Engineering Solutions 2019 Tutorials
Engineering Solutions 2019 Tutorials
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Required model files of the models you build in the tutorials are available online.
1. To access model files, visit the Altair Client Center or Altair Connect.
A user ID and password are required to access the model files. Follow the instructions at the
website to obtain login credentials.
2. Select the required file package and download it onto your system.
Note that the files may require unzipping before proceeding with the tutorials. When extracting
zipped files, preserve any directory structure included in the file package.
CFD
The following tutorials are available for the CFD user profile:
1. From the menu bar, select Preferences > User Profiles or click on the Standard toolbar.
2. Select Engineering Solutions >CFD.
3. Click OK.
Step 3: Check That All the Elements in Collector Wall Define a Closed Volume
1. Click Mesh > Check > Components > Edges to open the Edges panel.
3. Click find edges. A message indicating that no edges were found will appear on the status bar.
4. Toggle free edges to T-connections.
5. Select the collector wall again and click find edges. The status bar will display, “No T-
connected edges were found.”
1. Click Mesh > Volume Mesh 3D > CFD Tetramesh to open the CFD Tetramesh panel.
2. Select the Boundary selection subpanel. You will need to first select all the elements/components
that define the surface area on which you need to generate boundary layers. This is done by selecting
the elements/components under the With BL (float) selector.
3. Under the heading With BL (float), click comps and select the collector wall.
4. Verify that the switch below the W/o BL (float) selector is set to Remesh. This means that the
meshes in the zones defined by the collector wall will be remeshed after being deformed by the
boundary layer growth from adjacent surface areas.
5. Select Smooth BL. This option is strongly recommended for most cases because it produces boundary
layers with more uniform thickness and better element quality.
6. Click the BL parameters subpanel. All the data that has been entered in the Boundary selection
subpanel is stored.
7. Select the options to specify the boundary layer and tetrahedral core:
• Number of Layers = 5
8. Under the BL hexa transition mode header, change the selection to All Prisms (Prism to all
Layers). This means that if there are any quad elements in the surface mesh, those will be split into
two trias each so that there is no need to transition from quad faces to tria faces when transitioning
from the last boundary layer to the tetrahedral core. This option is very important when there are
quad elements on areas with (low) distributed BL thickness ratio, because in such areas the thickness
of the transition elements (for example simple pyramid) was not taken into account when doing the
interference study to assign distributed BL thickness ratio to those elements.
9. Leave the BL only checkbox unchecked. This option generates the boundary layer alone and stops
before generating the tetrahedral core. This option modifies adjacent surface meshes to reflect
changes introduced by the boundary layer thickness, and creates a collector named
^CFD_trias_for_tetramesh, that is used to generate the inner core tetrahedral mesh using the
Tetramesh parameters subpanel.
10. Check the box for Pre calc and then click Auto.
11. In the Generate Boundary Layer distributed thickness values dialog, notice that the wall
component is already selected and has a Bound Type of wall. This is because the wall component was
selected in the Boundary selection subpanel.
12. Specify the Boundary Layer options as shown in the following image.
The number of layers, first layer thickness and growth rate have been established in the BL
parameters subpanel and are greyed out here. All layers will have the same thickness (except for
mesh smoothing operations such as hyperbolic smoothing at corners).
Now you are ready to generate the Distributed BL Thickness loading. Make sure that none of the
elements specified in the boundary collectors are masked. If they are masked an error message will
indicate that there is a discrepancy between the total number of elements in the components and the
tria3/quad4 elements found. If you have masked elements, you can access the Mask (F5), and press
unmask all.
14. If the model already contains boundary layer thickness ratios, then a pop-up message box will ask you
if you want to keep such loading or if you want to delete them. Most of the time you will want to clear
the existing boundary layer thickness ratios; click Yes. In some special cases you may want to keep
them, if more than one loading value is specified at a node, the minimum value is used when
generating the mesh.
After a few seconds you will see a pop-up message indicating the number of distributed boundary
layer thickness values included in collector ^CFD_BL_Thickness.
15. Click Close in the Generate Boundary Layer distributed thickness values window.
18. Set the tetrahedral core growth rate to Interpolate. This avoids the problem of generating
tetrahedral elements that are too large at the center of the core mesh.
19. Click mesh to create the CFD mesh. When this task is finished, two collectors are automatically
created: CFD_bl001 and CFD_tetcore001.
20. Click return to close the panel.
The mesh needs to consist of tetrahedral elements only. This was accomplished by generating tetras
directly in the boundary layer. However, if you need to split penta / wedge elements into tetras, use
the procedure below.
5. Click split. Now you have a mesh consisting of tetrahedral elements only.
The objective of this tutorial is to illustrate how you can generate very thin boundary layers without
interference. However, such thin boundary layers can lead to element with a high aspect ratio if the
size of the surface mesh is not small enough. If you need to limit the tetrahedral elements’ aspect
ratio (for example, < 5), then you need to use a fine enough mesh on the wall component so that
thin boundary layers do not produce high aspect ratio elements. For example, in this case, the
minimum value of tetra collapse of all tetrahedral core elements was 0.2, but after you split the BL
penta / wedge elements into tetras, the minimum value of tetra collapse of all tetrahedral elements
becomes 0.04. This occurs because the BL penta elements are thin compared to their triangular face
area size.
Summary
Altair HyperMesh allowed you to generate high-quality boundary layer meshes on parts with very
thin walls. To accomplish this you first need to use the utility Generate Distributed BL Thickness
Ratio to generate load collector ^CFD_BL_Thickness. This load collector is then used when you
enable distributed thickness. As shown in the cross-sectional images, the mesh is very smooth
and is of excellent quality.
CFD-1000: Creating a Hybrid Grid Using the CFD Mesh Panel
1. From the menu bar, select Preferences > User Profiles or click on the Standard toolbar.
3. Click OK.
4. Inspect the surface elements that will be used to generate the volume mesh. The boundary
mesh can have any combination of tria/quad elements. You will generate boundary layers on all
the surface elements contained in the collector named wall.
Step 3: Check That All the Elements in the Collectors Wall, Inlet, and Outlets
Define a Closed Volume
1. Click Mesh > Check > Component > Edges to open the Edges panel.
2. Click comps and select the collectors wall, inlet and outlets.
3. Click select, and then click find edges. A message indicating that no edges were found will
appear on the status bar.
1. Click Mesh > Volume Mesh 3D > CFD Tetramesh to open the CFD Tetramesh panel.
2. Click the Boundary selection subpanel. You will need to first select all the
elements/components that define the surface area on which you need to generate boundary
layers. This is done by selecting the elements/components under the With BL (float) and
With BL (fixed) selectors.
3. Under the heading With BL (fixed), click comps and select the collector wall. Next, select the
remaining elements/components which define the volume but where a boundary layer is not
desired. This is done by selecting the elements/components under the W/o BL (float) and
W/o BL (fixed) selectors.
4. Under the heading W/o BL (float), click comps and select the collectors inlet and outlets.
5. Verify that the switch below the W/o BL (float) selector is set to Remesh. This means that
the meshes in the zones defined by collectors inlet and outlets will be remeshed after being
deformed by the boundary layer growth from adjacent surface areas.
6. Select Smooth BL. This option is strongly recommended for most cases because it produces
boundary layers with more uniform thickness and better element quality.
7. Click the BL parameters subpanel. All the data that has been entered in the Boundary
selection subpanel is stored.
8. Select the options to specify the boundary layer and tetrahedral core:
• Number of Layers = 5
• BL growth rate= 1.1 (This non-dimensional factor controls the change in layer thickness
from one layer to the next).
9. Under the BL hexa transition mode header, verify that selection is set to Simple Pyramid.
The default, Simple Pyramid, uses one pyramid element to transition from a BL hexahedral’s
quad face to the tetrahedral core mesh.
10. Leave the BL only checkbox unchecked. This option generates the boundary layer alone and
stops before generating the tetrahedral core. This option modifies adjacent surface meshes to
reflect changes introduced by the boundary layer thickness, and creates a collector named
^CFD_trias_for_tetramesh, that is used to generate the inner core tetrahedral mesh using
the Tetramesh parameters subpanel.
13. Set the tetrahedral core growth rate to Interpolate. This avoids the problem of generating
tetrahedral elements that are too large at the center of the core mesh.
14. Click mesh to create the CFD mesh. When this task is finished, two collectors are automatically
created: CFD_bl001 and CFD_tetcore001.
Step 5: Mask Some of the Mesh to View the Interior Elements and Boundary
Layers
You can mask the mesh by using the shortcut key F5, and select elements to be masked. The following is
a snapshot. Observe the excellent mesh quality produced.
2. You can also use the Hidden Line panel to view the interior of a solid mesh. Click BCs >
3. Leave the title field blank and check the option for yz plane. This defines the yz plane as the cutting
plane.
4. Leave the options for trim planes and clip boundary elements checked on and click show plot.
This automatically places the cutting plane at the center of the model. Notice that the display of the
elements has been collapsed so that the nodes lie on the cutting plane.
5. Left-click in the graphics area where the cutting plane is, hold down the left mouse button, and drag
the mouse. Notice that the cutting plane moves.
6. Next, uncheck the option for clip boundary elements and click show plot.
In this section, you will define mesh surface regions used to specify boundary conditions in any CFD code
(FLUENT, StarCD, CFX, and so on). For example, assume that you are going to export the mesh for
FLUENT. For this model, you need to create three collectors to place the boundaries: inflow, outflow, and
wall. You have selected two new names that are not already in your database and at the same time are
compatible with the prefixes required by FLUENT to recognize boundary types according to their names.
You are going to reuse the surface mesh contained in collector wall because this mesh remained
unchanged by the CFD mesh process as this component was specified as “fixed with boundary layer.”
However, the surface areas associated with the original collectors inlet and outlets have been completely
regenerated and you need to create new components that will be named inflow and outflow,
respectively.
1. Using the Model browser, rename the collector CFD_tetcore001 to fluid. This collector will hold all
the 3D volume elements.
2. Click BCs > Organize to move all the elements from the collector CFD_bl001 to collector fluid.
3. Click BCs > Faces to automatically generate the collector ^faces containing all the external faces of
the elements in collector fluid.
4. Click BCs > Components > Single to create two new components named inflow and outflow.
Now you are going to move some of the elements from the collector ^faces to the collectors inflow and
outflow.
7. Click elems >> by face. All the elements in the collector ^faces on the inlet/inflow plane will be
selected.
8. Set the dest comp as inflow, and click move. Similarly, move the elements from ^faces associated
with the outlets to the collector outflow.
9. Show the inflow and outflow components in the Model browser. When done, you will have all the
exterior surfaces colored according to the collectors where they have been placed as shown in the
following image.
10. The remaining elements in the collector ^faces are the same as in wall and you can discard them.
11. Delete both collectors ^faces and collector CFD_boundary_layer, which is now empty.
Step 7: Export Surface and Volume Mesh and Import this Mesh into FLUENT
1. Display only the components containing elements that have to be exported for FLUENT, the
components are: fluid, inflow, outflow and wall. All other components should not be visible.
2. Click the Export Solver Deck icon to open the Export tab.
3. Notice that the File Type is set to CFD. Set the Solver Type to Fluent.
4. In the File field, click the file icon and specify a name and location for the file.
6. Select Yes to the first message that appears and No to the second message.
If you have access to FLUENT, you can import manifold.cas to create a new FLUENT simulation case
as follows
3. Select manifold.cas.
4. Click OK. After importing this file, you will observe that FLUENT has recognized the boundary
zones outflow, inflow and wall by name, and the 3D volume zone fluid. Zone interior-* is
automatically created by FLUENT containing all the interior faces shared by two 3D cells.
7. Change the boundary condition type for the remaining surface zones, outflow and wall.
Engineering Solutions allows you to perform the most time consuming tasks of generating the
volume mesh and identifying the boundary zones. Now inside FLUENT the rest of the simulation
tasks can be executed easily.
The boundary layer type mesh generated in this tutorial was generated with uniform thickness. This is
OK for a model like this manifold as long as the total boundary layer thickness does not lead to collision or
interference that can occur when the sum of the BL thickness is close to or larger than the distance
separating boundary layer walls. When such collision or interference occurs you have the following options:
• Decrease the global boundary layer thickness (throughout / for all the BL surfaces)
• Use distributed boundary layer thickness ratios on nodes or collectors/components. This is a
capability in Altair HyperMesh that allows you to specify a local value of boundary layer thickness by
specifying the ratio of the local value to the global value. For example, if the ratio specified on
certain nodes or all the nodes belonging to a collector is equal to 0.1, then the boundary layer
thickness generated around those nodes will be only 10 percent of the global boundary layer thickness.
• The CFD user profile has a tool (Generate BL Thickness) to generate automatically “distributed
boundary layer thickness ratios” at each node of the surface mesh so that boundary layer collision
is avoided when using the global or nominal boundary layer thickness. The usage of this tool is
explained in Tutorial CFD-1100.
In this appendix you are going to use option B to manually change the BL thickness ratio.
Step A: Prepare data to generate a CFD mesh (boundary layer and core mesh)
2. Click BCs > Check > Edge, then select the collectors wall, wall_thinner_bl, inlet and outlets.
3. Click find edges. A message indicating that no edges were found will appear on the status bar.
4. Click Mesh > Volume Mesh 3D > CFD tetramesh to access the CFD Tetramesh panel.
core:
• Number of Layers = 5
• First layer thickness = 0.5
• BL growth rate= 1.1
7. Select the type of tetrameshing algorithm: Simple Pyramid, Smooth Pyramid, All Prism or
All Tetras
9. In the Tetramesh parameters subpanel, set the Pyramid transition ratio = 0.8
10. Select the tetrahedral core growth rate switch to Interpolate. This avoids the problem of generating
tetrahedral elements that are too large at the center of the core mesh.
