A question about shell elements and the possibility of optimisation based on displace

[Sara]

Hi,

Lots of thanks for very useful forum.
I got a question about shell elements. Is it possible to have a shell element without any thickness as a rigid body. I need to do optimisation on the material properties of two different layers and a rigid element might help to measure the displacement of the second layer.I defined one shell element, however the model was not run.

I am also wondering if it is possible to do optimisation process based on displacement rather than force? More specifically, is it possible to apply force and compare displacement with a measured one?

Regards,
SaraPanos2.feb

[maas]

Hi Sara,

Yes, you can define shell with zero thickness for rigid bodies. For the most parts, rigid shells ignore the thickness, although it does have an effect on contact. However, I'm not sure you really need it for this model.

We have recently released a new version of FEBio (version 2.7) that allows you to measure displacement in an optimization problem and use that for curve fitting. Please check the new user's manual and let us know if you have any further questions about this.

Cheers,

Steve