Category Archives: Structural Mechanics

Transferring Forces from Fluent to System Coupling

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A common question I hear from System Coupling users, particularly when using an operating pressure in ANSYS Fluent other than atmospheric pressure, is “Which pressure is used when transferring forces from Fluent to System Coupling and how do I change it?”.

The simple answer is that the forces passed to System Coupling are based on the gauge (or solved) pressure in Fluent by default. More accurately, the gauge pressure minus the Reference Pressure is used, but the Reference Pressure is zero by default so this is equivalent to the gauge pressure.

Before going further let’s review the Operating Pressure, Reference Pressure and gauge pressure.

The Operating Pressure in Fluent should be set to a typical absolute pressure in the system. Pressures set at boundary conditions are then specified relative to the Operating Pressure. Often the Operating Pressure is set to the absolute pressure at an outlet, and then a relative (gauge) pressure of zero is set at the outlet boundary condition(s). Continue reading →

Are You a Good ACTor?

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Oticon logoIf I had to choose a winner for the Best ACTor in 2012, It would be Oticon A/S in Denmark, a world-leading developer of hearing aids. I’ll tell you more about that company later. But first, let’s talk about ACTing and ACTors. ACT is ANSYS’ Application Customization Toolkit. It can help to capture analysts’ expertise and know-how as well as give non-expert users access to advanced models, among other things. But why is this tool so important?

I keep hearing people say that “there are no better codes than our in-house codes, as they are perfectly fitted for a given application.” But the reality is: The cost of developing and maintaining in-house codes — not to mention issues related to an integrated environment (CAD integration, meshing, post-processing, optimization and DoE) — simply makes the practice unsustainable. Continue reading →

Design of Solid Composites Made Simple

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As you’ve learned from a recent blog by Joe Manich, the acquisition of EVEN AG by ANSYS has added some layers to ANSYS Mechanical. The design of composites is a very exciting and challenging topic, and our new colleagues will definitely help us to further enhance our solutions.

I started hearing about composites many years ago during my engineering studies. At that time, my understanding of composites was not really deep. The applications I saw were mostly for thin structures, such as ship hulls and aerospace components. Now that I’m more involved with composites, I realize how vast the subject is. I’m seeing more complex structures being made out of composites, such as fan blades, tanks and pipe components. These are all but thin structures, and their simulation requires more than just mere definition of plies on a given surface. With thicker parts comes the need for looking at stresses in the direction of the thickness as well as out of the plane shear stresses that
thin models cannot accurately capture. Continue reading →

ANSYS Acquires EVEN: Adding Layers to ANSYS Mechanical

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Guten Tag ANSYS Schweiz – Bonjour ANSYS Suisse – Buongiorno ANSYS Svizzera – Bun di ANSYS Svizra

Today we announced with great pleasure the addition of EVEN – Evolutionary Engineering AG (EVEN) to the ANSYS family. EVEN was founded in 2004 in Zürich by Marc Wintermantel, Oliver König and Nino Zehnder with the goal of making optimization and composites post-processing software.

compositesComposites are created by blending two or more materials that possess different properties. Because they combine light weight, high strength and outstanding flexibility, composites have become standard materials for manufacturing in a range of industries. For this reason, composites will continue to be extremely popular with leading manufacturers around the world.

For example, we have seen growth in the use of composites in such industries as jet engines, wind turbines and automotive, among many others. We expect to see even more applications in which composites play a key role in the future, and ANSYS will be ready to supply the tools needed to get this critical work done. Continue reading →

From Supercomputers to Handhelds

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A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE13). There I listened to a number of presentations given by mathematicians and engineers, who talked about running software programs on some of the biggest supercomputers in the world. When ANSYS was first founded in 1970, finite element analysis (FEA) simulations were typically performed on large “mainframes” that filled entire rooms — these were the supercomputers of that era.

More recently, the distributed solver in the ANSYS Mechanical product family was developed to allow engineers to run FEA simulations on large clusters, which is the hardware of choice for today’s supercomputers. In fact, in 2008 several mechanical simulations were performed on one of the TOP100 supercomputers in the world using the distributed ANSYS capability with calculations reaching over 1 Teraflop (over 1 trillion calculations per second). However, the point I want to raise today is that while ANSYS Mechanical software supports such speed and complexity required for the most numerically challenging and hardware-resource-intensive simulations, the power of a supercomputer is now available in the palm of your hand. Continue reading →

Bleeding-Edge Technology

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The engineering simulation community is getting used to the role of ANSYS products behind bleeding-edge technologies, be it serving the exorbitant performance demands of F1 racing cars or extreme precise modeling of the nonlinear elasticity curve of dipole coils or designing entrance window for LHC Beam Dump Line at CERN. But I don’t usually drive a F1 car to the office nor does the existence of Higgs Boson affect my morning breakfast taste, despite being the building block of everything. As one of many tech-hungry people working, or rather living, on the edge and always anticipating what is next, I started thinking about where it all started and where are we now?

Have you ever thought the technology that was born more than 40 years ago, out of Astro Nuclear Research Labs, that has now penetrated into our routine life at such levels that we usually fail to think twice about it? The use of engineering simulation in the design or development of home appliances, cell phones, toys, etc. is well known. So let me draw your attention to a few very routine examples where we usually do not think that simulation matters. Continue reading →

Four Out of Top Six F1 Racing Teams Powered by ANSYS

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image of Red Bull Race Team

Team Red Bull Racing poses for the end of season team photo during previews for the Formula One Grand Prix of Brazil at Autodromo Carlos Pace on November 22, 2012 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Vladimir Rys)

If you’re like me — a passionate fan of Formula 1 — you were probably on the edge of your seat during the last race of the season in Brazil, during which either the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel or the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso could have won the championship. After a season of 20 F1 races, the fact that the contest was so close is a measure of the margins these teams work with. Anyone who has been to a race and witnessed these race cars firsthand knows exactly how close to the edge the cars and drivers are.

F1 Vehicles Most Technologically Advanced

F1 vehicles are the most technologically advanced in the world; they need to adapt each year to changing regulations. This often results in a team redesigning the car’s roughly 4,000 components to meet the demands of performance and safety. But not only that, engineering teams are continually improving performance between races — often having only two weeks between races to make a performance impact. With lap times for the leading cars differing by fractions of a second, improperly executing these changes from one circuit to the next can be the difference between being on the podium and not scoring any points. Continue reading →

The Trampoline – Simulating a New Childhood

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image of man jumping on a trampolineAnyone growing up in the 80s (or earlier) who ran rampant around the neighborhood can easily close his eyes and picture either a back yard swing set or the local playground. Metal slides baking in the sun, monkey bars with oxidation handprints down the center, dirt ruts under the chain and rubber swings — and if you were really lucky, a trampoline.

Even though we survived each of those supposed “death traps” and today’s playgrounds are littered with recycled rubber mulch, padded edges and plastic everything, the trampoline still remains largely unchanged. Sure, the safety netting can be considered but it only prevents falling off the trampoline. Continue reading →