2. The Distributed BL Thickness Ratio dialog opens. This dialog enables you to specify distributed
thickness ratios for groups of nodes or whole components. You can choose either Nodes or Components
3. Select Components.
components:
When the models are more complex it is useful to display surface contours of BL thickness ratio values.
7. Click Contours of BL Thickness Ratio, and the Contour panel will be automatically displayed.
8. Click contour to inspect the distribution of BL Thickness Ratio on the surface of your domain and
click return when you are finished. Click Close to close the dialog.
9. Go to the CFD Tetramesh panel, Boundary selection subpanel. Here all the elements/components
that define the surface area on which you need to generate boundary layers will be selected.
10. Click comps under With BL (fixed) and select the collectors wall and wall_thinner_bl.
11. Select all the elements/components that define the surface area on which you do not want to
generate boundary layers. This selection is done with the W/o BL (float) selector.
12. Click comps and select the collectors, inlet and outlets.
13. The switch below the W/o BL (float) selector is set to Remesh. This means that the meshes in
the zones defined by collector’s inlet and outlets will be remeshed after being deformed by the boundary
15. Inspect the relative size of the boundary layer thickness by masking some of the elements as shown
in the following image. This image shows that the BL thickness on component wall_thinner_bl
The manual approach followed previously is useful when you need to reduce the BL thickness
throughout a component, or at a clearly identified group of nodes.
When you have a very complicated geometry and BL collision is likely to occur, the best approach
is to use the Generate BL Thickness tool to generate automatically “distributed boundary layer
thickness ratios” at each node of the surface mesh. This tool performs a collision study and assigns
a BL thickness ratio to each node of the surface mesh that requires a reduction of the baseline BL
components. This approach is very easy to use and effective when you know how much you want to
increase or decrease the BL thickness all over a component. A similar approach is followed to increase/
• Generate meshes for most CFD codes using the CFD Tetramesh panel.
• Generate boundary layer type meshes with arbitrary number of layers and thickness distribution
in domains defined by surfaces that are very close to one another in some areas. More
specifically, in some areas the clearance or separation of bounding surfaces is not enough to
accommodate the user specified nominal boundary layer thickness.
• Generate a distributed thickness “loading” that prevents boundary layer interference/collision in
zones where the distance between opposing walls is too small to accommodate the baseline or
nominal boundary layer thickness.
The model file used in this exercise can be found in the es.zip file. Copy the file(s) from this directory
to your working directory.
1. From the menu bar, select Preferences > User Profiles or click on the Standard toolbar.
4. Inspect the surface elements that will be used to generate the volume mesh. You would like to
generate boundary layers on all the surface elements contained in components wall and
wall_cyl. However, there is an area close to the end of wall_cyl where the clearance between
wall and wall_cyl is very small. This can be easily observed in this case by changing the
visibility of component wall, as shown in the following image.
In more complex models it is not possible to visually identify all the zones where there is not
enough space to growth the “baseline” or nominal boundary layer as specified in terms of the
number of layers, first layer thickness and growth rate. This is not a problem because the
automatic distributed thickness “loading” computation takes into account all possible
interference cases. This is demonstrated in this tutorial.
2. Click comps and select all collectors that define the domain’s surface, namely inlet, outlets,
wall and wall_cyl.
3. Click find edges. A message indicating that no edges were found will appear on the status bar.
5. Select the components again and click find edges. The status bar will display, “No T-connected
edges were found.”
3. Under the heading With BL (fixed), click comps and select the collectors wall and wall_cyl.
4. Under the heading W/o BL (float), click comps and select the collectors inlet and outlets.
5. Ensure that the switch below the W/o BL (float) selector is set to Remesh. This means that
the surface meshes associated with those components will be remeshed or rebuilt after
shrinking due to boundary layer growth from adjacent boundary layer components.
10. Set the correct Bound Type for each one of the selected components. You want to generate a
boundary layer from components wall and wall_cyl, therefore, you will leave wall as their Bound
Type. Also verify that the Bound Type of components inlet and outlets is set to in/outlet as
shown, following:
A component with Bound Type: wall indicates that you are going to generate a boundary layer
mesh on the component later on when you generate the mesh. Therefore, the same component
should be consistently specified with the comps selector for the With BL (fixed or float) in the
Boundary selection subpanel.
A component with a Bound Type: slip, symmetry, in/outlet, or farfield indicates that you
are NOT going to generate a boundary layer mesh on the component. Therefore, when you
generate the mesh this component should be consistently specified with the comps selector for
the W/o BL (fixed or float) in the Boundary selection subpanel.
11. Specify the Boundary Layer options as shown in the following image.
• The first three fields are set in the BL parameters subpanel and cannot be changed here.
All layers will have the same thickness except in area affected by the distributed thickness
"loading" and also mesh smoothing operations such as hyperbolic smoothing at corners.
• Specify a Minimum (Tetrahedral-Core / Boundary-Layer) thickness ratio value of 2.0.
This means that in areas where there is not enough room to grow the nominal BL (5 layers
starting with a thickness of 0.5 and increasing with a grow rate of 1.2), the boundary layers’
thickness will be reduced so that the tetrahedral core thickness is approximately at least 2.0
times the total boundary layer thickness, except for mesh smoothing operations such as
hyperbolic smoothing at corners and convex/concave areas.
• The last option, Bound Layer thickness at corners, is a coefficient that controls the
hyperbolic growth where walls make an angle. The smaller this value is, the thinner the total
BL thickness is in such areas; values less than 1 produce thinner layers and values greater
than 1 produce thicker layers.
Now you are ready to generate the Distributed BL Thickness loading. Make sure that none of
the elements specified in the boundary collectors are masked. If they are masked an error
message will indicate that there is a discrepancy between the total number of elements in the
components that you specified and the number of tria3/quad4 elements found (displayed). If
you have masked elements, you can use mask (F5), and press unmask all.
12. Click Generate Distributed BL Thickness Ratio. If the model already contains boundary layer
thickness ratios, then a pop-up message box will ask you if you want to keep such loads or if
you want to clear/discard them. Most of the time you will want to clear the existing boundary
layer thickness ratios; click Yes. In some special cases you may want to keep them, if more
than one loading value is specified for a node, the minimum value is used when generating the
mesh.
13. After a few seconds you will see a pop-up message indicating the number of distributed
boundary layer thickness values included in collector ^CFD_BL_Thickness.
14. Click Close in the Generate Boundary Layer distributed thickness values dialog.
2. Set the switch for the tetrahedral mesh generation algorithm to Optimize Mesh Quality.
4. Click mask.
5. Click the XY Top Plane View icon .
6. Zoom in into the area where the bounding surfaces come close together. The following image
illustrates how BL interference has been avoided by reducing the BL thickness.
Step 7: Arrange Volume and Surface Components Before Exporting the Mesh
for CFD Solvers
First you need to put in the same component all the elements that represent a single fluid and/or solid
domain. In this case you have a single fluid domain, therefore you proceed as follows:
1. Rename the CFD_Tetramesh_core component. Typically, select a name “fluid*,” for example,
fluid. In the Model browser, select CFD_tetcore001, right-click, select Rename, and then type
the new name, fluid.
7. Select the component fluid, and click find faces. All boundary faces are placed in the component
^faces.
8. Create new, empty components to place the elements from ^faces so that when these components
are later exported, they can be used to set a boundary condition in your CFD solver. In the Model
browser, right-click Component, and then select Create. The Entity Editor opens.
9. For Name enter wall_exterior. Leave the Type as None.
10. Create three more empty components with the names wall_cylinder, inlet_annulus and
outlets3.
11. Move the elements from component ^faces into the newly created components. This is done for
clarity; however, most of the time you create one fewer component and you rename ^faces which
retains the remaining elements after you move elements to the newly created surface components.
Organize the components by using the Organize panel. Select BCs > Organize.
12. Set dest component to wall_exterior, then pick one element on the exterior wall surface in the
^faces component.
13. Click the elems switch and select by face. This will recursively select all the elements attached to
the picked element as long as the adjacent elements are within a break angle less or equal to the
value specified in the feature angle field (Preferences > Geometry Options > Mesh subpanel).
The surface mesh in ^faces is such that the zones that you want to organize/move make an angle
close to 90 degrees and their boundaries, therefore this is a very easy job to do with a default
feature angle of 20 or 30 degrees.
14. Having selected all the elements that should go to component wall_exterior, click move.
15. Now set the dest component to outlets3 and pick at least one element on each one of the three
separate outlets as shown in the following image.
As mentioned previously, more often than not it is easier to rename/recolor component ^faces.
1. Verify that only the components that you want to export are displayed. All other components should
2. Click the Export Solver Deck icon to open the Export tab. Select the CFD file format of your
Engineering Solutions allowed you to generate high-quality boundary layer meshes on parts where
the clearance or separation of the bounding surfaces is not enough to accommodate the user
specified nominal boundary layer thickness. To accomplish this you first used the CFD utility
Generate Distributed BL Thickness Ratio to generate load collector ^CFD_BL_Thickness. This
load collector is then used when you enable distributed thickness. As shown in the cross-sectional
images, the mesh is very smooth, free of collisions, and is of excellent quality.
CFD-1300: Plane 2D Meshing with Boundary Layers
1. From the menu bar, select Preferences > User Profiles or click on the Standard toolbar.
2. Select Engineering Solutions > CFD.
3. Click OK.
Step 3: Check That All the Elements in Collectors Wall, Inner Wall, Inlet, and
Outlets Define a Closed Loop (This Step is Optional)
Usually, this step is not necessary because the collectors containing edge elements (PLOTEL) are
extracted from 2D surface meshes that naturally have free edges forming “closed” loops. However,
there is a possibility that there may be duplicate nodes, and for this reason it is advisable to
perform the following test:
2. Click comps.
3. Select the collectors wall, inner_wall, Inlet and Outlet.
4. Click select.
5. You need to ensure that the tolerance value is smaller than the minimum element length. To do
this, first find the minimum element length. Click Mesh > Check > Elements > Check
Elements.
6. Select 1-d.
7. Click length. A message indicates the minimum element length is 3.09, therefore you can
safely use a tolerance of three.
9. In the Edge panel, enter 3.0 in the tolerance = field and then click Preview Equiv. A
message indicating that “0 nodes were found” will appear on the status bar.
• Growth Rate = 1.1 (This non-dimensional factor controls the change in layer thickness from one
8. Click select.
9. Click proceed.
10. In the 2D Boundary Layer Mesh window, all the selected components will be displayed in the
will be assigned to each component. To remove one or more components from the group, select those
12. In the 2D Boundary Layer Mesh window, set the Bound Type value for components Inlet and
Outlet as In/Outlet.
The objective is to not generate boundary layers along the Inlet and Outlet components.
Note: Those elements may be remeshed based on the adjacent elements’ size.
13. Click Generate 2D BL Mesh to generate the mesh. When this task is finished, two collectors are
automatically created: 2DBLMesh and 2DCoreMesh, as shown in the following image. Note that the
quality of the mesh may not be very good, as described, following. In the next steps you will change
As indicated previously, components with Bound type In/Outlet will be remeshed based on the
adjacent elements’ size. The two following figures illustrate the case where an inlet/outlet is defined
with a single large element, after meshing the element size in this area has been reduced to obtain
a smooth element size transition, leading to an excellent mesh quality.
Step 5: Changing Mesh Quality
Often it may happen that boundary layer elements will have bad quality due to high aspect ratio.
Such elements are created because of the large boundary edge length as shown in the following
image.
This problem can be resolved by limiting the maximum perimeter elements’ aspect ratio. The
maximum boundary elements’ aspect ratio can be achieved using two approaches:
Or
This option is used to move boundary nodes along the original boundary. Boundary node
movement is controlled by the specified maximum perimeter element aspect ratio.
Enter the maximum perimeter element aspect ratio as shown in the following image:
2. Click Generate 2D BL Mesh to generate the mesh. If the model already contains collectors
2DBLMesh and 2DCoreMesh, then a pop-up message will ask you if you want to delete
components 2DBLMesh and 2DCoreMesh before mesh creation or if you want to add newly
created elements to the same collectors. Most of the time you will want to clear the existing
mesh: click Yes. In some special cases you may want to keep them.
When this task is finished, two collectors 2DBLMesh and 2DCoreMesh are updated with new
elements as shown in the following image:
3. You can check the element’s aspect ratio by using the shortcut key F10 and selecting the 2-d
page.
When the perimeter has sharp angles as shown in the following image, triangular elements are
added to the boundary mesh to achieve a smoother transition of element sizes, and mesh
smoothing also contributes to increase the mesh quality.
Also note that the automatic mesh generator performs a collision detection and avoids
boundary layer interference by reducing the boundary layer thickness, as shown in the following
inset:
Step 6: Use a Distributed Boundary Layer Thickness to Generate a Boundary
Layer and Core
The boundary layer type mesh generated in this tutorial was generated with uniform thickness. This
is OK for a model like this manifold as long as the total boundary layer thickness does not lead to
collision or interference that can occur when the sum of the BL thickness is close to or larger than
the distance separating opposite walls. When such collision or interference occurs you have the
following options:
• Decrease the global boundary layer thickness (throughout / for all the BL edges).
• Decrease locally the boundary layer thickness (BL edges around critical zones only).
Decrease locally the boundary layer thickness
1. In the 2D Boundary Layer Mesh window, click Reject to remove the created mesh. Collectors
2DBLMesh and 2DCoreMesh will be deleted.
10. Click move to move the selected PLOTEL elements to the destination collector.
11. Click Mesh > Surface Mesh 2D > 2D Mesh with BL.
16. Click proceed. The component wall_critical has been added to the component list.
18. Click Generate 2D BL Mesh to generate the mesh. When this task is finished, two collectors
are automatically created: 2DBLMesh and 2DCoreMesh.
