Engineering Solutions 12.0 Tutorials

Engineering Solutions 12.
0
Tutorials
Altair Engineering Support Contact Information

Web site
www.altairhyperworks.com
Location
Telephone
e-mail
Australia
61.3.9016.9042
anzsupport@altair.com
Brazil
55.11.3884.0414
br_support@altair.com
China
86.21.6117.1666
support@altair.com.cn
France
33.1.4133.0992
francesupport@altair.com
Germany
49.7031.6208.22
hwsupport@altair.de
India
91.80. 6629.4500
1.800.425.0234 (toll free)
support@india.altair.com
Italy
39.800.905.595
support@altairengineering.it
Japan
81.3.5396.2881
support@altairjp.co.jp
Korea
82.70.4050.9200
support@altair.co.kr
Mexico
55.56.58.68.08
mx-support@altair.com
New Zealand
64.9.413.7981
anzsupport@altair.com
North America
248.614.2425
hwsupport@altair.com
Scandinavia
46.46.286.2052
support@altair.se
United Kingdom
01926.468.600
support@uk.altair.com
In addition, the following countries have resellers for Altair Engineering: Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Israel, Russia,
Netherlands, Turkey, Poland, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia
Official offices with resellers: Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan, United
Kingdom, USA
Copyright Altair Engineering Inc. All Rights Reserved for:
HyperMesh 1990-2013; HyperCrash 2001-2013; OptiStruct 1996-2013; RADIOSS1986-2013; HyperView1999-2013;
HyperView Player 2001-2013; HyperStudy 1999-2013; HyperGraph1995-2013; MotionView 1993-2013; MotionSolve 20022013; HyperForm 1998-2013; HyperXtrude 1999-2013; Process Manager 2003-2013; Templex 1990-2013; MediaView
1999-2013; BatchMesher 2003-2013; TextView 1996-2013; HyperMath 2007-2013; ScriptView 2007-2013; Manufacturing
Solutions 2005-2013; HyperWeld 2009-2013; HyperMold 2009-2013; solidThinking 1993-2013; solidThinking Inspire
2009-2013; solidThinking Evolve 1993-2013; Durability Director 2009-2013; Suspension Director 2009-2013; AcuSolve
1997-2013; and AcuConsole 2006-2013.
In addition to HyperWorks trademarks noted above, GridWorks, PBS GridWorks, PBS Professional, PBS, PBS Works
and Portable Batch System are trademarks of ALTAIR ENGINEERING INC. All are protected under U.S. and international laws
and treaties. Copyright 1994-2013.
Additionally, the Altair software is protected under patent #6,859,792 and other patents pending.
All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
ALTAIR ENGINEERING INC. Proprietary and Confidential. Contains Trade Secret Information. Not for use or disclosure outside of
ALTAIR and its licensed clients. Information contained in HyperWorks shall not be decompiled, disassembled, or unlocked,
reverse translated, reverse engineered, or publicly displayed or publicly performed in any manner. Usage of the software is only as
explicitly permitted in the end user software license agreement.
Copyright notice does not imply publication.
Engineering Solutions 12.0 Tutorials
Engineering
...........................................................................................................................................
Solutions Tutorials
1
CFD
............................................................................................................................................... 3
CFD-1000:
Creating a Hybrid Grid using the CFD Mesh Panel
...................................................................................................................................
4
CFD-1100:
Creating
a
Hybrid
Grid
with
Varying
Boundary
Layer
Thickness
................................................................................................................................... 16
CFD-1200:
CFD Meshing with Automatic BL Thickness Reduction
...................................................................................................................................
23
CFD-1300:
Plane
2-D
Meshing
with
Boundary
Layers
................................................................................................................................... 33
CFD-1400:
Wind Tunnel Mesh
...................................................................................................................................
45
CFD-1500:
Hexcore Meshing with Boundary Layer
...................................................................................................................................
60
CFD-1600:
Using Distributed Thickness for Varying Boundary Layer Thickness
...................................................................................................................................
69
CFD-1700:
Mapping CFD Results
...................................................................................................................................
80
CFD-1800:
Using HyperMesh, AcuSolve and HyperView to Perform a CFD Analysis 86
...................................................................................................................................
Crash
............................................................................................................................................... 105
CRASH-1000:
Defining LS-DYNA Model and Load Data, Controls, and Output
...................................................................................................................................
106
CRASH-1100:
Using Curves, Beams, Rigid Bodies Joints, and Loads in LS-DYNA
...................................................................................................................................
119
CRASH-1200: Model Importing, Airbags, Exporting Displayed, and Contacts using
DYNA
................................................................................................................................... 134
CRASH-1300:
Rigid Wall, Model Data, Constraints, and Output using DYNA
...................................................................................................................................
143
CRASH-2000:
Front Impact Bumper Model
...................................................................................................................................
153
CRASH-2100:
Simplified
Car
Pole
Impact
................................................................................................................................... 169
NVH
............................................................................................................................................... 183
NVH-1000:
Acoustic Cavity
...................................................................................................................................
185
NVH-1100:
NVH
Director
Assembly
................................................................................................................................... 201
Altair Engineering

Proprietary Information of Altair Engineering
Engineering Solutions Tutorials

File Location
Most tutorials use files that are located in the tutorials\

directory of the software installation. In the tutorials, file paths
are referenced as <install_directory>\..\.
Finding the Installation

Directory
In order to locate the files needed, you will need to determine

the path of the installation directory <install_directory>. This
path is dependent on the installation that was performed at your
site. To determine what this path is, follow these instructions:
1. Launch the application.
2. From the Help menu, select Upda te s a nd Sy s te m
Info rm a tio n.
The HyperWorks Updates and System Information dialog
opens. The installation directory path appears after Altair
Home:.
The tutorial model files are located in
<install_directory>\tutorials\es\.
Downloading Model
Files
If you are using the tutorials via the Altair website, you will need
to download the model files before beginning. Access them by
clicking:
http://www.altairhyperworks.com/hwhelp/Altair/hw12.0/index.
aspx
Please note that a User ID and password is required to access
this area. Follow the instructions provided to obtain the login
information.
See the full listing of available tutorials:

CFD User Profile Tutorials
Crash User Profile Tutorials
NVH User Profile Tutorials
Altair Engineering

CFD
The following tutorials are available for the CFD user profile:
CFD-1000: Creating a Hybrid Grid using the CFD Mesh Panel
CFD-1100: Creating a Hybrid Grid with Varying Boundary Layer Thickness
CFD-1200: CFD Meshing with Automatic BL Thickness Reduction
CFD-1300: Plane 2-D Meshing with Boundary Layers
CFD-1400: Wind Tunnel Mesh
CFD-1500: Hexcore Meshing with Boundary Layer
CFD-1600: Using Distributed Thickness for Varying Boundary Layer Thickness
CFD-1700:Mapping CFD Results
CFD-1800:Using HyperMesh, AcuSolve and HyperView to perform a CFD analysis
Altair Engineering

CFD-1000: Creating a Hybrid Grid using the CFD Mesh

Panel
In this tutorial, you will learn to:
Generate meshes for CFD applications (for example Fluent, StarCD) using the CFD
Tetramesh panel
Generate boundary layer type meshes with an arbitrary number of layers and thickness
distribution
Specify/identify boundary regions for CFD simulations
Export a mesh with boundary regions for FLUENT
Import the model into FLUENT
Exercise
Step 1: Open the model file

1. From the toolbar, click O pe n M o de l
2. Select the manifold_surf_mesh.hm file from the tutorial directory.

3. Click O pe n to load this .hm file containing the surface mesh.
Step 2: Load the CFD user profile

1. Click Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s .
2. In the Application field, select E ngine e ring So lutio ns .

Altair Engineering
3. Select the radio button C FD and select AcuSo lv e from the drop down menu.
4. Click O K.
5. 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 M e s h > C he ck > C o m po ne nt > E dge s to open the Edges panel.
2. Click the yellow co m ps button and select the collectors wa ll, inle t and o utle ts .
3. Click s e le ct, and then click find e dge s .
A message indicating that no edges were found will appear on the status bar.
4. Toggle the free edges button to T- co nne ctio ns .
5. Select the three components again and then click find e dge s .
The status bar will display: "No T -c onne c t e d e dge s w e re found."
6. Click re turn to close the panel.
Step 4: Create the CFD mesh

1. Click M e s h > Vo lum e M e s h 3D > C FD te tra m e s h to open the CFD Tetramesh panel.
2. Click the B o unda ry s e le ctio n 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 co m ps 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 co m ps 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. Leave the default Smooth BL option unchanged.
This option is strongly recommended for most cases because it produces boundary layers
with more uniform thickness and better element quality.
Altair Engineering

7. Click the B L pa ra m e te rs 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
First layer thickness = 0.5
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
hexahedrals 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.
11. Click the Te tra m e s h pa ra m e te rs subpanel.

12. There are three different tetrameshing algorithms available. Select O ptim iz e M e s h
Q ua lity .
For a detailed explanation of each option, please refer to the online help.
13. Set the tetrahedral core growth rate to Inte rpo la te .
This avoids the problem of generating tetrahedral elements that are too large at the
center of the core mesh.
14. Click m e s h to create the CFD mesh.
When this task is finished, two collectors are automatically created: CFD_bl001 and
CFD_tetcore001.

Altair Engineering
.
Step 5: Mask some of the mesh to view the interior elements and
boundary layers
1.
You can mask the mesh by using the shortcut key F5, and select elements to be masked.
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 B C s >
C he ck > H idde n Line s to access the panel.
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
s ho w plo t.
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.
Altair Engineering

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 s ho w plo t.
Notice how the elements are displayed completely.

7. Drag the placement of the cutting plane. Experiment with the other cutting planes and
the trim planes option to see how they affect the plot.
8. Click re turn to exit the panel and clear the plot.
Step 6: Organize the model

In this section, you will define mesh surface regions used to specify boundary conditions in
any CFD code ( FLUENT, StarCD, CFX, etc). 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 3-D volume elements.
2. Click B C s > O rga niz e to move all the elements from the collector CFD_bl001 to collector
fluid.
3. Click B C s > Fa ce s to automatically generate the collector ^faces containing all the
external faces of the elements in collector fluid.
4. Click B C s > C o m po ne nt > Single to create two new components named inflow and
outflow.

Altair Engineering
Now you are going to move some of the elements from the collector ^faces to the collectors
inflow and outflow.
5. In the Model Browser, isolate the ^faces component.
6. Click B C s > O rga niz e and click one element on the inlet/inflow plane (the element will
become highlighted).
7. Click e le m s > > by fa ce .
All the elements in the collector ^faces on the inlet/inflow plane will be selected.
8. Set the dest comp as inflo w, and click m o v e . 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.
Altair Engineering

2. Click the E xpo rt So lv e r D e ck 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 on the file icon and specify a name and location for the file.
5. Click E xpo rt to export the file.
6. Select Y e s to the first message that appears and No to the second message.
Step 8: Create a FLUENT simulation case

If you have access to FLUENT, you can import manifold.cas to create a new FLUENT
simulation case as follows
1. Start FLUENT 3d or 3ddp.
2. From the File menu, select R e a d, then C a s e ....
3. Select manifold.cas.
4. Click O K.
After importing this file, you will observe that FLUENT has recognized the boundary zones
outflow, inflow and wall by name, and the 3-D volume zone fluid. Zone interior-* is
automatically created by FLUENT containing all the interior faces shared by two 3-D cells.
5. Select D e fine , then select B o unda ry C o nditio ns .
10

Altair Engineering
6. Select zone inflo w, and set the appropriate boundary condition such as mass-flow-inlet
and velocity inlet.
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.
Altair Engineering

11
Appendix: Boundary Layer Mesh with Distributed Thickness Ratio
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 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) using a distributed boundary layer thickness.
1. Create a new component named wall_thinner_bl, and move elements from wall to this
new collector as shown in the following image.
2. Click B C s > C he ck > E dge , then select the collectors wa ll, wa ll_thinne r_bl, inle t and
o utle ts .
3. Click find e dge s . A message indicating that no edges were found will appear on the
status bar.
4. Click M e s h > Vo lum e M e s h 3D > C FD te tra m e s h to access the CFD Tetramesh panel.
6. In the BL parameters subpanel, select the options to specify the boundary layer and
tetrahedral core:
12

Altair Engineering
BL growth rate = 1.1
7. Select the type of tetrameshing algorithm: Simple Pyramid, Smooth Pyramid, All Prism
or All Tetras
8. Ensure the BL only checkbox is not checked.
9. In the Tetramesh parameters subpanel, set the Pyramid transition ratio = 0.8
10. Select the tetrahedral core growth rate switch to Inte rpo la te .
Step B: Define a distributed boundary layer thickness on certain

components.
1. In the BL parameters subpanel, ensure that the BL reduction and Pre calc checkboxes
are checked and click the green M a nua l button.
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 by selecting the associated radio button.
3.
Select the C o m po ne nts radio button.
4. Click the yellow Se le ct C o m po ne nts button and select the component wa ll_thinne r_bl.
5. Specify a thickness ratio of value 0.3 and click As s ign.
6. Notice that the summary message now indicates the number of BL thickness ratio loads on
components:
Altair Engineering

13
When the models are more complex it is useful to display surface contours of BL thickness
ratio values.
7. Click C o nto urs o f B L Thickne s s R a tio , and the Contour panel will be automatically
displayed.
8. Click co nto ur to inspect the distribution of BL Thickness Ratio on the surface of your
domain and click re turn when you are finished. Click C lo s e 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. This selection is done with the With BL (fixed) selector.
10. Click co m ps 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 co m ps 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 collectors inlet and outlets will be remeshed after being
deformed by the boundary layer growth from adjacent surface areas.
When this task is finished, note the two collectors automatically created:
CFD_boundary_layer and CFD_Tetramesh_core.
14

Altair Engineering
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 is only 30 percent of the global BL thickness.
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 thickness to avoid collision. Usage of
this tool is explained in Tutorial CFD-1100.
The previous steps illustrate simple and effective steps to reduce the BL thickness on surface
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/decrease BL thickness on groups of nodes.
Altair Engineering

15
CFD-1100: Creating a Hybrid Grid with Varying Boundary

Layer Thickness
Generate boundary layer type meshes with an arbitrary number of layers and thickness
distribution, which can be used for CFD applications, molding simulations, or other
processes.
Generate automatically a distributed thickness distribution to prevent boundary layer
interference /collision in zones where the distance between opposing walls is too small
to accommodate the baseline or nominal boundary layer thickness.
Exercise

1. Click Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s

3. Select the radio button C FD and select AcuSo lv e from the drop down menu.
4. Click O K.
Step 2: Open the model file

2. Select the molding1.hm file from the tutorial directory.

3. Click O pe n to load this .hm file containing the surface 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.
16

Altair Engineering
Step 3: Check that all the elements in collector wall define a closed
volume
1. Click M e s h > C he ck > C o m po ne nts > E dge s to open the Edges panel.
2. Click co m ps and select the collector wa ll.
3. Click find e dge s .
4. Toggle fre e e dge s to T- co nne ctio ns .
5. Select the collector wall again and click find e dge s .
The status bar will display, No T -c onne c t e d e dge s w e re found.
Step 4: Create the CFD mesh

1. Click M e s h > Vo lum e M e s h 3D > C FD te tra - m e s h to open the CFD Tetramesh panel.
2. Select the B o unda ry s e le ctio n 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 co m ps and select the collector wall.
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.
This option is strongly recommended for most cases because it produces boundary layers
with more uniform thickness and better element quality.
Altair Engineering

17
6. Click the B L pa ra m e te rs subpanel. All the data that has been entered in the Boundary
7. Select the options to specify the boundary layer and tetrahedral core:
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
dist ribut e d BL t hic kne ss ra t io to those elements.
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 the green Auto button.
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.
-
18
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

Altair Engineering
corners).
-
Specify a Minimum (Tetrahedral-Core / Boundary-Layer) thickness ratio value

of 2.
This means that in areas where there is not enough room to grow the nominal BL (3
layers of 2 each), the boundary layers thickness will be reduced so that the
tetrahedral core thickness is at least 2 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 hy pe rbolic growth where walls make an angle. The smaller this value is, the thinner
the total BL thickness in such areas is.
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 unm a s k a ll.
13. Click G e ne ra te D is tribute d B L Thickne s s R a tio .
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; press Y e s . 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.
Altair Engineering

19
15. Click C lo s e in the Generate Boundary Layer distributed thickness values window.
Q ua lity .
For a detailed explanation of each option, please refer to the online help.
18. Set the tetrahedral core growth rate to Inte rpo la te .
When this task is finished, two collectors are automatically created: CFD_bl001 and
CFD_tetcore001.
Step 5: Mask elements to inspect the boundary layers thickness on

thinner areas
1. Access the Mask panel by using the shortcut key F5.
2. Select elements to be masked.
3. Click m a s k.
The following images illustrate how BL interference has been avoided by reducing the BL
thickness.
20

Altair Engineering
Step 6: Generate a pure tetrahedral mesh for moldflow

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.
1. Click M e s h > E dit > E le m e nts > Split E le m e nts .
2. Select the s o lid e le m e nts subpanel.
3. Set the switch to s plit into te tra s .
4. Select e le m s > > by co lle cto r and select wa ll.
5. Click s plit.
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 Engineering

21
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.
22

Altair Engineering
CFD-1200: CFD Meshing with Automatic BL Thickness

Reduction
Mesh generation in domains bounded by surfaces that are very close to one another in
some areas.
Generate meshes for most CFD codes (for example Acusolve, CFD++, CFX, Fluent,
StarCD, SC/Tetra) 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.
Exercise
Step 1: Open the exercise file

2. Select the manifold_inner_cylinder.hm file from the directory

<install_directory>\tutorials\es\cfd.
3. Click O pe n to load this file containing the surface 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
Altair Engineering

23
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.
5. Select Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s to set the User Profile.
6. Select E ngine e ring So lutio ns as the Application.
7. Select the C FD radio button and then select AcuSo lv e from the drop down menu.
Step 2: Check that the surface elements define a closed volume

1. Click M e s h > C he ck > C o m po ne nts > E dge s .
2. Click co m ps and select all collectors that define the domains surface, namely inlet,
outlets, wall and wall_cyl.
4. Toggle the free edges switch to T- co nne ctio ns .
5. Select the components again and click find e dge s .
The status bar will display, No T -c onne c t e d e dge s w e re found.
Step 3: Generate a BL distributed thickness loading to prevent

boundary layer interference
1. Click M e s h > Vo lum e M e s h 3D > C FD te tra m e s h.
2. Click the B o unda ry s e le ctio n subpanel.
24

Altair Engineering
3. Under the heading With BL (fixed), click co m ps and select the collectors wall and
wall_cyl.
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.
7. Click the B L pa ra m e te rs subpanel.
8. Set the following fields:

BL hexa transition mode = 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 v e ry
im port a nt 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. Check the boxes for BL reduction and Pre calc and then click the green Auto button.
The Generate Boundary Layer distributed thickness values dialog opens.
Notice that the four components selected in the Boundary selection subpanel are
already added.
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:
Altair Engineering

25
Note:
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 hy pe rbolic 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
26

Altair Engineering
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 m a s k (F5), and press
unm a s k a ll.
12. Click G e ne ra te D is tribute d B L Thickne s s R a tio .
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; press Y e s . 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 C lo s e in the Generate Boundary Layer distributed thickness values dialog.
Step 4: Generate the boundary layer and tetrahedral core mesh

1. In the CFD Tetramesh panel, click the Te tra m e s h pa ra m e te rs subpanel.
2. Set the switch for the tetrahedral mesh generation algorithm to Optimize Mesh Quality.
3. Ensure the tetrahedral grow rate is switched to Interpolate.
4. Click m e s h to generate the mesh. If collectors CFD_bl001 and CFD_tetcore001 are
present, you will be asked if you want to delete the elements in those collectors. Almost
always you select Y e s .
When this task is finished two collectors are created: CFD_bl001 and CFD_tetcore001.
Altair Engineering

27
Step 5: Mask elements to inspect the boundary layers thickness on

thinner areas
1. Select the X Z Le ft Pla ne Vie w icon
2. Access the Mask panel by using the shortcut key F5.

