garymostyn,
Thanks for the reply.
When you have the strains/stresses from your FEA model, did you happen to have a chance to compare the values to physical test data? If so, how did the values compare? Was there any correlation?
Thanks in advance.
I have found that the hydrodynamic elements in ALGOR work pretty well for what it sounds like you are trying to accomplish. They are elements which have no shear modulus. You can assign a density, and a young's modulus.
Hope this is helpful.
I was having a discussion with some collegues concerning caoting a brick or tet mesh with plate elements. Their opinion was that it was the only way to get accurate surface stresses. In my opinion, coating the model with plates (even if very, very thin) would not result in correct stresses...
