SIMTEQ Newsletter January 2024

Introduction
Events
Product of the month
The art of engineering
New releases
Tips & Training

Happy New Year from everyone at SIMTEQ (for the bit that is left of it)!

I told my kids the other night that we might as well keep the Christmas tree up this year since December isn't that far away anymore!
As this year sprinted off at full speed, we started 2024 with three new team members on our staff and we are ready to tackle this year with force. 
If you haven't received it already, please be on the lookout for a quick survey to gather your feedback on several important topics as well as the upcoming Customer Appreciation Day we would like to invite you to.
You'll also notice that we'll be making more use of videos this year too, so don't be surprised if a few stars are born! 2024 is SIMTEQ's year of knowledge and we want to share the power with you.

As a regular feature in our monthly newsletter, the list of new software versions released in December is quite extensive so we focus on only a handful of them and what is New:

  • Dytran 2023.2 
  • Cradle CFD 2023.2
  • Simufact Welding 2023.4
  • SimManager 2023.3
  • Easy5 2023.3
  • Simufact Additive 2023.4
  • Marc 2023.4

The training program for 2024 is on our website for all the popular courses and we will also quite happily assist you with group bookings of other courses or for alternative dates. 

The following courses are scheduled for February and March:

  • FEA101 - Finite Element Fundamentals
  • MAR101&102 - Non-linear Analysis using Marc and Mentat
  • CRA251&301 - Introduction to CradleCFD (scFlow & scStream)

We hope you enjoy our newsletter and our products and services. Please fill out the survey and join us for the customer appreciation day. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you soon.

Thank you for choosing SIMTEQ as your trusted partner in simulation.

Regards
Managing Director

M&M Awards in 2023 - SIMTEQ Newsletter January 2024

Every year, SIMTEQ sponsors cash prizes to final year engineering students across several categories such as:

- Finite Element Analysis
- Large Scale Fluid Dynamics
- Mechanical Design for Electronic
- Multi-Discipline/Physics Analysis
- Multi-Body Dynamics
- Noise and Acoustic Simulations
- Implementation of Machine Learning or AI in simulations

The criteria set by SIMTEQ to their faculty supervisors when awarding the prizes are as follows:
It must be clear that after a thorough literature study, the student used simulation technology (from any vendor or open source), on several concepts before a final design was decided upon for testing or manufacturing and that a final more detailed analysis of the design, was conducted with a comparison between simulated and test results.
Last year at the University of Stellenbosch, Divan van der Bank and J.C. Mostert were awarded the 'Best Implementation of Machine Learning or AI' and the 'Best use of Finite Element Analysis’ Awards' respectively.

Divan's project focused on solving Tetris using reinforcement learning. It demonstrated the use of algorithms designed from first principles, tested in a customized Tetris environment. By exploring various setups, the project aimed to understand the learning process of these algorithms, offering insights for future developers.

J.C.'s 'Rope Spoke Bicycle Wheel' project, earning the 'Best use of Finite Element Analysis Award,' explored the use of rope spokes in bicycle wheels. While focusing on challenges regarding comfort, weight and cost, the project investigated new materials and connection methods to enhance cyclist comfort and stability. The project succeeded in introducing stronger and more durable options for bicycle wheel spokes, potentially improving the overall riding experience.

We congratulate these students for their well-deserved victories and am looking forward to following their career paths as they continue to develop and learn new skills. As proud sponsors, we eagerly anticipate meeting more students with diverse skills and innovative projects in the future.

scFLOW

scFLOW is Hexagon’s next generation CFD tool that enables engineers to solve the most challenging of fluid dynamics and thermal problems. For many engineers however, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has often been out of reach either in terms of the software cost or due to the complexity of the software and the requirement to have in depth specialist knowledge about solver techniques and mathematical algorithms.

scFLOW directly addresses both of these challenges, allowing for CFD to become an integral part of your daily product design and development process.

Firstly, scFLOW is part of the MSC.One licensing system which makes this world-leading CFD technology accessible to you today. If you already have MSC.One tokens to run Patran and Nastran, then you are good to go!

