Patent ID: 9607115
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A method of reporting realistic kinetic energy of a multi-part finite element analysis (FEA) model, the method comprising: receiving a finite element analysis (FEA) model in a computer system having a FEA application module installed thereon, the FEA model representing an automobile having a plurality of parts with one or more nodal lumped masses defined therein to ensure realistic mass distribution, wherein the FEA model contains a plurality of finite elements, each of the parts is represented by at least one finite element, and each of the finite elements is associated with an element mass; identifying, by the FEA application module, which finite elements in the FEA model are to receive one or more added mass contributions from the defined nodal lumped masses; allocating, by the FEA application module, each of the nodal lumped masses into a plurality of portions in accordance with predefined rules for various sharing situations of the identified finite elements, such that said allocated portions are accumulated as a corresponding added mass contribution to respective ones of the identified finite elements that share said each of nodal lumped masses, wherein the predefined rules are based on a ratio of the element mass and a sum of element masses of all finite elements that share said each of the nodal lumped masses; obtaining, by the FEA application module, numerically-simulated structural responses of the automobile by conducting a time-marching simulation using the FEA model having the added mass contribution included in the identified finite elements, the structural responses including nodal velocities at each solution cycle; and reporting, by the FEA application module, a total kinetic energy of said each of the parts by summing up kinetic energy of all finite elements representing said each of the parts, the kinetic energy of each of the finite elements is calculated using the obtained structural responses together with the corresponding element mass and the added mass contribution for said each of the finite elements.