Interaction Contact Convergence Issues

[grnlan03]

I have attached a .cae with the model I have been trying to run. It is a fully coupled thermal mechanical analysis of two aluminum plates that are weld about their edges. There is a uniform temperature gradient across the thickness of both plates. The central area of the plates has an interaction applied to it which is mainly described by the hard contact condition.

I am having a great deal of trouble making the model converge. I know it is related to the interaction between the two plates since when it is off it will easily converge. If someone could take a look at this it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[grnlan03]

Forgot the file it is attached

 

[corus]

The file is 6.9.3-EF so can't be opened be earlier versions of CAE.

Tata

 

[amubashar]

Just ran your problem by decreasing the initial increment size and it ran without any problem. However, I don't see any advantage of using a 3D model over a 2D model in this case. Symmetry should also be used, which would significantly decrease the size of the problem.

 

[grnlan03]

What initial increment size did you use; I tried a few different ones and could never get it to converge. Also how many iterations did it take to converge?

I am using a 3D model and non-symmetry because this model will be used for a show and tell for the higher ups and they tend to like pretty 3D models.

The 3D model also shows the stretching in the X and Y direction of the material as it expands.

Thanks for the help

 

[amubashar]

I have used X and Y symmetry in your model and also reduced the number of elements by changing global size to 0.003 (so I can run the problem in short time). The number of elements through thickness remained same as before. The initial increment size was 0.1 and model completed in 6 increments.

As far as generating pretty pictures are concerned, 2D models can be extruded and 3D models can be mirrored/copied to generate full 3D models during post processing.