Tips & Tricks

Welding simulation with FAST3D method in Visual Weld

A new method is described, which allows to reduce computation time significantly. It is used for transient simulations with moving heat source, mainly for long welds. Its advantage is that it does not require any additional manipulations with the model.

Visual-Assembly Overlap Resolve positioning

The most effective way how to position your distorted components into the clamping system.

Visual-Mesh for Assembly setup - How to create mesh for shell analysis from CAD.

Short video how to create shell mesh from CAD using Visual-Mesh application.

Visual-Environment Highlight of Visual-CFD: Multiphase Flow

In fluid mechanics, multiphase flow is the simultaneous flow of materials with two or more thermodynamic phases. These phases may consist of one chemical component (e.g. flow of water and water vapour), or several different chemical components (e.g. flow of oil and water). Based in user’s intertest and type of problems, multiphase problems can be solved as VOF or euler-euler flow. In Visual-CFD, both approaches are supported for two or more than two phases, with or without heat. The solvers used for multiphase simulations involve the famous MULES method for capturing interfaces between the fluids.

Visual-Environment Highlight of Visual-CFD: Adjoint Optimisation

The adjoint method has long been considered as the tool of choice for gradient-based optimisation in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The adjoint method, allows computation of sensitivities, i.e. the derivative of the objective function with respect to the design variables and later shape optimisation. The OpenFOAM supports the continuous adjoint method, it is faster and requires less memory than the discrete adjoint method. However, it requires fine meshes to get desired/optimal output. Visual-CFD makes it even simpler to define and calculate the sensitivities and optimisation with its ease-of-use functionality. Currently it is available for incompressible laminar and turbulent flows with objective functions of lift, drag, momentum for external flow and pressure loss for internal flows.

Visual-Environment Highlight of Visual-CFD: Reacting Species

Modelling reactive systems is numerically expensive since the non-linear reaction kinetics leads to stiff-ODE systems in the species and energy conservation equations. Special solution algorithms, capable of handling these stiff systems of equations, different ODE solvers are supported for the same. Strategies to reduce the numerical effort to solve reactive flows include chemistry tabulation, which is also supported. A critical choice in simulating reactive flows is the combustion model, there are different combustion model has been supported which can be picked based on user’s choice. Enough intelligence has been put in Visual-CFD for user, while creating chemical reaction, in case reaction is not stoichiometrically balanced user will be warned for the same.

Visual-Environment Highlight of Visual-Seat: STAN Thermal Dummy

STAN is a thermal dummy to test thermal comfort and moisture management characteristics of automobile, truck, and airplane seating. This device is commercialized by Thermetrics® and some relevant information can be found here: https://thermetrics.com/products/manikin/stan/. In collaboration with Thermetrics, ESI developed a numerical model of the STAN dummy for the prediction of its thermal behavior. No humidity is managed in this version of the model. A process for the setup of the seating and the thermal simulations of the STAN dummy have been added in this version.

Visual-Environment Highlight of Visual-Seat: Sewing Simulation Guided Setup

Sewing simulations aim at assembling flat cover patterns and wrapping them around deformable foam block. This application exists in Visual-Seat for many versions as a set of toolboxes and functionalities enabling to set-up this type of input. This has been enhanced with a workflow gathering all tools and functionalities and proposing them in the right sequential order to provide some user guidance.

Visual-Environment Highlight of Visual-Seat: Foam Blocks Positioning

When assembling the different components of the seat, it may happen that the foam at rest is intersecting the frame and/or the suspensions. In order to remove those intersections, a simulation-based technique had been implemented previously by applying surface pressure on foam. Upon customer request, a new method has been added where the frame (and suspensions) can be scaled down and moved initially to retrieve progressively their size and position during simulation, when the contact with foam is active.

3D Combine

As existing 2D Combine in Visual-Mesh, 3D Combine has been introduced to undone refinements.