PSI - Issue 81

Mohammad Daffa Noorsyahputra et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 81 (2026) 84–91

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Fig. 3. Applied load and boundary condition of the trash box model

3.3. Mesh convergence A mesh convergence analysis was conducted to determine the most optimal mesh size for the numerical study (Sarwoko et al., 2024; Fhandy et al., 2025; Islami et al., 2025). In this study, seven mesh sizes were employed, yielding a total of 8,000 to 12,000 elements. The convergence analysis results are shown in Fig. 4. Based on these data, the displacement and stress values at mesh sizes of 19 mm, 18.5 mm, and 18 mm differ negligibly, indicating that the simulation results have numerically converged. Given the trade-off between accuracy and computational efficiency, the 19 mm mesh size was selected as the best configuration for future investigation. The trash box model was discretized using S4R shell components to reflect thin-plate behavior, as illustrated in Fig. 5

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Fig. 4. Mesh convergence study: (a) number of elements vs. displacement; (b) number of elements vs. stress.