Numerical accuracy of linear triangular finite elements in modeling multi-holed structures

Technical Report · Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5261911· OSTI ID:5261911

Sullivan, R M; Griffen, J E

A study has been performed to quantify the accuracy of linear triangular finite elements for modeling temperature and stress fields in structures with multiple holes. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the use of these elements for the analysis of HTGR fuel blocks, which may contain up to 325 holes. Since an accurate full scale analysis was not feasible with existing methods, a representative small scale benchmark problem containing only seven holes was selected. The finite element codes used in this study were TEPC-2D for thermal analysis and SAFIRE for stress analysis. It was concluded that linear triangular finite elements are too inefficient for this application. An accurate analysis of stresses in HTGR fuel blocks will require the use of higher order elements, such as the 8-node quadrilaterals in the new TWOD code.

• Research Organization: General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AT03-76ET35300
• OSTI ID: 5261911
• Report Number(s): GA-A-15605; TRN: 80-013483
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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