Altair India

HYPERWORKS FOR STUDENTS

Projects using HyperWorks Process Manager

Batch Meshing a Vehicle Frame Assembly





Areas covered:

Automation of geometry-organization and mesh generation.

Use of multiple meshing-options and quality-criteria.

"What-if" meshing - creation of multiple meshes on the same component.

TCL scripts for advanced automation.

Description of the Problem: FEA is time consuming, and unless attention is paid to details, the results can be horribly misleading. Most large design-projects involve a repetitive procedure: check whether the CAD models of items in the assembly have changed if they have, create new FE meshes or correct out-of-date meshes verify that these meshes satisfy pre-specified quality criteria submit these meshes to the analyst for further processing (analysis and results-interpretation) CAD data is managed by designers. Many use folders, while some use PDM or PLM systems (Product Data management and Product Lifecycle Management, respectively). Going through the assembly structure, picking components which have changed, and generating the mesh to satisfy element quality-specifications is tedious, and error prone. Our goal is to use the Batch Mesher to automate the process. Not only does this make it easier for the designer to generate meshes of a specified quality, it even reduces scope for error by the experienced engineer! Our starting point is an assembly of the frame of a vehicle, developed using Unigraphics. HyperMesh supports direct import of Unigraphics data. We see how to access CAD data both directly and via the IGES-translation route.

Process Automation - an FRF Wizard





Areas covered:

How the Process Manager works.

Use of the Process Manager to capture best-practices.

Creation of TCL scripts that interact with the HyperMesh database.

Use of the Process Studio to create customized user-interfaces.

Description of the Problem: One form of vibration-testing involves strapping the body to a test-bed, and exciting the bed using a load that varies sinusoidally with time. The experimenter varies the frequency of the sinusoidal function, sweeping through the range of interest, to see how the output varies with frequency. This variation is expressed as a frequency response function or FRF. The experiment can be simulated using Finite Element analysis. Since the FE method is quite general, the preprocessor - HyperMesh - offers a wide range of options that are unnecessary for the vibration analyst. This can be a source of confusion and possible error. Further, for the beginner, the sequence of steps can be quite complex, as a review of the project titled FRF Analysis of a Cross Member shows. Our goal is to use a wizard to guide the analyst through the steps involved. Not only does this make it easier for the beginner, it even reduces scope for error by the experienced analyst! In this project, we use the HyperWorks Process Manager, supported by TCL and HWPM code to implement the wizard.

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