How can I refine my finite element mesh for details in a structure?

Refining finite element mesh for details

In Sesam for fixed structures there are several features for refining the FE mesh:

The basic features for FE meshing allow full control of any part of the FE mesh by setting element size or number of elements for individual plates and lines. Mesh control lines may automatically and manually be added as required, for instance around holes. The meshing algorithms take care of the transition between areas with fine and coarse mesh and ensure a consistent mesh with no overlapping nodes or cracks in the FE mesh.

Refining a mesh for a detail may be done without affecting the surrounding mesh, i.e. using the surrounding mesh as a constraint. This both speeds up the process and ensures that the mesh outside the detail is kept unchanged. However, the surrounding mesh may also be forced to be re-meshed.

The mesh created may be manually manipulated in various ways: triangles may be dragged away from critical areas, nodes may be dragged to new positions, nodes in a regular grid may be aligned, nodes along a line may be shifted sideways, nodes and elements may be added and removed, etc.

The mesh created may be refined by splitting all elements within a regular grid in two or three. This is done by a single sweeping operation.

For a created mesh all elements within a bounding box may be refined to a given element size. The transition to the coarser mesh outside the bounding box is automatically taken care of.

Read more about offshore structural engineering software.