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ANSYS 12 New Features

ANSYS 12 delivers innovative, dramatic simulation technology advances in every major physics discipline, along with improvements in computing speed and enhancements to enabling technologies such as geometry handling, meshing and post-processing. These advancements alone represent a major step forward on the path forward in Simulation Driven Product Development.

ANSYS Workbench 2.0

The ANSYS Workbench environment is the glue that binds the simulation process; this has not changed with version 2.0. In ANSYS 12, while the core applications may seem familiar, they are bound together via the innovative project page that introduces the concept of the project schematic. This expands on the project page concept. These advancements alone represent a major step forward on the path towards Simulation Driven Product Development.

More-complex analyses involving multiple physics can be built up by connecting systems. Data dependencies are indicated clearly as connections. State icons at the right of each cell indicate whether cells are up to date, require user input or need to be updated - for example, whether they are just meshed or fully solved.

In addition to serving as a framework for the integration of existing applications, the ANSYS Workbench 2.0 platform also serves as an application development framework and will ultimately provide project-wide scripting, reporting, a user interface (UI) toolkit and standard data interfaces. These capabilities will emerge over this and subsequent releases. At ANSYS 12.0, Engineering Data and ANSYS DesignXplorer are no longer independent applications: They have been re-engineered using the UI toolkit and integrated within the ANSYS Workbench project window.

Further advancing the adaptive architecture of ANSYS Workbench and its ability to fit into your design and engineering processes, release 12 introduces the ability to record, customize and automate analysis steps with journaling and scripting. Journaling captures operations that modify data in an ANSYS Workbench session and records them in a journal file. Such a file can be replayed to return the state of an ANSYS Workbench session exactly. Alternatively, a journal can be modified to change or incorporate additional operations, which are referred to as scripting. Many applications hosted in ANSYS Workbench support their own scripting languages (e.g. Mechanical APDL) and these application-specific commands can be can be embedded in a ANSYS Workbench script. This coordination between ANSYS Workbench and its individual applications provides comprehensive scripting support of the complete engineering simulation process.

Another significant enhancement at release 12.1 is the External Connection add-in, which allows applications that are not yet integrated with ANSYS Workbench to communicate with the framework by sharing parameters in the workflow. This add-in enables external applications to take advantage of ANSYS Workbench functionality, such as design of experiments, sensitivity and six sigma design studies enabled within ANSYS DesignXplorer.

ANSYS Workbench 2.0 represents a sizable step forward in engineering simulation. Within this innovative software framework, analysts can leverage a complete range of proven simulation technology, including common tools for CAD integration, geometry repair and meshing. A novel project schematic concept guides users through complex analyses, illustrating explicit data relationships and capturing the process for automating subsequent analyses. Meanwhile, its parametric and persistent modeling environment in conjunction with integral tools for design optimization and statistical studies enable engineers to arrive at the best designs faster.

Geometry & Meshing

ANSYS has combined rich geometry and meshing techniques with its depth of knowledge and experience, resulting in integrated geometry and meshing solutions that share core libraries with other applications.

At ANSYS 12, geometry interfaces have been enhanced to import more information from CAD systems, including new data types such as line bodies for modeling beams, additional attributes such as colors and coordinate systems, and improved support for named selections created within the CAD systems. For pre-processing larger models, release 12 includes support for 64-bit operating systems and smart and selective updates of CAD parts.

Geometry modeling in the ANSYS Workbench environment is greatly improved to provide increased automation, greater flexibility and improved ease of use for the task of preparing geometry for analysis. Merge, Connect and Project features have been added for improved surface modeling in ANSYS 12.

New tools automatically detect and fix typical problems, such as small edges, sliver faces, holes, seams and faces with sharp angles. Geometry models can now be prepared for analysis at a much faster pace. These images show an aircraft model before (top) and after (bottom) cleanup.

A primary focus for ANSYS 12 has been to provide an automated meshing solution that is best in class for fluid dynamics. Major improvements have been made in the automatic generation of CFD-appropriate tetrahedral meshes with minimal user input. Advanced size functions (similar to those found in GAMBIT), prism/tet meshing (from TGrid) and other ANSYS meshing technologies combine to provide improved smoothness, quality, speed, curvature and proximity feature capturing, and boundary layer capturing. Though many of these enhancements were driven by fluid dynamics needs, they also benefit users of other types of simulation. For example, users performing structural analyses will benefit from the improved automation and mesh quality.

Using the new MultiZone mesh method, a user can mesh complicated models with a pure hex mesh without the need for geometry decomposition. This brake rotor example can be meshed with a pure hex mesh in a single operation.

Multiphysics

ANSYS 12 expands the company’s industry-leading comprehensive multiphysics solutions. New features and enhancements are available for solving both direct and sequentially coupled multiphysics problems, and the ANSYS Workbench framework makes performing multiphysics simulations even faster than before.

