Patent ID: 7953578
Filing Date: 2011-05-31
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of limiting contact penetration in numerical simulation of non-linear response of a structure, the method comprises: defining, by an application module installed in a computer system, a finite element analysis (FEA) model of the structure based on initial geometry of the structure, wherein the FEA model includes a plurality of nodes and a plurality of elements; performing, by said application module, a time-marching implicit FEA of the FEA model, the time-marching implicit FEA results comprise a plurality of solutions of the non-linear response of the structure at respective time steps, wherein said time-marching implicit FEA results represent numerically simulated structural behavior of the structure and each of the solutions requires at least one iteration to compute and wherein the non-linear response of the structure includes an updated geometry of the structure; determining, by said application module, a search direction at each of the at least one iteration; calculating, by said application module, a contact penetration parameter (CPP) in the search direction using the non-linear response of the structure obtained in immediate prior iteration; creating, by said application module, a CPP modified search direction by limiting the search direction with the CPP such that any potential contact penetration of the structure would be minimized; and determining, by said application module, a minimum energy imbalance location along the CPP modified search direction, wherein said minimum energy imbalance location is a solution of said each of the at least one iteration.