How To Simplify Your Simulations – A Fictional Case Study

I very well could have had this conversation while doing tech support…
Dude: Well, I can see that this is some powerful software, but it’s taking a long time to solve and things shouldn’t be this complicated.

Me: Yeah… that’s a pretty… pretty big mesh. I can’t even see the part.

Me: What are you trying to study here?
Dude: The assembly. (Duhhh!)
Me: Yeah, but what about the assembly? Is there a particular part you’re worried about?
Dude: Well, now that you’ve mentioned it, I am pretty concerned about this part.

Me: Okay, we can eliminate these parts and apply equivalent forces on the faces.

Me: Alright, let’s get started! We can use a rough mesh to find the contact forces.

Me: Now, we can eliminate the top pieces from the assembly and create split lines where we would like to apply the equivalent forces.

Me: This is a perfect opportunity to use 2D simplification. Let’s create a new study.

Me: Now, we can afford a pretty heavy mesh control on the component of interest.

Me: If we go into properties and select the option for “Improve accuracy for no penetration contacting surfaces” we’ll get the same results as before with a fraction of the run time.
Dude: Thanks Nick! You’re the best!
Me: I know… I know.