Patent Document ID: 9098657
Application ID: 13760005
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of numerically simulating structural behaviors of a product in an impact event comprising: receiving, in a computer system having a finite element analysis (FEA) application module installed thereon, a FEA model representing the product to be used in a time-marching simulation of an impact event, the FEA model being organized in one or more groups of finite elements with each group, identified by a part identifier (ID), representing one of the product's parts and the FEA model being configured with one or more contact surface definitions, wherein each of the contact surface definitions comprises at least one of the groups; determining which one or ones of the groups containing quadratic finite elements; creating a new group for each determined group; associating the newly created group with a unique part ID based on said each determined group's part ID; generating contact segments for the newly created group in accordance with a set of predefined rules for subdividing one or more geometric shapes associated with the quadratic finite elements in said each determined group; assigning element properties to said newly created group based on said quadratic finite elements' properties in said each determined group; updating the contact surface definitions by replacing said each determined group with the newly created group; and obtaining simulated structural behaviors of the product by conducting the time-marching simulation in the computer system using the FEA model along with the updated contact surface definitions for detecting contacts amongst the parts due to the impact event.