Application Chapter 3.

11:
Advanced Tools:
Submodeling

Fundamentals and Application of

Finite Element Method in Mechanical
Analysis
Master’s
Master’s DegreeDegree
ininNumerical
Numerical Simulation in Engineering
Simulation with Ansys with Ansys
in Engineering
© 2022 Ansys, Inc.
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - Ansys 12th EDITION
 Contents

1. Submodeling Overview 3
2. Submodeling Theory 9
3. Submodeling Procedure 14
4. Submodeling Options 23
5. Shell-Solid Submodeling Options 50

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 Contents

1. Submodeling Overview
2. Submodeling Theory
3. Submodeling Procedure
4. Submodeling Options
5. Shell-Solid Submodeling Options

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 Submodeling Overview

Current trends in simulation show an increased need for the computation of large
models.
Parallel computing of the solution of a very detailed model is not always necessary
or efficient.
You may want to use different techniques to solve your models and their variations.

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1. Submodeling Overview
 Submodeling Overview

Use reduction or acceleration techniques for faster solutions and design variations.

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1. Submodeling Overview
 Submodeling Overview

Submodeling is the solution when only a portion

of the model matters.

Start from a coarse solution and increase

accuracy only in selected areas.

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1. Submodeling Overview
 Submodeling Overview
The coarse model provides accurate deformations but
inaccurate stresses.
The refined model(s) will provide accurate stresses.
Solving two models can be faster than solving a very detailed
one.
Submodeling works for a variety of topologies and nonlinear
models as well.

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1. Submodeling Overview
 Submodeling Overview
You can perform design variations on selected areas.

Re-computation of the full model may not be

necessary for limited variations.

Rmin Rmax

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1. Submodeling Overview
 Contents

1. Submodeling Overview
2. Submodeling Theory
3. Submodeling Procedure
4. Submodeling Options
5. Shell-Solid Submodeling Options

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 Philosophy
Submodeling is a finite element technique that you can use to obtain more accurate results in a
particular region of a model. A finite element mesh may be too coarse to produce satisfactory
results in a given region of interest. The results away from this region, however, may be satisfactory.
Reanalyzing the entire model using a greater mesh refinement in order to obtain more accurate
results in one particular region is time-consuming and costly. Instead, you can use submodeling to
generate an independent, more finely meshed model of only the region (submodel) of interest and
then analyze it.

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2. Submodeling Theory
 Submodeling Theory

• Submodeling is also known as the cut-boundary displacement method. The cut

boundary is the boundary of the submodel which represents a cut through the
coarse model. Displacements calculated on the cut boundary of the coarse
model are specified as boundary conditions for the submodel.
• St. Venant's principle: if an actual distribution of forces is replaced by a statically
equivalent system, the distribution of stress and strain is altered only near the
regions of load application. The principle implies that stress concentration
effects are localized around the concentration; therefore, if the boundaries of
the submodel are far enough away from the stress concentration, reasonably
accurate results can be calculated in the submodel.

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2. Submodeling Theory
 Submodeling Theory

Advantages:
• It reduces, or even eliminates, the need for complicated transition regions in
solid finite element models.
• It enables you to experiment with different designs for the region of interest
(different fillet radii, for example).
• It helps you in demonstrating the adequacy of mesh refinements.
It is valid only for solid elements and shell elements.
The principle behind submodeling assumes that the cut boundaries are far enough
away from the stress concentration region. You must verify that this assumption is
adequately satisfied.

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2. Submodeling Theory
 Submodeling Theory
Verify the Distance Between the Cut Boundaries and the Stress Concentration: It is very important
to verify that the cut boundaries of the submodel are far enough away from the concentration. You
can do this by comparing results (stresses, magnetic flux density, etc.) along the cut boundaries with
those along the corresponding locations of the coarse model. If the results are in good agreement, it
indicates that proper cut boundaries have been chosen; otherwise, you will need to recreate and
reanalyze the submodel with different cut boundaries further away from the region of interest.

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2. Submodeling Theory
 Contents

1. Submodeling Overview
2. Submodeling Theory
3. Submodeling Procedure
4. Submodeling Options
5. Shell-Solid Submodeling Options

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 Submodeling Procedure

• Structural and thermal submodeling capabilities are available.

• Feature Includes:
• 2D , 3D, and 2D to 3D submodeling.
• Solid to Solid submodeling.
• Ability to view and perform Rigid Body Transformations of source mesh.
• Multiple weighting options for boundary conditions transfer.
• Multi-step support.