Secondly, scFLOW is developed for Mechanical Engineers to use in the same way you are already using CAE tools like Nastran, Marc and Adams. scFLOW works directly on your mechanical CAD data and does all the heavy lifting for you with powerful automatic meshing using Polyhedral elements for high accuracy solutions, and many built in features to simplify the CFD process to give you reliable answers as quickly as possible.

If you are already an experienced FEA user, you will know that fluid pressure and thermal loads often play a significant role in Structural analysis. Yet, due to the complexity of trying to determine and apply these loads within a tool like Patran or Apex often means that the engineer simply ignores or poorly approximates these fluid related loads. With scFLOW, this is no longer a problem as the software automates the process of transferring the fluid results like Pressure, Temperature, and thermal convection coefficients across to your Structural FEA model for detailed stress analysis using Nastran or MARC.

In the example below, we have a heat exchanger with cold water flowing through the straight pipe, and hot oil flowing through the coil. The coil is welded to the pipe for maximum heat transfer from the hot oil to the water.
scFLOW easily identifies and meshes the multiple fluid regions and solves for both the fluid flow and temperature of both the liquid regions and the stainless-steel piping. The temperature results can be seen in the image below.
Now this is where the CFD results become really useful to the structural / FEA engineer, because we can simply map these temperatures directly onto our Nastran model using the Cradle Data Mapping tool.
This tool simply requires the Nastran Mesh (from Patran or Apex) as input. It then provides visual confirmation of the temperature mapping from the CFD results to the Nastran mesh as seen below. The tool then produces a run-ready Nastran input file with all the nodal temperatures applied in order to calculate the thermal induced stresses.
Once the Nastran job has been run, the results of the stresses can be processed in Patran or Apex, or can even be viewed alongside the CFD results in scPOST.
This automated coupling between scFLOW and Nastran or Marc is just the beginning of what is possible! scFLOW is also able to calculate the forces and pressures on a structure due to granular materials such as slurry or dust buildup or even piles of rocks using Discrete Element Modelling (DEM) techniques. In addition, it provides you with many other advanced capabilities such as cavitation, erosion, boiling and evaporation, condensation, melting, shock waves, and so much more.

Why not contact us today to learn more about how scFLOW can help you improve the accuracy of your FEA models or to solve the most challenging of flow related problems.

South Africa's Pursuit of the Fastest Drone Ever Built

"Proudly South African talks about how he Built the FASTEST Drone on Earth

"As of my last knowledge update in January 2022, I don't have specific information on South Africa holding the world record for the fastest drone ever built. For the latest and most accurate information, it is recommended to check official records, aerospace organizations, or reputable news sources for any updates on drone speed records in South Africa or globally".

Dytran 2023.2

Dytran 2023.2 is now available at the Software Download Center.

Click here to learn about What’s New in Dytran 2023.2.

Some main highlights of this release include:

  • Material stiffness-based contact: The behavior of the contact is much improved in situations where the material stiffness between the contacting bodies is very different. It is also improved where the meshing of the surfaces has an extremely high bias.
  • Bug Fixes: Several defects have been fixed this release.
Cradle CFD 2023.2

Cradle CFD 2023.2 is now available at the Software Download Center.

Click here to learn about What’s New in Cradle CFD 2023.2.

Key highlights from this release include:

  • Cradle CFD - scFLOW
    • Preprocessor
      • Part Interface Region
      • Enhanced thin mesher
      • Influence of Adjacent Parts
      • Rotational sweep mesh (Generated by specifying sweep mesh part)
    • Analysis Functions
      • Enhancement of multiphase flow analysis feature
      • Free surface analysis for 3+ phase flow by FIRM
      • Expansion of phase change feature
      •  
    • Enhancement of DEM feature
    • Performance Up of Overset Mesh
    • Battery
      • Performance improvement of P2D model
      • Enhancements on Equivalent Circuit Model
      • Support Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity
    • Coupled Analysis Using FMI
    • Enriched Domain Partitioning Algorithms 
    • Enhancement of Simplified Rotor Model
    • scFLOW2Actran
    • Surface Reaction for Hypersonic Solver 
  • Cradle CFD - scSTREAM
    • Preprocessor
      • Enhancement of Parts List
    • Analysis Functions
      • Enhancement of MARS Method
      • Option To Solve Pressure Equations Per Fluid Material
      • Enhancement of Topology Optimization
      • Enhancement of DEM feature
  • Cradle CFD - Postprocessor
    • Report Function
    • Function to Iconize Fluid Area
    • Using Transient Analysis with CradleXR
    • Moving Image for Streamline Animation
    • Billboard Function
    • Changing the Speed of Wave Propagation Animation
  • Cradle CFD - scMonitor
    • Parametric Study for scFLOW 
    • Batch Execution in Create 3D-ROM
  • Cradle CFD - Tools
    • HeatPathView
      • Improvement of the Summary Display of Radiant Heat Amount in Heat Balance 
Simufact Welding 2023.4