19. Now you can zoom in around component wall_critical and notice how boundary layer
interference has been avoided by reducing the total boundary layer thickness as shown in the
following image:
Summary
In this tutorial you generated 2D meshes with boundary layers on a complex cross section. You
obtained a high quality mesh by allowing boundary node insertion and movement. Engineering
Solutions automatically cuts back the number of layers when boundary layer collision occurs, thus
producing a consistent mesh even in narrow areas. In narrow passages you can also reduce the
total boundary layer thickness by starting with a smaller first layer thickness and/or a smaller
growth rate.
CFD-1400: Wind Tunnel Mesh
In this tutorial you will generate a wind tunnel type mesh for external CFD analysis. The mesh consists
of a Cartesian hexa-mesh for the far field, and a hybrid grid (tetras with boundary layers) in the
vicinity of the object.
1. From the menu bar, select Preferences > User Profiles or click on the Standard toolbar.
1. Click Mesh > Volume Mesh 3D > Wind Tunnel. The Wind-Tunnel tab opens, displaying
instructions for using this tool.
3. Click Generate. A pop-up message will display the estimated number of hexahedral elements
that will be created with the specified minimum hex cell size.
4. Click Yes on the pop-up message. The Wind Tunnel Mesh tool generates hexa, pyramids and
shell elements and groups them into several collectors.
You may need to rotate the model to obtain this view
1. In the Model browser, expand Component, right-click plane, and select Isolate.
2. Click Mesh > Surface Mesh 2D > Automesh. This automatically loads the surface deviation
subpanel.
3. With surfs selected in the toggle, hold SHIFT and drag a box around the entire visible airplane
geometry. You may need to resize the display first.
10. Ensure toggles are set to elems to surf comp and first order.
11. Click mesh. A message on the status bar indicates the number of elements created.
Step 5: Mesh the Box Sym Component With an Element Size of 20
1. In the Model browser, show the elements and geometry for box_sym.
3. With the surfs toggle active, click any visible part of the box to select it.
4. For element size =, enter 20 and set the mesh type to trias.
6. Click mesh. The component is meshed. A message on the status bar indicates the number of
elements created.
1. In the Model browser, right-click the component symp and select Show.
2. Click BCs > Check > Edge.
5. Click preview equiv. A message in the status bar indicates the number of nodes found.
Step 8: Generate a Surface and a Tria Mesh on the Bottom of the Box
1. In the Model browser, turn off the element display for symp and turn on the display for
ground.
2. Click Mesh > Surface Mesh 2D > Surface/Mesh > Spline.
4. Click the nodes selector to open the extended entity selection menu and pick by path.
6. Pick the nodes by path on the perimeter of the box bottom, as in the following image:
7. Click create.
8. Click return.
12. Click mesh. A message on the status bar will indicate the number of elements created.
5. Click equivalence.
6. Click return.
7. In the Model browser, turn off the display of ground, and turn on the element display of
trias_hexas_pyras.
8. Return to the Edges panel.
9. Hold SHIFT and drag a box around all the visible components to select them all.
10. Click find edges. A message on the status bar indicates that no edges were found.
11. Select the components again and click preview equiv. A message on the status bar indicates
that 0 nodes were found. This ensures that the volume is enclosed, which is necessary for the
following tetra meshing step.
2. Under the With BL (fixed) header, click the comps selector and select the component plane.
3. Under the W/o BL (fixed) header, click the comps selector and select the components
box_sym, box_ground and trias_hexas_pyras.
9. Click return.
1. Click Mesh > Check > Hidden Lines. In the panel, deactivate the clip boundary elements
checkbox.
2. Click show plot and then check and then uncheck the xy plane, yz plane and xz plane
checkboxes to display the model in different views.
3. Rotate and inspect the mesh from the side of the model.
4. Click and hold one of the corners of the model. While keeping the mouse button down, drag the
corner of the model forth and back to sweep the cutting plane.
5. Click return.
1. In the Model browser, turn off the display for plane, box_sym, trias_hexas_pyras and
box_ground so that only CFD_tetcore001 and CFD_bl001 are visible.
4. Click find faces. Note that a new component named ^faces appears in the Model browser.
5. Click return.
6. In the Model browser, turn off the display of the elements of CFD_tetramesh_core and
CFD_boundary_layer.
14. Pick three nodes on the bottom of the ^faces component. A good way to determine which area
to select is to isolate the display of the box_ground geometry. This will show you the face to
focus on. Turn the display of the ^faces component back on, and select your three nodes.
15. Click select entities.
1. In the Model browser, right-click the component ^faces, and select Delete.
4. Press the CTRL key and select edges_xz and edges_xy in the Model browser.
4. Click select.
5. Click dest component = and select fluid_hex.
6. Click move. When the move is complete, nothing should be visible in the graphic area.
7. Click return.
Step 15: Use the Model Browser to Rename and Delete Components
4. Select CFD_tetcore001 and CFD_bl001 and delete them using the process described in Step
14.
5. Right-click Component and select Show to show all remaining components in the graphic
area.
2. Ensure that CFD is selected for the File Type, and pick Fluent for the Solver Type.
3. Use the File field to navigate to the destination folder and enter the name wind_tunnel_mesh.
4. Click Export. A dialog appears. After reading the dialog, click Yes.
5. In the pop-up dialog that appears, you are asked whether to reuse the setup from an existing
FLUENT file. Since you just generated the grid and do not have a set up file (*.cas), click No.
It may take a few minutes for the file to be created.
6. When the file creation is complete, a pop-up window appears. Click OK.
CFD-1500: Hexcore Meshing with Boundary Layer
In this tutorial you will learn how to generate a hexcore mesh with a boundary layer. Included are the
following steps:
1. From the menu bar, select Preferences > User Profiles or click on the Standard toolbar.
2. Select Engineering Solutions > CFD.
3. Click OK.
6. Ensure that both the size and skew checkboxes are activated.
7. Ensure toggles are set to elems to surf comp and first order.
9. Click mesh. A message on the status bar indicates the number of elements created.
bottom part of the tab editable. Enter the Number of layers as three, the First layer thickness as
5. Under the header W/o boundary layer, click Components and select inflow and outflow.
6. Click Generate just above the Report area. If a message appears, select Yes. After the meshing
finishes, a message appears stating that additional components have been created.
7. Check the Model browser to see all the new components created.
8. Press F5 to open the Mask panel. While holding the shift key down, draw a box around roughly half
of the model, and click mask. This will display the inside of the model.
5. Display only the volume elements by clicking the "1" in the row for 3D elements.
6. Click Mesh > Organize.
11. Click Mesh > Delete > Elements. Click elems and select displayed.
12. Click delete entity. This deletes all 2D elements from the model.
13. While still in the Delete panel, click the toggle and switch from elems to comps. Click comps and
15. In the Model browser, right-click Component and select Show to display the remaining components.
18. Enter the tolerance as 0.010 and select find faces. Click return to close the panel.
21. Click dest component = and select the inflow component. Click move.
22. Click elems again and select the elements on the outlet.
23. Click dest component = and select the outflow component. Click move.
27. Display all the components and export the model to the CFD solver of your choice.
CFD-1600: Using Distributed Thickness for Varying Boundary Layer Thickness
1. From the menu bar, select Preferences > User Profiles or click on the Standard toolbar.
3. Click OK.
4. In the Model browser, click Component and expand the folder, then right-click box and select
Hide.
5. Ensure that both the size and skew checkboxes are activated.
6. Ensure toggles are set to elems to surf comp and first order.
7. Click surfs. In the graphics area, use the Shift key and the left mouse button to draw a box around
the wing to select the entire image.
8. Click mesh. A message on the status bar indicates the number of elements created.
Step 4: Adjust the Node Seeding on Each Edge to Get a Structured Quad
Mesh
1. While in the density subpanel, change the elem density = field to 17.
2. Click edge just above the elem density field and graphically select both left-hand edges of the wing.
The entire edge is selected.
3. Rotate the model and repeat Step 2 for the other end.
To get a structured quad mesh adjust the number of nodes on the edges in such a way so that two opposite edges have the
4. Click edge next to adjust and select the edge as shown in the image below:
5. Now adjust the node seeding on the two remaining edges (leading edge and training edge) to 47 to
6. Click mesh.
2. Enter the name of the new component as BL_thin and click Create and then Close.
4. With elems highlighted, use the SHIFT key and the left mouse button to draw a box around a portion
1. In the Model browser, turn on the display of the box component, and then click F on the
keyboard to fit the model into the graphics region.
2. Click Mesh > Surface Mesh 2D > Automesh and then select the size and bias subpanel.
3. With surfs highlighted, select the six surfaces of the box.
4. Set the element size field to 30, and change the mesh type toggle to trias.
5. Click mesh.
3. Under the heading W/o BL (float), click comps and select the box components.
4. Click the BL parameters subpanel.
7. Check the boxes for BL reduction and Pre calc and then click Manual to open the
Distributed BL Thickness Ratio dialog.
12. Click Assign, and then click Close. The defined scaling factor is now stored in the load collector
^CFD_BL_Thickness, as shown in the Model browser.
Note: For all of the nodes in the selected component BL_thin, the
boundary layer thickness will be reduced to 1/10 of its initial
size. A smooth thickness transition will be used.
13. In the Model browser, right-click the box component and select Hide. Right-click the load
collector ^CFD_BL_Thickness and select Show. Check the value of the scaling factor to make
sure it is correct and if it is attached to the correct component.
14. Click the Tetramesh parameters subpanel. Select Interpolate for the tetrameshing growth
algorithm behavior.
15. Click mesh. Two new components are generated containing the boundary layer elements and
tetra elements.
16. To check the result, mask parts of the mesh and compare the thickness of the boundary layer
for the plane component with the thickness of the BL_thin component. You can do this in the
Distance panel. You will see that the thickness ratio is 1/10, as expected.
Due to smoothing algorithms for the boundary layer, the thickness ratios can differ from the
user-defined values, for some use cases.
1. In the Model browser, right-click Components and click Show to display all components.
2. Click BCs > Components > Single. Enter the new name as fluid.
3. Repeat Step 2 to create more collectors, with the names inflow, outflow, wall_wing and wall_slip.
4. Click the Mask tab, click the 1 in the row 3D elements to display only volume elements.
9. In the Mask tab, click the 1 in the row 2D elements to display only shell elements.
10. Click Mesh > Delete > Elements.
select Show.
15. Click comps and select the fluid component. Click find faces and then click return to close the
panel.
16. A new component named ^faces is created and displayed in the Model browser. Right-click it and
select Isolate.
easiest way to do this is to select a single element on the inflow boundary and then select by face from
the extended entity selector. Repeat this step selecting the elements on the outflow boundary, and
moving them to the outflow component.
19. Move the shell elements from the four other sides to the component wall_slip.
20. Move the shells on the wing profile to the wall_wing component. Click return to close the panel.
21. The collector ^faces should now be empty and can be deleted by right-clicking it in the Model
browser.
22. Delete the other empty components - plane, box, BL_thin, CFD_bl001 and CFD_tetcore001.
2. Click the Export Solver Deck icon and export the model for the CFD solver of your choice.
CFD-1700: Mapping CFD Results
This exercise will cover how to take results from a CFD analysis and apply them to a new model for
heat transfer or structural analysis. Using the linear interpolation tools within Engineering Solutions,
results from a CFD analysis can be transferred to be loads in an analysis to be run in Altair OptiStruct
or any other supported solver.
Typically, scalar results such as temperatures or pressures are mapped. Results must be in a Tecplot
file (*.tpl or *.dat). This exercise will demonstrate how Engineering Solutions has a very easy and
straightforward way to transfer loads from CFD to a heat transfer of structural analysis.
The model file used in this exercise can be found in the es.zip file. Copy the file(s) from this directory
to your working directory.
1. From the menu bar, select Preferences > User Profiles or click on the Standard toolbar.
3. Click OK.
3. Click Open.
4. Use the Model browser to turn off the display of the component cube.
1. From the menu bar, select Tools > Mapping CFD Loads.
2. This opens a dialog explaining the mapping process and asking if you want to continue. Select
Yes.
3. Browse and select the file Sbend_Model_CFDpp_Tecplot_SURFTEC.DAT.
5. This opens the file and creates nodal results files for each result type present in the file.
6. Another dialog appears telling you that the file names can be reviewed in the log report
window. Click OK to close the window.
7. Review the log file. Notice that for each scalar data type available in the Tecplot file, a new file
was created. The file name is appended with the name of the scalar and “_for_LI”. When you
have finished reviewing the file, click Dismiss.
Step 4: Create a Load Collector for the Pressure Loads
1. Right-click in the Model browser and select Create > Load Collector. The Entity Editor opens.
2. Select elems>by collector and then select the component Tube_Sbend. Click select to accept the
selection.
4. There is now a file= field under linear interpolation. Click … next to the file= field to select a file.
within that distance from a centroid or node on which a load is being interpolated. Altair HyperMesh uses
the nearest three loads located within that distance to create the load at the centroid or node by linear
interpolation. Linear interpolation uses a triangulation method, so if it finds fewer than three loads within
that distance no interpolation takes place. While reading the initial loads from a file, if linear interpolation
is not possible because the search radius is too small, the original loads are simply applied to the nearest
centroid or node.
7. Next to nodes on face, click nodes and then select three nodes that define an element (see image
below).
8. Select create.
Step 6: Turn Off the Display of the Load Collector and Show Pressure Loads
As a Contour Plot
2. To turn off the display of the load collector pressure, click the mesh icon, , to the left of pressure.
The icon will be grayed out and the pressure loads will no longer be displayed.
3. Select Tools > Contour Loads. This opens a new tab called Contour Loads.
5. Click on Accept. This displays the Contour panel and automatically loads the appropriate information.
6. Click contour.
This simply displays the pressure load as a contour for an easier way to view the load. Now that the
pressure load has been applied, an additional analysis can be set up and run.