3. Select elements to be masked by pressing SHIFT and the left mouse button, then move
the cursor so that the rubber band covers the upper half of the model.
4. Click m a s k.
5. Click the X Y To p Pla ne Vie w 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.
7. Click re turn to close the Mask panel.
Step 6: 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
28

Altair Engineering
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 C FD _te tco re 001, right-click, select
R e na m e , and then type the new name, fluid.
2.
Click B C s > O rga niz e .
3.
Click e le m s > > by co lle cto r and select the collector C FD _bl001.
4.
In the dest component field, select fluid.
5.
Click m o v e and then click re turn.

Now you have all the volume elements in component fluid. The surface mesh of this
component is typically different from the surface mesh that was used to define the
boundary of the domain. For this reason, and to have consistent surface zones to impose
boundary conditions in most CFD solvers, you are going to create new boundary
components that will be used when exporting the mesh for the CFD solver of your choice.
To accomplish this you first extract the surface mesh of component fluid. You do this by
generating the surface elements.
6.
Click B C s > Fa ce s .
7.
Select the component fluid, and click find fa ce s . All boundary faces are placed in the
component ^faces.
8.
Create new, empty components to place the elements from ^ fa ce s 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 on C o m po ne nt, and then select C re a te .
9.
Enter the Name as wall_exterior. Leave Card image as none, and click C re a te .
10. Create three more empty components with the names wall_cylinder, inlet_annulus and
outlets3.
Altair Engineering

29
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 ^ fa ce s which retains the remaining elements after you move elements to the
newly created surface components. Organize the components by using the Organize
panel. Select B C s > O rga niz e .
12. Set dest component to wa ll_e xte rio r, then pick one element on the exterior wall
surface in the ^faces component.
13. Click the e le m s switch and select by fa ce .
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 ( Pre fe re nce s > G e o m e try O ptio ns > M e s h 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.
30

Altair Engineering
14. Having selected all the elements that should go to component wall_exterior, click m o v e
.
15. Now set the dest component to o utle ts 3 and pick at least one element on each one of
the three separate outlets as shown in the following image.
16. Click the e le m s switch and select by fa ce .

17. Having the elements on the three outlets selected, press m o v e and those elements are
moved to component outlets3.
18. Set dest component to inle t_a nnulus a nd pick one element as shown in the following
image.
19. Right-click the e le m s switch and select by fa ce .
20. Having all the elements on the inlet annulus selected, press m o v e and those elements are
moved to component inlet_annulus.
Now that all the remaining elements in component ^faces are the elements that you want
to move to component wall_cylinder.
21. Set dest component to wa ll_cy linde r.
22. Click on e le m s and in the panel area and select by co lle cto r.
23. Select the component ^ fa ce s .
24. Click m o v e and then click re turn.
Altair Engineering

31
The elements are moved to component wall_cylinder as shown in the following image.
As mentioned previously, more often than not it is easier to rename/recolor component

^faces.
Step 7: Exporting the mesh

1. Verify that only the components that you want to export are displayed. All other
components should NOT be displayed, as illustrated in the following image of the Model
Browser.
2. Click the E xpo rt So lv e r D e ck icon

to open the Export tab. Select the CFD file format
of your choice (such as Acusolve, CFD++, CFX, CGNS, Fluent, or StarCD) to export the
grid or mesh.
Note: solvers like Acusolve and FLUENT have certain requirements when the domain
contains different fluids and/or solids. This is described in other sections of the
Engineering Solutions Help system.
Summary
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.
32

Altair Engineering
CFD-1300: Plane 2-D Meshing with Boundary Layers

2-D Boundary Layer Mesh generation in domains bounded by edges

Generate 2-D boundary layer type meshes with an arbitrary number of layers and
thickness distribution in domains defined by edges.
Generate 2-D boundary layer type meshes in areas where the clearance or separation
of bounding edges is not enough to accommodate the user specified nominal boundary
layer thickness / number or layers.
Exercise

1. Click File > O pe n.
2. Navigate to the directory <installation_directory>\tutorials\es\cfd and select
the manifold_inner_cylinder_2d.hm file.
3. Click O pe n to load the file containing the edges.
4. Inspect the edges elements that will be used to generate the volume mesh.
The boundary mesh should only consist of PLOTEL (elem type) elements. You want to
generate boundary layers on all the edges contained in the collectors called wall and
inner wall.
5. Select Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s to set the User Profile.
Altair Engineering

33
6. Select E ngine e ring So lutio ns as the Application.

Step 2: Check that all the elements in collectors wall, inner wall, inlet,
and outlets define a closed loop. (This step is for information only; it is
optional for this tutorial)
Usually, this step is not necessary because the collectors containing edge elements (PLOTEL)
are extracted from 2-D 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:
1. Click B C s > C he ck > E dge .
2. Click co m ps .
3. Select the collectors wall, inner_wall, Inlet and Outlet.
4. Click s e le ct.
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 M e s h > C he ck > E le m e nts > C he ck E le m e nts .
6. Select the radio button 1- d.
7. Click the top le ngth button.
A message indicates the minimum element length is 3.09, therefore you can safely use a
tolerance of 3.
8. Click re turn to close out of the current panel.
9. In the Edge panel, enter 3.0 in the tolerance = field and then click Pre v ie w E quiv . A
message indicating that 0 node s w e re found will appear on the status bar.
Step 3: Generate a 2-D BL Mesh

1. Click M e s h > Surfa ce M e s h 2D > 2D M e s h with B L.
2. Click the 2D Native BL (planar) tab.
34

Altair Engineering
3. Set the default values to be assigned when adding collectors:

1st Layer Thickness = 0.5
Growth Rate = 1.1 (This non-dimensional factor controls the change in layer
thickness from one layer to the next)
Bound Type = Wall (Will generate a boundary layer mesh)
Number of boundary layers = 6 (value must be >= 0, as a zero value leads to no
boundary layers even when Wall type is specified)
4. Uncheck the Retain node seeding on edge w/o BL option.
5. Click Add co lle cto r.
6. In the selector panel, click co m ps .
7. Select all four components.
8. Click s e le ct.
9. Click pro ce e d.
10. In the 2D Boundary Layer Mesh window, all the selected components will be displayed in
the Component list as shown below:
Altair Engineering

35
11. Default values of boundary layer mesh (1st Layer Thickness, Growth Rate, and Bound
Type) will be assigned to each component. To remove one or more components from the
group, select those components from the list and click R e m o v e .
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 G e ne ra te 2D B L M e s h 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 some default
parameters to allow boundary node insertion and movement.
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
36

Altair Engineering
mesh quality.
Step 4: 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.
Altair Engineering

37
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:
By addition of new nodes on the boundary / perimeter.
By node movement on the boundary / perimeter.
1. Activate the Allow boundary node insertion checkbox.
-
Refine the boundary edges by insertion of nodes on boundary edges. New node
insertion is controlled by the specified maximum perimeter element aspect ratio.
Or
-
Activate the Allow boundary node movement checkbox.
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:

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
38

Altair Engineering
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 Y e s . 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 elements aspect ratio by using the shortcut key F10 and selecting
the 2- d page.
Altair Engineering

39
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
40

Altair Engineering
boundary layer interference by reducing the boundary layer thickness, as shown in the
following inset:
Step 5: 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 R e je ct to remove the created mesh.
Collectors 2DBLMesh and 2DCoreMesh will be deleted.
2. Click C lo s e to close the pop-up window.
Create new components (empty) to place the PLOTEL elements at critical zone (area
where boundary layer elements may lead to collision).
3. Open the Model Browser.
4. Click B C s > C o m po ne nts > Single .
Altair Engineering

41
5. Enter name as wall_critical.

6. Click C re a te and then C lo s e .
7. Click B C s > O rga niz e .
8. Select the boundary edges (PLOTEL) around the area where boundary layer elements may
lead to collision. Refer to the following image for element selection.
9. Set the dest group/dest component switch to de s t co m po ne nt = and select the

destination collector as wa ll_critica l.
10. Click m o v e to move the selected PLOTEL elements to the destination collector.
11. Click M e s h > Surfa ce M e s h 2D > 2D M e s h with B L.

12. In the 2D Native BL (planar) tab, click Add co lle cto r.
13. In the panel area, click co m ps .
14. Select the component wall_critical.
15. Click s e le ct.
The component wall_critical has been added to the component list.
17. Set 1st Layer Thickness of component wall_critical to 0.4.
42

Altair Engineering

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 2-D 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
Altair Engineering

43
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.
44

Altair Engineering
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.
The tutorial includes the following steps:
Setting the user profile
Opening the model file to be used
Using the wind tunnel functionality
Surface meshing
Volume meshing using the CFD Tetramesh panel
Organizing the model and preparation for CFD export
Export for Fluent
Exercise

1. From the menu bar, select Pre fe re nce s , then Us e r Pro file s .
2. For Application, select E ngine e ring So lutio ns , click the C FD radio button and select
AcuSo lv e from the drop down menu.
3. Click O K.

1.
From the toolbar, click the O pe n M o de l icon
2.
Select the airplane.hm file from the directory <install_directory>\tutorials\es\cfd

.
3.
Click O pe n to load the file.
Altair Engineering

45
Step 3: Use the Wind Tunnel Mesh tool

1. Click M e s h > Vo lum e M e s h 3D > W ind Tunne l.
The Wind-Tunnel tab opens, displaying instructions for using this tool.
2. Enter values for your model as shown in the following image:
3. Click G e ne ra te .
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 Y e s on the pop-up message.
The Wind Tunnel Mesh tool generates hexa, pyramids and shell elements and groups
them into several collectors.
46

Altair Engineering
You may need to rotate the model to obtain this view.
Step 4: Generate a shell mesh on the airplane

1. In the Model Browser, expand Component, right-click pla ne , and select Is o la te .
2. Click M e s h > Surfa ce M e s h 2D > Auto m e s h.
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.
4. For element size = , enter 10.
5. For growth rate = , enter 1.2.
6. For min elem size =, enter 2.
7. For max deviation =, enter 0.1.
8. For max feature angle = , enter 15.
9. Set mesh type: to tria s .
10. Ensure toggles are set to elems to surf comp and first order.
11. Click m e s h.
Altair Engineering

47
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.
2. In the Automesh panel, click the s iz e a nd bia s subpanel.
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 tria s .
5. For map:, activate the checkboxes for size and skew.
6. Click m e s h.
The component is meshed. A message on the status bar indicates the number of elements
created.
7. Click re turn twice to return to the main menu.
48

Altair Engineering
Step 6: Equivalence nodes in box_sym

1. In the Model Browser, right-click on the component s y m p and select Sho w.
3. Click the yellow co m ps button and select the components bo x_s y m and s y m p.
4. For tolerance = , enter 0.1.
5. Click pre v ie w e quiv .
A message in the status bar indicates the number of nodes found.
6. Click e quiv a le nce .
The nodes are equivalenced.
Step 7: Create new component box_ground

2. In the Name: field, enter box_ground.
3. Click C o lo r and select magenta.
4. Click C re a te .
The new collector has now been created.
Altair Engineering

49
5. Close the dialog.
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 M e s h > Surfa ce M e s h 2D > Surfa ce / M e s h > Spline .
3. Set the selector toggle to no de s .
4. Click the nodes selector to open the extended entity selection menu and pick by pa th.
5. Set the second toggle to s urfa ce o nly .
6. Pick the nodes by path on the perimeter of the box bottom, as in the following image:
7. Click cre a te .
8. Click re turn.
10. Select the size and bias subpanel, ensure the selector is set to surfs and the element
size field is set to 20.
11. In the graphics area, click the bo x_gro und surface.
12. Click m e s h.
A message on the status bar will indicate the number of elements created.
13. Click re turn twice to return to the main menu.
Step 9: Equivalence nodes to achieve a closed volume

50

Altair Engineering
2. Click the yellow co m ps button and select the components plane, box_sym, ground,
trias_hexas_pyras, and box_ground .
3. Set the tolerance field to 0.1.
4. Click pre v ie w e quiv .
5. Click e quiv a le nce .
6. Click re turn.
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.
A message on the status bar indicates that no edges were found.
11. Select the components again and click pre v ie w e quiv .
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.
12. Click re turn.
Step 10: Mesh the closed volume

2. Under the With BL (fixed) header, click the co m ps selector and select the component
plane.
Altair Engineering

51
3. Under the W/o BL (fixed) header, click the co m ps selector and select the components
box_sym, box_ground and trias_hexas_pyras.
4. Click the B L pa ra m e te rs subpanel.
5. For Number of Layers = enter 3.
6. For First layer thickness = enter 0.7.
7. On the Tetramesh parameters subpanel, set the toggle to Interpolate.
8. Click m e s h.
The mesh may take a few minutes. When the mesh is complete, a message in the status
bar will indicate the number of nodes and elements created.
Note that two new components, CFD_tetcore001 and CFD_bl001, appear in the Model
Browser.
9. Click re turn.
Step 11: Inspect the mesh

1. Click M e s h > C he ck > H idde n Line s . In the panel, deactivate the clip boundary
elements checkbox.
2. Click s ho w plo t and then check and then uncheck the xy plane, yz plane and xz plane
checkboxes to display the model in different views.
52

Altair Engineering
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 re turn.
Step 12: Organize faces

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.
2. Click B C s > Fa ce s .
3. Hold SHIFT and drag a box around the visible components to select them.
4. Click find fa ce s .
Note that a new component named ^faces appears in the Model Browser.
5. Click re turn.
Altair Engineering

53
6. In the Model Browser, turn off the display of the elements of CFD_tetramesh_core and
CFD_boundary_layer.
8. Click e le m s and select o n pla ne .
9. Pick three nodes on the ^faces component, on the face that intersects the airplane
model.
A good way to determine which area to select is to isolate the display of the box_sym
geometry. This will show you the face to focus on. Turn the display of the ^faces
component back on, and select your three nodes.
10. Click s e le ct e ntitie s .

11. Click de s t co m po ne nt = and select s y m p.
12. Click m o v e .
13. Click e le m s > > o n pla ne .
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.
54

Altair Engineering
15. Click s e le ct e ntitie s .

16. Click de s t co m po ne nt = and select gro und.
17. Click m o v e .
Step 13: Delete collectors

1. In the Model Browser, right-click the component ^ fa ce s , and select D e le te .
2. In the pop-up dialog, click Y e s to confirm the deletion.
3. In the Model Browser, turn on the display of CFD_tetcore001 and CFD_bl001.
4. Press the CTRL key and select e dge s _xz and e dge s _xy in the Model Browser.
5. Right-click and select D e le te .
6. In the pop-up dialog, click Y e s to confirm the deletion.
7. In the same way, also delete trias_hexas_pyras, box_sym and box_ground.
Step 14: Organize components

Altair Engineering

55
2. Click e le m s and select by co lle cto r.

3. Select C FD _te tco re 001 and C FD _bl001.
4. Click s e le ct.
5. Click de s t co m po ne nt = and select fluid_hex.
6. Click m o v e .
When the move is complete, nothing should be visible in the graphic area.
7. Click re turn.
Step 15: Use the Model Browser to rename and delete components
1. In the Model Browser, display elements for fluid_hex.
2. Right-click fluid_he x in the Model Browser and select R e na m e .
3. Enter the new name as fluid.
4. Select C FD _te tco re 001 and C FD _bl001 and delete them using the process described in
Step 14.
5. Right-click C o m po ne nt and select Sho w to show all remaining components in the graphic
area.
Step 16: Export the file as .cas

1. Click E xpo rt So lv e r D e ck
56

Altair Engineering
2. Ensure that CFD is selected for the File Type, and pick Flue nt for the Solver Type.
3. Use the File field to navigate to the destination folder and enter the name
wind_tunnel_mesh.
4. Click E xpo rt.
A pop-up dialog appears. After reading the dialog, click Y e s .
Altair Engineering

57
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.
58

Altair Engineering
6. When the file creation is complete, a pop-up window appears. Click O K.
Altair Engineering

59
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:
Tria surface meshing
Boundary layer generation
Generation of the hexcore mesh, pyramid elements and the tetra mesh
Preparation of the model for the export
Exercise

1. From the menu bar, select Pre fe re nce s , then Us e r Pro file s .
2. For Application, select E ngine e ring So lutio ns , click the C FD radio button and then
select AcuSo lv e from the drop down menu.
3. Click O K.

1. From the toolbar, click the O pe n M o de l icon
2. Select the ujoint_cfd.hm file from the directory

<install_directory>\tutorials\es\cfd.
3. Click O pe n to load the file.
60

Altair Engineering
Step 3: Generate a mesh on the surface

1. In the Model Browser, expand Component, right-click on it and select Sho w.
3. Click the s iz e a nd bia s subpanel.
4. Set the element size = field to 5.0.
5. Set the mesh type to tria s .
6. Ensure that both the size and skew checkboxes are activated.
8. Click the yellow s urfs button and selected a ll.
9. Click m e s h.
10. Click re turn twice to close the panels.
Altair Engineering

61
Step 4: Mesh the hex-core

1.
Click M e s h > Vo lum e M e s h 3D > H e x- co re .
2.
Enter the parameters as shown in the image below:
62

Altair Engineering
3.
Checking the box for Generate exterior tetrahedral mesh and Boundary Layer makes
the bottom part of the tab editable. Enter the Number of layers as 3, the First layer
thickness as 0.4 and the Growth rate as 1.2.
Altair Engineering

63
4.
Under the header With boundary layer, click the C o m po ne nts button and select the
component wall.
5.
Under the header W/o boundary layer, click the C o m po ne nts button and select inflow
and outflow.
6.
Click G e ne ra te just above the Report area. If a message appears, select Y e s . 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 m a s k. This will display the inside of the model.
64

Altair Engineering
Step 5: Prepare the model for export

1. In the Model Browser, right-click on C o m po ne nt and select C re a te .
2. Enter the name as fluid and click C re a te .
3. Right-click on C o m po ne nt again select Sho w to remove the masking effect.
4. From the View menu, select B ro ws e rs > H y pe rM e s h > M a s k.
5. Display only the volume elements by clicking on the "1" in the row for 3D elements, as
shown below:
Altair Engineering

65
6. Click M e s h > O rga niz e .
66

Altair Engineering
7. Click e le m s and select dis pla y e d.

