Advantage of shell elements (in stead of solid)?

[JeroenDevos]

Hi,

I was wondering: what is the advantage of using shell elements if the volume can also be meshed with solid elements. Does this affect CPU time?

thanks,
Jeroen

 

[Stringmaker]

Shell elements are much more computationally efficient in many cases then solid elements would be. Typically shells are used for thin areas where stresses are predominantly caused by bending. Solid elements give better stress results however. Submodeling is a great way to take conditions from your coarse model which is shell elements and transform them into what may be more useful results by using solid elements.

-Brian

 

[Mech151]

-also, shell elements can output additional information not available from solid elements. For example, shells would facilitate computation of hoop stress...