PSI - Issue 38

Jacques Berthellemy et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 38 (2022) 428–446 Jacques Berthellemy / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2021) 000 – 000

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2. 2 General presentation of the finite element model

The calculation was realized using Code_Aster, an Open Source Software developed by EDF, R & D [19]. This software is externally tested and approved in several countries ( France, UK, China) for nuclear industry applications

Figure 12 : General details of the mesh

The model is completely volumetric. The mesh is a non structured mesh made of tetrahedrons obtained with GMSH. As recommended for Code_Aster, the tetrahedrons are never very different from regular platonic tetrahedrons in the zone of the hot spots. This mesh also conforms with the recommendations of December 2008 of IIS-IIW (International Institute of Welding) [20]. In the zones of the hot spots, the size of the sides of the 3D-volume mesh is 4 mm. In each tetrahedral element, the stresses are calculated by Code_Aster at the Gauss point.

Figure 13 : Detail of the 3D mesh of tetrahedrons around the cope hole