8. Click de s t co m po ne nt = and select the fluid component.
9. Click m o v e , and then click re turn.
10. In the Mask Browser, set only the 2D elements to display.
11. Click M e s h > D e le te > E le m e nts . Click the yellow e le m s button and select dis pla y e d.
12. Click de le te e ntity . This deletes all 2D elements from the model.
13. While still in the Delete panel, click the toggle and switch from e le m s to co m ps . Click
co m ps and select the components that are now unused:
CFD_boundary_layer
hexcore
pyramids
faces_pyra_hex
tetras_exterior
14. Click de le te e ntity and click re turn.
15. In the Model Browser, right-click on C o m po ne nt and select Sho w to display the
remaining components. Only volume elements are now available in the model.
17. Click the co m ps button and select the fluid component.
18. Enter the tolerance as 0.010 and select find fa ce s . Click re turn to close the panel.
Altair Engineering

67
20. Click e le m s and select the elements on the inlet.

21. Click de s t co m po ne nt = and select the inflow component. Click m o v e .
22. Click e le m s again and select the elements on the outlet.

23. Click de s t co m po ne nt = and select the outflow component. Click m o v e .
24. Click e le m s again, select by co lle cto r and select ^ fa ce s .
25. In the de s t co m po ne nt = field, select wall and click m o v e . This will move the remaining
elements in the ^faces component into the wall component.
26. In the Model Browser, delete the ^faces component.
27. Display all the components and export the model to the CFD solver of your choice.
68

Altair Engineering
CFD-1600: Using Distributed Thickness for Varying

Boundary Layer Thickness
In this tutorial you will learn how to
Generate a structured quad surface mesh
Adjust the boundary layer thickness manually
Generate a hybrid grid (tetramesh with boundary layer)
Export the model for a CFD solver of your choice
Exercise

1. From the menu bar, select Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s .
4. Click O K.

2. Select the wing.hm file from the directory <install_directory>\tutorials\es\cfd.

3. Click O pe n to load the file.
Altair Engineering

69
4. In the Model Browser, click on C o m po ne nt and expand the folder, then right-click on
bo x and select H ide .
5. Right-click on pla ne and select Sho w.
Step 3: Generate a mesh on the surface

2. Click the s iz e a nd bia s subpanel.
3. Set the element size = field to 5.0.
4. Set the mesh type to qua ds o nly .
5. Ensure that both the size and skew checkboxes are activated.
7. Click the yellow s urfs button. 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 m e s h.
70

Altair Engineering
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 the e dge button just above the elem density field and graphically select both lefthand 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 same number of nodes.
See the image below:
Altair Engineering

71
4. Click the e dge button 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 get a uniform quad mesh.
6. Click m e s h.
72

Altair Engineering
Step 5: Define the region for a thinner BL thickness

2. Enter the name of the new component as BL_thin and click C re a te and then C lo s e .
4. With the elems button highlighted, use the Shift key and the left mouse button to draw a
box around a portion of the elements on the wing (see the image below).
5. Click the de s t co m po ne nt button and select the component B L_thin.
Altair Engineering

73
Step 6: Mesh the surface of the box

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 M e s h > Surfa ce M e s h 2D > Auto m e s h and then select the s iz e a nd bia s
subpanel.
3. With the s urfs button highlighted, select the six surfaces of the box.
4. Set the element size field to 30, and change the mesh type toggle to tria s .
5. Click m e s h.
Step 7: Volume meshing

2. Click on the B o unda ry s e le ctio n subpanel. Under the heading With BL (fixed), click the
co m ps button and select the plane and BL_thin components.
3. Under the heading W/o BL (float), click the co m ps button and select the box
components.
4. Click on the B L pa ra m e te rs subpanel.
5. In the Number of Layers field, enter 4.
6. In the First layer thickness field, enter 0.3
7. Check the boxes for BL reduction and Pre calc and then click the green M a nua l button
to open the Distributed BL Thickness Ratio dialog.
Note: In the dialog, you can select nodes or components, and define a scaling factor for
the boundary layer thickness at this location. For example, a scaling factor of 0.5
will reduce the BL thickness in this region to one half of the original BL thickness.
8.
74
In the dialog, click the C o m po ne nts radio button.

Altair Engineering
9. Click Se le ct C o m po ne nts and select the component BL_thin.

11. In the Thickness Ratio field, enter 0.1.
12. Click As s ign, and then click C lo s e .
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.
The defined scaling factor is now stored in the load collector ^CFD_BL_Thickness, as
shown in the Model Browser.
13. In the Model Browser, right-click on the bo x component and select H ide . Right-click on
the load collector ^ C FD _B L_Thickne s s and select Sho w. Check the value of the scaling
factor to make sure it is correct and if it is attached to the correct component.
Altair Engineering

75
14. Click on the Te tra m e s h pa ra m e te rs subpanel. Select Inte rpo la te for the tetrameshing
growth algorithm behavior.
15. Click m e s h. 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.
76

Altair Engineering
Due to smoothing algorithms for the boundary layer, the thickness ratios can differ from
the user-defined values, for some use cases.
Step 8: Prepare the model for export

1. In the Model Browser, right-click on C o m po ne nts and click Sho w to display all
components.
2. Click B C s > C o m po ne nts > 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 on the Mask tab, click on the 1 in the row 3D elements to display only volume
elements.
6. Click on the e le m s button and select dis pla y e d.
7. Click the de s t co m po ne nt button and select the component fluid.
9. In the Mask tab, click on the 1 in the row 2D elements to display only shell elements.
10. Click M e s h > D e le te > E le m e nts .
Altair Engineering

77
11. Click on the e le m s button and select dis pla y e d.

12. Click de le te e ntity and then click re turn.
13. In the Model Browser, right-click on fluids and select M a ke C urre nt, and then rightclick on it again and select Sho w.
15. Click the co m ps button and select the fluid component. Click find fa ce s and then click
re turn to close the panel.
16. A new component named ^faces is created and displayed in the Model Browser. Rightclick on it and select Is o la te .

18. Select the elements lying on the inflow boundary, and move them to the inflow
component. The easiest way to do this is to select a single element on the inflow
boundary and then select by fa ce from the extended entity selector. Repeat this step
selecting the elements on the outflow boundary, and moving them to the outflow
component.
78

Altair Engineering
Inflow boundary selected for the inflow 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 re turn to close
the panel.
21. The collector ^faces should now be empty and can be deleted by right-clicking on it in
the Model Browser.
22. Delete the other empty components - plane, box, BL_thin, CFD_bl001 and
CFD_tetcore001.
Step 9: Export the model

1. Right-click on C o m po ne nts in the Model Browser and select Sho w.
2. Click on the E xpo rt So lv e r D e ck icon
choice.
Altair Engineering
and export the model for the CFD solver of your

79
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 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.
Step 1: Open model file

1. Click the O pe n .hm file icon
2. Select the file \tutorials\hm\s_bend_tube.hm.

3. Click O pe n.
4. Use the Model Browser to turn off the display of the component cube.
5. From the menu bar, select Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s .
8. Click O K.
Step 2: Load and process Tecplot file

1. From the menu bar, select To o ls > M a pping C FD Lo a ds .
80

Altair Engineering
2. This opens a message window explaining the mapping process and asking if you want to
continue. Select Y e s .
3. Browse and select the file Sbend_Model_CFDpp_Tecplot_SURFTEC.DAT.

4. Select O pe n to open the file.
5. This opens the file and creates nodal results files for each result type present in the file.
6. Another message appears telling you that the file names can be reviewed in the log report
window. Click O K 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 D is m is s .
Altair Engineering

81
Step 3: Create a load collector for the pressure loads

1. Right click in the Model Browser and select C re a te > Lo a d C o lle cto r.
2. For Name: enter pressure.
3. For the Color: select any color.
4. Select C re a te to complete the creation of the load collector.
Step 4: Map the load pressure to the new file
82

Altair Engineering
1. Select To o ls > Line a r inte rpo la tio n> Pre s s ure .

2. Click on e le m s and select dis pla y e d to select all the displayed elements.
3. Click on the switch next to magnitude and select line a r inte rpo la tio n.
4. There is now a file= field under linear interpolation. Click on the
field to select a file.
next to the file=
5. Browse for the file Sbend_Model_CFDpp_Tecplot_SURFTEC_P_for_LI.DAT. Click O pe n.

This file contains the pressure results from the CFD analysis.
6. For search radius, enter 0.05.
The search radius is a search distance to find the loads which are within that distance
from a centroid or node on which a load is being interpolated. 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 on no de s and then select three nodes that define an
element (see image below).
8. Select cre a te .
Altair Engineering

83
9. Select re turn to exit the panel.
Step 5: Turn off the display of the load collector and show pressure
loads as a contour plot
1. Within the Model Browser, expand the folder Load Collector.
2. To turn off the display of the load collector pressure, click on the m e s h icon,
, to the
left of pressures. The icon will be greyed out and the pressure loads will no longer be
displayed.
3. Select To o ls > C o nto ur Lo a ds .
This opens a new tab called Contour Loads.
4. Click on pre s s ure s to select the load collector to be contoured.
5. Click on Acce pt.
This displays the Contour panel and automatically loads the appropriate information.
6. Click on co nto ur.
84

Altair Engineering
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 setup and run.
Altair Engineering

85
CFD-1800: Using HyperMesh, AcuSolve and HyperView to

Perform a CFD Analysis
This tutorial uses:
HyperMesh (for meshing the CFD model)
AcuConsole (for setting up the model and submitting the job)
AcuSolve (for running the CFD simulation)
HyperView (for post processing)
This tutorial uses the same model file used by CFD-1000 of online HyperWorks tutorials.
Exercise 1: Launch HyperMesh
Step 1: Launch HyperMesh and open the model file

2. Select manifold_surf_mesh.hm from the tutorial directory.

3. Click O pe n to load the .hm file containing the surface mesh.
Step 2: Load the AcuSolve User profile

1. Click Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s .
86

Altair Engineering
3. Select the radio button C FD .

4. Select AcuSo lv e from the drop down list next to it.
5. Click O K.
Step 3: Check that all the elements in the collectors wall, inlet and outlet
define a closed volume
1. Click M e s h > C he ck > C o m po ne nt > E dge s to open the Edges panel.
2. Click the yellow comps button and select the collectors wall, inlet and outlets.
3. Click s e le ct, and then click find e dge s .
4. Toggle the free edges button to T-connections.
5. Select the three components again and then click find e dge s .
The status bar will display "No T -c onne c t e d e dge s w e re found."
Step 4: Create the CFD Mesh

1. Click M e s h > Vo lum e M e s h 3D > C FD te tra m e s h to open the CFD Tetramesh panel.
2. Select the B o unda ry s e le ctio n subpanel.
3. Under the heading With BL (fixed), click co m ps and select the collector wall.
outlets.
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.
7.
Click the B L pa ra m e te rs subpanel. All the data that has been entered in the Boundary
Altair Engineering

87
8.
Select the options to specify the boundary layer and the tetrahedral core:
Number of Layers= 5
First layer thickness= 0.5
BL growth rate= 1.1
9.
Under the BL hexa transition mode header, verify that the selection is set to Tetra to
all Layers.
This uses tetrahedral elements for the boundary layers.

tetrahedral core.
Q ua lity .
13. Set the tetrahedral core growth rate, Interpolate. This avoids the problem of generating
tetrahedral elements that are too large at the center of the core mesh.
14. Click m e s h to create the CFD mesh. When this task is finished, two collectors are
automatically created: CFD_bl001 and CFD_tetcore001.
Step 5: Visualize and Mask the generated Mesh

1. To visualize the new mesh, set the element display to off for wall, inlet and outlets
collectors.
88

Altair Engineering
2. To mask the generated mesh use the shortcut key F5 and select the elements to be
masked.
The following is a snapshot. Observe the excellent mesh quality.
Step 6: Organize the model

1. Rename the collector CFD_Tetramesh_core as fluid. This collector will hold all the 3-D
volume elements.
2. Click B C s > O rga niz e to move all the elements from the collector CFD_boundary_layer
to collector fluid.
3. Click B C s > Fa ce s to automatically generate the collector ^faces containing all the
external faces of the elements in collector fluid.
4. Click B C s > C o m po ne nt> Single to create two new components named inflow and
outflow.
Altair Engineering

89
5.
In the Model Browser, put On the display ^faces component and put off the fluid
component.
6. Click B C > s O rga niz e and click one element on the inlet/inflow plane (the element will
become highlighted).
7. Click e le m s > by fa ce . All the elements in the collector ^faces on the inlet/inflow plane
will be selected.
8. Set the dest comp as inflow, and click m o v e . 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 image.
90

Altair Engineering
10. The remaining elements in the collector ^faces are the walls. Rename collectors ^faces
to walls.
Step 7: Exporting model to AcuConsole

1. Display only the components containing elements that have to be exported for
AcuConsole. The components are: fluid, inflow, outflow, and walls. All other
components should not be visible.
2. Click the AcuC o ns o le icon
in the CFD toolbar to open the AcuSolve dialog.
3. In the File field, click on the file icon and specify a name and location for the file.
Altair Engineering

91
4. Click E xpo rt to launch AcuConsole and export a file.
Exercise 2: Launch AcuConsole
The AcuConsole GUI opens with the model loaded.
Step 1: Visualizing the model in AcuConsole
92

Altair Engineering
1. Expand Surfa ce s and right click on D is pla y Ty pe to select s o lid & wire . This updates
the model display with a mesh in the Visualization area.
2. For changing the color of a surface, right-click on the surface and click D is pla y C o lo r.
Select the desired color from the Select color dialog.
Step 2: Set Problem description and Solution Strategy

1. Double click on Pro ble m D e s criptio n under Global.
2. In the panels area set the Title to Demo and Turbulence equation to Spa la rt- Allm a ra s .
Altair Engineering

93
3. Double-click on Auto So lutio n Stra te gy and set the Relaxation factor to 0.4.
Step 3: Set Nodal Initial Condition and Material model

1. Double click on No da l Initia l C o nditio n under Global.
2. In the panels area set the X velocity to 2.0. Therefore, at the start of the simulation
fluid is flowing with a velocity of 2 m/s.
94

Altair Engineering
3. In Model > Volumes > fluid tet4 > Element Set double click on E le m e nt Se t and
select W a te r in the drop down list next to Material model.
Step 4: Set Boundary Conditions

1. Right click on Surfa ce s and select Surfa ce M a na ge r. The Surface Manager dialog
opens.
2. Make sure the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns are present. If they are
not shown click on the C o lum ns button and select them.
3. Under the Simple BC Type, make sure Inflow is set for fluid tet4 inflow tria3 surface,
Outflow for fluid tet4 outflow tria3 and Wall for fluid tet4 walls tria3.
Altair Engineering

95
4. Click the C lo s e button to close the dialog.
Step 5: Set Inlet Velocity

1.
Double click on Surfa ce s > fluid te t4 inflo w tria 3 > Sim ple B o unda ry C o nditio n.
2.
In the panel area, select Inflo w Ty pe to Average velocity and Average velocity to
2.0 m/s.
Step 6: Launch AcuSolve

1. Click on To o ls in the menu bar and select AcuSo lv e from the list to open the Launch
AcuSolve dialog.
96

Altair Engineering
2. Set the Problem name, Problem directory, Working directory, Number of

processors, etc. in this dialog. Click the O K button to launch AcuSolve.
When the job is submitted, AcuRun executes AcuPrep followed by AcuSolve.

AcuPrep reads the input file and prepares the data for AcuSolve to compute the
solution.
The AcuTail window shows the status of the job.
Altair Engineering

97
AcuProbe can be used for monitoring the job.
98

Altair Engineering
Step 7: Launch AcuOut

AcuOut is a tool used to translate AcuSolve solution output to other formats. In this
workshop the output has to be converted to EnSight format for loading to HyperView.
1. Click on To o ls > AcuO ut from the menu bar. The AcuOut GUI opens.
2. Set the Output format to E nSight. Set the Data type, Variables, Time steps and
format. Click the D o button next to Process.
Exercise 3: Launch HyperView
Step 1: Launch HyperView

HyperView can be launched several ways including:
Click on Applica tio ns > H y pe rVie w from the HyperMesh menu bar.
On Windows machine, click on Sta rt > Alta ir H y pe rW o rks 12.0 > H y pe rVie w.
On LINUX machine, type hv in terminal window.
1. Click on the button next to Load model and Load results. Provide the location of case
file generated using AcuOut.
Altair Engineering

99
2. Click Apply to load the model into HyperView.
Step 2: Boundary Surface

The model is colored by geometry after loading.
1. To color it by a scalar quantity, click the C o nto ur panel button
toolbar.
on the Result
2. Select Pre s s ure as the Result type and click Apply .
Step 3: Cut Plane

1. Right-click within the Results Browser and select C re a te > Se ctio n C ut.
100 Engineering Solutions 12.0 Tutorials

Altair Engineering
A section cut is automatically applied to the model, and the Section Cut panel is
displayed.
2. Verify that Define plane is set to Z Axis. Click Apply .
3. Verify that Display Options has the Cross section option turned on. You can use the
Define plane slider bar (located under the Z Axis button) to move the position of the
section cut.
4. Click the C o nto ur panel button
on the Result toolbar.
5. Select Ve lo city (v ) as the Result type and click Apply .
Step 4: Slice (or) Clipping plane

1. Within the Results Browser expand the Section Cuts folder, right-click Se ctio n 1, and
select E dit. The Section Cut panel opens.
2. Under Display options select C lipping pla ne .
Altair Engineering

101
Step 5: Velocity vectors

1. In the Section Cut panel (under Display options) set it back to Cross section.
2. Click the Ve cto r panel button
on the Result toolbar.
3. Under Selection (from the drop down list) select Se ctio ns .

4. Click Se ctio ns to open the Extended Entity Selection. Select D is pla y e d.
5. Select x & y component and click Apply .

Altair Engineering
Step 6: Streamlines
1. Within the Results Browser, expand the Section Cuts folder. Click on the icon before
Section 1 to put off the display.
2. Using the Results Browser, turn off display for all components.
Only turn On the display for SBC: fluid tet4 inflow tria3 and SBC: fluid tet4 outflow
tria3 so that the inside of the flow domain is displayed in the graphics area.
3. Click the Stre a m line s panel button
panel.
from the Result toolbar to enter the Streamlines
4. Click Add to add a new set of steamlines.