Region of
interest

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3. Submodeling Procedure
 Submodeling Procedure
• The model shown below is initially solved using a coarse mesh.
• As expected, we see stress concentrations in regions containing detailed geometry along with a coarse
mesh.
• Based on these results we choose to create a submodel to explore the region circled in more detail.

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3. Submodeling Procedure
 Submodeling Procedure
Although there are numerous geometry modeling techniques that can be used to create the
submodel, we have chosen to slice a body from the full model using the DesignModeler application.
This new body is our submodel and a more refined mesh is created in the Mechanical application.

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3. Submodeling Procedure
 Submodeling Procedure
The submodel schematic is set up as shown here:

Original Full Model

Since the full model and submodel are
comprised of different geometry, we
can’t simply drag and drop a new
structural system on to the existing one
as this would link the geometry. Instead
we create a new stand alone system
and drag the full model solution onto
the submodel’s setup cell.
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3. Submodeling Procedure
 Submodeling Procedure
After opening the new (submodel) system open
in Mechanical we can see a new “Submodeling”
branch has automatically been inserted in the
tree. If we RMB we can choose the type of
result to import (Cut Boundary Constraint in this
example).
In the details of the imported load we choose
scope to which the loads are applied. The scope
here is the cut boundaries of the submodel.
Note, there are numerous mapping options
available when transferring loads not all of
which will apply to submodeling. For a
complete discussion see the section of the
documentation covering “External Data Import”.

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3. Submodeling Procedure
 Submodeling Procedure
RMB to import the load from the full model. When
completed, the import can be reviewed graphically.

Add any additional boundary conditions to the

submodel to match those on the full model and
solve.

User can specify the time at which the data is

imported from coarse model.

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3. Submodeling Procedure
 Submodeling Procedure

Export option allows writing tab delimited data to a

file. Accessible from Imported Loads and Imported
Thicknesses.

“Export” Functionality
Nodal Data
Element Centroid Data

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3. Submodeling Procedure
 Submodeling Procedure

To ensure that the cut boundary is far enough

from the high stress region a check should be
performed to compare full and submodel
results near the cut boundary.
Full Model
Here an array of probes is used but path plots,
surface plots, etc. are options as well. We
simply want to verify that the results near the
cut boundary are not drastically different
between the full and sub models. If they are, it
is usually an indication that the boundary needs
to be moved further from the high stress region.

Submodel
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3. Submodeling Procedure
 Contents

1. Submodeling Overview
2. Submodeling Theory
3. Submodeling Procedure
4. Submodeling Options
5. Shell-Solid Submodeling Options

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 Submodeling Options

• To transfer data across a dissimilar mesh interface, the nodes of one mesh must
be mapped to the local coordinates of a node/element in the other mesh.
• Program controlled settings will use the following table to determine which type
of mapping algorithm to use based on the source and target mesh data.

Weighting that will be

Source mesh can provide Target mesh can provide
used
Uses triangulation to
Nodes only Nodes only
calculate mapping data
Uses Shape Function to
Nodes and Elements Nodes only
calculate mapping data

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4. Submodeling Options
 Submodeling Options
• Structural Submodeling: Ability to transfer displacements along cut-boundaries and body
temperatures.
• Thermal Submodeling: Ability to transfer temperatures along cut-boundaries.

Ability to see mapped data for multi-step imports

Option to override other specified constraints on common geometries selections

Ability to display All or X,Y,Z component for vector boundary conditions

Ability to see source mesh and projection plane
Choice of Program Controlled or Manual weighting options/controls

Ability to align source and target mesh (source rotations/translations)

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4. Submodeling Options
 Override Option

Two boundary conditions

applied in the same faces:

The results change depending on

the “Override Constraints” setting:

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4. Submodeling Options
 Graphic Controls

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4. Submodeling Options
 Graphic Controls

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4. Submodeling Options
 Setting Controls: Weighting
• Triangulation
• It creates intermediate triangle(2D) or tetrahedral
element on the source side.
• It uses the distance of the target node to source nodes
as interpolation weights.

• Distance Based Averaged

• It uses the distance from the target node to the
specified number of closest source node(s) to calculate
a weighting value.

