Cubit 15.4 User Documentation
The metrics used for tetrahedral elements in CUBIT are summarized in the following table:
Function Name
|
Dimension
|
Full Range
|
Acceptable Range
|
Reference
|
Aspect Ratio Beta
|
L^0
|
1 to inf
|
1 to 3
|
1
|
Aspect Ratio Gamma
|
L^0
|
1 to inf
|
1 to 3
|
1
|
Element Volume
|
L^3
|
-inf to inf
|
None
|
1
|
| Condition No |
L^0
|
1 to inf
|
1 to 3
|
2
|
Inradius
|
L^1
|
-inf to inf
|
None
|
None
|
Jacobian
|
L^3
|
-inf to inf
|
None
|
2
|
Scaled Jacobian
|
L^0
|
-1 to 1
|
0.2 to 1
|
2
|
Shape
|
L^0
|
0 to 1
|
0.2 to 1
|
3
|
Relative Size
|
L^0
|
0 to 1
|
0.2 to 1
|
3 |
Shape and Size
|
L^0
|
0 to 1
|
0.2 to 1
|
3
|
Timestep
|
Seconds
|
0 to inf
|
None
|
4
|
| Distortion |
L^0
|
-1 to 1
|
0.6 to 1
|
5
|
With a few exceptions, as noted below, Cubit supports quality metric calculations for linear tetrahedral elements only. When calculating quality metrics, that only support linear elements, for a higher order tetrahedral element, Cubit will only use the corner nodes of the element.
Aspect Ratio Beta: CR / (3.0 * IR) where CR = circumsphere radius, IR = inscribed sphere radius
Aspect Ratio Gamma: Srms**3 / (8.479670*V) where Srms = sqrt(Sum(Si**2)/6), Si = edge length
Element Volume: (1/6) * Jacobian at corner node
Condition No.: Condition number of the Jacobian matrix at any corner
Inradius: For all tets but tetra10s, the radius of the smallest, fully contained sphere of the linear tet. For tetra10s, the mid-edge nodes are used to subdivide the tet into 12 linear sub-tets. The inradius is the smallest inradius of the 12 linear sub-tets * 2.3.
Jacobian: Minimum pointwise volume at any corner. Cubit also supports Jacobian calculations for tetra15 elements.
For tetra15 elements, all 15 nodes are included for the Jacobian calculation. For all other tet types, only the corner nodes are considered.
Scaled Jacobian: For linear elements the minimum Jacobian divided by the lengths of 3 edge vectors
Shape: 3/Mean Ratio of weighted Jacobian Matrix
Relative Size: Min(J, 1/J), where J is the determinant of the weighted Jacobian matrix
Shape & Size: Product of Shape and Relative Size Metrics
Timestep: The approximate maximum timestep that can be used with this element in explicit transient dynamics analysis. This critical time step is a function of both element geometry and material properties. To compute this metric on tets, the tets must be contained in an element block that has a material associated to it, where the material has poisson's ratio, elastic modulus, and density defined.
Distortion: {min(|J|)/actual volume}*parent volume, parent volume = 1/6 for tet. Cubit also supports Distortion calculations for tetra10 elements.
For tetra10 elements, the distortion metric can be used in conjunction with the shape metric to determine whether the mid-edge nodes have caused negative Jacobians in the element. The shape metric only considers the linear (parent) element. If a tetra10 has a non-positive shape value then the element has areas of negative Jacobians. However, for elements with a positive shape metric value, if the distortion value is non-positive then the element contains negative Jacobians due to the mid-side node positions.
Note that, for tetrahedral elements, there are several definitions of the term "aspect ratio" used in literature and in software packages. Please be aware that the various definitions will not necessarily give the same or even comparable results.