Simulating membrane of kite

[PJDC]

Hi!

I want to simulate the structure of a flexible kite. It's made out of a solid tube connected to a membrane.
I'm struggling with obtaining a successful simulation with realistic kite thickness (0.08 mm).
When using thicknesses of that are much larger, I get a solution.
The error I'm getting is in attachment.
The membrane is modelled as shell homogeneous elements connected via a Tie constraint to the tube. I'm doing steady simulations.
Anyone has an idea what could be the issue or what could solve this?

Thanks!

 

[BrianE22]

Guessing the membrane is flexing too much at the connection points to the tee and so the software invalidates the modeling. Can you stiffen the membrane at the connections to the tee? Or try making the tee less stiff?

 

[PJDC]

I've now partitioned the front part of the membrane (where it is connected to the tube). I made the front part stiffer (x 10) and increased the thickness (x 10). I also tried to make the tube less stiff (x 1/10). I managed to go to a slightly thinner membrane structure but still nowhere near the realistic values. I again get the same error (LE elements distorted excessively...)

 

[FEA way]

It can be caused by tie constraint. Disable its adjustment or make sure that the tolerance is not too large.

 

[PJDC]

I've played around with the settings of the constraint. Don't really know what's used in practice. Currently my settings look lie this (master is surface, slave is node set).

 

[FEA way]

Disable the "Adjust slave surface initial position" checkbox and see if this helps.