Tech Briefs

Impact Analysis

A distinguishing feature in ADINA is that the elements, contact algorithms, etc. are all implemented without using any artificial factors. The use of these factors in industry generally lead to much numerical experimentation and uncertainty about the reliability and accuracy of the solution. To demonstrate ADINA's explicit modeling capabilities, we present two impact analyses.

In the first analysis, depicted in the above animation, a rigid plate impacts a steel tube at a high velocity (100 m/s). The tube has a square cross-section and is fixed at both ends, and modelled using the MITC4 shell elements with the elasto-plastic material models and large strains. Both implicit and explicit simulations were performed and the results were very similar. The explicit analysis was much faster as one would expect for such high-speed impact problems. There was no need to resort to reduced integration, hour-glass control or mass scaling.

The second analysis, depicted in the animation that follows, shows a rigid object impacting vertically a vertical steel plate, also at the same velocity of 100 m/s. Again, MITC4 shell elements, allowing for large strains and elasto-plasticity and self-contact were used.