Shell element size and thickness

Hi Vij,

I don't see a relationship between element thickness and size of the element for a linear static analysis.

There is a thumb rule that if the total thickness of the component is 1/10th or more of the length or size of the component it is desirable to use shell elements. For instance, a thin sheet metal.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes my model follows the thumb rule. 

To decide modelization of your part, you have to examine the behavior of your real part, not on the size of finites elements.

So if your part has thickness of 6mm and its small dimension is about 100mm for example, you could consider that your part has 'shell behavior'.

Again, it's you and only you could decide in which direction you have to go /emoticons/default_smile.png' alt=':)' srcset='/emoticons/smile@2x.png 2x' width='20' height='20'>

Perhaps see page 95 section 9.3 of the HyperWorks student guide, the topic about how to choose element type.