5. Set the Rake type to Line.
6. Click on the
button.
This opens the Reference point dialog. Enter the Reference points as (X1: 66.96, Y1:
79.69, Z1: -400) and (X2: 28.9, Y2: 79.69, Z2: -400).
Altair Engineering

103
7. Enter 35 into the Number of seeds text box.

8. Select D o wns tre a m from the Integration mode drop-down menu.
9. Click the C re a te Stre a m line s button (located in the lower right hand corner of the
panel.)
10. Under Display options, change the Streamline size to 4 and hit Enter on the keyboard.
11. Activate the Draw as tube option.

Altair Engineering
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 DYNA
CRASH-1200: Model Importing, Airbags, Exporting Displayed,and Contacts using DYNA
CRASH-1300: Rigid Wall, Model Data, Constraints and Output Using DYNA
The following tutorials are available for the Crash - RADIOSS user profile:
CRASH-2000: Front Impact Bumper Model
CRASH-2100: Simplified Car Pole Impact
Altair Engineering

105
CRASH-1000: Defining LS-DYNA Model and Load Data,

Controls, and Output
View DYNA keywords in the Engineering Solutions - Crash LS-DYNA user profile as
they will appear in the exported DYNA input file
Understand part, material, and section creation and element organization
Create sets
Create velocities
Create nodal single point constraints
Create contacts
Define output and termination
Export models to LS-DYNA formatted input files
Exercises
This tutorial contains the following exercises:

Exercise 1: Define Model Data for the Head and A-Pillar Impact Analysis
Exercise 2: Define Boundary Conditions and Loads for the Head and A-Pillar Impact Analysis
Exercise 3: Define Termination and Output for the Head and A-Pillar Impact Analysis
Section 1: Define Model Data

Relation of *PART, *ELEMENT, *MAT, and *SECTION to Each Other
*ELEMENT
EID
PID
*PART
PID
SID
*SECTION
SID
*MAT
MID
MID
A *PART shares attributes such as section properties (*SECTION) and a material model

Altair Engineering
(*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 unique PID assigns a material ID (MID) and a section ID
(SID) to an element.
The figure below shows how the keywords *ELEMENT, *PART, *SECTION, and *MAT are
organized.
*ELEMENT
EID
PID
Elements are organized into a component

collector.
*PART
PID
SID
*SECTION
SID
Property collector with a property card

image. Assign a property to a *PART by
pointing to the property collector in the
component collectors card image.
*MAT
MID
Material collector with a material card

image. Assign the material to the *PART
by associating the material collector to
the component collector.
MID
Component collectors card image.
Component, property and material collectors are created and edited from the Collectors
panel.
View DYNA Keywords in Engineering Solutions
An Engineering Solutions card image allows you to view the image of keywords and data lines
for defined DYNA entities as interpreted by the loaded template. The keywords and data lines
appear in the exported 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 DYNA keyword.
Card images can be viewed using the Card Editor panel which can be access from the Card
Editor icon in the toolbar, or from the right-click context menus in the Model Browser and
Solver Browser.
Create *MAT
In Engineering Solutions, a *MAT is a material collector with a card image. To relate it to a
*PART, the material collector is associated to a component collector. A material collector can
be created from the Model Browser, Solver Browser or by selecting the Model menu and
choosing M a te ria l > C re a te .
Update a Components Material
Update any component with any material from the Component Collectors panel, update
subpanel.
Material Table Utility
This utility allows you to do the following:
Altair Engineering

107
View a list of all existing materials in the model and attributes for them.
Create, edit, merge and check for duplicate materials.
This utility is located in the the Model menu.
Create *SECTION
In Engineering Solutions, *SECTION is a property collector with a card image. This is created
in the Property Collectors panel, create subpanel.
Exercise 1: Define Model Data for the Head and APillar Impact Analysis
The purpose for this exercise is to help you become familiar with defining LS-DYNA materials,
sections and parts using Engineering Solutions Crash - LS-DYNA.
This exercise comprises of setting up the model data for an 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
This exercise contains the following tasks.

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.
Step 1: Load the Crash - LS-DYNA user profile

1. From the startup menu, choose E ngine e ring So lutio ns > C ra s h > H y pe rM e s h.

Altair Engineering
2. Select the LS- D Y NA profile in Crash and click O K.
Step 2: Retrieve the model file

and browse to the file head_start.hm.
2. Click O pe n.
The model loads into the graphics area.
Step 3: Define the material *MAT_ELASTIC for the A-pillar and head
1. Right-click in the Model Browser and select C re a te > M a te ria l.
The Create material dialog opens.
2. For Name, enter elastic.
3. For Card image, select M ATL1.
4. Click C a rd e dit m a te ria l upo n cre a tio n to activate the option.
5. Click C re a te to create the material and edit its card image.
6. Click the [R ho ] field and enter 1.2 E-6 for the density.
7. For Youngs modulus [E], specify 210.
8. For Poissons ratio [Nu], specify 0.26.
9. Click re turn to exit the panel.
Step 4: Define property (*SECTION_SHELL) with a thickness of 3.5 mm

for the A-pillar
Altair Engineering

109
1. Right click in the Model Browser and select C re a te > Pro pe rty .
The Create property dialog opens.
2. For Name, enter section3.5.
3. In the Type field, select SUR FAC E .
4. For Card image, select Se ctShll.
5. Click C a rd e dit pro pe rty upo n cre a tio n to activate the option.
6. Click C re a te to create the property and edit the card.
7. For T1, enter 3.5.
Step 5: Define *SECTION_SOLID for the head

2. For the Name field, type solid.
3. In the Type field, select VO LUM E .
4. For Card image, select Se ctSld.
5. Click C a rd e dit pro pe rty upo n cre a tio n to deactivate the option.
6. Click C re a te to create the property.
Step 6: Define *PART for the A-pillar

MAT_ELASTIC is the material collector named "elastic". *SECTION_SHELL is the property
collector named "section3.5".
1. Right click on the pillar component in the Model Browser and select E dit.
2. For Card image, select Pa rt.
3. Click the M a te ria l tab.
4. Click the As s ign m a te ria l option to activate it.
5. For Name, select e la s tic.
6. Click the Pro pe rty tab.
7. Click As s ign pro pe rty to activate the option.
8. For Name, select s e ctio n3.5.
9. Click Upda te .

Altair Engineering
Step 7: Define *PART for the head

*MAT_ELASTIC is the material collector named "elastic". *SECTION_SOLID is the property
collector named "solid".
1. Right click on the component head in the Model Browser and select E dit.
2. For Card image, select Pa rt.
3. Click the M a te ria l tab.
4. Click the As s ign m a te ria l option to activate it.
5. For Name, select e la s tic.
6. Click the Pro pe rty tab.
7. Click the As s ign pro pe rty option to activate it.
8. For Name, select s o lid.
9. Click Upda te to update the component.
The exercise is complete. Save your work to as an .HM file.
Section 2: Define Boundary Conditions and Loads

*SET
With the exception of *SET_SEGMENT, all *SET types are created from the Entity Sets
panel, from clicking To o ls > C re a te > Se ts . Graphically view a sets contents with the
review function in the Entity Sets panel. *SET_SEGMENT is created from the Contactsurfs
panel and is discussed in this chapter.
Exercise 2: Define Boundary Conditions and Loads

for the Head and A-Pillar Impact Analysis
The purpose for this exercise is to help you start becoming familiar with defining LS-DYNA
boundary conditions, loads and contacts using Engineering Solutions.
This exercise comprises of setting up the boundary conditions and loads data for an LS-DYNA
analysis of a hybrid III dummy head impacting an A-pillar. The head and A-pillar model is
depicted below.
Altair Engineering

111
This exercise contains the following three tasks.

Define velocity on all nodes of the head with *INITIAL_VELOCITY
Constrain the pillars end nodes in all six degrees of freedom with
*BOUNDARY_SPC_NODE
Define a contact between the head and A-pillar with
*CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_SURFACE_TO_SURFACE
Step 1: Make sure the LS-DYNA user profile is still loaded

1. From the menu bar, click Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s .
2. Select E ngine e ring So lutio ns > C ra s h> LS- D Y NA.
Step 2: Retrieve the model file head_2.hm

1. Retrieve the model file head_2.hm.
2. Take a few moments to observe the model using various visual options available (rotation,
zooming, etc.).
Step 3: Create a node set containing all the nodes in the he a d

component

Altair Engineering
1. Click M o de l > Se ts > No de s > C re a te .

2. For Name, enter Vel_Nodes.
3. For Card image, select No de .
4. With the nodes selector active, click no de s > > by co lle cto r and select the component
he a d.
5. Click cre a te to create the set.
Step 4: Define the initial velocity

1. Click B C s > Initia l Ve lo city > No de Se t > C re a te .
2. For loadcol name, enter init_vel.
3. Click cre a te / e dit to create the load collector and edit its card image.
4. In the node set ID [NSID] field, select the entity set Ve l_No de s .
5. For the initial velocity in the global x-direction, VX field, specify 5.
6. Click re turn.
7. Stay in the Load Collector panel for the next step.
Step 5: Create a load collector for the constraints to be created

1. In the Load Collector panel, in the Name field, enter SPC.
2. For creation method, select no ne .
3. Click cre a te to create the load collector.
Step 6: Create constraints on the pillars end nodes

1. Click B C s > C o ns tra ints > No de s > C re a te .
2. Leave the entity selector set to nodes.
3. Click no de s > > by s e ts and select the pre-defined entity set nodes for SPC.
Notice the nodes at the pillars ends are highlighted.
4. Leave all six degrees of freedom, dof1 thru dof6, active.
5. Leave the load type as BoundSPC.
6. Click cre a te to create the constraints.
Altair Engineering

113
Step 7: Define a *SET_SEGMENT for the slave entities, the A-pilla r

elements
1. Click M o de l > Se gm e nts > Se gm e nt > C re a te .
2. For name, type pillar_slave.
3. Optionally select a color for the contactsurf.
4. With the elems selector active, click e le m s > > by co lle cto r and then select the pillar
component.
5. Click cre a te to create the contactsurf.
6. Review the contactsurf to make sure its pyramids are pointing out of the pillar.
7. Stay in this panel for the next step.
Step 8: Define a *SET_SEGMENT for the master entities, the he a d

elements
1. Select the s o lid fa ce s subpanel.
2. For name, type headmaster.
3. For Card image, select s e tSe gm e nt.
5. With the elems selector active, click e le m s > > by co lle cto r and then select the he a d
component.
6. Leave the toggle set to nodes on face.
7. Click the yellow no de s selector to make it active.
8. Select three nodes belonging to the same face of a solid element.
9. For the break angle, leave it set to 30.
11. Review the contactsurf to make sure its pyramids are pointing out of the head.
Step 9: Create SurfaceToSurface contact interface between pillar and

head
1. Click B C s > C o nta ct > Surf to Surf > C re a te .
2. For Name, type contact.

Altair Engineering
3. Leave Type set to SurfaceToSurface.

4. Click cre a te to create the group.
5. Stay in the Interfaces panel for the next step.
Step 10: Add the slave and master contactsurfs to the group
1. Select the a dd subpanel.
2. For the master type, select cs urfs .
3. Click the co nta cts urfs selector and select the he a dm a s te r contactsurf.
4. Click upda te in the master: line, to the right of the yellow contactsurfs selector.
5. For the slave type select cs urfs .
6. Click the co nta cts urfs selector in the slave: line and select pilla r_s la v e .
7. Click upda te in the slave: line.
Step 11: Edit the groups card image to define the AUTOMATIC option
1. Select the ca rd im a ge subpanel.
2. Click e dit to edit the groups card image.
3. Under Options, click the toggle to select Auto m a tic.
4. Click re turn to go back to the Interfaces panel.
Step 12: Review the groups master and slave surfaces

2. For name, select co nta ct.
3. Click re v ie w.
4. Notice the master and slave entities are temporarily displayed blue and red, respectively.
The exercise is complete. Save your work to a HyperMesh file.
Altair Engineering

115
Exercise 3: Define Termination and Output for the

Head and A-Pillar Impact Analysis
The purpose for this exercise is to help you become familiar with defining LS-DYNA control
data and output requests using Engineering Solutions.
This exercise comprises of defining the termination and output for an LS-DYNA analysis of a
hybrid III dummy head impacting an A-pillar. The head and A-pillar model is shown in the
image below.
This exercise contains the following four tasks.

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 971 formatted input file
Step 1: Make sure the Crash - LS-DYNA user profile is still loaded
Step 2: Retrieve the model file head_3.hm

Altair Engineering
Step 3: Specify the time at which you want LS-DYNA to stop the
analysis with *CONTROL_TERMINATION
1. Click M o de l > C o ntro l C a rds to open the Control Cards panel.
2. Click ne xt to scroll through the list.
3. Select C O NTR O L_TE R M INATIO N.
A card image pops up.
4. For the termination time of the analysis, ENDTIM, specify 2.5.
5. Click re turn to go back to the Control Cards panel.
Step 4: Specify frequency for animation file output

1. Click O utput > D a ta ba s e _B ina ry > D 3PLO T.
2. For the interval between outputs in the D3PLOT file, [DT] field, specify 0.1.
Step 5: Specify frequency for ASCII of time history file output

1. Click O utput > D a ta ba s e _E xte nt > B ina ry .
2. For the GLSTAT file, [GLSTAT] field, specify 0.1.
This specifies the output of global data at every 0.1 ms.
3. For the MATSUM file, [MATSUM] field, specify 0.1.
This specifies the output of material energies every 0.1 ms.
4. For the SPCFORC file, [SPCFORC] field, specify 0.1.
This specifies the output of SPC reaction forces every 0.1 ms.
Step 6: Export the model as an Ls-Dyna keyword file

1. Click File > E xpo rt > So lv e r D e ck to open the Export tab.
2. Make sure LS-DYNA is selected as the File type and the appropriate template is
selected.
3. Enter the file name as head_complete.key.
4. Click E xpo rt.
Altair Engineering

117
Step 7 (Optional): Submit the LS-DYNA input file to LS-DYNA 971

1. From the desktops Start menu, open the LS-DYNA Manager program.
2. From the solvers menu, select Sta rt LS- D Y NA a na ly s is .
3. Load the file head_complete.key.
4. Click O K to start the analysis.
Step 8 (Optional): Post-process the LS-DYNA results using HyperView

The exercise is complete. Save your work to an .HM file.
Go to HyperMesh Tutorials

Altair Engineering
CRASH-1100: Using Curves, Beams, Rigid Bodies Joints,

and Loads in LS-DYNA
In this tutorial, you will learn how to:
Create XY curves to define non-linear materials
Define beam elements
Create constrained nodal rigid bodies
Create joints
Define *DEFORMABLE_TO_RIGID
Define *LOAD_BODY
Define *BOUNDARY_PRESCRIBED_MOTION_NODE
Use the Component Table tool to review the models data
Tools
The following tools are covered in this tutorial:

DYNA Tools
Component Table
Curve Editor
The Component Table is part of the Model menu. With this tool, you can view a summary of
the models parts as well as create and edit parts. Below is a list of the tool's functionality.
Create a list of displayed or all parts and view them in the graphics area
Display parts with same section or material
Rename and renumber parts, sections and materials
Update thickness
Create new parts
Assign sections and materials to parts
Export table to file with comma separated format
In the Component Table window, place the cursor over each button to see an explanation
of each button.
Below is a sample image of the Component Table.
Altair Engineering

119
The Curve editor can be accessed by clicking M o de l > Functio n > C re a te C urv e from the
menu bar.
The Curve editor is a pop-up window that allows you to view and modify graphed curves in a
more intuitive and holistic way than the individual xy plots panels provide.
Below is a list of the tools functionality.
Change curve attributes
Change graph attributes
Display curves in the graph area
Create a new curve
Delete a new curve
Rename a curve
Below is a sample image of the Curve editor.

Altair Engineering
Exercises
This tutorial contains the following exercises:

Exercise 1: Define Model Data for Seat Impact Analysis
Exercise 2: Define Boundary Conditions and Loads for the Seat Impact Analysis
Exercise 1: Define Model Data for the Seat Impact

Analysis
This exercise will help you continue to become familiar with defining LS-DYNA model data
using Engineering Solutions.
This exercise is comprised of defining and reviewing model 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.
Altair Engineering

121
Seat and block model
Step 1: Load the LS-DYNA user profile

1. From the startup menu, select E ngine e ring So lutio ns > C ra s h > H y pe rM e s h.
2. Select the LS- D Y NA profile in Crash and click O K.

1. Browse to the file seat_start.hm.
2. Take a few moments to observe the model using various visual options available in
HyperMesh (rotation, zooming, etc.).
Step 3: Create an xy plot

1. Click M o de l > Functio ns > C re a te > Plo t.
2. For plot=, enter seat_mat.
3. Verify the plot type is set to standard.
4. Leave the like = field empty.
When an existing plot is selected, the new plot adopts its attributes.
5. Click cre a te plo t.
6. Click re turn.
Step 4: Input data from a file to create two stress-strain curves

1. Click M o de l > Functio ns > C re a te > R e a d C urv e s .
2. For plot =, leave it set to seat_mat.
3. Click bro ws e ... and locate the file named seat_mat_data.txt.

Altair Engineering
4. Click input to input the file.

5. Notice two curves are created and are named 0.001 strain rate for steel (curve1) and
0.004 strain rate for steel (curve2).
6. Click re turn.
Step 5: Create a table

1. From the Model menu, click Ta ble > C re a te .
2.
Enter Steel_flow_stress_data as a name for the table.
3. In the card image, in the [ArrayCount] field, specify 2.