• Shape Function
• It loops over the source elements and tries to locate an
element that each target node can be mapped to.
• Weights for each of the source nodes are then assigned
based on the location of the target node and the shape
function of the element.
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4. Submodeling Options
 Setting Controls: Weighting
• Kriging
• It is a regression-based interpolation technique that
assigns weights to surrounding source points according to
their spatial covariance values.

• UV
• Unlike other algorithms, UV mapping does not require the
surfaces to be coincident. This allows for mapping
between deformed and un-deformed geometries, as well
as transfers between dissimilar geometry.
• Element data is required from both the source and the
target mesh. If the source is an MAPDL CDB file containing
volumetric element data, a nodal component must also be
specified which will be used to define the surface from
which the data transfer will occur.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Setting Controls: Transfer Type
Volumetric
• Uses tetrahedrons during mapping.
• Not good for shells and surface
mapping.

Surface
• Uses triangles during mapping.
• Produces smoother contours when
mapping to shells or surfaces.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Setting Controls: Transfer Type

• Effect of mapping nodal temperature.

Volumetric mapping

Surface Transfer

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4. Submodeling Options
 Rigid Transformation
Imported vector data is transformed/rotated
• Used to apply a coordinate transformation to the
source points.
• The source locations are transformed by the coordinate
system defined by the Origin and Theta entries.
• Useful if the source points are defined with respect to a
coordinate system that is not aligned with the target
geometry system.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Legend Controls

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4. Submodeling Options
 Named Selection Creation

Option to create nodal based named selections for mapped nodes, unmapped
nodes, and outside nodes.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Advanced Options

When Mapping Control is set to Manual, the Advanced options are displayed

Advanced settings are filtered based on

the Mapping Control and Weighting type
selected in Mapping Settings

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4. Submodeling Options
 Triangulation Weighting
• Pinball Region:
• When finding the closest source points, a
bounding box is created around the target
point based on the value of the pinball.
• Any point outside of the bounding box
will not be used.
• Program Controlled calculates the
distance based on 0.05% of the source
region's bounding box size. The bounding
box will automatically resize if the
mapping is unable to find the minimum
number of points required to calculate
weighing factors.
• Limit: Number of nearby points considered for
interpolation.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Triangulation Weighting
• Outside Option: Enables you to ignore or choose a
different weighting algorithm for target points that
cannot be found within tetrahedrons/triangles.
• Distance Based Average: The mapping will use a
weighted average based on distances to the
closest Number of Points.
• Ignore: Target points will be ignored, and no
value will be applied.
• Projection: Triangles will be created from the
closest Number of Points and the target point
will be projected onto the plane relative to the
triangle surface. If the point is found inside the
triangle, the weights are calculated based on the
target’s projected location inside the triangle.
This option is available only for 3D transfers
when the Transfer Type is set to Volumetric.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Triangulation Weighting

Number of points: when Outside Option is set to Distance Based Average or

Projection, this option is available to specify how many closest source points should
be used when calculating weights. Valid range is from 1 to 8 for Distance Based
Average and 3 to 20 for Projection. Defaults to 3.

Using 3 points

Using 8 points

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4. Submodeling Options
 Triangulation Weighting
• Outside Distance Checking: when Weighting is set to
Triangulation and Outside Option is set to Distance
Based Average or Projection, this option enables you
to specify a Maximum Distance cutoff beyond which
source points will be ignored. Defaults to Off. The
maximum number of source points is limited to the
value specified by the Number of Points setting.
• Outside Option: Distance Based Average. Only
source points that lie on or within a sphere
(centered at the targets location and radius
defined by the Maximum Distance value) will
provide contributions.
• Outside Option: Projection. The algorithm only
uses triangles with centroids that lie on or inside
a sphere (centered at the targets location and
radius defined by the Maximum Distance value).

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4. Submodeling Options
 Triangulation Weighting

• Triangulation with projection for outside nodes. Projection of outside

nodes using 8 closest points.

Mapping onto surface

with default settings.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Distance Based Average Weighting

Pinball and Number of points (already explained).