Crash
The following tutorials are available for the Crash - LS-DYNA user profile:
CRASH-1000: Defining LS-DYNA Model and Load Data, Controls and Output
CRASH-1100: Using Curves, Beams, Rigid Bodies, Joints and Loads in LS-DYNA
CRASH-1200: Model Importing, Airbags, Exporting Displayed, and Contacts using LS-DYNA
CRASH-1300: Rigid Wall, Model Data, Constraints, Cross Section, and Output Using LS-DYNA
The following tutorials are available for the Crash - Altair Radioss user profile:
CRASH-2000: Front Impact Bumper Model
Exercise 1: Define Model Data for the Head and A-Pillar Impact Analysis
Element property and material assignment rules are based on the current user profile (solver interface).
Element Property and Material Assignment Rules for LS-DYNA Solver
The figure below shows how the keywords *PART, *ELEMENT, *MAT, and *SECTION relate to each other.
Relation of *PART, *ELEMENT, *MAT, and *SECTION to each other
*SECTION SID
*MAT MID
A *PART shares attributes such as section properties (*SECTION) and a material model (*MAT). A
group of elements (*ELEMENT) sharing common attributes generally share a common part ID (PID). The
figure below shows how the keywords *PART, *ELEMENT, *MAT and *SECTION relate to each other. A
The table below shows how the *ELEMENT, *PART, *SECTION, and *MAT keywords are organized.
*SECTION SID Property collector with a property card image. Assign a property to a
*MAT MID Material collector with a material card image. Assign the material to
collector.
Create and modify component, property, and material collectors in the Collectors panel, Model or
Solver browser, and Entity Editor.
An Engineering Solutions card image allows you to view the keywords and data lines for defined LS-DYNA
entities as interpreted by the loaded template. The keywords and data lines appear in the exported
LS-DYNA input file as you see them in the card images. Additionally, for some card images, you can
define and edit various parameters and data items for the corresponding LS-DYNA keyword.
View card images using the Card Editor, which can be accessed by doing one of the following:
• From the menu bar, click Model > Component > Card Edit.
Create *MAT
In Engineering Solutions, a *MAT is a material collector with a card image. To relate it to a *PART, the
Change the material assigned to a component in the Component Collectors panel, update subpanel,
Material table
Create *SECTION
• In the Model browser or Solver browser, right-click and select Create > Property from the
context menu.
• From the menu bar, click Model > Property > Create.
The purpose for this exercise is to help you become familiar with defining LS-DYNA materials, sections
In this exercise you will set up model data for a LS-DYNA analysis of a hybrid III dummy head impacting
• Define the material *MAT_ELASTIC for the A-pillar part and head part.
• Define *SECTION_SHELL for the A-pillar.
• Define *SECTION_SOLID for the head.
• Define *PART for the A-pillar and the head.
3. Click OK.
1. To open a model file, click File > Open from the menu bar, or click on the Standard toolbar.
2. In the Open Model dialog, select the head_start.hm file. The model appears in the graphics area.
Step 3: Define the material *MAT_ELASTIC for the A-pillar and head
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *MAT > MAT(1-50) > 1 - *MAT_ELASTIC
from the context menu. Engineering Solutions creates and opens a new material in the Entity Editor.
2. For Name, enter ELASTIC.
A-pillar
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *SECTION > *SECTION_SHELL from the
context menu. Engineering Solutions creates and opens a new property in the Entity Editor.
context menu. Engineering Solutions creates and opens a new property in the Entity Editor.
named "section3.5".
1. In the Model browser, Component folder, click pillar. The Entity Editor opens, and displays the
component's corresponding data.
4. In the Select Material dialog, select ELASTIC and then click OK. Engineering Solutions assigns
6. In the Select Property dialog, select section3.5 and then click OK. Engineering Solutions assigns
the property section3.5 to the component pillar.
named "solid".
1. In the Model browser, Component folder, click head. The Entity Editor opens, and displays the
Exercise 2: Define Boundary Conditions and Loads for the Head and A-Pillar
Impact Analysis
*INITIAL_VELOCITY_(Option)
LS-DYNA keywords used for defining initial velocity.
*INITIAL_VELOCITY_GENERATION one *PART or set of parts, Entity set of comps, load collector
*SET_PART_LIST
with InitialVel card image
*SET
Graphically view a set’s contents in the Entity Sets panel using the review function.
Altair HyperMesh entity configurations and types
define loads by creating a load collector with a card image. For example, *INITIAL_VELOCITY_NODE
(applied directly to nodes) is created from the Velocities panel, while *INITIAL_VELOCITY (applied to
View a list of element and load configurations in the Elem Types panel and the Load Types panel,
respectively.
Some element configurations are rigid and quad4. When you load a dyna.key template, the following
types of the rigid configuration are available: RgdBody, ConNode, and GenWeld
*CONSTRAINED_GENERALIZED_WELD_SPOT).
Similarly, some load configurations are force and pressure. Types of the pressure configuration are
ShellPres and SegmentPre (*LOAD_SHELL_ELEMENT and *LOAD_SEGMENT).
Most element and load configurations have their own panels. For example, rigids are created with the
Rigids panel and constraints are created with the Constraints panel.
*BOUNDARY_SPC_(Option)
card image.
A LS-DYNA contact is an Altair HyperMesh group. Select groups when you want to manipulate a
LS-DYNA has multiple contact master and slave types from which to choose.
Create a *SET_SEGMENT by right-clicking in the Solver browser and selecting Create >
*SET > *SET_SEGMENT from the context menu. Additionally, add and remove elements from an
existing *SET_SEGMENT and adjust the normal of segments without adjusting the normal of elements
with the Contactsurfs panel.
The graphical representation of a contactsurf is pyramids, one pyramid for each segment.
By default, the orientation of a pyramid is the same as the normal of the element underneath.
The purpose for this exercise is to help you become familiar with defining LS-DYNA boundary conditions,
loads and contacts using Engineering Solutions.
In this exercise you will set up the boundary conditions and load data for a LS-DYNA analysis of a hybrid
III dummy head impacting an A-pillar. The head and A-pillar model is depicted below.
Head and A-pillar model
Step 1: Make sure the Engineering Solutions Crash LS-DYNA user profile is
still loaded
1. To select a user profile, click Preferences > User Profiles from the menu bar, or click on the
Standard toolbar.
3. Click OK.
1. To open a model file, click File > Open from the menu bar, or click on the Standard toolbar.
2. In the Open Model dialog, open the head_2.hm file. The model appears in the graphics area.
3. Observe the model using various visual options available in Engineering Solutions (rotation, zooming,
and so on).
Step 3: Create a node set, *SET_NODE_LIST, containing all the nodes in the
head component
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *SET > *SET_NODE > *SET_NODE_LIST
from the context menu. Engineering Solutions creates and opens a new set in the Entity Editor.
2. For Name, enter Vel_Nodes.
6. Click select.
7. Click proceed.
context menu. Engineering Solutions creates and opens a new load collector in the Entity Editor.
2. For Name, enter init_vel.
4. In the Select Set dialog, select Vel_Nodes and then click OK.
Engineering Solutions creates and opens a new load collector in the Entity Editor.
3. Optional: Click the Color icon, and select a color to display the load collector.
5. Click select. Engineering Solutions selects the nodes at both ends of the pillar.
6. Verify that all six dof (degree of freedom) checkboxes are selected.
8. Click create.
9. Click return to close the panel.
Step 7: Define a *SET_SEGMENT for the slave entities, the A-pillar elements
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *SET > *SET_SEGMENT > *SET_SEGMENT
from the context menu. Engineering Solutions creates and opens a new contactsurf in the Entity Editor.
3. Optional: Click the Color icon, and select a color to display the contactsurf.
4. For Elements, click 0 Elements >> Elements.
9. Click add.
10. Review the contactsurf to make sure that its pyramids are pointing out of the pillar.
Step 8: Define a *SET_SEGMENT for the master entities, the head elements
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *SET > *SET_SEGMENT >
*SET_SEGMENT from the context menu. Engineering Solutions creates and opens a new contactsurf in
3. Optional: Click the Color icon, and select a color to display the contactsurf.
4. For Elements, click 0 Elements >> Elements.
5. In the panel area, set the first switch to add solid faces.
6. Set the second switch to elems.
9. Click select.
10. Using the nodes selector, select three nodes that belong to the same face of a solid element.
14. Review the contactsurf to make sure that its pyramids are pointing out of the head.
image
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *CONTACT >
Step 10: Add the slave and master contactsurfs to the Altair HyperMesh group
In this step, the Entity Editor should still be open for the group, contact.
1. In the Entity Editor, click MSID and set the entity selector to contactsurfs.
2. Click contactsurfs.
3. In the Select Contactsurfs dialog, select head_master and then click OK.
5. Click Contactsurfs.
6. In the Select Contactsurfs dialog, select pillar_slave and then click OK.
Step 11: Edit the group’s card image to define the AUTOMATIC option
In this step, the Entity Editor should still be open for the group, contact.
1. In the Entity Editor, for the first Options parameter, select Automatic.
Step 12: Review the group’s master and slave surfaces
1. To open the Interfaces panel, click on the Setup page radio button and then click interfaces.
4. Click review. Engineering Solutions temporarily displays the master and slave entities in blue and
red, respectively.
5. Click return to close the panel.
Exercise 3: Define Termination and Output for the Head and A-Pillar Impact
Analysis
*DATABASE cards are optional, but are necessary to obtain output files containing results.
• Specify the time at which LS-DYNA is to stop the analysis with *CONTROL_TERMINATION
• Specify ASCII output with *DATABASE_(Option) cards
• Specify the output of d3plot files with *DATABASE_BINARY_D3PLOT
• Export the model to an LS-DYNA 970 formatted input file
Step 1: Make sure the Engineering Solutions Crash - LS-DYNA user profile
is still loaded
1. To select a user profile, click Preferences > User Profiles from the menu bar, or click on the
Standard toolbar.
3. Click OK.
1. To open a model file, click File > Open from the menu bar, or click on the Standard
toolbar.
2. In the Open Model dialog, open the head_3.hm file. The model appears in the graphics area.
Step 3: Specify the time at which you want LS-DYNA to stop the analysis
with *CONTROL_TERMINATION
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > CONTROL >
CONTROL_TERMINATION from the context menu. Engineering Solutions creates and opens a
new control in the Entity Editor.
Note: This specifies the output of global data at every 0.1 ms.
Note: This specifies the output of material energies every 0.1 ms.
Note: This specifies the output of SPC reaction forces every 0.1 ms.
2. In the Export tab, select LsDyna from the File type list.
4. In the File field, navigate to your working directory and save the file as head_complete.key.
5. Click Export.
This exercise will help you become familiar with defining LS-DYNA model data using Engineering
Solutions.
In this exercise you will define and review model data for a LS-DYNA analysis of a vehicle seat
impacting a rigid block. The seat and block model is shown in the image below.
2. In the Open Model dialog, select the seat_start.hm file. The model appears in the graphics
area.
3. Observe the model using various visual options available in Engineering Solutions (rotation,
zooming, and so on).
4. Leave the like = field empty. When an existing plot is selected, the new plot adopts its
attributes.
4. Click Open.
3. In the card image, in the [ArrayCount] field, specify 2. This is the number of strain rate values
to be specified.
2. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *MAT > MAT (1-50) > 24-
*MAT_PIECEWISE_LINEAR_PLASTICITY from the context menu. Engineering Solutions
creates and opens a new material in the Entity Editor.
9. In the Select Curve dialog, select curve3 and then click OK.
Step 7: Update the base_frame and back_frame components with the new
non-linear material
1. From the menu bar, click Model > Component Table.
2. In the Components and Properties dialog, click Table > Editable from the menu bar.
6. Click Set. Engineering Solutions assigns the material steel to the component base_frame.
9. From the menu bar in the dialog, click Table > Quit.
Note: You will select a direction node later to define the beam’s section orientation.
3. Using the node A selector, select the center node of the left nodal rigid body.
4. Using the node B selector, select the center node of the right nodal rigid body.
5. Using the direction node selector, select any non-center node on one of the nodal rigid bodies.
Engineering Solutions creates the beam.
6. Click return.
Step 11: Display node IDs for ease of following the next steps
1. To open the Numbers panel, click on the Display toolbar.
2. Set the entity selector to nodes.
5. Press Enter.
8. Click return.
2. In the Rigids panel, set the nodes 2-n selector to multiple nodes.
6. Press ENTER.
1. On the Visualization toolbar, click to display the model's elements as wireframe elements
skin only.
6. Press ENTER.
9. Click return.
3. Click return.
Step 17: Create a revolute joint between two nodal rigid bodies
(*CONSTRAINED_JOINT_REVOLUTE)
The rigid bodies must share a common edge along which to define the joint. This edge, however,
must not have the nodes merged together. The two rigid bodies will rotate relative to each other
along the axis defined by the common edge.
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *CONSTRAINED >
*CONSTRAINED_JOINT_REVOLUTE > *CONSTRAINED_JOINT_REVOLUTE from the
context menu.
4. From the coincident picking mechanism, click node 1635. Engineering Solutions selects node
1635 for node 1 in rigid body A.
5. Using the node 2 selector, click node 1635. The coincident picking mechanism displays two
nodes: 1635 and 1633.
6. From the coincident picking mechanism, click node 1633. Engineering Solutions selects node
1633 for node 2 in rigid body B.
7. Using the node 3 selector, click node 1636. The coincident picking mechanism displays two
nodes: 1636 and 1634.
8. From the coincident picking mechanism, click node 1636. Engineering Solutions selects node
1636 for node 3 in rigid body A.
9. Using the node 4 selector, select node 1634 for node 4 in rigid body B.
10. Click create. Engineering Solutions creates the joint.
Step 18: Create an entity set that contains the components base_frame,
back_frame, and cover
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *SET > *SET_PART >
*SET_PART_LIST from the context menu. Engineering Solutions creates and opens a new set
in the Entity Editor.
2. For Name, enter set_part_seat.
4. In the Select Components dialog, select base_frame, back_frame, and cover and then
click OK.
