I have a concrete wall supported by a concrete structural slab (similar to a headwall over a box culvert). The structural slab is irregular shaped and has unique supports which is why I am modeling both concrete elements as shells. The structural slab has soil on top which also loads the wall in a triangular shape. I know in order to model a variable pressure on the wall shell I need to manually mesh the wall and apply uniform pressure to each shell to represent the variable soil load. In order to test my model, I applied a nominal uniform pressure to the wall while it was modeled as one(1) shell. I then reviewed the stresses created on the wall. Then I manually meshed the wall into smaller shells, but applied the same uniform pressure to all the shells. I expected to see the same stresses on the wall, but instead the stresses increased. Is this a valid test to ensure the model has realistic assumptions? If yes, then why do the stresses increase when the wall is meshed manually, but still has the same loading and support conditions?
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