Sequence of images showing simulation of the motion of a screw pump solved using immersed solid fluid structure interaction

The integration of the broad array of ANSYS solver technologies has taken a considerable step forward with release 12. The ANSYS Workbench environment has been redesigned for an efficient multiphysics workflow by integrating the solver technology into one unified simulation environment.

ANSYS 12 extends the distributed sparse solver to support unsymmetric and complex matrices for both shared and distributed memory parallel environments. This new solver technology dramatically reduces the time needed to perform certain direct coupled solutions including Peltier and Seekbeck effects as well as thermoelasticity. Another exciting new capability is the new family of direct coupled-field elements is available in ANSYS 12; these new elements enable the modeling of fluid flow through a porous media.

Another new enhancement to the ANSYS Workbench framework is the support for direct coupled-field analysis. Relevant direct coupled-field elements (SOLID226 and SOLID227) are now natively supported in the ANSYS Workbench platform for thermal–electric coupling. There is a new analysis system for thermal–electric coupling that supports Joule heating analysis with temperature-dependent material properties and advanced thermoelectric effects, including the Peltier and Seebeck effects. The applications for this new technology include Joule heating of integrated circuits and electronic traces, busbars, and thermoelectric coolers and generators.

The thermoelectric analysis was performed in the ANSYS Workbench environment, the model was courtesy of WEG Electrical Equipment.

One of the major enhancements for fluid structure interaction (FSI) is a new immersed solid FSI solution. This technique is based on a mesh superposition method in which the fluid and the solid are meshed independently from one another. The solution enables engineers to model fluid structure interaction of immersed rigid solids with imposed motion. Another new capability for fluid structure interaction in ANSYS 12, FLUID136 now solves the nonlinear Reynolds squeeze film equations for nonlinear transient FSI applications involving thin fluid films Version 12 offers another exciting new FSI capability: the ability to perform one-way fluid structure interaction using ANSYS FLUENT software as the CFD solver. This capability enables one-way load transfer for surface temperatures or surface forces between ANSYS FLUENT and ANSYS mechanical products based on ANSYS CFXPost.

Structural Mechanics

The ability to drive the engineering design process in structural applications has taken a significant step forward with the improvements in release 12. New features and tools, many integrated into the ANSYS Workbench platform, help reduce overall solution time. Specific improvements focus on elements, materials, contact and solver performance, along with linear, rigid, and flexible dynamics.

Crack tip analysis of a turbine blade Geometry courtesy PADT

The most notable new element in release 12 is the four-noded tetrahedron for modeling complex geometries in hyperelastic or forming applications. This reduces the time it takes to develop an analysis from geometry through solution, while maintaining the accuracy of the solution. In regards to materials, Release 12 introduces several additions to the wide choice of materials already available.

As assemblies have become a de facto standard in simulation, the need for advanced contact features has grown accordingly. ANSYS 12 developments include a number of additional contact modeling features as well as significant improvements in solving contact problems. Solver performance has improved in many different areas. ANSYS 12 introduces a new modal solver, called SNODE, that increases the speed of computation for problems with a large number of modes — in the realm of several hundred — on large structures that typically have over a million degrees of freedom.

Instability analysis for brake squeal

At release 12, improvements to both the ANSYS Rigid Dynamics product and flexible dynamics capabilities in ANSYS Structural, ANSYS Mechanical and ANSYS Multiphysics software make the job of creating new mechanisms a faster one. A number of improvements to data and process handling increase ease of use for ANSYS Rigid Dynamics simulations. Flexible dynamics capabilities found in ANSYS Structural, ANSYS Mechanical and ANSYS Multiphysics products benefit at release 12 from robust component modal synthesis, or CMS.

Fluid Dynamics

ANSYS 12 introduces the full integration of its fluids products into ANSYS Workbench together with the capability to manage simulation workflows within the environment. This allows users — whether they use ANSYS CFX or ANSYS FLUENT software (or both) — to create, connect and re-use systems; perform automated parametric analyses; and seamlessly manage simulations using multiple physics.

ANSYS continues to make progress on basic core solver speed, a benefit to all users for all types of applications, steady or transient. A suite of cases that span the range of industrial applications has consistently shown increases in solver speed of 10 to 20 percent or even more for ANSYS CFX .

The perennial goal of improving accuracy without sacrificing robustness motivated numerous developments, including new discretization options such as the bounded the iteratively-bounded high-resolution discretization scheme in ANSYS CFX. Being able to consistently use higher order discretization schemes means that users will see further increases in the accuracy of flow simulations without penalties in robustness.