Dear Simufact Welding User,

Congratulations on receiving Simufact Welding Release 2023.4, part of the comprehensive suite of virtual product development (VPD) tools from Hexagon. Whether this is your first experience with Simufact Welding or you are receiving it as part of a periodic upgrade, this Delivery Letter can help you get acquainted with your software package.  We want to make sure you know what changed for this release and are aware of all the valuable resources available to support your use of Simufact Welding To quickly install and configure Simufact Welding according to your personal preferences and company guidelines, refer to the Installation and Operations Guide.

This release includes a lot of fixes and improvements in the background and prepares for the future. Besides that, the highlights of the release include:

  • an Update of the morphing tool
  • a Result view is now available for the Gravity compensation
  • Further improvements 

Simufact Welding 2023.4 is now available at the Software Download Center.

Click here to learn about What’s New in Simufact Welding 2023.4.

 

SimManager 2023.3

SimManager 2023.3 is now available at the Software Download Center.

 

SimManager 2023.3 is an incremental update to the brand-new UI launched in previous release (2023.2).

  • Automagic Importer:
    • Now initiate the importer directly from a Work Request task
    • Ready to use processor included that facilitates import of objects & files from a standardized directory structure.
  • Navigation Tree:
    • Scroll to & highlight the node in Navigation Tree corresponding to object in main panel.
    • ‘Expand All’ option on context menu, with customizable tree depth.
    • Added ‘Refresh’, ‘Collapse All’ & ‘Link with Main Panel’.
  • Search Table:
    • Add or replace objects in Whiteboard by drag & drop rows from Table.
    • Zebra striping of rows for improved readability
  • Compare Assemblies:
    • Improved highlighting of moved components.
    • New filter options to focus on specific types of differences.
  • Work Request Board:
    • You can now filter boards by Work Request templates, including revisions.
    • Option to show dependent work requests
    • Open boards directly from user groups.
  • More actions migrated to new UI.
    • Key Result Target Management
    • Document Object Management
    • Continue Execution
  • Other enhancements:
    • Improved messaging for missing / unavailable components during export action
    • Updated options for validation during Adams Car Portal imports
    • APIP: New annotation for hiding recent object selection. 

Visit Release Guidefor detailed description of What’s New in SimManager 2023.3

 

Easy5 2023.3
Easy5 2023.3 is now available at the Software Download Center. Click here to learn about What’s New in Easy5 2023.3.

This release includes a few fixes and improvements. Notably:

  • Fixed Python batch processing on Linux platforms
  • Improved stability in gas dynamics simulation involving PR component when K factor > 0
Simufact Additive 2023.4

Simufact Additive 2023.4 is now available at the Software Download Center.

Look forward to the new highlight of Simufact Additive 2023.4:

PBF process and defect analysis

PBF process and Defect analysis is a new licensed AM metal powder bed fusion (MPBF) process simulation backed by an analytical model based approach to predict thermal history and defect formation at very short solve time. PBF process and Defect analysis (or PDA) can be placed before our Metal Powder Bed Fusion process simulation to identify the best process settings for your part to be printed defect free.

The new approach determines defect formation on the powder layer and scan vector level namely:

    • Keyhole porosity
    • Lack of fusion or unmelt
    • Balling
    • Surface roughness
  • Single stripe and track maps– Single stripe maps and single track mapsallow users to identify the defect-free range of laser power and scan speed for the corresponding process settings and material defined for the machine.The possible defects and its corresponding Power-Speed ranges can be determined as well. The maximum power and scan speed in the maps correspond to the machine settings
  • 2D & 3D results – Roughness map and Temperature are surface results which represents the surface roughness and final temperature of the part in 3D at the end of the PBF process. Post processing tools like cutting, measuring etc can be utilised to examine the part.
  • Further improvements are
    • UI improvements for Nexus projects
    • Improved documentation with Python scripting 

Note: Separate licenses are required to run this module

Upgrade to Simufact Additive 2023.4 and benefit from the new features that improve your daily work!

