Hello,
I think analysts in industry tend to shy away from using quadratic tetrahedrals and advocate meshing the whole model with bricks even if it takes 2+ weeks. As far as accuracy goes Comparing the shape functions, quadratic tetrahedral elements are just as (or more) accurate as a linear brick element. I understand that computation time is a concern, but I believe the extra time spent brick meshing the whole model would be better served doing the analysis and debugging. Some people also advocate doing a hybrid (brick and tetrahedral model, but I'm not so sure that doing this is a good idea because it could cause discontinuities in the nodal solutions (due to discontinuities in the shape functions).
What are the feelings of other people on this board concerning this subject?
Regards
MMATguy
I think analysts in industry tend to shy away from using quadratic tetrahedrals and advocate meshing the whole model with bricks even if it takes 2+ weeks. As far as accuracy goes Comparing the shape functions, quadratic tetrahedral elements are just as (or more) accurate as a linear brick element. I understand that computation time is a concern, but I believe the extra time spent brick meshing the whole model would be better served doing the analysis and debugging. Some people also advocate doing a hybrid (brick and tetrahedral model, but I'm not so sure that doing this is a good idea because it could cause discontinuities in the nodal solutions (due to discontinuities in the shape functions).
What are the feelings of other people on this board concerning this subject?
Regards
MMATguy