Reply To: artificial stresses at the fixed points in thermo-structural analysis

[dlooman]

There are three sources of high stress at fixed supports.  Poisson effect, constrained thermal expansion, singularity of a point support.  With the 3-2-1 method you have eliminated the first two sources, but you still have high stress due to supporting the model at a point, which in the limit of mesh refinement has no area.  You could just ignore this stress or you could create a small area to scope the support to.  If you use deformable behavior the fixed support won't produce high stress due to the first two sources.  Or you could use a soft elastic support to support the model in y and then 2-1 lateral displacements to support the model in x and z.