are extracted from the global model in order to be transferred
to a detailed CAD of the component (or components) for Local
analysis (Figure 1).
The Global model is prepared along with necessary output requests,
solved, and post-processed via HyperWorks products (Figure 2):
HyperMesh (Pre-Processor), OptiStruct (FE Solver), and HyperView
(Post-Processor).
Finally, component free body loads, exported from HyperView to a
CSV file (Figure 3), are mapped to the target component to perform
Local Analysis via StressCheck from ESRD (Figure 4). StressCheck Figure 1
works comfortably in tandem with HyperWorks products as well as
other Altair Partner Alliance (APA) products.

Figure 2
Preparing Free Body Loads for
StressCheck
The free body loads exported from HyperView will need to be adjusted for
StressCheck:
StressChecks CSV import requires 14 columns, with the load case ID
in the 1st column, the X, Y, Z in the 2nd-4th columns, and the forces/
moments in the 9th-14th columns.
The 5th-8th columns are dummy columns for HyperView free body
loads.

Local Analysis Process with Figure 3

StressCheck
The following describes the process of mapping the component Global free
body loads to the component detailed CAD and performing a StressCheck
detailed Local stress analysis:
Import the detailed Parasolid CAD geometry file, originally exported
from HyperMesh. Parasolid is StressChecks native format, so no
translation is necessary.
Import the HyperView free body load CSV data into StressCheck,
where it will appear in the Point Loads Info table (Figure 5). Multiple
free body load cases can be imported if the Local analysis requires.
Figure 4
Then, utilize the StressCheck TLAP (Total Load At a Point) methods
to apply the pointwise free body forces/moments into statically
equivalent stress distributions (Figure 6). Note: it is not recommended
to extract results in the vicinity of the TLAP-Traction application, as
those local stresses are not meaningful. St. Venants principle still
applies to any Global-Local analysis.
Generate a reasonable mesh using the StressCheck automesher, as
shown in Figure 5. A reasonable mesh in StressCheck is the minimum
mesh necessary to represent the curvature of the geometry, as the
degrees of freedom will be increased by increasing the polynomial
order of the elements and not re-meshing. As a result, StressCheck
meshes are typically coarser than traditional FEA. Note: we could also
import a 2nd order automesh generated by HyperMesh and increase Figure 5
the polynomial order on those elements.
Apply the relevant material properties and other boundary conditions
to ensure the Local model is a representative idealization of the
Global component. Boundary conditions may be applied to surfaces
in case we decide to perform mesh refinement.
Keeping the mesh constant, use the StressCheck Linear solver to
systematically increase the polynomial level of the displacements for
all elements (Figure 7). A global error percentage will be reported by
the solver indicating the overall quality of the solution. Note: at least Figure 6
three solutions of increasing degrees of freedom on a constant mesh
are necessary to determine convergence and verify the finite element
solution.

Figure 7
Local Analysis Process with StressCheck (cont.)
When plotting stresses for models with TLAP mappings, update the
plot range such that the stresses from the TLAP application are
limited and the region(s) of peak stress can be focused. As long as
the TLAP application is not too close to the region of peak stress, the
Local model results are perfectly valid (Figure 8, red circled region).
Isolate the elements and/or element faces of the region(s) of peak
stress, and check to determine that the peak stress converges to a
limit with increasing degrees of freedom, and if the error is within
acceptable limits (Figure 9).
Figure 8
This ability to perform very efficient solution verification is a key
differentiator of StressCheck, and allows for honest design updates to
the Global assembly (if necessary).
The StressCheck Local model supports extended analyses, such as
fracture mechanics and nonlinear. A crack could be embedded at the
peak stress regions, or nonlinear properties could be assigned to the
mesh and plasticity analyzed.

Figure 9

Overall Global-Local Analysis Process

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