5. In the Select Set dialog, select set_part_seat and then click OK.
7. In the Select Component dialog, select rigid block and then click OK.
8. Click Close.
Note: The switch will not take place before this time.
Note: PSIDR2D is the part ID of the part which is switched to a rigid material.
8. In the Select Set dialog, select set_part_seat and then click OK.
2. In the ELASTIC-PLASTIC folder, MATL24 folder, right-click on steel and select Isolate from
the context menu. Engineering Solutions only displays the components that have the selected
material assigned.
3. To review several materials, click , select a material, and scroll through the material using
the arrow keys in the Model browser. The corresponding parts are automatically isolated in the
view.
4. Follow the above steps to select components using the By Properties option.
2. Right-click on the part you would like to rename, and then select rename from the context
menu.
3. In the editable field, enter a new name for the entity. The part's new name changes in the
Solver and Model browsers.
2. Enter a number that does not conflict with the existing part IDs, and then press ENTER.
Step 21: Display only parts with a particular material (Ex: steel)
1. In the Model browser, Materials folder, right-click on Steel and select Isolate from the
context menu.
2. For Name, and enter a new name for the part. The part's new name changes in the Solver and
Model browsers.
2. For ID, enter a new ID for the part. The part's new ID changes in the Solver and Model
browser.
Step 21: Display only parts with a particular material (Ex: steel)
1. From the menu bar, click Model > Component Table.
2. In the Components and Properties dialog, click Display > By Material from the menu bar.
5. Click Select.
6. Click proceed. The Component Table only displays the components with the material steel
assigned. All other components are turned off.
7. To select components using the By Properties and By thickness options, repeat the above
steps.
3. Enter a new ID that does not conflict with any existing part IDs.
4. In the Confirm dialog, click Yes. The part's new ID changes in the Solver and Model
browsers.
Step 25: Review the model’s data using the Solver Browser
The created solver entities are listed in the corresponding folder in Solver browser. You can use the
following options on each entity to help navigate through the model: Show, Hide, Isolate, and
Review.
1. In the Solver browser, *DEFORMABLE_TO_RIGID folder, right-click on dtor and select
Isolate Only from the context menu. Engineering Solutions only displays the entities that are
referred in this keyword.
2. To highlight the entities that are referred in this keyword, right-click on dtor and select Review
from the context sensitive menu.
3. Right-click on the folder *BOUNDARY and then select Show from the context menu.
Engineering Solutions displays the entities on which the loads in the folder are defined, as well
as the load handles.
Exercise 2: Define Boundary Conditions and Loads for the Seat Impact
Analysis
This exercise will help you continue to become familiar with defining LS-DYNA boundary conditions
and loads using Engineering Solutions.
In this exercise, you will define boundary conditions and load data for an LS-DYNA analysis of a
vehicle seat impacting a rigid block. The seat and block model is shown in the image below.
Step 1: Make sure the Engineering Solutions Crash LS-DYNA user profile is
still loaded
1. Click Preferences > User Profiles, or click the Load User Profile icon .
3. Click OK.
1. To open a model file, click File > Open from the menu bar, or click on the Standard
toolbar.
2. In the Open Model dialog, open the seat_2.hm file. The model appears in the graphics area.
3. Take a few moments to observe the model using various visual options available (rotation,
zooming, and so on).
4. Optional: Click the Color icon, and select a color for the load collector.
3. Click sets.
Note: This is the scale factor for the pre-defined curve to be specified in the next step for the
acceleration loads. It will define the seat’s acceleration as a function of time.
9. Double-click curve.
Note: This is the scale factor for the graphical representation of the acceleration loads. It
does not affect the actual acceleration value.
3. In the File field, navigate to your working directory and save the file as seat_complete.key.
4. Click Export.
3. In the File field, navigate to your working directory and save the files as seat_complete.key.
Unsupported cards
On import, the LS-DYNA cards not supported by Engineering Solutions are written to the
unsupp_cards panel. Access this panel by clicking Setup > Control Cards. Unsupported cards will
be exported with the remaining model.
Include files
Engineering Solutions supports *INCLUDE. When Include files are imported into Engineering
Solutions, the IDs of non-existing entities are maintained and will not be used for new entities.
Use the Include files import option to specify whether to merge, preserve, or skip Include files on
import. Access this option by clicking File > Import > Solver Deck from the menu bar.
Export Displayed
From the Export - Solver Deck tab, select the Export > Displayed option to export only
displayed nodes and elements. Only model data associated to the displayed nodes and elements are
exported. This model data includes materials and their associated curves, properties, portions of
contacts, and output requests.
The table below describes how all slave and master set types are created and specified in contacts.
Slave and master set LS-DYNA card Panel used to create card Equivalent
type
type in
Interfaces
panel, add
subpanel
* EQ. 6: part set id for *SET_PART_LIST Interfaces, add subpanel and sets
exempted parts then card image sub-panel
Add subpanel
While the Interfaces panel, add subpanel has several master and slave entity types to choose from in
order to specify the LS-DYNA master or slave set for a *CONTACT, only the valid master and slave types
When the master or slave type is set to comps and only one component is selected, the LS-DYNA type is
3, part ID, and *PART is created. When multiple components are selected, the LS-DYNA type is 2, part
When the master or slave type is set to sets, only those sets valid for the particular contact you are
creating are selectable. For example, for *CONTACT_NODES_TO_SURFACE, only a list of node sets
is available for slave; you will not see a list of other set types, like element or part sets.
Review contacts
Exercise: Define Airbag, Velocity, and Contacts for the Airbag Analysis
This exercise will help you learn how to define LS-DYNA airbags, loads, and contacts.
In this exercise, you will define an airbag, velocity, and contacts for a LS-DYNA analysis of a head
2. Select LS-DYNA.
3. Click OK.
3. Click Import.
4. Click Close.
from the context menu. A new control volume opens in the Entity Editor.
7. In the Select Set dialog, select airbag_set and then click OK.
11. Click LCMT (Load curve specifying input mass flow rate) >> Curve.
12. In the Select Curve dialog, select airbag LCMT curve and then click OK.
14. Click LCA23 (Load curve defining vent orifice area as a function of pressure) >> Curve.
15. In the Select Curve dialog, select airbag LCA23 curve and then click OK.
Step 5: Define an initial velocity of 3 mm/ms in the negative x-direction for the
4. Under Options, right-click on NSID and select Create from the context menu. The Create Sets
dialog opens.
5. For Entity IDs, click 0 Nodes >> Nodes.
8. Click select.
9. Click proceed.
12. Return all of the entities to their original display color by righting-click on velocity and selecting
with *CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_SURFACE_TO_SURFACE
Step 6: Create an Altair HyperMesh group with the card image SurfaceToSurface
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *CONTACT >
*CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_SURFACE_TO_SURFACE >
*CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_SURFACE_TO_SURFACE from the context menu. A new group opens in
Step 7: Specify the head to be the master surface with surface type 3, part ID
In this step, the Entity Editor should still be open for the Airbag_Head group.
1. Click MSID.
3. Click Components.
4. In the Select Components dialog, select Head and then click OK.
Step 8: Specify all of the airbag to be the slave surface with surface type 2, part s
ID
In this step, the Entity Editor should still be open for the Airbag_Head group.
1. Click SSID.
3. Click Set.
4. In the Select Set dialog, select airbag_set and then click OK.
1. In the Solver browser, right-click on Airbag_Head and select Review from the context menu.
Engineering Solutions temporarily displays the master and slave entities blue and red, respectively. All
Step 11: Define all of the airbag to be the slave surface with slave set type 2,
part set ID
In this step, the Entity Editor should still be open for the airbag group.
1. Click SSID.
2. Set the entity selector to Set.
3. Click Set.
4. In the Select Set dialog, select airbag_set and then click OK.
Step 12: View the slave entities
In this step, the airbag group should still be selected in the Solver browser.
1. In the Solver browser, right-click on airbag and select Review from the context menu. Engineering
Solutions temporarily displays the master and slave entities blue and red, respectively. All of the other
entities are temporarily displayed gray.
2. Return all of the entities to their original display color by right-clicking on airbag and selecting Reset
Review from the context menu.
Steps 13- 18: Define a Contact Between the Plate and the
Airbag with *CONTACT_NODES_TO_SURFACE
Step 13: Due to the dynamics of the contact, define the AirbagRear component
3. Optional: Click the Color icon and select a color for the contactsurf.
9. Click add.
Step 14: Reverse the contactsurf’s pyramids so they point out of the airbag
1. In the panel area, set the first switch to adjust normals.
3. Click reverse.
4. Click return.
Step 15: Create *CONTACT_NODES_TO_SURFACE card
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *CONTACT >
Step 16: Specify the AirbagRear_master contactsurf for the contact’s master
surface
In this step, the Entity Editor should still be open for the Airbag_Plate group.
1. Click MSID.
2. Set the entity selector to Contactsurfs.
3. Click Contactsurfs.
4. In the Select Contactsurfs dialog, select AirbagRear_master and then click OK.
Step 17: Define the plate to be the contact’s slave surface with slave type 4,
node set ID
1. For SSID, click 0 Nodes >> Nodes.
5. Click select.
6. Click add. Engineering Solutions adds the slave selection to the group Airbag_Plate.
7. Click return.
display blue and red, respectively. All of the other entities temporarily display gray.
2. Return all of the entities to their regular display color by right-clicking on Airbag_Plate and
Step 19: Review the created solver entities using the Solver Browser
1. In the Solver browser, *CONTACT > *CONTACT_AIRBAG_SINGLE_SURFACE folder, right-click
on airbag and select Review from the context menu. The master and slave entities temporarily display
blue and red, respectively. All of the other entities temporarily display gray.
Note: Only slave (red) entities are shown because there are no master entities for this type of
contact.
2. Return all of the entities to their regular display color by right-clicking on airbag and selecting Reset
Review from the context menu.
3. In the Solver browser, *CONTACT > *CONTACT NODES TO SURFACE folder, right-click on
Airbag_Plate and select Isolate Only from the context menu. Only the elements/components
on airbag and select Show from the context menu. The entire airbag displays, as this entity contains the
entire airbag.
5. In the *INITIAL > *INITIAL_VELOCITY folder, right-click on velocity and select Review from the
context menu. The nodes on which velocity was applied displays.
6. Return all of the entities to their regular display color by right-clicking on velocity and selecting
Step 20: Export the model to an LS-DYNA 971 formatted input file
1. From the menu bar, click File > Export > Solver Deck. The Export tab opens.
3. In the File field, navigate to your working directory and save the file as airbag_complete.key.
*PART_INERTIA
The INERTIA option enables inertial properties and initial conditions to be defined rather than
calculated from the finite element mesh. This applies to rigid bodies only.
When importing a LS-DYNA model into Engineering Solutions, the *PART_INERTIA IRCS parameter
value is changed from 0 to 1. The inertia components are changed from global to local axis. This
allows inertia components to be automatically updated when *PART_INERTIA elements are
translated or rotated. When selecting *PART_INERTIA elements to translate or rotate, select
elements by comp. This selection method ensures the inertia properties are automatically updated.
*CONSTRAINED_EXTRA_NODES
This card defines extra nodes to be part of a rigid body. In Engineering Solutions, it is created from
the Model or Solver Browser.
*DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION_(Option)
A *RIGIDWALL provides a method for treating contact between a rigid surface and nodal points of a
deformable body.
In Engineering Solutions, *RIGIDWALL keyword cards are created from the Solver browser.
In this exercise, you will define model data, loads, constraints, a cross section, a rigid wall, and output for
an LS-DYNA analysis of a bumper in a 40 percent frontal offset crash. The bumper model is shown in the
image below.
3. Click OK.
3. Click Import.
take into account the inertia properties and mass of the missing parts
1. In the Model browser, Component folder, click vehicle mass. The Entity Editor opens, and
displays the component's corresponding data.
2. Set Options to Inertia.
13. For VTX (Initial translational velocity of rigid body in x direction), enter -10.
Step 4: Create a *DEFINE_BOX that contains all nodes except barrier nodes
1. Open the Solver browser by clicking View > Solver Browser from the menu bar.
2. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *DEFINE > *DEFINE_BOX from the context
menu. A new block opens in the Entity Editor.
3. For Name, enter box velocity.
4. Optional: Click the Color icon, and select a color for the block.
5. For Xmin Ymin Zmin, enter -530, -800, 0.
A velocity boundary condition can also be created on a set of nodes by clicking on the Collectors
toolbar, and selecting Initialvel as the card image.
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *INITIAL > *INITIAL_VELOCITY from the
context menu. A new load collector opens in the Entity Editor.
2. For Name, enter velocity.
5. In the Select Block dialog, select box velocity and then click OK.
Step 6: View the closest nodes which are in the pre-defined node entity set
(*SET_NODES_LIST) named Constrain Vehicle
Method 1
1. In the Solver browser, *SET > *SET_NODE_LIST folder, right-click on Constrain Vehicle and
select Review from the context menu. The set's nodes highlight.
2. Return all of the entities to their original display color by right-clicking on Constrain Vehicle and
selecting Reset Review from the context menu.
Method 2
1. From the Setup page, click entity sets.
Note: This option filters all nodal rigid body sets from the list.
4. In the Select Component dialog, select vehicle mass and then click OK.
Step 8: Define the nodes in the Constrain Vehicle set to be a part of the vehicle
mass rigid body
In this step, the Entity Editor should still be open for the ExtraNodes constrained extra node.
2. In the Select Set dialog, select Constrain Vehicle and then click OK.
Step 9: View the extra nodes that are a part of the vehicle mass rigid body
1. In the Solver browser, right-click on ExtraNodes and select Review from the context menu. The
extra nodes temporarily display red, and PID (vehicle mass) displays blue. All of the other entities
temporarily display gray.
2. Return all of the entities to their original display color by right-clicking on ExtraNodes and selecting
Reset Review from the context menu.
