Copyright 2010

Twin Cities
ANSYS

User Meeting
November 2010
Nonlinear Convergence
Content by Epsilon FEA, LLC
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Types of Nonlinearities
1. High Deformation (NLGEOM)
2. Contact
3. Material
Types of Non-Convergence
1. Element shape distortion
2. Contact Status
3. Residuals Exceeds Allowable
How to Fix it
1. Pinpoint the source of instability
2. Twelve Case Studies
3. Leverage Experience
Nonlinear Convergence
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Types of Nonlinearities
1. High Deformation (NLGEOM)
2. Contact
3. Material
Stiffness Matrix is built using material moduli and geometry
As the geometry (coordinates) changes, so does the K Matrix
For each iteration, a new stiffness matrix is made based on the previous
iterations deflections.
F= KX
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1. High Deformation (NLGEOM) Contact
2. Contact
3. Material
Contact is enforced with springs
After each iteration, a new guess is made for activation/location of
springs and the corresponding stiffness (penalty method)
Types of Nonlinearities
F= KX
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Types of Nonlinearities
1. High Deformation (NLGEOM)
2. Contact
3. Material
Stiffness Matrix is built using material moduli and geometry
After each iteration, a new material stiffness is computed
F= KX
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1. Element Distortion
2. Contact
3. Material
With high deformation (NLGEOM), node locations are updated with
deflections
Element shapes changes accordingly
New element shape no longer is acceptable
Convergence Failures
R E S T A R T I N F O R M A T I O N
REASON FOR TERMINATION. . . . . . . . . .ERROR IN ELEMENT FORMULATION
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1. High Deformation (NLGEOM) Contact
2. Contact
3. Material
Contact status changes endlessly (aka chattering)
Gets in activation/deactivation loop on set of springs
Closed > Open > Closed > Open >
Often just 2 20 elements are the offenders
Internal contact algorithm doesnt recognize the repetition
ANSYS can just keep grinding away at it
Convergence Failures
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1. High Deformation (NLGEOM)
2. Contact
3. Residuals Exceed allowable
Estimate is made for materials and geometry giving [K
1
]
Assumes some contact status
Assumes some point on the material curve
A resulting [K
1
]
-1
[F] gives a resulting [X
1
]
A resulting [K
1
][X
1
] gives a resulting [F
1
]
Error Norm compares [F
1
] to boundary condition [F]
Norm results in a single scalar (purple line)
Norm compared to criteria (blue line)
F= KX
Convergence Failures
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1. High Deformation (NLGEOM)
2. Contact
3. Residuals Exceed allowable, contd
Norm compare [F
1
] to boundary condition [F]
New estimate is made for [K
2
]
Updated contact
Updated Geometry
Updated moduli
Default is Newton Raphson method
Interpolates/extrapolates linearly based on previous
iteration
Cycle repeats to [K
n
] until the error norm is less than criteria
Convergence depends on the quality of each new estimate [K
n
]!!
F= KX
Convergence Failures
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How to Fix it
Pinpoint Location of instability
Debug on coarse/simplified model
Interpret output from solver
View the unconverged solution
In classic, read in set 999999
Leverage diagnostics to find offending
elements
Show distorted elements
Store Newton Raphson Residuals
Has to be set before solving
NLDIAG,NRRES,ON
A lone hotspot will usually dominate
the norm.
Set to non-zero #
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How to Fix it
12 Case Studies
1. DOF Exceeded at 1
st
Substep
2. Identical Bisections
3. Small Time Step Fails
4. Changing Contact Status
5. Contact Penetration
6. Large Plastic Strain Increments
7. Element Distortion
8. DOF exceeded at nth Substep (contact)
9. DOF exceeded at nth Substep (material)
10. Residuals too High (contact)
11. Residuals too High (material)
12. Arc-Length Method (material)
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DOF Exceeded at 1
st
Substep
Not really a convergence failure
Numerical Instability
Caused by singular matrix
Unconstrained problem
Problem setup is flawed you forgot something!
Check BCs, Loads, Materials
Case Study 1
*** WARNING *** CP = 25.366 TIME= 15:26:06
There are 6 small equation solver pivot terms.
