Lecture 13

Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian
(ALE) Method 14.5 Release

ANSYS LS-DYNA
in Mechanical APDL
2012 ANSYS, Inc. February 5, 2013 1 Release 14.5
 Objectives
This lecture presents the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method in
ANSYS LS-DYNA.
Topics:
A. Overview
B. Applications
C. Required Procedure
D. Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian Workshop

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 A. Overview
ANSYS LS-DYNA supports the ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian) method. As
the name implies, it is a cross between the Lagrangian and Eulerian methods.
Until now, this seminar has concentrated on the Lagrangian method, in which
an element deforms under load and the material within the confines of an
element boundary remain within that element boundary. The mass of each
element is constant. This is the workhorse element formulation in both
ANSYS implicit as well as in ANSYS LS-DYNA.

In the pure Eulerian method, the mesh never deforms. Instead, the material
flows through the mesh. This element formulation requires that the volume
fractions of the different materials be stored for each element throughout the
analysis. This volume of fluids method is commonly used in CFD (Computational
Fluid Dynamics) applications to track a free surface. The pure Eulerian method is
not supported by ANSYS LS-DYNA.

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 ... Overview
In the ALE method, the Lagrangian mesh is rezoned (remapped) at regular intervals
to reduce the mesh distortion. The element topology (nodal connectivity) remains
the same, but the nodes move through the material, changing the mass of each
element. A new Lagrangian mesh is created, which again behaves as a normal
Lagrangian mesh until the next advection (transport) step takes place.

In large strain analyses, a pure Lagrangian mesh is likely to have brick elements
turn inside out, stopping the analysis with a negative volume error. Since mesh
motion is independent of material motion in the advection steps, the ALE method
has less mesh failures.

Extreme mesh distortion for

pure Lagrangian method

Better shaped elements

when ALE method used

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 B. Applications
ANSYS LS-DYNA only supports single-material ALE. This method also requires
geometries in which the material flow is relatively predictable.

Applications for the single-material ALE method include metal forming

(especially for extrusion where a uniform bar is reduced in diameter) and high
speed impact problems. The ALE method is more efficient than adaptive
meshing techniques, which would create more and smaller elements, greatly
increasing the solution time.

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 C. Required Procedure
The ALE method is supported by PLANE162 and SOLID164 elements. It is activated
by setting KEYOPT(5) = 1. The default is to use the pure Lagrangian formulation.

The EDGCALE and EDALE commands must also be issued:

Solution > Analysis Options > ALE Options > Define

The EDGCALE command is used to

globally control the ALE settings. Set
the number of Lagrangian cycles (time
steps) between advection steps so
that about 20% of the elements
volumes are transported. Too small of
an interval is inefficient, but too large
of one may cause errors if the nodes
move more than a fraction of the
characteristic lengths of the
surrounding elements.

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 Required Procedure
During the advection steps, the elements will be smoothed to maintain better
aspect ratios. The element-centered variables (e.g., density, internal energy, the
stress tensor, and the history variables) must be updated to correspond to the
new mesh. The more accurate Van Leer + Half Index Shift advection method is
recommended over the default Donor Cell + Half Index Shift advection method,
although the default method is less computationally intensive.

The EDALE command is used to define the rest of the ALE settings, including the
smoothing factors and the starting and ending times for the rezoning. The
different settings may be (and often are) used in combination. Choosing the best
mix is more of an art form than a science! Please refer to the LS-DYNA Theory
Manual for assistance in this regard.

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 Required Procedure

The EDALE command is also used to list all of the ALE settings:
Solution > Analysis Options > ALE Options > List All

Both the EDGCALE and EDALE command settings are shown in the same listing

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 D. Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian Workshop
WS13. Taylor Impact Problem
Please refer to your Workshop Supplement for instructions.

Rigid Target

Lagrangian Mesh ALE Mesh

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