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4. Submodeling Options
 Shape Function Weighting
• Scale: the scaling factor (%) determines the number of buckets
used to distribute the source elements. Defaults to 50% (2
buckets).
• Edge Tolerance: dimensionless mapping tolerance (default =
0.05).
• Pinball Control: When there is a significant distance between a
target node and the closest element, e.g. Shell-Solid
submodeling, the node and the element may not be found in the
same bucket. In order to improve mapping accuracy in such
cases, the Pinball control may be used to include additional
buckets for mapping. When a Pinball Value greater that 0 is
specified, then a bounding region is created around the target
node using the Pinball Value and all the buckets associated with
the region are used to find the appropriate element. To improve
the mapping efficiency, the search is restricted only to the
elements within the bounding region.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Advanced Options for Kriging Weighting
• Correlation Function: this property enables you to change the
mathematical function that is used to model the spatial
correlation between the sample points. Defaults to Gaussian.
• Polynomial: this property enables you to change the
mathematical function that is used to globally approximate the
sample. Defaults to Adaptive.
• Extrapolation Tolerance: used to ensure that the interpolated
value for each target point lies within specific limits.
• The tolerance is applied to the source range (based on the
source points used for each target point) to determine if the
interpolated value is satisfactory or if the data needs to be
re-interpolated by reducing the polynomial order and the
number of source points.
• Outside Distance Checking: already explained

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4. Submodeling Options
 Advanced Options for Kriging Weighting

Multi-Core Support: Kriging weighting calculations use multiple cores

providing faster results. For larger meshes utilizing 8 cores, a 6 to 7
time’s speedup can be obtained.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Advanced Options for UV Weighting
Alignment:
• Manual: The process of UV mapping involves
aligning both the source and target nodal data
from XYZ coordinates into the equivalent UV
space. To do this, the mapper needs to have
access to four alignment locations as reference
points for unfolding and flattening the nodal
information.
• These four locations are referred to as “Front
Bottom”, “Rear Bottom”, “Rear Top”, and “Front
Top”.
• Program Controlled: the associated coordinate
systems ZX plane is used in relation to the
associated mesh nodal locations.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Advanced Options for UV Weighting
Alignment: Program Controlled
• Coordinate System: one of the available
coordinate systems must be selected as a
reference point for Program Controlled alignment.
The mesh nodal data is transformed related to the
ZX plane of the selected coordinate system. A
mean Z value is determined so that the nodes can
be split into 2 groups, an upper and lower section.
The nodes in each section are then sorted based
on their X position. If there are nodes at the same
X position, these points are then sorted based on
their Z location. For the “Rear Bottom” and “Front
Bottom” points, the minimum sorted Z point will
be used, and for the “Rear Top” and “Front Top”,
the maximum Z point will be used.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Advanced Options for UV Weighting
Alignment: Manual
• Nodes: the user must list the 4 node locations in
the text entry separated by commas. The order
must be input as Front Bottom, Rear Bottom, Rear
Top, Front Top.
• Target Front-Bottom, Target Rear-Bottom, Target
Front-Top, Target Front-Top: the user must select
geometric vertices for each alignment point.

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4. Submodeling Options
 Import Load Transfer Summary

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4. Submodeling Options
 Contents

1. Submodeling Overview
2. Submodeling Theory
3. Submodeling Procedure
4. Submodeling Options
5. Shell-Solid Submodeling Options

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 Shell-Solid Submodeling Options
• Shape Function is the only available Weighting
type
• Pinball Factor: This value is used to calculate
the Pinball Value for shell-solid submodeling.
The Pinball Value is calculated by scaling the
maximum shell thickness with the Pinball Factor.
• Thickness Tolerance Factor: For shell models with
variable thickness, the gap between the target
node, and matching element may be large. Shell
Thickness Factor is used to exclude any matching
element which has a gap greater than Thickness*
Shell Thickness Factor. Thickness is the average
element thickness of the matching element.

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5. Shell-Solid Submodeling Options
 Shell-Solid Submodeling Options
• Example

• The gap between the nodes in the filleted

region is greater than the maximum shell
thickness for the model. Hence, using a
Pinball Factor equal to 1 results in nodes in
the fillet not finding appropriate matching
elements.(1) When Pinball Factor of 1.2 is
used, then additional buckets are included in
the search resulting in better mapping
results.(2)

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5. Shell-Solid Submodeling Options
 Shell-Solid Submodeling Options
• Example

Increasing the Shell Thickness Factor to

allow submodel nodes to be “found” can
produce poor submodel results as shown in
both figures. Large Shell Thickness Factor
causes the target nodes on the web region to
be matched with the base (3), whereas the
target nodes are more appropriately
matched for a smaller Shell Thickness Factor
(4).

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5. Shell-Solid Submodeling Options
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