*** ERROR *** CP = 25.381 TIME= 15:26:06
The value of UX at node 29 is 854093480. It is greater than the
current limit of 1000000. This generally indicates rigid body motion
as a result of an unconstrained model. Verify that your model is
properly constrained.
*** ERROR *** CP = 24.789 TIME= 15:24:17
A small negative equation solver pivot term has been encountered at the
UZ degree of freedom of node 20. Check for an insufficiently
constrained model.
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DOF Exceeded at 1
st
Substep
Run on simplified model must find the source
Switch to linear materials
Switch to bonded contact
Unselect whole components
If simplification isnt easy, theres a few old tricks:
1. Add a few random DOF constraints to view a converged substep
2. Add weak springs
Occasionally this all thats needed
Be careful! (Kinda bad form, but its not uncommon)
3. Run thermal expansion case view deflections
4. Run modal extraction view deflections
Case Study 1, Contd
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Identical Bisections
Newton Raphson estimates for [K
n
] are not changing!
Often is caused by stepped loading (rather than ramped)
A bisection in time is a bisection in ramped loads
If load is step applied, bisection has no benefit
Ramped vs. Stepped controlled by KBC
Default is ramped
Constraint Equations (CEs) enforced
deflection are stepped!
Contact interference defaults to
ramped
Maybe its set to stepped via
KEYOPTION 9?
Might Try Arc-Length Method
Case Study 2
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Small Time Step Fails
Could be gross over-application of loads
Unit problem orders of magnitude greater loading
If it doesnt converge at time = 0.05 it probably wont
If it doesnt converge at time =0.01 it almost definitely wont
New estimate is made for [K
n
]
Updated contact
Updated Geometry
Updated moduli
Default is Newton Raphson method
Interpolates/extrapolates linearly based on previous iteration
Cycle repeats to until the error norm is less than criteria
Case Study 3
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Changing Contact Status
AKA Chattering
Gets in activation/deactivation loop on set of springs
Closed > Open > Closed > Open >
Often just 2 20 elements are the offenders
Rare in recent versions of ANSYS
Subtle changes in mesh can perturb
solution off instability point
Alter FKN by 5-10X lower.
Verify acceptable penetration
Case Study 4
6 CONTACT POINTS HAVE CHANGE OF CONTACT STATUS
FORCE CONVERGENCE VALUE = 10.64 CRITERION= 0.2110E-01
EQUIL ITER 1 COMPLETED. NEW TRIANG MATRIX. MAX DOF INC= -0.3872E-02
LINE SEARCH PARAMETER = 0.5447 SCALED MAX DOF INC = -0.2109E-02
6 CONTACT POINTS HAVE CHANGE OF CONTACT STATUS
FORCE CONVERGENCE VALUE = 7.734 CRITERION= 0.2109E-01
EQUIL ITER 2 COMPLETED. NEW TRIANG MATRIX. MAX DOF INC= -0.6622E-03
LINE SEARCH PARAMETER = 1.000 SCALED MAX DOF INC = -0.6622E-03
FORCE CONVERGENCE VALUE = 0.8278 CRITERION= 0.2098E-01
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Contact Penetration
Not really a convergence failure
Rare failure in recent ANSYS versions
Look for unrealistically constrained over penetration
Like a 2 press fit on a 3 dia. Pipe
Look for unrealistically soft FKN (like < 0.0001)
Default is 1.0
Look for manually set FTOLN to small value (like 0.01)
Default is 0.2 (meaning roughly 20% of element depth)
Remember to leverage restarts
Make changes and restart from last good substep
Case Study 5
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Large Plastic Strain Increments
Not really a convergence failure
Max plastic strain increment defaults to 15%
Thats pretty large for path-dependent problem
Rare failure
Large strain increment usually results in element shape error first
Look for unrealistic material model (unit problem?)
Take smaller steps while applying load
Hard to imagine increasing CUTCONTROL beyond 15%...
Case Study 6
*** NOTE *** CP = 163.193 TIME= 10:35:56
The incremental plastic strain computed in this iteration is larger than the
criterion of 15% leading to bisection. You may try incrementing the load
more slowly by increasing the number of substeps or use the CUTCONTROL
command to re-specify this criterion.