This is the number of strain rate values to be specified.
4. For the strain rate VALUE(1) field, specify 0.001.
5. For the strain rate VALUE(2) field, specify 0.004.
6. Click on C urv e Id(1) and select curv e 1.
7. Click on C urv e Id(2) and select curv e 2.
Step 6: Create the non-linear material

(*MAT_PIECEWISE_LINEAR_PLASTICITY)
1. Click Vie w > B ro ws e rs > H y pe rM e s h > So lv e r to open the Solver Browser.
2. Right-click anywhere in the Solver Browser and click C re a te > *M AT > M AT (1- 50) >
24- *M AT_PIE C E W ISE _LINE AR _PLASTIC ITY .
3. For Name: type steel.
4. Set Type = Elastic-Plastic.
5. Set Card image = MAT_24 and click O K.
6. For density [Rho] field, specify 7.8 E-6.
7. For Youngs Modulus [E] field, specify 200.
8. For Poissons ratio [NU] field, specify 0.3.
9. For yield stress [SIGY] field, specify 0.25.
10. For the *DEFINE_TABLE id [LCSS] field, select curv e 3 (id=5).
11. Click re turn to close the card image.
Step 7: Update the ba se _fra me and ba ck_fra me components with the
Altair Engineering

123
new non-linear material

1. Click M o de l > C o m po ne nt Ta ble .
2. From the Table menu, click E dita ble .
3. Select the components ba s e _fra m e by clicking on its row to highlight it.
4. For Assign Values:, select M a te ria l na m e .
5. For HM-Mats:, select s te e l.
6. Click Se t and click Y e s to confirm.
7. Repeat steps 3 - 6 for the component back_frame .
8. Close the Component Table.
Steps 8-10: Create a beam element to complete the seats ba ck_fra me

connection to the side _fra me on the left side
Step 8: Restore a pre-defined view
1. On the toolbar, click the Us e r Vie ws
icon.
A dialog opens.
2. Click re s to re 1 to see the beam view.
Step 9: Set the current component to beams

1.
In the Model Browser, right-click on the be a m s component and select M a ke C urre nt to

set the beam component as the current collector.
Step 10: Create the beam

1. Click M e s h > C re a te > 1D E le m e nts > B a rs to open the panel.
2. Click the leftmost switch and select no de .
A direction node is selected later to define the beams section orientation.
3. Click the No de A selector to make it active.
4. Select the center node of the left nodal rigid body for Node A.
Node B is active now.
5. Select the center node of the right nodal rigid body for Node B.
6. Select any non-center node of one of the nodal rigid bodies for the direction node.

Altair Engineering
Notice the beam is created.

Step 11: Display node IDs for ease of following the next steps
1. Click on the num be rs icon
to open the Numbers panel.
2. Change the entity selector set to nodes.

3. Click no de s and select by id. Enter 425-427, 431 and press E nte r.
4. Activate the dis pla y checkbox, and click o n to display the IDs.
5. Click re turn.
Step 12: Set the current component to w e lding

1.
In the Model Browser, right-click on the we lding component and select M a ke C urre nt
to set the welding component as the current collector.
Step 13: Create the rigid connection between nodes

(*CONSTRAINED_NODAL_RIGID_BODY)
1. Click C o nne ctio ns > No da l R igid B o dy > C re a te .
2. Set nodes 2-n to m ultiple no de s .
3. Select the beams free end for node1.
4. Select nodes 425, 426, 427 and 431 for nodes 2-n.
5. Leave the attach nodes as set option active.
6. Click cre a te to create the nodal rigid body.
7. Click re turn.
A *CONSTRAINED_JOINT_STIFFNESS is not created; it is not needed for this joint to
work.
Step 14: Display node IDs for ease of following the next steps
1. Click on the num be rs icon
to open the Numbers panel.
2. Leave the entity selector set to nodes.

3. Click no de s and select by id. Type 1635, 1636 and press E nte r.
4. Activate the dis pla y checkbox, and click o n to display the IDs.
Altair Engineering

125
5. Click re turn.
6. From the toolbar, click the W ire fra m e E le m e nts (Skin O nly ) icon
standard graphics mode.
to change to
Step 15: Activate coincident picking

1. Click Pre fe re nce s > G ra phics .
2. Activate coincident picking.
3. Click re turn.
Step 16: Set the current component to jo int

1.
In the Model Browser, right-click on the jo int component and select M a ke C urre nt to
set it as the current collector.
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. Click C o nne ctio ns > Jo ints > E le m e nt > C re a te .
2. Set the joint type to re v o lute .
node1 is active.
3. Click on node 1635.
Notice the coincident picking mechanism displays two nodes 1635 and 1633.
4. Move the mouse to node 1635 in the coincident picking display and click on it to select it
for node 1 in rigid body A.
node2 is now active.
5. Click on node 1635 again to see the coincident picking mechanism and select node 1633
for node 2 in rigid body B.
6. Click on node 1636.
Two coincident nodes are displayed 1636 and 1634
7. Select node 1636 for node 3 in rigid body A.
8. Select node 1634 for node 4 in rigid body B.

Altair Engineering
9. Click cre a te to create the joint.

10. Click re turn.
Steps 18-20: Define *DEFORMABLE_TO_RIGID to set up the moving

seat as rigid until the time of impact with the block, to reduce
computation time
Step 18: Create an entity set that contains the components ba se _fra me
, ba ck_fra me, and co ve r
1.
Click M o de l > Se ts > Pa rt > C re a te .
2.
For name =, enter set_part_seat.
3.
For card image, select Pa rt.

Notice the entity selector is set to comps.
4.
Click the yellow co m ps button and select the ba s e _fra m e , ba ck_fra m e and co v e r
components.
5.
Click cre a te to create the set.
6.
Click re turn.
Step 19: Define *DEFORMABLE_TO_RIGID to switch the deformable

seat to rigid at the beginning of the analysis
1. Right click in the Solver Browser and select C re a te > *D E FO R M AB LE _TO _R IG ID >
*D E FO R M AB LE _TO _R IG ID .
2. For Name:, enter dtor and click O K to create the card.
3. Click the part set ID, [PSID] button twice and select s e t_pa rt_s e a t.
4. Click the master rigid body, [MRB], button twice and select ba ck_fra m e .
5. Click re turn.
Step 20: Create *DEFORMABLE_TO_RIGID_AUTOMATIC to switch the

rigid seat to deformable when contact between the seat and block is
detected
1. Right click in the Solver Browser and select C re a te > *D E FO R M AB LE _TO _R IG ID >
*D E FO R M AB LE _TO _R IG ID _AUTO M ATIC .
2. For Name:, type dtor_automatic and click O K to create the card.
3. For the unique set number for this automatic switch set, [SWSET], enter 1.
Altair Engineering

127
4. For the activation switch code [CODE] select 0.

The switch will take place at [TIME1].
5. For [TIME1] enter 175.
The switch will not take place before this time.
6. Activate R2D_Flag in the menu area.
On export, the number of rigid parts to be switched to deformable is written to the R2D
field (card 2, field 6). This number is based on the number of parts in the entity set you
select next.
7. Move the scroll bar on the left side of the card image down to see [PSIDR2D].
8. Click the [PSID R 2D ] button twice and select s e t_pa rt_s e a t.
9. Click re turn.
Steps 21-25: Review the models component data using the Model
Browser, Solver Browser or Component Table tool
Using the Model Browser approach:
Step 23: Display only parts with a particular material (Ex: steel)
1.
In the Model Browser, click on the M a te ria l Vie w icon
2. Highlight the material steel, then right click on it and choose is o la te to see only
components that have the selected material assigned.
3. To review several materials, click on the is o la te icon
then 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.
Step 24: Display all components

1.
In the Model Browser, click on the M a te ria l Vie w icon
Step 25: Rename a part

1. In the Model Browser, click on the C o m po ne nt Vie w icon
2. Select the part to rename and right click on it. Choose re na m e from the extended menu
options and the becomes editable to enter a new name.

Altair Engineering
Notice the part's new name in the Solver and Model Browser.
Step 26: Renumber a part ID

1. In the Model Browser, right-click on the Pa rt ID field.
2. Enter a number that does not conflict with the existing part IDs.
3. Click Y e s to confirm.
Using the Solver Browser approach:
1. Expand the Materials folder to see all available materials in the model.
2. Right-click on the material Ste e l and select Is o la te from the menu.
3. Complete steps 1 and 2 to select components based on properties using the *s e ctio n
folder.

1.
In the Solver Browser, click on the M a te ria l Vie w icon

1. In the Solver Browser, click on the C o m po ne nt Vie w icon
2. Select the part to rename and right click on it. Choose re na m e from the extended menu
options and the becomes editable to enter a new name.

1. In the Model Browser, right-click on the Pa rt ID field.
2. Enter a number that does not conflict with the existing part IDs.
Using the Component Table approach:
Altair Engineering

129
1. Click To o ls > C o m po ne nt Ta ble .
2. From the Display menu, click B y M a te ria l.
3. Select material s te e l and click pro ce e d.
Notice that the GUI and the Component Table show only those components with
material steel assigned. All other components get turned off.
5. Follow the above steps to select components using the By Properties and By thickness
option.

1. From the Display menu, click All.
2. Notice now that the GUI shows all components of the model.

1.
From the Table menu, click E dita ble to make the table editable. (All columns with a white
background can be edited. Ex: Part name, Part id, Thickness, etc.)
2. Click on any part name field to edit it.


1.
Click on the Pa rt Id field.
2. Type a number that does not conflict with the existing part IDs.
Step 27: Review the models data using the Solver Browser
The created solver entities are listed in the corresponding folder in Solver Browser. Each
entity has the following options: Show, Hide, Isolate and Review to help you navigate
through the model.
1. Select dto r in the *DEFORMABLE_TO_RIGID folder.
2. Right-click and choose Is o la te to show only the entities that are referred in this keyword.

Altair Engineering
3. Right click and choose R e v ie w to highlight the entities.

4. Select the folder *BOUNDARY, right-click and select Sho w. The entities on which the
loads in the folder are defined are displayed, as well as the load handles.
The exercise is complete. Save your work to an .HM file.
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.
Seat and block model
This exercise contains the following three tasks.

Define gravity acting in the negative z-direction with *LOAD_BODY_Z
Define the seats acceleration with *BOUNDARY_PRESCRIBED_MOTION_NODE
Export the model to an LS-DYNA 971 formatted input file and submit it to LS-DYNA
Step 1: Make sure the LS-DYNA user profile is still loaded

1. Click Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s , or click the Lo a d Us e r Pro file icon
2. Select E ngine e ring So lutio ns > C ra s h > LS- D Y NA.
Altair Engineering

131

1.
Retrieve the model file, seat_2.hm.
2. Take a few moments to observe the model using various visual options available (rotation,
zooming, etc.).
Step 3: Define gravity acting in the negative z-direction with

*LOAD_BODY_Z
1. Click B C s > G ra v ity > C re a te > Pa rts .
2. For Name:, enter gravity.
3. Click on the Z direction checkbox.
4. Click on the load curve LC ID field twice and select the curve named gra v ity curv e .
5. For the load curve scale factor [SF], specify 0.001.
6. Click re turn.
Steps 4-5: Define the acceleration for the seat

Step 4: Create a load collector for the acceleration loads to be created
1.
Right click in the Model Browser and select C re a te > Lo a d C o lle cto r.
2. For Name:, type accel.

3. For Card image:, select no ne .
4. Optionally, select a Color for the load collector.
5. Click cre a te to create the load collector.
6. Click re turn.
Step 5: Create acceleration loads on nodes

1. Click B C s > Im po s e d a cce le ra tio n > No de > C re a te .
2. With the nodes selector active, select no de s and select by s e ts .
3. Select the pre-defined entity set a cce l_no de s .
4. Click on C urv e and select the curve acceleration curve.
This is predefined curve that defines acceleration as a function of time.
5. For magnitude, specify 0.001.

Altair Engineering
This is the scale factor the Curve Y axis values; the curve specified in the previous step
for the acceleration loads.
6. For the direction selector, select x- a xis .
This is the x-translational degree of freedom.
7. For the magnitude% = , specify 1.0E+7.
This is the scale factor for the graphical representation of the acceleration loads. It does
not affect the actual acceleration value.
8. Click cre a te to create the acceleration loads.
9. Click re turn.
Step 6: Export the model to an LS-DYNA 971 formatted input file

1. Click File > E xpo rt > So lv e r D e ck.
2. Make sure the template field shows LS-DYNA.
3. Enter the File name: as seat_complete.key.
4. Click E xpo rt.

1. From the Start menu on your desktop, open the LS-DYNA Manager program.
3. Load the file seat_complete.key.
Step 8 (Optional): View the results in HyperView

The exercise is complete. Save your work as an .HM file.
Altair Engineering

133
CRASH-1200: Model Importing, Airbags, Exporting

Displayed, and Contacts using DYNA
Define *AIRBAG_WANG_NEFSKE for the airbag mesh geometry
Define an initial velocity of 3 mm/ms in the negative x-direction for the head with
*INITIAL_VELOCITY_GENERATION
Define a contact between the airbag and head with
*CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_SURFACE_TO_SURFACE
Define *CONTACT_AIRBAG_SINGLE_SURFACE for the airbag
Define a contact between the plate and the airbag with *
CONTACT_NODES_TO_SURFACE
Import a DYNA model

Warning and Error Messages
On import of a DYNA model, any warning and error messages are written to a file named
dynakey.msg or dynaseq.msg, depending on the FE input translator used. This file is created
in the same folder from which Engineering Solutions is started.
Unsupported Cards
On import, the few DYNA cards not supported by Engineering Solutions are written to the
unsupp_cards panel. This panel can be accessed from the menu bar by clicking Se tup >
C o ntro l C a rds . The unsupported cards are exported with the remaining model.
Care should be taken if an unsupported card points to an entity in Engineering Solutions. An
example of this is an unsupported material referenced by a *PART. Unsupported cards are
stored as text and pointers are not considered.
LSTC Dummy Files
You can read LSTC Hybrid III dummy files into Engineering Solutions by first converting the
tree file to FTSS/ARUP tree file format.
Include Files
*INCLUDE is supported. From the menu bar, click File > Im po rt. Use the options to merge,
preserve or skip include files. When include files are read, the IDs of non-existing entities
are maintained and these IDs are not used for new entities.
Export Displayed

Altair Engineering
From the Export tab, you can select the 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.
Create and Review Contacts

The table below describes how all slave and master set types are created and specified in
contacts.
Slave and master set
type
DYNA card
Panel used to
create card
Equivalent
type in
Interfaces
panel, add
subpanel
EQ. 0: set segment id
*SET_SEGMENT
set_segment
(contactsurfs) or
csurfs
Interfaces, add
subpanel
entity
Entity Sets or
sets
Interfaces, add
subpanel
entity
Entity Sets or
sets
Interfaces, add
subpanel
comps
EQ. 1: shell element set

id
EQ. 2: part set id
*SET_SHELL_Option
*SET_PART_LIST
EQ. 3: part id
*PART
Collectors
comps
* EQ. 4: node set id
*SET_NODE_Option
Entity Sets or
sets
Interfaces, add
subpanel
entity
Interfaces, add
subpanel
all
Interfaces, add
subpanel and then
card image subpanel
sets
* EQ. 5: include all
* EQ. 6: part set id for

exempted parts
Altair Engineering
*SET_PART_LIST

135
* For slave surface only
Add subpanel
While the Interfaces panel, add subpanel has several master and slave types - comps,
sets, entity, etc. - to choose from in order to specify the DYNA master or slave set for a
*CONTACT, only the valid master and slave types are selectable for the particular contact
you are creating.
When the master or slave type is set to comps and only one component is selected, the
DYNA type is 3, part ID, and *PART is created. When multiple components are selected, the
DYNA type is 2, part set ID, and *SET_PART_LIST is created.
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
You can review contacts with the review button in the Interfaces, add subpanel.
Exercise: Define Airbag, Velocity, and Contacts for

the Airbag Analysis
This exercise will help you become familiar with defining LS-DYNA airbags using Engineering
Solutions. It will also help you continue to learn how to define LS-DYNA loads and contacts
using Engineering Solutions.
In this exercise, you will define an airbag, velocity, and contacts for an LS-DYNA analysis of a
head impacting an inflating airbag. The head and airbag model is shown in the image below.
Head and airbag model

Altair Engineering

1. From the startup menu, click E ngine e ring So lutio ns > C ra s h > H y pe rM e s h.
2. Select LS- D Y NA.
Step 2: Import the LS-DYNA model

1. From the menu bar, select File > Im po rt > So lv e r D e ck.
2. In the File: field, browse to the file airbag_start.key.
3. Click Im po rt.
Steps 3-5: Define *AIRBAG_WANG_NEFSKE for the airbag

mesh geometry
Step 3: Create a set of parts containing the Airba gFro nt and Airba gRe a r
components
1.
Click M o de l > Se t > Pa rt > C re a te .
2.
For name =, type airbag_set.
3.
For card image, select Pa rt.
4.
Click on co m ps and select the components Airba gFro nt and Airba gR e a r.
5.
Click cre a te to create the set.
6.
Click re turn to close the panel.
Step 4: Define the airbag (*AIRBAG_WANG_NEFSKE)

1.
Click Sa fe ty > Airba g > C re a te .
2.
For Name:, type airbag.
3.
Set the card image field to a irba g.
4.
With the set selector active, select the entity set a irba g_s e t.
The parts in this set define the airbags geometry.
5.
Click cre a te to create the card.
6.
Click e dit to edit card image of the control volume.
7.
Enter the following data in the card image.
Altair Engineering

137
Field
8.
Value
Parameter description
CV
1023. 0
Heat capacity at constant volume
CP
1320. 0
Heat capacity at constant pressure
780. 0
Temperature of input gas
LCMT
c ur v e i d 1
Load curve specifying input mass flow rate
C23
1. 0
Vent orifice coefficient
LCA23
c ur v e i d 2
Load curve defining vent orifice area as a function

of pressure
CP23
1. 0
Orifice coefficient for leakage
PE
1. 0E- 4
Ambient pressure
RO
1. 0E- 9
Ambient density
GC
1. 0
Gravitational conversion constant
Click re turn twice to close the card image and then close the panel.
Step 5: Define an initial velocity of 3 mm/ms in the negative x-direction

for the head with *INITIAL_VELOCITY_GENERATION
1. Click B C s > Initia l Ve lo city > No de s e t > C re a te .
2. For Name:, type velocity and click C re a te / e dit to edit the card image.
3. Under Option, switch the toggle to G e ne ra tio n.
4. Under STYP, switch the toggle to select Pa rt ID for the set type.
5. Click the PID button twice to select the H e a d component.
6. For velocity in the X direction VX field, specify 3.
Steps 6-12: Define a contact between the airbag and

head
Step 6: Create a group with the card image SurfaceToSurface
The following steps explain contact creation using the menu bar.

Altair Engineering
1. Click B C s > C o nta ct > Surf to Surf > C re a te .

