Pyramid Element in Structural OptiStruct

Nancy Jewel Mcdonie
Nancy Jewel Mcdonie Altair Community Member
edited April 17 in Community Q&A

Hi all, 

Can anyone tell me why Pyramid element (3D element) is not used in Structural analysis in OptiStruct?

Thanks. 

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Answers

  • Adriano A. Koga
    Adriano A. Koga
    Altair Employee
    edited April 15

    it should be supported with no problems by OptiStruct

    https://2021.help.altair.com/2021/hwsolvers/os/topics/solvers/os/cpyra_bulk_r.htm

     

  • Wesley Peijnenburg
    Wesley Peijnenburg Altair Community Member
    edited April 17

    They are available, see "Example_pyramid.fem" attached to this post (Optistruct V2022.1).

     

    The example is a cantilever beam. As far as I know, there is no auto-mesher tool for pyramids, so I wrote a TCL script that assumes cubic shaped unit cells and very simple cubic geometry. 

     

    Normally pyramids are not used for structural analysis because they do not offer significant benefits in terms of accuracy or computation time. Feel free to use this example to do your own benchmarking for different element types. 

     

    However, pyramids can be useful for connecting different mesh types (mesh transition area's). In my experience I see this more in non-structural analysis types (e.g. CFD). 

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