Click here to learn about What’s New in Simufact Additive 2023.4.

 

Marc 2023.4

The newest version of Marc is now available at the Software Download Center.

You won't want to miss Marc 2023.4, which includes several new features, including the following: 

Marc: 

  • Cracking Energy Density (CED)-based fatigue analysis for elastomers: A new method for elastomer fatigue is now available. It uses state-of-the art technology with critical planes and cracking energy density. It allows you to estimate fatigue life and get an idea of the location and orientation of fatigue cracks. Paired with Marc's advanced material models, contact and remeshing it provides a powerful analysis capability in this area.

 

  • MoM Remeshing Enhancements: Higher Order Elements and Thin Sections: Mesh-on-mesh tetra remeshing now supports higher-order elements. Thin sections in the model are now detected during remeshing and the mesh size is automatically adjusted in the thin regions. Available for both 2-D and 3-D. 
  • Structural increment frequency control in a coupled diffusion/thermal/structural analysis: The increment frequency of the structural part of this type of analysis can now be controlled by the user. This can substantially reduce the computation time. 
  • Secant-based Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE): A temperature dependent CTE can now be input as secant based data as an alternative to the current instantaneous based data. This simplifies the input of temperature dependent data. 
  • Temperature and contact pressure induced contact bonding: Contact pressure can now be used to bond contacting bodies. Until now only temperature based bonding was supported. In a coupled analysis they can be combined. This is useful in applications like ultrasonic welding. 

Mentat:

  • Mentat supports all the new features of Marc’s solver
  • Improved performance in Mentat: The graphics performance of Mentat has been improved. The speed up is particularly noticeable for bulky solid meshes.
  • Position of the triad: The coordinate system triad is now fixed in the bottom right corner of the graphics window. In past releases, the triad would drift towards the bottom center of the window if the aspect ratio of the window is increased

 

Click here to learn about What’s New in Marc 2023.4.

SIMTEQ Engineering Webinar
Contact and Everything That you Need to Know About it
7 October 2022
11:30 - 12:30

Contact and Everything
That you Need to Know About it

Registration
MSC Apex Tip

Solve your structural simulation with Nastran directly in MSC Apex​:

When MSC Nastran replaced the native MSC Apex Integrated Solver in the 2021.3 Apex version, Nastran was implemented in such a way that no actual files were being created and translated between the Apex user interface and the Nastran solver to expedite the process.

This however left seasoned analysts in the dark as to what exactly was being sent to the solver since having access to the BDF (ascii text) file has always been regarded as the ultimate proof of the analysis input.

With the 2022.2 update, users can opt for the full MSC Nastran experience, generating the BDF input file for checks and custom edits, submitting it to Nastran and receiving back the traditional result files.
To implement this:
  1. Go to Options > Application Settings > and under the Nastran Compute Environment, pick the External Nastran option.
  2. Specify the MSC Nastran executable file path.
  3. Customize input, scratch, and output folders based on your model preferences. For instance, the Input Files folder stores MSC Nastran input files (.dat, .bdf).
With these changes made, submitting a model for analysis creates the BDF file, submits it to Nastran and leaves the user to attach the results when they become available.
Training

FEA101 - Finite Element Analysis Fundamentals
(5 days)

Software Package: Apex

Price: R 19 300.00/p excl VAT (A 25% discount applies if attendance is online)

Students and lecturers: R 1 930.00/p excl VAT

Date: 05 Feb - 9 Feb 2024

Duration: 5 Days

CPD Accredited: Yes

More Information
Registration

MAR101&102 - Nonlinear Analysis using Marc and Mentat (5 days)

Software Package: Marc and Mentat

Price: R 19 300.00/p excl VAT (A 25% discount applies if attendance is online)

Students and lecturers: R 1 930.00/p excl VAT

Date: 19 Feb - 23 Feb 2024

Duration: 5 Days

CPD Accredited: Yes

More Information
Registration
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