"ERROR: Excessive distortion of element" -- how do I deal with it?

[apal21]

Hello,

A recent job exited with the error -- 'Excessive distortion of element number ... of instance ...'.

What does this mean, and how can one deal with it? Do I just increase the mesh density?

 

[FEA way]

Excessive distortion error means that some elements were deformed too much for the analysis to continue. Mesh refinement may help but it depends what causes the distortion. Maybe the load is unrealistically high and/or units are incorrect. In some cases material damage with element deletion should be added to the analysis.

Can you attach some pictures showing these distorted elements and say more about the analysis itself ?

 

[apal21]

Thanks for the offer, but I managed to work it out. I realised that I was getting the error in some poor quality mesh elements which were really skinny. So I made new sets and did a remeshing, and it worked.