meshing for fracture analysis

Hello, I am a new user who has just started learning Salome Meca.

I started studying this tool after hearing that Salome Meca is capable of simulating even post-fracture behavior of materials.

I’m learning with the help of ChatGPT, and I have the following question:


To observe deformation after fracture, I heard that the mesh must be generated using MG-Tetra.

In particular, I was told to select ‘Second Order 3D’ or ‘Quadratic 3D Elements’ using the “+” tab in Add. Hypothesis, but the “+” tab is not enabled no matter what I do.

The only way I could activate the “+” tab was by adding Viscous Layers in Add. Hypothesis, but even then, the options mentioned above do not appear.

How can I enable and use these elements?

Or, to perform fracture + post-fracture simulation, should I use a different meshing method altogether?

Hi,

MG-Tetra requires a commercial licence. You should better use Netgen 1D2D. Tick Second order to generate quadratic elements.

You can also convert an existing mesh to quadratic via the menu Modification> Convert to quadratic.

If you need more help about fracture analysis with Salome_Meca, you can ask on the dedicated forum.

Best regards,

Christophe