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Element Distortion
Common Failure
Smaller time steps often fixes this
Look for unrealistic loads (unit problems)
Pinpoint offending elements
Use NLDIAG to locate offending elements
Future ANSYS version will specify offending elements
Simplify problem Unselect components/regions
Do element shape checking on previous iteration or unconverged solution
Mixed U-P Formulation (Keyoption 6 for SOLID186)
Magic Bullet!
Longer solutions (25% or so?)
Adds pressure DOF to each element to prevent collapsing
Case Study 7
R E S T A R T I N F O R M A T I O N
REASON FOR TERMINATION. . . . . . . . . .ERROR IN ELEMENT FORMULATION
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Element Distortion, contd
Switch to Explicit Analysis (Autodyne/LS-Dyna)
Short duration or stead state only
Change the original mesh
Improve element quality
In Workbench switch shape checking to aggressive mechanical
Skew original mesh to allow for known directional deformation
Mesh Morphing
Emerging Technology. (Proceed with skepticism in 3D).
Terrific Article in PADTs Focus (Eric Miller) images below
Case Study 7
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DOF exceeded at nth Substep (contact)
Look for pass-through of contact surfaces
Increase pinball region (little cost to have very large pinball)
Use displacement-based BCs rather than Force-based
Use STABILIZE command to impede large deflections
Use weak springs to impede large deflections
Look for problems in load application / stability
See images for example
Case Study 8
DOF Error
?
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DOF exceeded at nth Substep (material)
Use displacement-based BCs rather than Force-based
Analysis goal if running out to plastic failure
Represents material failure
Modeling actual failure is usually
done with explicit (e.g. LS-DYNA)
Try Arc-Length Method (See Case 12)
Approach failure to sufficient accuracy
Example (right): failure is around 990 lbf
Case Study 9
?
DOF Error
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
160%
965 970 975 980 985 990
Load vs. Strain
Load
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Residuals Too High (contact)
Very Common!
Smaller time steps (shouldnt take more than 20)
If fails at <5% load, it likely will never make it
Soften contact stiffness (FKN) to 0.01
Magic Bullet!
Default stiffness is quite aggressive (to avoid user error)
Check for acceptable contact penetration
(with 0.01 stiffness typical penetration is <0.0005 for metal)
Case Study 10
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Residuals Too High (contact) contd
Pinpoint the offending location
Look at last converged solution as well as unconverged (999999)
Check status/penetration/pressure
View the residuals of the unconverged load step
NLDIAD,NRRES,ON
Case Study 10
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Residuals Too High (contact) contd
Examine the location of high residuals often solution is apparent
Look for regions to set to bonded contact
Soften contact stiffness (FKN) for just a few elements
Make new contact pair for small location
Switch to symmetric contact
Refine/alter the mesh
Switch to penalty method
Higher penetration than Augmented Lagrange
Switch to contact detection at nodes
Switch to spurious contact detection
Use U Convergence instead of F(orce).
Best to turn on F convergence to stabilize final state
Loses some path-dependent accuracy
Case Study 10
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Residuals Too High (material)
Very Common!
Smaller time steps (shouldnt take more than 20)
If fails at <5% load, then it likely will never make it!
Pinpoint the offending location
View the residuals of the unconverged load step (see Case 10)
Try alternate material models
Different models may have nearly identical results, but converge
easier. (such as hardening model, vs. strain energy model).
Simplify the material model should I really bother with a
9-parameter Curve fit?
Case Study 11
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Residuals Too High (material) contd
Switch to Linear Material for offending elements if they are not critical
Especially singularities
Try VT Accelerator
Requires extra licensing (HPC)
See PADTs Focus article (image right)
Only effective for some material models
Be SURE you understand the material model
Check a given nodal stress/strain
Remember to use the unaveraged or element results
Build simple block test case
Should match hand-calcs
Look for unit errors
Case Study 11
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Arc-Length Method (Material)
A few classes of problems are unsuited for
Newton Raphson
Arc-length method is alternative algorithm
to develop new [K
n
]
See PADTs Focus article for details
Case Study 12
Arc-Length
Method
Newton Raphson
Method
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Contact : Rod Scholl, Principal Analyst
[email protected]
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Leverage Expertise
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Discussion