2. For Name: type Airbag_Head and click C re a te to create the card.
Step 7: Specify the head to be the master surface with surface type 3,
part ID
2. Set the master surface type to co m ps .
3. Click co m ps and select the H e a d component.
4. Click upda te for the master selection.
5. Stay in the add subpanel for the next step.
Step 8: Specify all of the airbag to be the slave surface with surface
type 2, part set ID
1. Set the slave surface type to s e ts .
2. Click s e ts and select the pre-defined entity set airbag_set.
This set contains the AirbagFront and AirbagRear components.
3. Click upda te in the slave line to update the slave selection.
Step 9: View the master and slave entities and set the option to automatic
1. Click re v ie w.
All other entities are temporarily displayed grey.
3. Click on the ca rd im a ge subpanel and click e dit.
4. Set the Option toggle to Auto m a tic.
Step 10: Define contact between surfaces of the airbag

The following steps explain contact creation using the Solver Browser.
1.
Right click in the Solver Browser and select C re a te > *C O NTAC T > C O NTAC T (A- O ) >
*C O NTAC T_AIR B AG _SING LE _SUR FAC E .
2.
For Name, type airbag and click O K to create the card.
3.
Click re turn to go back to the Interfaces panel.
Altair Engineering

139
4.
Stay in the Interfaces panel for the next step.
Step 11: Define all of the airbag to be the slave surface with slave set
type 2, part set ID
2. Set the slave: surface type to sets.
3. Click s e ts and select the pre-defined entity set airbag_set.
4. Click upda te to update the slave selection.
Step 12: View the slave entities

1. Click re v ie w.
2. Notice the slave entities are temporarily displayed red. All other entities are temporarily
displayed grey.
Steps 13- 16: Define a contact between the plate and the
airbag with *CONTACT_NODES_TO_SURFACE
Step 13: Create *CONTACT_NODES_TO_SURFACE card
1.
Click B C s > C o nta ct > No de to Surf > C re a te .
2.
For Name:, type Airbag_Plate and click C re a te to create the card.
Step 14: Specify the Airba gRe a r_ma ste r co nta ctsurf for the contacts
master surface
2. Set the master surface type to cs urfs .
3. Click e dit to open the Contact Surface panel.
4. For name = , type AirbagRear_master.
5. For card image = , select s e tSe gm e nt.
7. With the elems selector active, click e le m s > > by co lle cto r.

Altair Engineering
8. Select the Airba gR e a r component.

Notice the contactsurfs pyramids point into the airbag. They should point out. In the next
step you will reverse their direction.
10. Select the a djus t no rm a ls subpanel.
11. With the contactsurf active, select Airba gR e a r_m a s te r.
12. Toggle from by e le m s to a ll e le m s .
13. Click re v e rs e no rm a ls .
14. Click re turn to exit the panel and return to the Interface panel.
15. Click upda te to update the master selection.
Step 15: Define the plate to be the contacts slave surface

1. Set the slave surface type to e ntity .
2. Click no de s and select by co lle cto r.
3. Select the R igidPla te component.
4. Click a dd to add the slave selection.
Step 16: View the master and slave entities

1. Click re v ie w.
All other entities are temporarily displayed grey.
3. Click re turn to go back to the main menu.
1.
Click on E xpo rt
2.
Set Template to Keyword971.
3.
Click the Se le ct file

icon to select the path and enter the file name as
airbag_complete.key.
4.
Under Export options, set Export: to All .
5.
Click E xpo rt.
Altair Engineering
and select the icon E xpo rt So lv e r D e ck

141

1. From the Start menu, open the LS-DYNA Manager program.
3. Load the file airbag_complete.key.

The exercise is complete. Save your work to a .HM file.

Altair Engineering
CRASH-1300: Rigid Wall, Model Data, Constraints, and

Output using DYNA
Create *PART_INERTIA for the component vehicle mass to partially take into account
the inertia properties and mass of the missing parts.
Create velocity on all nodes but the barrier nodes with *DEFINE_BOX and
*INITIAL_VELOCITY.
Make the closest row of nodes of the crash boxes a part of the vehicle mass rigid body
with *CONSTRAINED_EXTRA_NODES.
Create a contact between the crash boxes, the bumper and the barrier with
*CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_GENERAL.
Specify the output of resultant forces for a plane on the left interior and exterior crash
boxes with *DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION_PLANE.
Create a stationary rigid wall to constrain further movement of the barrier after impact
with *RIGIDWALL_PLANAR_FINITE.
Specify some nodes to be output to the ASCII NODOUT file with
*DATABASE_HISTORY_NODE.
*PART_INERTIA
The INERTIA option allows 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 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.
*DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION_(Option)
*DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION_(Option) defines a cross section for resultant forces written to
Altair Engineering

143
the ASCII SECFORC file. The options are PLANE and SET.
For the PLANE option, a cutting plane must be defined. For best results, the plane should
cleanly pass through the middle of the elements, distributing them equally on either side.
The SET option requires the equivalent of the automatically generated input via the cutting
plane to be identified manually and defined in sets. All nodes in the cross-section and their
related elements contributing to the cross-sectional force resultants should be defined in
sets.
*DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION_SET and *DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION_PLANE are created
from the Solver Browser. Like the Interfaces panel, anything created from the Rigid Walls
panel is a HyperMesh group. Thus, to rename, renumber or delete a
*DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION card, select groups from the Rename, Renumber or Delete
panel.
*RIGIDWALL
A *RIGIDWALL provides a method for treating contact between a rigid surface and nodal
points of a deformable body.
Exercise: Set Up the Bumper Model for Impact

Analysis
This exercise will help you become familiar with defining LS-DYNA rigid walls using Engineering
Solutions, Crash - LS-DYNA user profile. It will also help you continue to learn how to define
LS-DYNA model data, constraints, and output.
In this exercise, you will define model data, loads, constraints, 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.
Bumper model

Altair Engineering

1. Select E ngine e ring So lutio ns > C ra s h > H y pe rM e s h.
2. Select LS- D Y NA.
Step 2: Import the LS-DYNA model bumper_start.key

1. Click File > Im po rt > So lv e r D e ck.
2. In the File: field, browse to the file bumper_start.key.
3. Click Im po rt.
Step 3: Define *PART_INERTIA for the vehicle mass component to

partially take into account the inertia properties and mass of the
missing parts
1. Right click on v e hicle m a s s in the Model Browser and click C a rd E dit.
2. Click the switch under Options and select Ine rtia .
3. For the center of mass coordinates XC enter 700.
4. In the YC field, enter 0.
5. In the ZC field, enter 170.
6. For translational mass TM, specify 800.
7. For the components of the inertia tensor, specify the following:
IXX
IXY
IXZ
IYY
IYZ
IZZ
1.5E+07
-5.0E+03
-8.0E+06
5.0E+07
-900
6.0E+07
8. For the initial translational velocity along the X-axis, VTX, specify -10.
Step 4: Create a box that contains all nodes but the barrier nodes
1. Click M o de l > B o x > C re a te .
2. In the name = field, type box velocity.
3. Optionally select a color.
4. Toggle lower bound from corner node to x= , y = , z = .
Altair Engineering

145
5. Specify the lower and upper bounds as follows:

lower bound
upper bound
X=
-530
200
Y=
-800
800
Z=
300
6. Click cre a te to create the box.

Step 5: Create initial velocity on all nodes but the barrier nodes
1. Click B C s > Initia l Ve lo city > No de Se t > C re a te .
2. For Name, type velocity and click C re a te / e dit to create the card.
3. For the initial velocity in the global X direction, VX, specify 10.
4. Click on the B O X ID field and select the box v e lo city created in Step 4.
Note:
You can also create velocity boundary condition on a set of nodes by clicking the
Lo a d C o lle cto rs icon
in the toolbar and selecting Initialvel as the card image.
Step 6: Review the closest nodes which are in the pre-defined node set
named Constrain Vehicle
1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on C o ns tra in Ve hicle and select R e v ie w.
Notice the sets nodes are highlighted.
2. Right click on C o ns tra in Ve hicle again and select R e s e t re v ie w to return to normal
display mode.
Step 7: Create *CONSTRAINED_EXTRA_NODES_SET

1. Click C o nne ctio ns > E xtra no de > C re a te .
2. In the Name field, enter ExtraNodes.
3. Click C re a te / e dit to create the card and open the Card Image panel.
4. Click the part id (PID) field to activate it, and then select it again. Select the v e hicle
m a s s component. This is the rigid body to which the nodes will be added. The ID is
automatically entered into the card.

Altair Engineering

Stay in the Interfaces panel for the next step.
Step 8: Define the nodes in the C o nstra in Ve hicle set to be a part of the
vehicle mass rigid body
2. Make sure name = is set to ExtraNodes.
3. Set the slave type to s e ts .
4. Click on s e ts and select the C o ns tra in Ve hicle set.
5. Click s e le ct.
Note:
You can also create an extra node set on a set of nodes in the Solver Browser by
right clicking and selecting C re a te > C o ns tra ine d_E xtra _no de .
Step 9: View the extra nodes that are a part of the vehicle mass rigid
body
1. Click re v ie w.
Notice the extra nodes are temporarily displayed red while the PID (vehicle mass) is
temporarily displayed blue. All other entities are temporarily displayed grey.
Step 10: Create general contact

1. Click B cs > C o nta ct > G e ne ra l > C re a te .
2. For name, type impact.
3.
Click C re a te / e dit to create the card.
Note:
You can also create *CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_GENERAL by right-clicking in the Solver

Browser and selecting C re a te > *C O NTAC T (A- O ) > Auto m a ticG e ne ra l.
Step 11: Define the slave parts

2. Make sure name = is set to impact.
3. Set the slave type to s e ts .
Altair Engineering

147
4. Click on e dit.
The Entity Sets panel opens, where you can create the set.
5. For na m e = , type Exempt Parts.
6. Make sure the card image field is set to Part.
7. With the comps selector active, select the v e hicle m a s s component.
Notice you are back in the Interface panel.
11. Select the ca rd im a ge subpanel.
12. Click e dit to edit the group.
13. Activate the option ExemptSlvPartSet.
14. Notice the slave surface type SSTYPE value changes from 2 (part set ID) to 6 (part set
ID for exempted parts). This implies all entities except the entities in the set are defined
as slave for the contact.
15. For the static coefficient, FS, specify 0.15.
Step 12: Define a section by creating

*DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION_PLANE
1. Click O utput > Se ctio n > C re a te .
2. In the Name field, type Xsection_Plane.
3. Click C re a te to create the part.
4. Stay in the same panel for the next step.
Note:
You can also create *DATABASE_CROSS_SECTION_PLANE from the Solver Browser

by right-clicking and selecting C re a te > *D ATAB ASE _C R O SS_SE C TIO N_PLANE .
Step 13: Define the location and size of the sections plane
In this subpanel, the planes origin (the tail of the normal vector) is defined by a base node.
Create a node from the Create Nodes panel by following steps 1 - 4 below and then select it
for the base node.
1. Press the F8 key to open the Create Nodes panel.

Altair Engineering
2. Select the X Y Z
subpanel.
3. For x=, y= and z=, enter the values 320, -500 and 100, respectively.
4. Click cre a te to create the node.
Notice the node is created and is displayed.
5. Click re turn to go back to the geom subpanel of the Rigid Walls panel.
6. With the base node selector active, graphically select the node just created.
7. Switch normal vector to x-axis.
This defines the walls normal vector.
8. Leave shape set to plane.
9. Toggle from infinite to finite .
10. Toggle from corners to dis t/ a xis .
11. Switch local x axis: to y - a xis .
This defines the edge vector L.
12. For len x= and len y = , specify 100 and 200, respectively.
Doing this defines the extent of the section. The values are the length of the edges a and
b in the L and M directions, respectively.
13. Click upda te to update the group.
Step 14: Specify the parts for the selection

2. Set the slave type to co m ps .
3. With the comps selector active, select the components inte rio r cra s hbo x and e xte rio r
cra s hbo x.
Note:
During export, a set is created from the selected comps and is attached to the
section definition in its card image.
Step 15: View the entities

1. Click re v ie w. Notice the slave entities are displayed red while the section wall is displayed
blue. All other entities are temporarily displayed grey.
Altair Engineering

149
Step 16: Create a box containing the nodes making up the barrier and
bumpers left side
These nodes will be slave to the rigid wall.
1. Click M o de l > B o x > C re a te .
2. In the name = field, type half model.
lower bound
upper bound
X=
-600
-460
Y=
-800
Z=
400

Step 17: Define a planar rigid wall

1. Click B C s > R igid wa ll > Pla na r > C re a te .
2. In the Name field, type wall.
3. Click C re a te .
4. Stay in the Rigid Walls panel for the next step.
Note:
You can also create *RIGIDWALL_PLANAR_FINITE by right-clicking in the Solver

Browser and selecting C re a te > *R IG ID W ALL_PLANAR _FINITE .
Step 18: Define the location and size of the rigid wall
In this subpanel, the rigid walls origin (the tail of the normal vector) is defined by a base
node. Create a node from the Create Nodes panel by following steps 1-4 below and then
select it for the base node.
1. Make sure name=, is set to wall.
2. Press the F8 key to open the Create Nodes panel.

Altair Engineering
3. Select the X Y Z
subpanel.
4. For x=, y= and z=, enter the values 600, -750 and 90, respectively.
5. Click cre a te . Notice the node is created and is displayed.
6. Click re turn to go back to the Rigid Walls panel, geom subpanel.
7. With the base node selector active, select the node that was created in step 4.
8. Switch normal vector: set to x- a xis .
9. Leave shape: set to pla ne .
10. Toggle from infinite to finite .
11. Toggle from corners to dis t/ a xis .
12. Select y - a xis for local x axis.
13. For len x= and len y = , specify 615 and 250, respectively.
These values define the extent of the wall. They are the length of the edges l and m,
respectively.
14. Click upda te to update the group.
15. Stay in the Rigid Walls panel for the next step.
Step 19: Edit the card image for the rigid wall to specify the nodes in
the *D E FINE _B O X half model as slave to the rigid wall
1. Select the ca rd subpanel.
3. Click the B O X ID field twice and select the box ha lf m o de l.
4. In the field FRIC, specify 1.0 for the friction coefficient.
5. Click re turn to go back to the Rigid Walls panel.
Step 20: Specify some nodes to study during post-processing

1. Click O utput > No de > C re a te .
2. In the name field, type nodeth.
3. Set the entity selector to nodes.
4. Select a few nodes of interest from the graphics area.
5. Click cre a te to create the output block.
Altair Engineering

151
1. Click File > E xpo rt > So lv e r D e ck to open the Export tab.
2. Make sure the File Type: field is set to LS-DYNA.
3. Save the file as Bumper_complete.key.
4. Click E xpo rt.

1. From the Start menu, open the LS-DYNA Manager program.
3. Load the file bumper_complete.key.

The exercise is complete. Save your work to a .HM file.

Altair Engineering
CRASH-2000: Front Impact Bumper Model

For this tutorial it is recommended to complete the introductory tutorial Pre-Processing for
Pipes Impact Using RADIOSS Block - RD-3520 for basic concepts on the Engineering Solutions
RADIOSS interface.
In this tutorial you will learn how to set up a RADIOSS input deck for analysis of the impact of
a bumper against a barrier behind a rigidwall. The modeling steps that are covered are:
Associating /PART, with /MAT and /PROP
Converting node-to-node connections (/RBODY) into a mesh-less welding formulation
(/INTER/TYPE2 with /SPRING) using connectors
Defining the contact for the elements in the bumper with an /INTER/TYPE7 card
Defining the interaction between bumper and barrier with an /INTER/TYPE7 card
Defining the interaction between barrier and rigid wall with the /RWALL/PLANE and /
BOX cards
Specify the output of resultant forces for a plane on the left interior and exterior crash
boxes with /SECT
Creating a /TH/NODE card to output time history for nodes
The units used in the model are millisecond, millimeter and kilogram (ms, mm, kg), and the
tutorial is based on RADIOSS Block 100
Exercise:
The model used consists of a simplified bumper model (see image below):
Bumper model
Altair Engineering

153
Step 1: Load the Engineering solutions - RADIOSS (BLOCK) user profile

1. Launch E ngine e ring So lutio ns > C ra s h (H y pe rM e s h) from the Start menu.
2. Alternatively, you can click Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s or click on the Lo a d Us e r
Pro file icon in the toolbar
3. Select C ra s h and R AD IO SS and click O K.
Step 2: Load the model file

and browse to select the bumper.hm file
from the directory <install_directory>\tutorials\es\crash. Click O pe n.
Step 3: Define vehicle mass component to partially take into account

the inertia properties and mass of the missing parts of the vehicle
1. Right click in the Model Browser and select C re a te > C o m po ne nt.
2. For Name, enter Vehicle mass and click C re a te .
3. Click G e o m e try > C re a te > No de s > X Y Z.
4. In the X field enter 700.
5. In the Y field, enter 0.
6. In the Z field, enter 170.
7. Click cre a te to create the node.
9. Click C o nne ctio ns > R igid B o dy > C re a te .
10. Click the selector arrow next to the nodes 2-n: button and choose s e ts .
11. Click the yellow nodes button next to primary node and select the node created in step
seven above.
12. Click on s e ts and select the C o ns tra in Ve hicle set.
13. With all the DOFs checked, click cre a te to create the rigid body.
Note: A spider will be drawn connecting the created node to the edge nodes of the
structure modeled.

Altair Engineering
14. Click on the ca rd e dit icon in the toolbar, set the selector to e le m s and select the rigid
body created. Click e dit.
15. Fill the mass and inertia information in the card image as in the table below:
Mass
J_XX
J_XY
J_XZ
J_YY
J_YZ
J_ZZ
800
1.5E+07
-5.0E+03
-8.0E+06
5.0E+07
-900
6.0E+07
16. Set ICOG as 4, and ISPHER as 0.

17. Click re turn until you close all the open panels.
Step 4: Create a node set using a box that contains all nodes but the
barrier nodes
1. Click M o de l > B o x > No de > C re a te .
2. In the name= field, enter box velocity.
4. Toggle lower bound from corner node to x=, y=, z=.
X=
lower bound
upper bound
-530
710
Altair Engineering

155
Y=
-800
800
Z=
300

Step 5: Create initial velocity on bumper but the barrier

1. Click B C s > Initia l Ve lo city > Tra ns la tio n.
2. In the BCs Manager, enter the name as tran_vel.
3. Set the entity selector to GRNOD (BOX).
4. Click G R NO D (B O X ) and select bo x v e lo city .
5. In the BCs Manager, enter the initial velocity components as -10, 0 and 0 for Vx, Vy
and Vz fields.
6. Click the C re a te button.
7. Click C lo s e to close the BCs Manager tab.

Altair Engineering
Step 6: Define master surface for contact

1. Open the Solver Browser by clicking Vie w > So lv e r B ro ws e r.
2. Right click in the So lv e r B ro ws e r and select C re a te > SUR F_E X T > PAR T.
3. For name:, type barrier_surface.
Altair Engineering

157
4. Click on co m ps and select ba rrie r.

5. Click s e le ct.
6. Click cre a te .
7. Right click in the So lv e r B ro ws e r and select C re a te > SUR F > PAR T.
8. For name:, type bumper_surface.
9. Click on co m ps and select bum pe r, e xte rio r cra s hbo x le ft, e xte rio r cra s hbo x right,
inte rio r cra s hbo x le ft and inte rio r cra s hbo x right.
11. Click cre a te .
12. Right click in the So lv e r B ro ws e r and select C re a te > SUR F > SUR F.
13. For name:, type barrier_bumper_surface.
14. Click on s e ts and select ba rrie r_s urfa ce and bum pe r_s urfa ce .
16. Click cre a te .
17. Click re turn to close the panels.
Step 7: Create self impact contact between parts of the bumper

1. Click B C s > C o nta ct > G e ne ra l > C re a te .
2. For name:, type impact.
3. Click cre a te to create the card.
5. Make sure name = is set to impact.
6. Set the slave type to comps and select bum pe r, inte rio r cra s hbo x and e xte rio r
cra s hbo x.
8. Set the master type to sets and select ba rrie r_bum pe r_s urfa ce .
10. Click the ca rd e dit icon
11. Click gro ups and select the group im pa ct.

