Investigation of Mesh Regularization in MAT_224 for Subsequent Use in Impact Simulations

This work is focused on the use of mesh regularization, which is an attempt to remove the mesh dependence from finite element simulations. Mesh regularization techniques are often used to help match experimental data and allow for reduced computational cost. The MAT_224 material model within LS-DYNA® allows users to define a failure criterion that is dependent on temperature, strain rate, stress state, and element size. The element size dependence in the failure criterion can help reduce the influence of mesh size on simulated results under certain circumstances. However, some issues may arise when the MAT_224 material model is applied to different geometries, stress states, and element sizes than the regularization curve was originally created from. In this work, the conditions to best use mesh regularization are investigated, which is done with various comparisons using experimental and simulated data, both with and without mesh regularization.