Step 10: Create an entity set, *SET_PART_LIST, for the vehicle mass component
All other components not in this set will be included in the contact.
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *SET > *SET_PART > *SET_PART_LIST
from the context menu. A new set opens in the Entity Editor.
2. For name, enter Exempt Parts.
4. In the Select Components dialog, select vehicle mass and then click OK.
Step 12: Define the slave surface with slave set type 6, part set ID for
exempted parts
In this step the Entity Editor should still be open for the impact group.
1. Click SSID.
3. Click Set.
4. In the Select Set dialog, select Exempt Parts and then click OK.
5. Select the ExemptSlvPartSet checkbox. The SSTYPE (slave surface type) value changes from 2
(part set ID) to 6 (part set ID for exempted parts).
Step 13: Create an entity set, *SET_PART_LIST, to specify the elements that
4. In the Select Components dialog, select interior crashbox and exterior crashbox.
5. Click OK.
The Entity Editor should still be open for the Xsection_Plane cross section.
1. Open the Create Nodes panel by clicking Geometry > Create > Nodes > XYZ from the menu bar,
or by pressing F8.
6. Click return.
7. In the Entity Editor, click XTAIL, YTAIL, ZTAIL (base node), and then click .
8. In the graphics area, select the base node you just created.
Tip: If the base node is not visible, click on the Visualization toolbar to display elements as a
wireframe (skin only).
9. Click proceed. The Entity Editor displays the coordinates of the base node in the XTAIL, YTAIL,
ZTAIL field.
16. Click proceed. The Entity Editor displays the coordinates of the edge vector L in the Normal field.
2. In the Select Set dialog, select XsectionPlane-Parts and then click OK.
The slave entities and rigid wall highlight. All of the other entities temporarily display gray.
2. Return all of the entities to their original display color by right-clicking on Xsection_Plane and
selecting Reset Review from the context menu.
Step 18: Create a *DEFINE_BOX containing the nodes making up the barrier
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *DEFINE > *DEFINE_BOX from the context
menu. A new block opens in the Entity Editor.
3. Optional. Click the Color icon and select a color to display the block.
Step 20: Define the location and size of the rigid wall
In the Create Nodes panel, XYZ subpanel, the rigid wall’s origin (the tail of the normal vector) is defined
by a base node. In this step, you will create a node from the create nodes panel and then select it for the
base node.
In this step the Entity Editor should still be open for the wall group.
6. Click create.
7. Click return.
8. In the Entity Editor, for Base node, click Unspecified >> Node.
Note: The input values for Length X and Length Y are the length of the edges a and b in the L and
2. In the Select Block dialog, select half model and then click OK.
Step 22: Specify some nodes to be output to the ASCII NODOUT file with
*DATABASE_HISTORY_NODE
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > *DATABASE >
*DATABASE_HISTORY_NODE from the context menu. A new output block opens in the Entity
Editor.
2. For Name, enter nodeth.
5. Click proceed.
Step 23: Export the model to an LS-DYNA 970 formatted input file
1. From the menu bar, click File > Export > Solver Deck. The Export tab opens.
3. In the File field, navigate to your working directory and save the file as Bumper_complete.key.
4. Click Export.
Step 24 (Optional): Submit the LS-DYNA input file to LS-DYNA 970 solver
1. From the Start menu, open the LS-DYNA Manager program.
For this tutorial it is recommended to complete the introductory tutorial RD-3520: Pre-Processing for
Pipes Impact Using Altair Radioss for basic concepts on the Altair Radioss interface.
In this tutorial you will learn how to set up a Altair Radioss input deck for analysis of the impact of a
bumper against a barrier behind a rigid wall. The modeling steps that are covered are:
The model used consists of a simplified bumper model (see image below):
Bumper model
The model file used in this exercise can be found in the es.zip file. Copy the file(s) from this directory
to your working directory.
1. From the Start menu, select Engineering Solutions > Crash (HyperMesh) or click on
the Standard toolbar.
3. Click OK.
Step 3: Define Vehicle Mass Component to Partially Take into Account the
Inertia Properties and Mass of the Missing Parts of the Vehicle
1. In the Model browser, right-click and select Create > Component. The Entity Editor (EE) will
open.
10. Click the selector arrow nodes 2-n: and select sets.
11. For primary node, select the node created in the steps above.
13. With all the DOF’s checked, click create to create the rigid body.
14. Click the Card Edit icon in the Collectors toolbar, set the selector to elements and select
the rigid body created.
1. Click View > Solver Browser to activate the Solver browser, if it is not active on your screen.
2. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > BOX > BOX/RECTA. The Entity Editor
opens.
3. For Name, enter box velocity.
1. Select BC's Manager from the Utility menu or click the BCs Manager icon in the Crash
toolbar.
3. Select the Select type as Initial Velocity under the Create header.
7. After the above step, a set named InitialVelocity_grnodbox is created automatically or you
can create this set before the above step and then refer to this set in the above step, instead of
BOX.
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > SURF_EXT > PART. The Entity Editor
opens.
2. For Name, enter barrier_surface.
5. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > SURF > PART. The Entity Editor opens.
9. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > SURF > SURF. The Entity Editor opens.
12. Click on Sets and select barrier_surface and bumper_surface and click OK.
Step 7: Create Self Impact Contact Between Parts of the Bumper
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > INTER > TYPE7. The Entity Editor
opens.
7. Set Igap to 2.
5. Click On.
Note: Node numbers will appear next to the node for selection in
further steps.
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > GRSHEL > SHEL. The Entity Editor opens.
3. For Entity IDs, toggle to Elements selector active, select two rows of element on either side of the
system, as shown in figure below.
1. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > SECT > SECT.
3. For Frame_ID, select the system defined in the previous step by clicking on the screen.
4. For grshel_ID, select the set CrosssectionPlane-elements which is defined in previous step, as
shown below.
Step 11: Select the Section for Time History Output
1. Right-click in the Solver browser and select Create > TH > SECTIO.
4. For NUM_VARIABLES, select 1 and for Data: Var, enter DEF. This selects the default output
for Altair Radioss.
Step 12: Create a BOX/RECTA and GRNOD/BOX Containing the Nodes Making
up the Barrier and Bumper’s Left Side
1. In the Solver browser right-click and select Create > BOX > BOXRECTA.
5. Right-click in the Solver browser and select Create > GRNOD > BOX.
7. For Entity IDs, set the selector to Box and select the above created half model
(BOX/RECTA).
3. For x=, y= and z=, enter the values –600, -750 and 90, respectively.
4. Click create.
5. In the Solver browser, right-click and select Create > RWALL > PLANE.
8. With the Base node selector active, select the node that was created in step 4.
10. For grnod_id1 (S), toggle Set and select RigidWallSlave_grnodbox (GRNOD/BOX).
2. For File, click the folder icon and navigate to the destination directory where you want to run.
3. Enter the name as bumper_impact and click Save.
4. Click the downward-pointing arrows next to Export options to expand the panel.
5. Toggle Merge starter and engine file to export the engine file with the model file.
2. For Input file, browse to the exercise folder and select the file bumper_impact_0000.rad.
Step 17: (Optional): View the Results in Altair HyperView
The goal of this tutorial is to simulate a frontal pole test with a simplified full car.
The model file used in this exercise can be found in the es.zip file. Copy the file(s) from this directory
to your working directory.
Model Description
• UNITS: Length (mm), Time (s), Mass (ton), Force (N) and Stress (MPa)
• Simulation time: Engine file (_0001.rad) [0 – 0.0601 ms]
• An initial velocity of 15600 mm/s is applied on the car model to impact a rigid pole of radius
250 mm.
• Elasto-plastic Material /MAT/LAW2 (Windshield)
Exercise
1. From the Start menu, select Engineering Solutions > Crash (HyperMesh) or click on the
Standard toolbar.
3. Click OK.
Step 3: Create and assign the material for the windshield components
1. In the Model browser, right-click and select Create > Material. The Entity Editor is displayed
below the Model browser.
Step 4: Create and assign the material for the rubber components
1. In the Model browser, right-click and select Create > Material. The Entity Editor is displayed.
6. For Mat_Id, select the material rubber and click OK to update the selected components with
the created material.
5. In the Model browser select all components labeled with COMP-PSHELL and COMP-PROD,
except COMP-PSHELL_3, COMP-PSHELL_16 and COMP-PSHELL_20 to COMP-PSHELL_23.
6. For Mat_Id, select the material steel and click OK to assign the material to the selected
components.
4. Click Base node and select 'any node' from the model.
10. Click the edit tab besides base node and change values of the coordinates as indicated below.
4. Click Base node and select ‘any node’ from the model.
11. Click the edit tab besides base node and change values of the coordinates as indicated below.
2. From the Model browser, right-click and select Create > Contact. The Entity Editor will display.
3. For Name, enter CAR_CAR.
5. Set the option to Components for Surf_id (M) (master entity), and select displayed
components and click OK.
7. For Surf_id (M) (master entity), set the selector switch to Set and click Set, select engine.
1. From the Utility menu, click the BC's Manager or click the BCs Manager icon in the Crash
toolbar.
2. For Name, enter 35MPH, set the Select type field to Initial Velocity and set GRNOD to Parts.
4. Set Vx as 15600.
5. Click Create to create the boundary condition and boundary condition appears in the table.
6. Click Close.
4. For NUM_VARIABLES, select 1 and for Data: Var, enter the following:
Step 12: Create output requests and control cards
1. Launch the Solver browser by selecting View > Solver Browser.
2. Right-click in the Solver browser general area to create the cards shown below with the given
values for each parameter:
4. Click the downward-pointing arrows next to Export options to expand the panel.
5. Click Merge starter and engine file to export the engine file with the model in one file.
6. Click Export to export both model and engine file.
The goal of this tutorial is to see how head impact simulation following the pedestrian safety regulation
EuroNCAP can be defined using the Pedestrian Impact tool starting from a full vehicle model.
Pedestrian Impact automates the process with minimal input from you, therefore reducing the deck
generation lead time with less human error.
Model Description
The vehicle model used in this tutorial is based on the free Toyota Yaris model, provided by the
National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) (http://www.ncac.gwu.edu/vml/models.html). The original
LS-DYNA model has been converted and validated with Altair Radioss. The files needed for this
tutorial are located in Toyota_YarisD_V2h_RADV12_000.rad in the es.zip file. Copy these files into
a local directory before proceeding with this tutorial.
Step 1: Load the Engineering Solutions Altair Radioss User Profile
1. From the Start menu, select Engineering Solutions > Crash (HyperMesh) or click on the
Standard toolbar.
2. Select a directory location for the instance.pmi file. This file allows you to save the ongoing
process and retrieve it by opening a new Altair HyperMesh/pedestrian impact session.
3. Select your local directory where the input data has been saved and click Create/Open.
Invoking Pedestrian Impact opens a Process Manager tab that guides you through the
process. You can go from one task to the next by clicking Next and Apply only on the input
panel.
The first two steps of the pedestrian impact process consist of importing the vehicle model and
trimming the vehicle.
3. Define the vehicle direction (+veX) and the model unit system (N,mm,s,T), as shown below,
and click Import.
For the pedestrian protection protocol only the front end of the vehicle participates. The trim
functionality allows for cutting the full vehicle model and retaining only a selected portion. As a
part of this process fixed boundary conditions are created at the boundary of the trimmed
section. The trim process is optional.
5. Define the Region to keep (Front) and the Trim Distance (2,000), as shown below.
6. Clicking Preview allows visualizing the portion of the vehicle that will be kept after the
trimming operation.
7. Click Trim to activate the trimming operation. Once this operation is completed the vehicle
model should look like the one shown in the image below.
8. This completes the import and trimming step. Click Next to open the Vehicle Positioning
panel to complete the next step.
Note: Once a step has been successfully completed, the check next
to the panel name will turn green in color to indicate that it is
completed.
Step 4: Vehicle Positioning
The Vehicle Positioning panel is used to define the vehicle and ground position. In this example, the
vehicle position does not need to be changed. The ground level is at Z=0, therefore no translation of the
ground is needed.
2. Click Next to open the Import Impactor panel to complete the next step.
The Pedestrian Impact tool supports every pedestrian impact load case including head impact,
upper leg impact and lower leg impact.
The Impactor Type you select in this step will determine the load case definition for the rest of the
process.
4. Click Next to open the Vehicle Marking panel to complete the next step.
For the head impact load case, different types of regulations can be used to define the impact zone and
target points:
• EuroNCAP
• Global Technical Regulation (GTR No. 9)
• European Regulation (ECE)
Note: EuroNCAP protocols for head impact target point definitions are identical for versions 6.1, 7.0 and
8.0, and are supported in the Pedestrian Impact tool's vehicle marking process.
For each regulation, parameters used for the marking process are automatically defined.
1. Select EuroNCAP for the regulation.
4. Specify the location where the .csv file used for the target point export has to be saved.
5. Click Apply.
When the marking process is finished, grid points as well as impact zone lines are displayed on the
vehicle.
6. Click Next to open the Position Impactor panel to complete the next step.
1. In order to review the hard contact zones and detect critical impact zones, specify the Hood
Components groups by selecting the hood parts and the Hard Components groups by
selecting all engine block parts.
3. Click Add New Target to add new target points and select the nodes in the graphics area.
Additional target points can also be defined by importing a .csv file containing target point
information.
4. To export target points, select the impact points in the table that need to be exported. This
option allows transferring target point definitions into CAD format that can be read back into
Altair HyperMesh.
2. Activate the Use previously selected components for contact creation checkbox.
3. Click Apply to automatically generate the contacts and open the Export panel.
This tool exports input decks in a folder structure with different includes for the master model for the
selected target points. A typical export directory of the tool is shown in the image below.
