Rapid re-meshing and re-solution of three-dimensional boundary element problems for interactive stress analysis

Foster, T.M.; Mohamed, M.S.; Trevelyan, J.; Coates, G.

doi:10.1016/j.enganabound.2012.02.020

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Authors

T.M. Foster

M.S. Mohamed

Professor Jon Trevelyan jon.trevelyan@durham.ac.uk
Professor

G. Coates

Abstract

Structural design of mechanical components is an iterative process that involves multiple stress analysis runs; this can be time consuming and expensive. It is becoming increasingly possible to make significant improvements in the efficiency of this process by increasing the level of interactivity. One approach is through real-time re-analysis of models with continuously updating geometry. A key part of such a strategy is the ability to accommodate changes in geometry with minimal perturbation to an existing mesh. This work introduces a new re-meshing algorithm that can generate and update a boundary element mesh in real-time as a series of small changes are sequentially applied to the associated model. The algorithm is designed to make minimal updates to the mesh between each step whilst preserving a suitable mesh quality that retains accuracy in the stress results. This significantly reduces the number of terms that need to be updated in the system matrix, thereby reducing the time required to carry out a re-analysis of the model. A range of solvers are assessed to find the most efficient and robust method of re-solving the system. The GMRES algorithm, using complete approximate LU preconditioning, is found to provide the fastest convergence rate.

Citation

Foster, T., Mohamed, M., Trevelyan, J., & Coates, G. (2012). Rapid re-meshing and re-solution of three-dimensional boundary element problems for interactive stress analysis. Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, 36(9), 1331-1343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enganabound.2012.02.020

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Mar 4, 2012
Publication Date	Sep 1, 2012
Deposit Date	Apr 16, 2012
Publicly Available Date	Jun 19, 2015
Journal	Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements
Print ISSN	0955-7997
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	36
Issue	9
Pages	1331-1343
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enganabound.2012.02.020
Keywords	Boundary element method, Meshing, Re-analysis, Linear solvers.

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Copyright Statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, 39, 9, September 2012, 10.1016/j.enganabound.2012.02.020.