ADAPTIVE 3D MESHING ALGORITHM FOR FEM-ANALYSIS OF BULK METAL-FORMING PROCESSES

In the numerical simulation of bulk metal forming process by the finit e element method (FEM) extremely degenerated meshes result due to high local deformation. The finite elements distort so much that they lose their regular shape. Remeshing and rezoning techniques are necessary to avoid the resulting numerical problems. For remeshing it is importa nt to create a new mesh with regular elements, and to refine the gener ated grid in dependency of geometric features. An automatic remeshing- module independent of the FE-code is developed at the Institute of Met al forming and Metal forming Machine tools (IFUM). This program create s a mesh that meets all requirements of the object by combination of a daptive meshing and optimisation of the correct grid distortion. In th is paper an algorithm to mesh complex 3D geometries with tetrahedron e lements is introduced, by taking into account the specific of metal fo rming processes and their implication in FE-Analysis.