A folder is created for each target point selected. The name of the folder is based on the target
location names (C_0_0 …). These folders contain:
4. Clicking Engine File Preview allows reviewing and editing the RADIOSS Engine file. Additional
outputs can be defined in the dialog. Request output of plastic strain and Von Mises Stress, for
example, by adding /ANIM/ELEM/EPSP and /ANIM/ELEM/VONM.
7. If no errors are found, click Export to generate the Altair Radioss input deck for the selected
impact point.
Step 10: Impact Simulation with Altair Radioss
The goal of this tutorial is to create a seat mechanism. The Mechanism browser provides all
functionalities to model a kinematic mechanism, for example a vehicle driver or passenger seat. All
aspects needed to define a mechanism, articulate it into a desired position and export the final data
are covered, such as:
• Definition of the bodies: Identified by parts and/or part sets and/or node sets. During
mechanism motion, each body behaves as a rigid body.
• Definition of kinematic joints: A joint defines the relative kinematic behavior between two or
three bodies. A joint defined inside the mechanism tool is independent from a joint available in
the solver.
• Mechanism check: A check is available in order to verify the validity of the defined mechanism
(bodies/joints).
• Move mechanism to target position: The mechanism can be automatically moved to a desired
position by selecting a target node or by specifying the coordinates of the target node (for
example: H-Point of a driver seat).
• Save positions: Several defined positions of a mechanism can be saved and retrieved quickly.
• Export “solver” positions: Each of the saved positions can be exported as a solver include file in
which the positions of the bodies are defined via solver transformation cards.
• Export mechanism: During solver input deck export the complete mechanism, as well as the
defined positions, are embedded inside the solver deck and described after the end (*END for
LS-DYNA; /END for Altair Radioss).
Model Description
The driver seat model used in this tutorial is based on the free Toyota Yaris model, provided by the
National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) (http://www.ncac.gwu.edu/vml/models.html). The LS-DYNA
seat model as well as the Altair Radioss model are available. This tutorial uses the Altair Radioss
version of the seat, but each step can be reproduced using the LS-DYNA model. The files needed for
this tutorial are located in example_seat_mechanism_0000.rad in the es.zip file. Copy these files
into a local directory before proceeding with this tutorial.
Step 1: Load the Engineering Solutions Altair Radioss User Profile
1. From the Start menu, select Engineering Solutions > Crash (HyperMesh) or click on the
Standard toolbar.
3. Click OK.
1. From the menu bar, click Safety > Seat Mechanism. The Mechanism browser opens.
2. Right-click and select Create > Mechanism. A mechanism named mechanism1 is created
containing two empty bodies named body1 and body2.
3. Rename mechanism1 to Driver_Seat. You can do this one of two ways. The first way is by
clicking mechanism1 to open the Entity Editor at the bottom of the browser and typing in the
Name. Or you can right-click mechanism1 > Rename in the browser.
For the definition of the bodies, it is necessary to know which parts or nodes belong to which
kinematic assemblies. The definition of part or node sets can be done in the solver deck before
starting to define the mechanism, or directly in the body Entity Editor below the Mechanism
browser. Below are the different ways you can define the content of a body inside the body Entity
Editor.
• Create a set of components- Card Image GRPART (for Altair Radioss) in set Entity Editor.
• Create a set of nodes- Card Image GRNOD (for Altair Radioss) in set Entity Editor.
Note: It is recommended to use sets of parts or nodes, as these
entities are directly defined and exported in the solver deck.
A body can be defined by a combination of these three
contents.
1. Inside the Mechanism browser, select body1 to activate the body Entity Editor.
2. Change the name of body1 to Fix_Rail. This body is Fixed to ground which means that all degrees
of freedom of this body are locked. The icon attached to this body inside the Mechanism browser
3. Inside the Entity Editor, right-click Sets > Create. A dialog opens.
4. In the dialog, change the Name of the set to Fix_Rail_Parts and change the Card Image to
GRPART.
5. Click Entity IDs and then click the Components field.
6. Select the components defining the Fix_Rail body by selecting them on the display or in the Select
Components dialog.
7. Click OK when you are done selecting the components and close the dialog.
8. To review the body you created right-click Fix_Rail > Review inside the Mechanism browser.
9. Click Reset Review from the right-click context menu to turn off the body display mode.
1. Inside the Mechanism browser, click body2 to activate the body Entity Editor.
2. Change the name of body2 to Move_Rail. This body is Fixed to ground which means that all
degrees of freedom of this body are locked. The icon attached to this body inside the
Mechanism browser refers to this behavior.
3. Inside the Entity Editor, right-click Sets > Create. A dialog opens.
4. In the dialog, change the name of the set to Move_Rail_Parts and change the Card Image to
GRPART.
7. Click OK when you are done selecting the components and close the dialog.
8. To review the body you created right-click Move_Rail > Review inside the Mechanism
browser.
9. Click Reset Review from the right-click context menu to turn off the body display mode.
Move_Rail body
There are five more bodies to define: Roller, Front_Lever, Rear_Lever, Seat_Cushion and
Back_Seat.
1. To create a new body, right-click the mechanism and select Create > Body.
For each of these bodies, the parts and nodes sets are already defined in the model.
2. To define the content of each body, click Sets inside the body Entity Editor and retrieve the
corresponding sets in the model set-list (for example Front_Lever_Parts and
Front_Lever_Nodes sets for the Front_Lever body).
Step 8: Create the Joints
Inside a mechanism bodies are connected together via kinematic joints. The different joints available are:
• Ball: Joint having the three translational degrees of freedom (DOF) blocked. This joint is defined by t
coordinates or by a node.
• Cylinder: Joint allowing a translation and a rotation around the same axis. This joint is defined by
the axis (Origin+direction given by coordinates or node selection).
• Revolute: Same as Cylinder joint, without translation.
• Slider: Same as Cylinder, without rotation.
• Double Slider: A slider with a third body for which the motion is linked to the two main bodies
via scale factors:
o Motion_body3 = Factor1*Motion_body1 + Factor2*Motion_body2
1. In the Mechanism browser, select Fix_Rail and Move_Rail, and then right-click and select Connect.
Note: Another way to connect bodies: Select Fix_Rail and then right-click and
select Connect To. A dialog opens listing the available bodies. Select
Move_Rail and close the dialog.
2. Inside the joint Entity Editor select the Joint type DoubleSlider.
6. Click Origin, select a node on the rail part and click proceed.
7. Click Local Z-axis, select another node to define the direction of motion and click proceed.
8. Click Create to confirm the joint. The Double Slider joint is created in the Mechanism browser with
The scale factors (Factor 1 and Factor 2) defining the relative motion between Roller and Fix_Rail
9. In order to change these values, select the DoubleSlider joint in the Mechanism browser and update
the value of Factor 1 in the Entity Editor (Factor 2 is directly computed as 1-Factor 1).
1. For example, in the previous DoubleSlider Entity Editor, activate the checkbox Define limits, and
All of the other joints are revolute joints and are defined in the same way – Origin + direction in Y-Axis.
To create the revolute joint between Move_Rail and Front_Lever bodies perform the following steps.
3. Click Origin and provide the coordinates of the axis-origin or define them by selecting a node. To do
that, click the blue arrow, pick a node and click proceed. The following Origin coordinates should be
used: -1661, 104 and 418.5. The Local Z-axis of the joint is oriented in the global y-axis: 0, 1, 0.
5. Repeat these steps to create the other revolute joints, defined as follow:
The complete seat mechanism should look like the image below.
Step 9: Check a Mechanism
In order to work correctly, there are basic checks on the mechanism that need to be performed to
ensure the validity of the mechanism.
1. Right-click the mechanism Driver_Seat > Check Mechanism. Checks will be automatically
performed to detect common nodes (checks if nodes are shared in several bodies), empty bodies and
redundant joints.
If the bodies and joints are correctly defined, all checks should be green in color .
If a check fails, a red appears and an automatic fix will be available. For example, in a case of
common nodes, a dialog opens where you can select which body the common nodes have to be
retained.
Before moving a mechanism, it is possible to specify what the joints are that are able to move and
those that are locked.
Define joint lock level
1. Click the lock icon of a joint. The green icon means that the joint is locked and can move.
The yellow icon means that the joint is locked and cannot move.
1. To move the H-Point to a target location, select Driver_Seat in the Mechanism browser, right-
click and select Actuate Mechansim > Target Point. This opens Move to target in the Entity
Editor.
• New position name: Define the name of the final position of the seat, for example
Target_1.
• Multiple pairs: Yes or No – Defines if the final position is based on one node and one target
(Multiple pairs = No) or based on multiple nodes and corresponding targets (Multiple pairs
= Yes). For this example, select No.
• Node/Constraint: Select the seat node, which needs to be moved to the target. Select H-
Point Node.
• Target X,Y,Z/Node: Provide the target coordinates or pick a node (blue arrow) as the
target. In this example, give the following coordinates: -1800; 330; 625.
2. Click Move, and observe that the seat is automatically positioned matching the new H-Point
target.
A mechanism position can be saved directly in the Move to Target Entity Editor after mechanism
positioning. Otherwise, after modifying manually the joint positions the final position can be saved.
1. Right-click Driver_Seat > Save Position as. You can create a new position or overwrite an
existing position.
2. After creating several positions you can quickly retrieve them by clicking Move Mechanism To
> Other Position.
3. Select the desired position in the list.
The Mechanism browser allows you to export any saved mechanism position to a solver file
containing transformation cards and related sets of parts or sets of nodes. This allows you to
position, for example a seat, using solver entities.
3. Click Export.
4. Open the exported deck in a text editor and pay attention to the /END. The created
mechanism is stored between the keywords /MECHANISM_START and /MECHANISM_END.
• /ASSEMBLY: Defines a body with the different set IDs or PART IDs, for example part set
number and related set ID, number of parts and related part IDs, number of nodes set and
related set ID).
/ASSEMBLY/1
Example_of_body
1 10 1 0 0 0
1000000
2000682 2000683 2000684 6500093 6500094 6500095 6500096 2000637 2000638
2000669
2000000
• /CONNECTION_***: Defines the type of joint between ASSEMBLY
(/CONNECTION_HINGE; /CONNECTION_LINE…)
• /POSITION: Defines a position of the mechanism
If you were using the LS-DYNA solver you would see *ASSEMBLY, *CONNECTION, *POSITION
*ASSEMBLY
1Example_of_body
1 10 1 0 0 0
1000000
2000682 2000683 2000684 6500093 6500094 6500095 6500096 2000637 2000638
2000669
2000000
NVH
The following tutorials are available for the NVH user profile:
The model file used in this exercise can be found in the es.zip file. Copy the file(s) from this directory
to your working directory.
2. Click HyperMesh > OptiStruct, HyperMesh > Nastran or Engineering Solutions > NVH >
OptiStruct from the User Profiles dialog.
3. Click OK.
1. From the menu bar, click File > Open or click the icon on the Standard toolbar.
The imported model has been restricted to just those parts that will be used to create the cavity.
The seat cavities have already been built in this model.
1. Click Mesh > Create > Acoustic Cavity Mesh to open the Acoustic Cavity Mesh
Generation panel.
2. Click the icon in the Acoustic Cavity toolbar. The Options dialog opens.
2. Click the comps selector for structure to open the Component Selection panel.
3. Click comps >> displayed to select all components.
8. Click Previous Page and select IN – driver seat back cushion, IN – drv seat head rest,
IN – driver seat lower cushion, and IN – pass seat lower cushion.
10. Make sure the seat coupling toggle is set to node to node remesh.
14. The max frequency value will be automatically calculated and populated based on max
element size and no. of elements per wavelength from the Options dialog. It is also possible to
specify the max frequency value, and then max element size will be calculated accordingly.
Preview of mesh
4. Click the icon next to each of the seat cavities to see the mesh.
1. In the Model browser, right-click the ^patched_holes component and click Show.
2. Zoom into the area, as shown in the image below.
With the patched holes deleted, the acoustic cavity mesh will be previewed again.
2. Click the icon on the Standard Views toolbar to reset the view of the model.
3. Click Mesh > Create > Acoustic Cavity Mesh to open the panel.
4. Click the comps selector for structure to open the Component Selection panel.
10. Click Previous Page and select IN – driver seat back cushion, IN – drv seat head rest,
IN – driver seat lower cushion, and IN – pass seat lower cushion.
1. Click Reject.
2. Click Mesh > Hole/Gap Fill.
4. Create a manual patch separating the trunk from the main volume. A new component with the
name Patch is created.
Connection between trunk and main volumes
5. Click Mesh > Create > Acoustic Cavity Mesh to open the panel.
6. Click the comps selector for structure to open the Component Selection panel.
21. Click preview to preview the mesh. Note that now the main cavity and the trunk cavity is
separate. This way it is possible to create separate cavities.
Completed mesh
Step 11: Rename the Components Created by the Acoustic Cavity Mesh
1. In the Model browser, Component folder, select REAR_SEAT, DRV_SEAT and PASS_SEAT.
The Entity Editor opens.
4. In the Model browser, Component folder, select BODY_CAVITY. The Entity Editor opens.
5. For Property, click Unspecified >> Property.
6. In the Select Property dialog, select _int_prop and click OK.
6. Activate the checkbox to Create ACMODL card, in case ACMODL card with the above defined
parameters is to be created.
7. Select the different types to Review interface and click Show to review it.
Step 14: Create MPCs
This step creates additional MPCs between different acoustic and structure components, if needed.
1. Click the icon in the Acoustic Cavity toolbar. The Create MPCs dialog opens.
4. Select Options.
5. Specify tolerance = 50.
6. Click Create.
1. Click Geometry > Renumber > Nodes to open the Renumber panel.
1. Click File > Export > Solver Deck. The Export tab opens.
4. Browse to a location in the File field and enter acoustic.fem as a name for the model.
The Assembly browser is an object oriented modeling environment where the fundamental entity is
the module entity. A module is an Altair HyperMesh entity used to represent subsystems of an
assembly.