Fuel injector model with close-ups of mesh and of vapor volume fraction contours at the injector surface

Ease of use has been enhanced in various ways. For ANSYS CFX software, a host of improvements has been added to the graphical user interface (GUI). There is a completely new capability that allows users to customize GUI appearance, including the option to create additional input panels. These custom panels provide the ability to encapsulate best practices and common processes by giving the user control over GUI layout and required input.

Simulation Process & Data Management

In today’s global environment, the ongoing integration of simulation and product design makes effective collaboration and communication essential for successful product development. ANSYS Engineering Knowledge Manager (EKM) solutions are aimed at meeting simulation process and data management (SPDM) challenges faced by the simulation/CAE community. ANSYS EKM addresses issues such as how to better manage, share and re-use simulation data and how to better capture and re-use the engineering expertise that a simulation result represents. ANSYS EKM is a truly scalable solution with three versions: ANSYS EKM Desktop, ANSYS EKM Workgroup and ANSYS EKM Enterprise. These versions provide entry points for the individual user, the workgroup or the entire enterprise, each with increasing capabilities and features.

ANSYS EKM Desktop is a single-user, local environment version of the ANSYS EKM product. It is available as part of ANSYS 12 and can be accessed via the ANSYS Workbench environment. ANSYS EKM Desktop is focused at meeting the challenge of “reusing existing simulations” by offering simulation data search, retrieval, and reporting features that can increase simulation productivity and efficiency.

Applications

ANSYS Emag - As the combined development teams from Ansoft and ANSYS set out to integrate the world-class Ansoft electronic design analysis (EDA) products into the ANSYS portfolio, ANSYS customers can benefit immediately from improved and extended electromagnetics capabilities in release 12. A new family of 3-D solid elements for low-frequency electromagnetic simulation is included in the 12 release of ANSYS Emag software. Solid elements (SOLID236 and SOLID237) are available for modeling magnetostatic, quasistatic time harmonic, and quasi-static time-transient magnetic fields. Users can apply this new element technology to most low-frequency electromagnetic applications, such as electric motors, solenoids, electromagnets and generators.

Nonlinear transient rotational test rig solved in the ANSYS Workbench environment using SOLID236, SOLID237 and the new stranded conductor option (TEAM24 benchmark)

Explicit Dynamics - ANSYS has expended significant effort in the area of explicit dynamics for release 12 — including the addition of a new product that will make this technology accessible to users independent of their simulation experience. In addition, enhancements to both the ANSYS LS-DYNA and ANSYS AUTODYN products provide considerable benefits to their users. Newly introduced in ANSYS 12, ANSYS Explicit STR software is the first explicit dynamics product with a native ANSYS Workbench interface. It is based on the Lagrangian portion of the ANSYS AUTODYN product. The technology will appeal to those who require nonlinear dynamics simulation of solids, liquids, gases and their interactions. In addition, it will appeal to users who can benefit from the productivity provided by other applications integrated within the ANSYS Workbench environment. Those who have previous experience using ANSYS Workbench will find that they already know most of what is needed to use ANSYS Explicit STR.

High velocity impact of a steel ball on an brittle ceramic target confined by in a steel ring. Contour plot highlights damaged/cracked regions in the ceramic.

ANSYS Icepak 12.1 offers a new option for data integration within the ANSYS Workbench platform. The advances in ANSYS Icepak 12.1 allow you to take advantage of the productivity gains of the ANSYS Workbench platform, while also allowing you to work in the familiar ANSYS Icepak interface.

Data integration of ANSYS Icepak into the ANSYS Workbench platform allows you to take advantage of links with both ANSYS DesignModeler and ANSYS structural mechanics software. You can now use the geometry editing capabilities of ANSYS DesignModeler to prepare CAD geometry for a thermal simulation with ANSYS Icepak. Following a thermal-flow simulation, you can transfer the temperatures from ANSYS Icepak to ANSYS structural mechanics software to perform a thermal-stress simulation. The interaction between ANSYS Icepak and ANSYS structural mechanics software allows you to rapidly evaluate both the temperatures and resulting thermal stresses of packages, boards and complete electronic systems.

Temperature profile in a computer graphics card; ANSYS Icepak temperature results mapped onto a thermal-stress model using the ANSYS Workbench platform

High-Performance Computing

ANSYS 12.1 introduces ANSYS HPC, a solution set that enables customers to obtain enhanced insight and productivity through expanded use of high-performance computing with engineering simulation. In contrast to single-point solutions that require separate licenses for each solver, the new ANSYS HPC products provide a cross-physics parallel computing capability that supports structural, fluids, thermal and electromagnetics simulation in a single solution. In addition, ANSYS HPC encourages and facilitates the use of larger-scale parallel processing for high-fidelity simulation by making it more accessible to companies both large and small.