Warning about having wedge elements in the model

- October 4, 2017 at 12:20 pm
  
  vganore
  Ansys Employee
  
  Why does Mechanical sometimes issue a warning about having wedge elements in the model?
- October 17, 2017 at 10:24 am
  
  Arun
  Ansys Employee
  
  That message is generated when lower-order, linear, SOLID185 elements are collapsed into degenerated wedge elements. Degenerated linear shape functions can be less accurate than the full linear shape functions, particularly in areas with high stress gradients. The message is just a warning to identify that the model contains some degenerated wedge elements. The user needs to assess the effect of the degenerated wedge elements on the solution. The message can be eliminated by replacing the SOLID185 elements with higher-order, quadratic, SOLID186 elements.