13. For the static coefficient, FRIC, specify 0.15.

Altair Engineering
14. Set Igap = 2.

15. Click re turn until you exit all the open panels.
Step 8: Create a system that specifies the location and the cross section
plane normal
1. Click on the D is pla y Num be rs icon
in the toolbar.
2. Click on the no de selector and choose by ID .

3. For the IDs enter 6227, 6224, 5993.
4. Check the dis pla y check box on.
5. Click O n.
Note: Node numbers will appear next to the node for selection in further steps.
6. Click re turn.
7. Click M o de l > Sy s te m s > Fra m e _M o v e > C re a te .
8. Select node ID 6224 for origin node.
9. Select node ID 6227 for Z axis.
10. Select node ID 5993 for YZ plane.
11. Click cre a te to create a system.
12. Click the ca rd e dit icon
on the toolbar.
13. Set the entity selector to s y s ts .

14. Pick the system and click e dit.
15. Change the option from Ske w to Fra m e .
16. Click re turn until you exit all the open panels.
Step 9: Create a set of elements that will contribute to the crosssectional force results
1. Click M o de l > Se ts > She ll- 4 > C re a te .
2. In the name = field, type XsectionPlane-elements.
3. With the elements selector active, select two rows of element on either side of the
system as shown in figure below.
Altair Engineering

159

Step 10: Define a section

1. Right click in the So lv e r B ro ws e r and select C re a te > SE C T.
2. In the Name field, type Xsection_Plane.
3. Click O K to create the card.
4. Click on the No rm a l v e cto r drop down and select s y s te m id.
5. Select the s y s te m defined in the previous step by clicking on the screen.
6. Click upda te to update the plane geometry.
7. Click on the a dd subpanel.
8. Change the slaves: entity selector to sets . Click the y e llo w s e ts button and select
X s e ctio nPla ne - e le m e nts .
9. Click upda te to update the SET.

Altair Engineering
Step 11: Select the section for time history output

1. Click O utput > Se ctio n > C re a te .
2. Enter Section_force as the name.
3. Click on gro ups and select X s e ctio n_Pla ne .
4. Click cre a te .
5. Click e dit to go to the card image.
6. Change the option from INTER to SECTION.
Step 12: Create a node set using box containing the nodes making up
the barrier and bumpers left side
These nodes will be slave to the rigid wall.
1. Click M o de l > B o x > No de > C re a te .
2. In the name = field, type half model.
lower bound
upper bound
X=
-600
-460
Y=
-800
Z=
400

Step 13: Define a rigid wall

1. Click B C s > R igid W a ll > C re a te .
2. In the name: field, type wall.
3. Click cre a te .
Stay in the Rigid Walls panel for the next step.
Altair Engineering

161
Step 14: Define the location and size of the rigid wall
In this subpanel, the rigid walls origin (the tail of the normal vector) is defined by a base
node. Create a node from the Create Nodes panel by following steps 1-4 below and then
select it for the base node.
1.
Press the F8 key to open the Create Nodes panel.
2.
Select the X Y Z subpanel by clicking the icon
3.
For x=, y= and z = , enter the values 600, -750 and 90, respectively.
4.
Click cre a te .
Notice the node is created and is displayed.

5.
Click re turn to go back to the Rigid Walls panel, geom subpanel.
6.
With the base node selector active, select the node that was created in step 5.
7.
Switch normal vector to x- a xis .
8.
Leave shape: set to infinite pla ne .
9.
Click upda te to update the group.

Stay in the Rigid Walls panel for the next step.
Step 15: Edit the card image for the rigid wall to specify the nodes in
the GRNOD/BOX half model as slave to the rigid wall
2. Set the slaves: entity selector to ra d_bo x.
3. Select the C a rd page and click e dit to edit the rigid wall definition.
4. In the Grnod1BOX field, specify the ID of the box half model.
5. In the field FRIC, specify 1.0 for the friction coefficient.
6. Click re turn to go back to the Rigid Walls panel.
Step 16. Initialize sheet metal components with stamping data

1.
Click on the R e s ults Initia liz e r Icon
2.
The Create/Open Process Instance dialog opens, as shown below. In the dialog select
the folder where you will finally export the model in the Folder field.

Altair Engineering
3.
Click on C re a te / O pe n.
4.
The Process Manager is displayed in the browser tab area, and the panel opens the
Process Manager, as shown below.
5.
Click on Add, followed by C o m ps and select the components e xte rio r cra s hbo x le ft,
e xte rio r cra s hbo x right, inte rio r cra s hbo x le ft, and inte rio r cra s hbo x right.
6.
Click on the Ne xt button.
7.
Change the Blank holder force to low for all the components.
8.
Click on Initia liz e .

The Initialization process starts. This process takes few minutes. During this time the HM
session is unavailable for editing.
9.
Select % thinning for Result Type and All for Components.
10. Click on R e v ie w. The components will be contoured with thinning coming from stamping.
11. Click re turn to come back to the results selection.
12. Similarly repeat the same series of steps for plastic strain to review initial hardening in the
component.
Altair Engineering

163
13. Click on Ne xt until all stages are complete in the Process Manager.
14. Click on C lo s e to close the Results Initializer.
Note: The results are attached to the model as include files. These include files are in the
same directory as selected in step 2.
Step 17: Create output requests and control cards

1. Click O utput > E ngine file .
The Radioss Engine File Tool dialog opens.
2. Enter the values as shown below:

Altair Engineering
3. Click on the ANIM tab and fill in the options as shown below:
Altair Engineering

165
4. Click on the D T tab and fill in the options as shown below:

Altair Engineering
5. Click Apply and then click C lo s e .

1. Click the E xpo rt icon
2. For File:, click the folder icon and navigate to destination directory where you want to
run.
3. Enter the name as bumper_impact and click Sa v e .
4. Click the downward-pointing arrows next to Export options to expand the panel.
5. Click Auto e xpo rt e ngine file to export the engine file with the model file.
6. Click on E xpo rt to export both model and engine file.
Altair Engineering

167
Step 19: Run the solver using RADIOSS Manager

1. Go to Sta rt > Pro gra m s > Alta ir H y pe rW o rks 12.0 > R AD IO SS.
2. For Input file, browse to the exercise folder and select the file bumper_impact_0000.rad.
Step 21: Model setup without results initialize

1. Repeat the same process from Step 1 to step 19 except step 16.
2. Save the model as bumper_impact_noresult.
Step 22: Postprocessing in HyperGraph

1. Open HyperGraph from the Startup menu.
2. Click the file open icon and load the model bumper_impactT01 file from the folder where
the model was saved in step 18.
3. Select Se ctio n for Type, Se ct. for Request and FNZ for component. Click Apply to plot
the curve.
The curve describes the force carried by the section defined in step 10 during frontal
impact.
4. Click the file open icon and load the model bumper_impact_noresultsT01 file from the
folder where the model was saved in step 18.
5. Select Se ctio n for Type, Se ct. for Request and FNZ for component. Click Apply to plot
the curve.
Absorb Curve 1 is above Curve 2 indicating the higher load carrying capacity of the
components when stamping prestrains are included as in physical impact tests.

Altair Engineering
CRASH-2100: Simplified Car Pole Impact

The goal of this tutorial is to simulate a frontal pole test with a simplified full car.
Model Description
UNITS: Length (mm), Time (s), Mass (ton), Force (N) and Stress (MPa)
Simulation time: Engine [0 0.06]
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)
Initial Density [Rho_I]
Young's Modulus [E]
Poissons Ratio [nu]
= 2.5x10-9 ton/mm3
E = 76000 MPa
= 0.3
0 = 192 MPa
Yield Stress (a)

Hardening Parameter (b)
K = 200 MPa
Hardening Exponent (n)
n = 0.32
Elasto-plastic Material /MAT/LAW2 (STEEL)

Young's Modulus [E]
Poissons Ratio [nu]
Yield Stress (a)
E = 210000 MPa
= 0.3
0 = 200 MPa
Hardening Parameter (b)
Altair Engineering
= 7.9x10-9 ton/mm3
K = 450 MPa

169
n = 0.5
max = 425 MPa
Maximum Stress [SIG_max]
Elasto-plastic Material /MAT/LAW2 (RUBBER)

= 2x10-9 ton/mm3

Young's Modulus [E]
E = 200 MPa
Poissons Ratio [nu]
= 0.49
30 MPa
0 = 1e
Yield Stress (a)
n =1
Exercise
Step 1: Load the Engineering Solutions RADIOSS user profile

1. Launch E ngine e ring So lutio ns > C ra s h (H y pe rM e s h) from the Start menu.
2. Alternatively, you can click Pre fe re nce s > Us e r Pro file s or click on the Lo a d Us e r
Pro file icon in the toolbar
3. Select C ra s h and R AD IO SS and click O K.
Step 2: Load the model file

1. From the toolbar, click the O pe n .hm file icon
fullcar.hm.
and browse to select the model file
2. Click O pe n.
Step 3: Create and assign the material for the windshield components
1. In the Model Browser, right-click and select C re a te > M a te ria l.
2. In the Name field, enter windshield.

Altair Engineering
3. Set the Type field to ELASTO-PLASTIC.

4. Choose M2_PLAS_JOHNS_ZERIL for Card image.
5. Activate the checkbox Card edit material upon creation.
6. Click C re a te . The Card Image panel opens.
7. Enter the values as shown in the card image below:
8. Click re turn.
9. Right-click on C O M P- PSH E LL3 and select E dit.
The Edit component dialog opens.
10. Click on the M a te ria l tab.
11. Check the Assign material box.
12. In the Name field, select winds hie ld.
13. Click Upda te to update the selected components with the created material.
14. Repeat steps 9 - 14 for component COMP-PSHELL16.
Step 4: Create and assign the material for 1D components

1. In the Model Browser select all components from COMP_PROD8 to COMP_PROD14 and
choose E dit from the context sensitive menu.
A new dialog opens.
2. Click on the M a te ria l tab.
3. Check the Assign material checkbox.
Altair Engineering

171
4. For Name, enter steel.

5. Set the Type field to ELASTO-PLASTIC.
6. Choose M2_PLAS_JOHNS_ZERIL for card image.
7. Click C re a te m a te ria l. The Card Image panel opens.

8. Enter the following values:

Altair Engineering
Rho_Initial
7.900e-09
210000.00
nu
0.300
200.000
450.000
0.500
SG_max
425.000
9. Click re turn.
10. Click upda te to update the selected components with the created material.
Step 5: Assign material steel for other 2D components

1. In the Model Browser, select all components from COMP_PSHELL_1 to
COMP_PSHELL_30 except COMP_PSHELL3, COMP_PSHELL16 and COMP_PSHELL20
to COMP_PSHELL23, COMP-PSOLID_24 COMP-PSOLID_26 and choose As s ign from
the context sensitive menu.
2. For the material, select Ste e l.
3. Click on a s s ign to assign the steel material to the selected components.
Step 6: Create and assign the material for the rubber components
1. In the Model Browser select C O M P- PSH E LL20 to C O M P- PSH E LL23 and select E dit
from the context sensitive menu.
A new dialog opens.
2. Go to the Materials tab.
3. Check Assign material.
4. For name, enter rubber.
5. Set the Type field to E LASTO - PLASTIC .
6. Choose M 2_PLAS_JO H NS_Z E R IL for the Card image field.
7. Click C re a te m a te ria l. The Card Image panel appears as shown in the image below.
8. Enter the values as shown in the card image below:
Altair Engineering

173

10. Click upda te to update the selected components with the created material.
Step 7: Create a Rigid Wall

2. For name, enter Ground and click C re a te .
3. Go to the geom subpanel.
4. For shape, select infinite pla ne .
5. Click on ba s e no de and select any node from the model.
6. Click the e dit button and input X = 0, Y = 0, and Z = -1.
7. Click re turn.
8. Toggle the switch under normal vector and select co m po ne nts .
9. In the Z comp field, define the normal vector Z= 1.
10. Click upda te .
11. Go to the add subpanel. In the dist field, enter 200 for slave nodes search.
12. Click upda te and then click re turn.
Step 8: Create a Cylindrical Rigid Wall to represent pole

2. Enter RW as the name and click cre a te .
3. Go to the geom subpanel.
4. For shape, select cy linde r.
5. Click on ba s e no de and select any node from the model.
6. Click the e dit button and input X = -320, Y = 1250 and Z = 0.
7. Click re turn.
8. In the radius = field, enter 250. In the length = field, enter 500.
9. Under normal vector, in the Z comp field, define the normal vector Z= -1.

Altair Engineering
10. Click upda te .

11. Go to the add subpanel. In the dist field, enter 1500 for slave nodes search.
12. Click upda te and then click re turn.
Step 9: Defining Self Contact between the parts of the vehicle

2. Make sure you are in the create subpanel. For name =, enter CAR_CAR.
3. Select a color and click cre a te .
4. Go to the add subpanel to define the master and slave.
5. For the master surface, click the switch to co m ps .
6. Hide all the 1D and 3D parts in the model using Mask Browser, Model Browser property
view, or Solver Browser and isolating PR O P > SH E LL.
7. Click on co m ps >> dis pla y e d.
8. For slave nodes, select co m ps in the drop down menu.
9. Click on co m ps > > a ll in the model.
10. Click re v ie w to graphically view the entities in the interface.
The master entities of the interface are drawn in blue and the slave entities in red.
11. Go to the card image subpanel and click e dit.
12. Enter FRIC as 0.200 and GAPmin as 0.7.
Step 10: Defining Contact between Engine and Radiator

2. Enter the name = as ENGINE_RADIATOR.
3. Optionally select a color and click cre a te .
4. Go to the add subpanel to define the master.
5. For the master surface, click the switch to sets and click e dit to go to the Entity Sets
panel.
6. For name, enter engine and set the ca rd im a ge to SUR F_E X T.
7. Set the entity selector to comps and select co m p- ps o lid_24 (engine).
9. Click re turn to go back to the Interface panel.
Altair Engineering

175

11. For slave, set the entity selector to comps and select comp-psolid_26 (radiator).
13. Go to the card image subpanel and click e dit.
14. Input the values, as shown below.
Step 11: Defining initial velocity

1.
From the Utility Menu, start the BCs Manager.
2. For Name, enter 35MPH, set the Select type field to Initia l Ve lo city and set GRNOD to
Pa rts .
3. Click on the pa rts and select a ll in the model.

4. Set Vx as 15600.

Altair Engineering
5. Click C re a te to create the boundary condition and boundary condition appears in the
table.
Step 12: Create Time History Nodes

1. Using either the Model Browser, or the Solver Browser and a virtual collector, isolate
the rail parts (PCOMP-SHELL19) in the graphics area.
2. Click O utput > No de > C re a te .
3. For name = , enter Rail and select nodes on the rail, as shown below.
Altair Engineering

177
4. Click cre a te , followed by e dit.

5. In the Var: field, enter DEF.
Step 13: Allocate Required Memory

1. From the Model menu, select C o ntro l ca rds .
2. Click on M e m o ry R e q.
3. Input NMOTS as 75000.
4. Click re turn.
Step 14: Create output requests

1. From the Output menu, click E ngine File .
The Radioss Engine File Tool dialog opens.
2. In the GENERAL tab, enter the values, as shown in the following image.

Altair Engineering
3. Click Apply .
4. In the ANIM tab, enter values as shown in the following image:
Altair Engineering

179
5. Click Apply and then click C lo s e .

1. From the toolbar, click the E xpo rt icon
2. For File:, click the folder icon and navigate to destination directory where you want to
run.
3. Enter the name as fullcar and click Sa v e .
4. Click the arrows next to Export options to expand the panel.
5. Click Auto e xpo rt e ngine file to export the engine file with the model file.
6.
Click on E xpo rt to export both model and engine file.

Altair Engineering
Step 16: Run the solver using RADIOSS Manager

1.
Click Sta rt > Pro gra m s > Alta ir H y pe rW o rks 12.0 > R AD IO SS.
2. For Input file, browse to the exercise folder and select the file fullcar_0000.rad.

Altair Engineering

181
NVH
The following tutorials are available for the NVH user profile:
NVH-1000: Acoustic Cavity
NVH-1100: NVH Director Assembly
Packaged Solution Offering

Starting from 12.0, NVH Director features will be reorganized into two packages, one
includes general NVH features which will continue to be available as a part of the standard
HyperWorks, another includes high productivity NVH features which will be available through
the Packaged Solution Offerings (PSO) NVH Director product, and will not appear in the
standard HyperWorks without a PSO license feature.
1. Standard HyperWorks Package
Meshing
o Cavity Mesher
o Coarse Mesher
o Loadcase setup process managers in generic HyperMesh mode
o All RADIOSS solver NVH functionalities
o Post-processing utilities (all but Integrated Diagnostics)
o Modal/panel participation
o Grid participation
o TPA
o DSA
o Order Analysis
2. Packaged Solution Offerings (PSO) Package

HyperMesh - NVH user profile under Engineering Solutions
o Assembly Browser
o Network View
o Analysis manager
o Job manager
o Loadcase setup process managers in NVH user profile mode
o HyperView/HyperGraph - Integrated Diagnostics utility
Altair Engineering

183
NVH-1000: Acoustic Cavity
Step 1: Set the User Profile to RADIOSS Bulk Data
Step 2: Open the model

1. Click File > O pe n > M o de l.
2. Browse to <installation_directory>/tutorials/es/nvh/acoustic.hm.
3. Click O pe n to open the model into session.
Step 3: Hide the seat cushion components

1. Expand the Components folder in the Model Browser.
2. Select R e a r_Se a t_C us hio n, IN- driv e r s e a t ba ck cus hio n, IN- crv s e a t he a d re s t, INdriv e r s e a t lo we r cus hio n, IN- pa s s s e a t lo we r cus hio n, and IN- pa s s e a t he a d re s t
from the list of components.
Altair Engineering

185
3. Right click and select H ide .
Step 4: Preview the mesh

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 M e s h > C re a te > Aco us tic C a v ity M e s h to open the Acoustic Cavity Mesh
Generation panel.
2. Click the co m ps selector for structure to open the Component Selection panel.
3. Click co m ps > > dis pla y e d to select all components.
4. Click s e le ct to complete the selection.
5. Click the co m ps selector for seats.
6. Click the La s t Pa ge (
) button to go to the last page of components.
7. Select the IN pa s s s e a t ba ck cus hio n, IN

R e a r_Se a t_C us hio n on this page.
pa s s e a t he a d re s t and
8. Click the Pre v io us Pa ge button and select IN driv e r s e a t ba ck cus hio n, IN drv s e a t
he a d re s t, IN driv e r s e a t lo we r cus hio n, and IN pa s s s e a t lo we r cus hio n.
9. Click s e le ct to complete the selection of the seats.
10. Make sure the seat coupling toggle is set to node to node remesh.
11. Enter 40 for element size=.
12. Enter 100 for gap patch size =.
13. Enter 200 for hole patch size =.
14. Click the cre a te ho le e le m e nts option to activate it.
15. Click pre v ie w to see a preview of the mesh.

