Why does decreasing element size will increase the accuracy within my FEA results?

- October 19, 2020 at 1:36 pm
  
  Rameez_ul_Haq
  Subscriber
  
  We are already aware of the general fact that decreasing the mesh element size (or in other words, incorporating more mesh elements) increases the accuracy of our results (displacements, stresses etc). Furthermore, if we decrease the mesh element size, if there is any singularity area, it will start becoming more and more compact while the maximum stresses within that singularity will begin to increase, to reach inifnity.nMy question is, why does this happen? What is the basic theory behind this? Explanation without complex equations will be appreciated. If there are any research papers explaining the reasoning behind this, kindly recommend.n
- October 21, 2020 at 12:24 pm
  
  Rameez_ul_Haq
  Subscriber
  
  Anyone with an insight on this?n
- October 22, 2020 at 7:59 am
  
  Rahul Kumbhar
  Ansys Employee
  
  Simple answer is element uses area around the gauss point to calculate stress. As you refine the mesh, the area becomes small, hence the stresses goes to infinity for singularity.n