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Self-contact + Self-penetration + Folded membrane

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Dear colleagues, I am facing trouble simulating a folded tapered membrane which must unfold as a pressure is applied at its inner surface. Its application is for balloon-expandable stent deployment. To do so, I used the Membrane physics and I tried to fix th ends of the balloon (folded membrane) to mimic the attachment to the catheter in real situation. Then, I applied a face load in all the boundaries equal to the pressure "needed" to expand the balloon. I was not able to converge my model, even after a prestretch simulation. This prestretch test ran only after replacing the fixed constraint by prescribed displacement equal to zero in the axial direction. I think that the constraint should be fixed as it is what happens in reality, but I am not able to make it converge if using that boundary conditions.

Additionally, when using the prescribed displacement option, I am able to get results but my membrane exhibits self-intersection. I defined a contact between the faces, but it was not capable of converge, again...

I would greatly appreciate any help that you can provide me.

Thank you!


0 Replies Last Post Oct 26, 2021, 6:21 a.m. EDT
COMSOL Moderator

Hello Mary Wang

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