2. Click Engineering Solutions > NVH from the User Profiles dialog.
3. Click OK. A file save warning message displays informing you that the complete assembly
database can only be saved in the XML format, as shown in step four of this tutorial.
3. Enter a module name, and then click OK. Repeat the process to create all root level modules
for the assembly. Expand the assembly by clicking the ‘+’ box next to Module Model.
1. From any view of the Assembly browser, right-click and select Import XML and Display or
Import XML Only. The XML Import dialog opens.
2. After naming the module, you need to import an .xml file. This should be an assembly database
file that you exported from the NVH Director. Click the icon to navigate to a folder where
the .xml file is located.
3. Select the file and click OK to load the file. The assembly information will be loaded into Altair
HyperWorks.
Subassembly files can be specified by clicking the ‘-‘ icon in the XML file path column.
Navigate to the desired folder and specify a file name. Export of subassembly files can be
controlled by checking/unchecking of the checkbox in the Export column.
Note: The Save XML option is enabled only in the File View to
ensure that you are aware that the subassembly files are
over-written.
1. Right-click any module and select Edit Representations. This opens the Edit Module tab, and
the Representation sub-tab is shown.
2. Select a module from the drop-down menu marked Module to select a different module. To
create a representation for the selected module, right-click inside the top part of the
Representation tab.
4. On the newly created representation change the module description, if desired. A default
description is created, which you can edit.
5. After a representation has been added, use the Type field to select an appropriate Type and a file
to be associated with the representation, and click Apply. Two convenient options can be selected
during this step:
• A file assigned to the root representation can optionally be auto-assigned to be a Display
representation (PLOTFE type) simultaneously by checking the Assign file to Display
representation checkbox.
• A representation can be auto-selected to be the Display representation by checking the Set as
Display, load and extract TagPoints checkbox. This will be followed by the file being
imported into the 3D graphics window and TagPoints defined in the file extracted.
6. Aside from file based representations, a templated Lumped Parameter (LP) representation can
also be defined using the LP templates included in the NVH Director, or user created templates.
7. Select one of the representations to be the active Display or Analysis representation by
checking the appropriate radio buttons.
8. Repeat the process by selecting another module through the drop-down box on the top right side.
9. Once all representations are defined, click the Assembly tab to review the assembly hierarchy
with active Display and Analysis representations.
1. From the Base View of the Assembly browser, select the root Module Model.
2. Right-click and select Import Display Rep to load the active Display models. Module
representation include files specified as the display representation are loaded here.
1. To manage tagpoints, open the TagPoints tab of any module by right-clicking the module in
the Assembly browser and then select Edit TagPoints.
2. To add a tagpoint, right-click inside the tagpoint list box, and select Extract All to extract
tagpoints from the comments added to the 10th field of the grids in the loaded Display model.
Tagpoints displayed in the 3D graphics area can be customized via the TagPoint Display tool
setting. By default, tagpoints are indicated with a grey sphere along with the label. Other
options are available using the pull-down menu.
In the previous two steps, you have assumed that the representation file is already in an FE entity ID
range that would not cause conflicts with other modules in the assembly, and all necessary tagpoints
already exist in the file as 10th field comments on the respective grid cards. However, these assumptions
are not met in most practical applications. Necessary preparation work needs to be done to get the
module representation files to a state that is ready for assembly. This section describes how to accomplish
this task.
1. To start the process of preparing a module, right-click the module and select Prepare Module
to enter into the Prepare Module Mode. The abbreviated Module ID Summary dialog opens.
In the Prepare Module Mode the Altair HyperMesh database is first cleared to remove any potentially
conflicting FE entities, and then the root representation file is loaded into Altair HyperMesh. A
module ID summary is then presented with all necessary information needed for you to determine
if the IDs need to be renumbered, and what range they should be renumbered to.
This dialog shown below opens as a part of the Prepare Module action. It is split into two sections.
The bottom section describes the finite element entity ID in the imported FE file. The top section
provides a way to renumber the IDs, if necessary, into a range that is not in conflict with other
modules in the assembly. The Proposed range is what the dialog has identified as one conflict
free range, which can be modified based on options to the right. Action is a user specified operation
• Add spider: Add spiders to a round hole. Select a type, DOFs and pick center (RBE3 only) and
edge nodes, then click Create.
• Add PLOTEL: Helps you with PLOTEL display elements.
• Edit systems: Relocate or orient the module by modifying the reference local coordinate system.
This option takes you directly to the System panel to edit existing systems.
• Orient and position: Help translate and rotate FE entities. Input values in the appropriate fields.
• Edit materials: Help fill the RHO (Density) and GE (Damping) field of MAT1 cards. Enter a density
and/or damping value in the input box and click All or Select to apply the values to all or selected
material cards.
• Initialize stamping effect: Helps generate stamping effect on sheet metal panel thickness for
FE representation includes.
• Composite Response: Helps define a new response point by relating its motion to existing
tagpoints in the model. The most common example is to define a steering wheel nibble response using t
the steering wheel.
In addition, a number of functionalities on the TagPoints tab of the Edit Module are enabled for you
to manually add tagpoints and assign them to grids in the module. Lock ID’s provide you with a
means to maintain the ID’s of tagpoints without getting renumbered by locking them. This prevents
accidental renumbering of tagpoints. Lock ID’s have a higher preference than the sub ranging utility.
If ID’s are locked for tagpoints, then sub ranging will not renumber those locked ID’s in prepare
module mode. This utility can lock the ID’s of existing tagpoints using edit tagpoints or it can lock
A tagpoint mapping tool is also available in the Prepare Module tab via the icon. The mapping tool
is able to reconcile in bulk the current tagpoint definition in the assembly database with what is in
the root module file. You can also create new tagpoints by reading a .csv file that contains hard point
coordinate and label information.
2. Once you are finished preparing the module, you can prepare another one from the Assembly
browser, or select to exit the Prepare Module Mode by clicking X on the Prepare Module tab.
You will be prompted with four representation file save options with information on ID renumbering.
Yes: The root representation file is to be saved, in this case, intra and inter ID conflict flag will be set
to Yes. No: The root representation file is not to be saved, in this case, intra and inter ID conflict flag
will be set to No. Cancel: The exit Prepare Module Mode action is aborted. No, but VALIDATE:
In this case there is no change to the file and no need to save the file, but intra and inter ID conflict
3. Once all of the modules have been prepared, you can review the assembly ID ranges and conflict
setting from the Id View of the Assembly browser.
At the individual module level, the ID tab of the Edit Module will also be populated.
It is also possible to view mass and damping information using the Property View in the Assembly
browser.
Step 9: Define Connections Between Modules
2. Connections can be created between modules to be connected either by selecting tagpoints from the
list box in the dialog, or by picking tagpoints. Hint: Pick and drag on the left hand side of the tags to
ease selection off the screen after clicking the icon. You can also provide a description for the
connector created, specify an owning module, a local coordinate system, connector location for the center
of motion, and a collector for the connector created. Force ID's for connectors gives you an option to
define the numbering pattern to a connector, so that the connection elements created by realization of
those connectors fall in the defined numbering pattern. ID's are forced to connector elements and
3. Connections can also be created using the Auto Create tool, which can be invoked by clicking the
icon. Two automated creation approaches are available: auto creation by Proximity or by Tagpoint
Matching.
4. To review the connections that were created, click View > Connector Browser.
The Connector browser is divided into two browser panes. The top pane is the Module Pane,
where connected modules are listed. You can view connections attaching to modules using typical
The lower pane is the Connector Pane, where individual connections are listed.
The following connection views are available from the Connector Pane.
• Connectivity View : Columns in this view focus on connectivity related details. Of particular
importance are the following columns:
PointA/PointB: These two columns show the two tagpoints on two modules that are being
connected for each connection. The same order (PointA first and PointB second) is used when
generating connection FE entities during connector realization. PointA/PointB may be shown with
two incomplete status indications (in square brackets): [N/A] indicates that the tagpoint exists
in the assembly database, but is not available in the Altair HyperMesh session (not imported.)
[Undefined] indicates that the tagpoint does not exist in the current assembly database, which
means the tagpoint is either deleted or the sub .xml file it travels with is not imported in the session.
Owning module: This column indicates which module owns the particular connection. The owning
module is always the module on the PointA side of the connection. The connection definition and
properties always travel with or organized under their owning modules when sub .xml files are written.
Distance: This column shows the distance between PointA and PointB. It can be used as a metric for
checking the validity of the connection. Connections spanning large distances are potentially
connected by mistake. Some NVH engineers prefer to keep all connections at zero length due to
fear that non-zero length springs may introduce unintended dynamic motion, which is a valid concern
if celas type spring elements are used during connector realization. When cbush type spring and rbe2
type rigid elements are used, this is the case for all current NVH Director supported realization types,
correct dynamic motion is ensured by element formulation, and there is no longer a need to maintain
Switch nodes: This column shows if there is a need to switch the order by which PointA and
PointB are used in generating rbe2 rigid elements during connector realization. This need is driven
solely by dependency considerations of the connected points, since a point that is already dependent
cannot be made the dependent point again in the connection element definition. Four possible states
of this column are possible. No: If PointA is independent, regardless of the dependency of PointB.
Yes: If PointA is dependent, but PointB is independent, in which case PointB will be made the
independent point in realizations involving rbe2. Unresolvable: This happens when both
PointA and PointB are already dependent, in which case a realization involving rbe2 is not possible,
and the connection will fail to realize. Unknown: If PointA’s dependency status is unknown or if
Forced ID: Force ID's for connectors gives you an option to define the numbering pattern to a
connector, so that the connection elements created by realization of those connectors fall in the
• Property View : Columns in this view focus on connection property types defined, local
coordinate systems used and property set that is active.
This action removes all modules attached by connections and provides a good way check if all
6. Similarly, select Find Unattached TagPoints to see if some TagPoints are unattached by accident.
1. Connection properties can be defined by first selecting a connector, right-click, and select
Edit Connection. This opens the General tab of the Connection Manager, where you can edit the
2. Click Update to save the changes. A connection location type can be defined by selecting one of the
options from the pull-down menu: Point A, Point B, Midpoint, or a CustomLocation. When
CustomLocation is selected, the location can be defined either by specifying a specific coordinate,
Information related to Connected Points, and distance between them, is displayed in the next
section. You can modify any connecting tagpoint by clicking the icon next to its label, which opens
the Tagpoint Selection tool. You can then select a module first in the Module pull-down list, select a
tagpoint owned by the module, or click the icon and pick a tagpoing on the screen in the
3D graphics window, and then click Select. The tagpoint list can be further filtered by clicking
the icon and selecting one of the tagpoint types: Response, Connection, Input, Plot, or
All (default).
When checked, the Switch Nodes checkbox allows you to change the independent node from
Point A to Point B, based on their dependency status, to avoid an already dependent node being
specified as dependent again when the connection is realized into new rigid elements. Connection
The first step in defining connection properties is to select a State Set. State Set is designed to
capture a unique hardware part with its own set of connection properties. For example, hydromount
vs. a base rubber part. By default, a base State Set is already created and assigned to the connector.
Therefore, unless there is a need for multiple sets of properties, the default base State Set selection
does not need to be changed.
4. To select another State Set click the Edit button. This opens the Select State Set dialog.
State Sets can be added by clicking the icon, or deleted by clicking the icon. You can double-
click a State Set to edit its name, and click Select to finalize the selection.
The second step in defining connection properties is to select a LCS (local coordinate system) for
As seen in the screenshot above, four options are available in specifying coordinate systems used
• Axis-Plane – Two vectors are required to define this system. A vector can either be specified in
direction cosines, or by selecting two tagpoints.
• Angle – Any combinations of angle rotations around the reference axes can be used to define
this system.
• Ujoint – The Ujoint coordinate systems is defined by selecting two tagpoints on the input shaft
and two tagpoints on the output shaft. A homo-kenetic coordinate system will then be created to
properly describe motion transfer of Ujoints from the input to the output shafts.
As seen in the screenshot above, five options are available in specifying property states:
• PBUSH – A CBUSH element is generated during connection realization. The PBUSH card allows
you to specify K (stiffness), B (viscous damping), GE (material damping), M (mass and moment of
Inertia), and RIGID (checkboxes for rigidly connected dofs.) Note: The M and RIGID fields are not
supported in the Nastran profile, and are ignored.
• RIGID – A RBE2 element with dofs specified in checked boxes is generated during connection
realization.
• PBUSHT – A CBUSH element is generated during connection realization. In addition to the PBUSH
card that specifies the base properties, a PBUSHT card allows you to specify frequency tables for K,
B, and GE.
• PBUSH-MASS – A CBUSH element with two COMN2 elements at its Point A and Point B are
generated during connection realization. Note: This type is designed to be used in the Nastran profile
where the M fields for PBUSH are not supported by the Nastran solver.
• PBUSH-RIGID – A CBUSH element with a parallel RBE2 element are generated during
connection realization. Note: This type is designed to be used in the Nastran profile where the
RIGID checkboxes for PBUSH are not supported by the Nastran solver.
5. Click Apply to save each property state definition. Property states can also be imported using the
Import From File option by clicking the icon. The Import States dialog opens.
6. Browse and select a connection property template file, select a connection property set, and click
7. Repeat the above process for all connections to complete property definition.
An Analysis is a collection of module, connection and loadcase selections that completely specifies
the assembly definition for a particular simulation event. The Analysis Manager is invoked by
clicking the icon.
1. To add an analysis by extracting active module and connection settings, click the icon. To
add an analysis by copying module and connection settings from the selected analysis, click
the icon. To add a blank analysis, click the icon.
The top section of the Analysis Manager is used to define analysis, which is further divided into
parts. The first part is for module representation and state selection, the second is for
connection state selection and the third part is for loadcase definition.
2. To define module representations, select the representation via the list individually, or globally
all representations by type via the right-click context menu.
4. To define template load case, click the ‘…’ icon to invoke the Select Loadcase Definition dialog.