Altair Engineering
Preview of mesh
The mesh appears in the graphics area and the Acoustic Cavity tab opens in the tab
area.
Step 5: Review the mesh

1. Right click on AC _Structura l.1 in the Acoustic Cavity tab and click Is o la te .
Altair Engineering

187
AC _Structural.1 isolated
2. Right click on the other components in the list and click Sho w.
3. Right click on AC _Structura l.1 and click H ide .
4. Click the m e s h icon
next to each of the seat cavities to see the mesh.
Seats added to the visible components

Altair Engineering
5. Select each of the seat cavitys and right click and click H ide .
Step 6: Delete two of the patched holes

1. In the Model Browser, right click on the ^ pa tche d_ho le s component and click Sho w.
2. Zoom into the area shown in the figure.
3. If necessary, right click on AC _Structura l.4 and click H ide .

4. Click the Find icon
to open the Find panel.
5. Click the find a tta che d subpanel.

6. Change the attached to: setting to node.
7. Select the node in the center of the patch as shown in the image below.
Altair Engineering

189
8. Click find to find the elements attached to the node.

9. Click s a v e fo und to use the found elements later.
11. Click the D e le te icon
to open the Delete panel.
12. Set the selector to elems if not already set.

13. Click e le m s > > re trie v e to select the elements saved earlier.
14. Click de le te e ntity to delete the elements.
15. Rotate the model to the view shown below.

Altair Engineering
16. Repeat 5-15 to delete the elements on the opposite side.

Step 7: Preview the mesh

With the patched holes deleted, the acoustic cavity mesh will be previewed again.
1. Click R e je ct on the Acoustic Cavity tab.
2. Click the Is o m e tric Vie w icon
to reset the view of the model.
3. Click M e s h > C re a te > Aco us tic C a v ity M e s h to open the panel.

4. Click the co m ps selector for structure to open the Component Selection panel.
5. Click co m ps > > dis pla y e d to select all components.
7. Click the co m ps selector for seats.
8. Click the La s t Pa ge (
) button to go to the last page of components.
9. Select the IN pa s s s e a t ba ck cus hio n, IN

R e a r_Se a t_C us hio n on this page.
pa s s e a t he a d re s t and
10. Click the Pre v io us Pa ge button and select IN driv e r s e a t ba ck cus hio n, IN drv s e a t
he a d re s t, IN driv e r s e a t lo we r cus hio n, and IN pa s s s e a t lo we r cus hio n.
11. Click s e le ct to complete the selection of the seats.
12. Enter 40 for element size=.
Altair Engineering

191
13. Enter 100 for gap patch size =.

14. Enter 0 for hole patch size =.
15. Click pre v ie w to preview the mesh.
Note that the rear door volumes are now a part of the overall volumes.
Step 8: Create the mesh

1. Select AC _Structura l.2 through AC _Structura l.10, right click and select H ide .
2. Uncheck the boxes in the Mesh column for AC_Structural 2 through AC_Structural.10.

Altair Engineering
3. Set the Mesh type option to Hexa-tetrahedra.

4. Set the Response points: to Read from file.
5. Click the button to browse for the file.
6. Select AC O USTIC _R E SPO NSE _PTS.cs v and click O pe n.
7. Click M e s h to create the mesh.
C ompleted mesh
8. Click C lo s e to close the Acoustic Cavity tab.

Step 9: Rename the components created by the Acoustic Cavity Mesh

1. Open the Components folder in the Model Browser.
2. Right click on AC _Structura l.1 and click R e na m e .
3. Name the component BODY_CAVITY and press E nte r.
4. Right click on AC_Seat.1 and click R e na m e .
5. Name the component DRV_SEAT and press E nte r.
7. Name the component REAR_SEAT and press E nte r.
Altair Engineering

193
9. Name the component PASS_SEAT and press E nte r.
Step 10: Create material cards for the cavities

1. Right click in the Model Browser and click C re a te > M a te ria l.
2. Set the Type field to FLUID.
3. Enter BODY_CAVITY into the Name field.
4. Select MAT10 for Card image.
5. Activate the Card edit material upon creation checkbox.
6. Deactivate the Close dialog upon creation checkbox as there are additional materials to
create.
7. Click C re a te to create the material and edit the material card.

8. Click [B ULK] and [C ] in the Card Edit panel and leave the default values.
10. With the Create material dialog open, enter SEAT_CAVITY in the Name field.
11. Click C re a te to create the material.
12. Click [C ] and enter 8.8e+4 for the value.
13. Click [B ULK] and accept the default value.
14. Click re turn to complete the card edit.
15. Click C a nce l to close the Create material dialog.

Altair Engineering
Step 11: Create properties for the model

2. Set the Type field to all.
3. Enter BODY_CAVITY into the Name field.
4. Select PSO LID for Card image.
5. Click the M a te ria l tab to assign a material to the property.
6. Click the As s ign m a te ria l checkbox to activate it.
7. Click B O D Y _C AVITY for the Name field.
8. Activate the Card edit upon material creation checkbox.
9. Deactivate the Close dialog upon creation checkbox as there are additional materials to
create.
10. Click C re a te to create the property.

11. Click FC TN to activate the option.
Altair Engineering

195
12. Click the FC TN field and select PFLUID .

13. Click re turn to exit the property card image.
14. Click the Pro pe rty tab in the Create property dialog.
15. Enter SEAT_CAVITY into the Name field.
16. Click the M a te ria l tab to assign a material to the property.
17. Click the As s ign m a te ria l checkbox to activate it.
18. Click SE AT_C AVITY for the Name field.
19. Click C re a te to create the material and edit the material card.
20. Click FC TN to activate the option.
21. Click the FC TN field and select PFLUID .
22. Click re turn to complete the card edit.
23. Click C a nce l to close the Create property dialog.
Step 12: Assign the properties to the components

1. Expand the Property folder in the Model Browser.
2. Right click on the SE AT_C AVITY property and click As s ign.
3. Click e le m s > > by co lle cto r and select the R E AR _SE AT, D R V_SE AT and PASS_SE AT
components.
5. Click pro ce e d to complete the assignment.
6. Right click on the B O D Y _C AVITY component and click As s ign.
7. Click e le m s > > by co lle cto r and select B O D Y _C AVITY .
9. Click pro ce e d to complete the assignment.
Step 13: Renumber the nodes, elements, properties, and materials

1. Click G e o m e try > R e num be r > No de s to open the Renumber panel.
2. Click no de s > > dis pla y e d to select the displayed nodes.
3. Enter 9000000 in the start with field.
4. Click re num be r to renumber the nodes.
5. Change the selector to elems.

Altair Engineering
6. Click e le m s > > dis pla y e d to select the displayed elements.

7. Click re num be r to renumber the elements.
8. Change the selector to props.
9. Click pro ps and select BODY_CAVITY and SEAT_CAVITY.
10. Click re num be r to renumber the properties.
11. Change the selector to mats.
12. Click m a ts and select B O D Y _C AVITY and SE AT_C AVITY .
13. Click re num be r to renumber the materials.

1. Click File > E xpo rt > So lv e r D e ck.
2. For File Type select R AD IO SS.
3. For Template select B ulk D a ta s ta nda rd fo rm a t.
4. Browse to a location in the File field and enter acoustic.fem as a name for the model.
5. Expand the Export options.
6. For Export select D is pla y e d from the menu.
7. Activate Write HM comments.
Altair Engineering

197
8. Click E xpo rt to export the model.
Step 15: Edit the .fem file

The .fem file is edited to remove the begin bulk and enddata cards that will allow it to be
added to an include card at a later date.
1. Open the file acoustic.fem using a text editor.
2. Use CTRL+F to find the begin bulk entry.

Altair Engineering
3. Delete begin bulk from the file.

4. Find the ENDDATA entry.
Altair Engineering

199
5. Delete the ENDDATA entry from the file.

6. Save the acoustic.fem file.
The .fem file is now ready to be added to an include. This completes the tutorial.

Altair Engineering
NVH-1100: NVH Director Assembly

Note:
The Assembly Browser is part of the Packaged Solution Offerings (PSO), and will
require a PSO license feature to activate.
Step 1: Start NVH

1. Select E ngine e ring So lutio ns > NVH > R AD IO SS from the User Profiles dialog.
Step 2: Define Assembly Hierarchy

1. From the View menu, select As s e m bly B ro ws e r.
A file save warning message will be displayed informing you that the complete assembly
database can only be saved in the XML format as shown in step four of this tutorial.
Altair Engineering

201
2. From any view of the Assembly Browser, right-click and select C re a te M o dule .
This opens the Module Create dialog.
3. Enter a module name in the dialogue, and then click O K. Repeat the process to create all
root level modules for the assembly. Expand the assembly by clicking on the + box next
to Module Model.
Step 3: Load an Assembly Definition XML file

1.
From any view of the Assembly Browser, right-click and select Im po rt X M L a nd

D is pla y or Im po rt X M L O nly .
This opens the XML Import dialog.

Altair Engineering
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 on the file fo lde r icon
to
navigate to a folder where the .xml file is located. Select the file and click O K to load the
file.
The assembly information will be loaded into HyperWorks.
Step 4: Save an Assembly Definition XML file

1.
To save the Assembly definitions in XML files, click on the File Vie w
Altair Engineering
icon.

203

Altair Engineering
Note: The Preserve option saves an assembly XML file along with a set of nested
subassembly files (similar to include files). The Merge option saves the assembly file with
all subassembly files merged into it.
Subassembly files can be specified by clicking on 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 check box 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.
Step 5: Define Module Representations

1.
Right-click on any module and select M a na ge R e pre s e nta tio ns . This brings up the
Module Manager 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.
Altair Engineering

205
3.
Select Add to add a representation.

Altair Engineering
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 3-D 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

representation by checking the appropriate radio buttons.
8.
Repeat the process by selecting another module through the drop down box on the top
Altair Engineering
or Analysis

207
right side.
9.
Once all representations are defined, click on the As s e m bly B ro ws e r tab to review the
assembly hierarchy with active Display and Analysis representations.
Step 6: Import Display Representations

1.
2.
From the Base View
of the Assembly Browser, select the root Module Model .
Right-click and select Im po rt D is pla y R e p > R e curs iv e M o dule s to recursively load the
active Display models.
Module representation include files specified as the display representation are loaded
here.
Step 7: Manage TagPoints

1. To manage tagpoints, open the TagPoints tab of any module by right-clicking on the
module in the Assembly Browser and then select M a na ge Ta gPo ints .

Altair Engineering
2. To add a tagpoint, right-click inside the tagpoint list box, and select E xtra ct All to extract
tagpoints from the comments added to the 10th field of the grids in the loaded Display
model.
Altair Engineering

209
Tagpoints displayed in the 3-D 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.
3.
Repeat the extraction process to complete tagpoint definitions of all modules.

Altair Engineering
Step 8: Prepare a Module for Assembly

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 on the module and select Pre pa re
M o dule to enter into the Prepare Module Mode.
The abbreviated Module ID Summary dialog opens.
Altair Engineering

211
In the Prepare Module Mode the HyperMesh database is first cleared to remove any
potentially conflicting FE entities, and then the root representation file is loaded into
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 comes up 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 to organize IDs into the Proposed range.

Altair Engineering
Once an appropriate ID management action has been applied, NVH Director enters the
Prepare Module Mode, and a Prepare Module tab opens up in the browser area with
sub-tabs designed to help you perform many functions, such as:
Add spider: Help add spiders to a round hole. Select a type, dofs, pick center (RBE3
only) and edge nodes, and then click C re a te .
Add PLOTEL: Helps you with PLOTEL display elements.
Edit systems: Help relocate or orient the module by modifying the reference local
Altair Engineering

213
coordinate system. This takes you directly to the HyperMesh Systems panel to edit
existing systems.
Orient and position: Help translate and rotate FE entities. Input values in the
appropriate input boxes and push one of the buttons below to perform the function.
Assign damping: Help fill GE field of MAT1 cards. Enter a damping value in the input
box and click All or Se le ct to apply the damping values to all or selected material
cards.
In addition, a number of functionalities on the TagPoints tab of the Module Manager,

such as Add, Assign and Generate PLOTEL elements, are enabled for you to manually
add tagpoints and assign them to grids in the module.

Altair Engineering
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.
Altair Engineering

215
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 on the X
button 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 flag will be set to yes.
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.

Altair Engineering
Altair Engineering

217
At the individual module level, the ID tab of the Module Manager will also be populated.
Step 9: Define Connections Between Modules

1.
From the NVHConnection toolbar, click on the

Interactive Create panel.
icon to launch the connection

Altair Engineering
2. Connections can be created between modules to be connected either by selecting

tagpoints from the list box in the panel, or by picking tagpoints. Hint: Pick and drag on the
left hand side of the tags to ease selection off the screen after clicking on the Select
TagPoints 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.
3.
Connections can also be created using the Auto Create panel, which can be invoked by
clicking on the
icon. Two automated creation approaches are available: auto creation
by Proximity or by Tagpoint Matching.
4.
To review the connections that were created, select C o nne cto r B ro ws e r from the View
menu.
Altair Engineering

219
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 browser functions, such as Show/Hide/Isolate.
The lower pane is the Connector Pane, where individual connections are listed.

Altair Engineering
Three 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 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
Altair Engineering

221
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 zero connection length.
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 PointAs
dependency status is unknown or if PointA is dependent and PointBs dependency
status is unknown.
Property View
: Columns in this view focus on connection property types defined,
local coordinate systems used and property set that is active.
Location View
: Columns in this view focus on the location definition.
5.
To review unattached modules, go to the Assembly Browser and select Find

Una tta che d M o dule s . This action removes all modules attached by connections and
provides a good way check if all components shown in the 3-D graphics window are
intentionally unattached.
6.
Similarly, select Find Una tta che d Ta gPo ints to see if some TagPoints are unattached by
accident.
Step 10: Define Connection Information and Properties

1.
Connection properties can be defined by first selecting a connector, right-click, and

select M a na ge C o nne ctio n.

Altair Engineering
This opens the General tab of the Connection Manager, where you can edit the
connectors general information including Label, Description and Owning Module.
2. Click on the Upda te button to save the changes.
A connection location type can be defined by selecting one of the options from the pulldown menu: Point A, Point B, Midpoint, or a CustomLocation. When CustomLocation
is selected, the location can be defined either by specifying a specific coordinate, or by
mapping it to a Hardpoint location.
Altair Engineering

223
3.
Click on the Upda te button to save the changes.

Information related to Connected Points, and distance between them, is displayed in the
next section. You can modify any connecting tagpoint by clicking on the
icon next to
its label, which brings up 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 on the

Altair Engineering
icon and pick a tagpoing on the screen in the 3D graphics window, and then click Se le ct.
The tagpoint list can be further filtered by clicking on the
icon and selecting one of
the tagpoint types: Response, Connection, Input, Plot, or All (default).
When checked, the Switch Nodes check box 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 properties are defined in the States tab of the
Connection Manager.
Altair Engineering

225
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 on the E dit... button. This opens the Select State Set
dialog.

Altair Engineering
State Sets can be added by clicking on the

icon, or deleted by clicking on the
icon. You can double click on a State Set to edit its name, and click on the Se le ct button
to finalize the selection.
The second step in defining connection properties is to select a LCS (local coordinate
system) for the properties to be defined in the next step.
As seen in the screenshot above, four options are available in specifying coordinate
systems used by any element generated during connection realization:
Vehicle 0 or the basic coordinate system is used.
Owned This option allows you to create a custom LCS by clicking on the E dit
button.
TagPointA Local coordinate system specified as the output Displacement Coordinate
System on the grid card associated when TagPointA is used.
TagPointB Local coordinate system specified as the output Displacement Coordinate
System on the grid card associated when TagPointB is used.
When the Owned local coordinate system is selected, a local coordinate system managed
Altair Engineering

227
in the assembly can be created using the Define Local Coordinate System dialog. Three
types of coordinate systems can be defined:
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.
The last step in defining connection properties is to define property states.
As seen in the screenshot above, five options are available in specifying property states:

Altair Engineering
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 (check boxes 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 check boxes 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 on
the
6.
icon. This opens the Import States dialog.
Browse and select a connection property template file, select a connection property set,
and click on Im po rt to load the property states.
Altair Engineering

229
7.
Repeat the above process for all connections to complete property definition.
Step 11: Manage Analysis

An Analysis is a collection of module and connection selection that completely specifies the
assembly definition for a particular simulation event. The Analysis Manager is invoked from
the Connector Browser by clicking on the
1.
icon.
To add an analysis by extracting active module and connection settings, click on the
icon. To add an analysis by copying module and connection settings from the selected

Altair Engineering
analysis, click on the
icon. To add a blank analysis, click on the
icon.
2. To delete an analysis, first check the radio button corresponding to the analysis and then
click on the
icon next to the name of the analysis.
The top section of the Analysis Manager is used to define analyses, which is further
divided into three parts. The first is for module representation and state selection, the
second is for connection state selection, and the third is for template loadcase definition.
3.
4.
To define module representations, select the representation via the list individually, or
globally all representations by type via the right-click context menu, shown below.
To define connection state, pick a State label, such as idle or WOT.
5.
To define template loadcase, click on the icon to invoke the Select Loadcase
Definition dialog.
6.
Highlight an existing definition or add a new one by clicking on the

NVH Loadcase Templates dialog.
Altair Engineering
icon to open the

231
The lower section of the Analysis Manager is used to apply the module representation
and state selections to the modules in the assembly, realize connections to states defined
into corresponding FE entites and render the defined loadcase into solver cards. Once an
analysis has been applied, the Job options section is enabled.
7.
If the Create job option is selected, you can select a Jo b fo lde r and click the C re a te
Jo b button, which opens the Job Submission dialog, allowing you to select a number of
solver related options. Clicking the Subm it Jo b button will create the analysis job and
submit it to the target solver for analysis. Subsequently, the job will be accessible through
the Job Manager.
8.
If the Export deck option is selected, click on E xpo rt to save a solver deck for manual
submission to the targeted solver for analysis.
All analysis information is saved in the assembly XML file, and retrieved when the file is
loaded back.

Altair Engineering

Engineering Solutions 12.0 Tutorials

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Engineering Solutions 12.0 Tutorials

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Engineering Solutions 12.

Altair Engineering Support Contact Information