List of Flux 2021 new features

New features dealing with Environment

New features	Description
Access to Altair Flux™ Forum	In the Help menu of the Supervisor and the Help menu of Flux, an access to the Altair Flux™ Forum has been added.
Improvements around Colors see more details	Some improvements around Colors have been implemented in Flux 2021: The number of predefined colors increases from 8 to 36, to give more possibilities to the user to represent the device with more realistic colors. The background of Flux has been updated with a lighter grey, for the consistence with other software of Altair. The default color has been customized for each regions type (only for magnetic applications)
New features about documentation see more details	The new features about the documentation are: In 2020, we began to update the images of the Flux documentation to be consistent with other Altair software documentation. The Flux documentation contains about 1500 images, 800 of which need to be refreshed. In Flux 2021, 500 images have been updated. This work is still in progress, so some parts of the documentation may contain old and new images. We plan to complete this work by the end of 2021. The list of all examples have been added on the Flux documentation with access to all PDF documents and a ZIP containing project and python files. In addition to the local documentation accessible via the Flux or Flux Supervisor software, the Flux documentation is now online. This will allow users to access updates between two releases. To access the online Flux documentation, it is necessary to create an account on Altair One.
Dynamic Memory see more details	The first version of Dynamic memory management has been integrated in Flux 2020 in Beta version. By default, User (or static) memory was activated in supervisor options. For Flux 2021, we continued to work on algorithms to improve the robustness and performance of Flux with the Dynamic memory mode. Now, in Flux 2021, Flux works fully in dynamic memory, and this feature is no longer in Beta mode. The Dynamic mode must be tested by our users, before being the default mode. The User mode is still by default. (see more details).
FeMt update for Flux Skew see more details	Laminated regions are implemented in Flux Skew, so the workflow FeMt with Flux Skew has been improved to take into account these laminated regions and optimize the computation of iron losses via FeMt. (it was already the case for 2D and 3D).

New features dealing with Physics

New features	Description
Composed Non Meshed Coil Improvements see more details	In Flux 2021, some features have been implemented in the creation dialog box of a non meshed coil of the "Composed" type to facilitate the creation / manipulation of the list of points of the path of the coil: Insert a point Delete a point Change the position of a point in the list Reverse the order of the points Import a files to define the list of points Access to the formula editor Note: The display of the coil current direction, represented by an arrow, is now in black to better distinguish it.
New option to disable eddy currents in 3D conductive regions see more details	A new option has been added for volume regions of type “Solid conductor” in 3D magnetic applications. This option allows considering only DC currents, by forcing Flux to disregard eddy currents. This DC component corresponds to the current density that would flow in the region with a frequency approaching 0 Hz. This new feature is available in 3D steady state AC magnetic application, 3D transient magnetic application and 3D steady state AC magnetic application coupled with transient thermal application.
New approach for exporting global forces to OptiStruct see more details	A new approach for exporting forces computed in Flux projects to OptiStruct is now available. This new feature is called *Global forces [RBE3]* and allows the user to export a global force (available only in Beta mode). This new approach has the advantage of creating more compact exported data files. Consequently, subsequent computations in OptiStruct are faster when compared to the nodal export approach. The more refined the OptiStruct mesh is, the more significant the performance improvement becomes (both in terms of file size and computation time).

New features

Description

Composed Non Meshed Coil Improvements

see more details

In Flux 2021, some features have been implemented in the creation dialog box of a non meshed coil of the "Composed" type to facilitate the creation / manipulation of the list of points of the path of the coil:

Insert a point
Delete a point
Change the position of a point in the list
Reverse the order of the points
Import a files to define the list of points
Access to the formula editor

Note: The display of the coil current direction, represented by an arrow, is now in black to better distinguish it.

New option to disable eddy currents in 3D conductive regions

see more details

A new option has been added for volume regions of type “Solid conductor” in 3D magnetic applications. This option allows considering only DC currents, by forcing Flux to disregard eddy currents. This DC component corresponds to the current density that would flow in the region with a frequency approaching 0 Hz. This new feature is available in 3D steady state AC magnetic application, 3D transient magnetic application and 3D steady state AC magnetic application coupled with transient thermal application.

New approach for exporting global forces to OptiStruct

see more details

A new approach for exporting forces computed in Flux projects to OptiStruct is now available. This new feature is called Global forces [RBE3] and allows the user to export a global force (available only in Beta mode).

This new approach has the advantage of creating more compact exported data files. Consequently, subsequent computations in OptiStruct are faster when compared to the nodal export approach. The more refined the OptiStruct mesh is, the more significant the performance improvement becomes (both in terms of file size and computation time).

New features dealing with Solving

New features	Description
New parallel iterative solver PETSc see more details	A new parallel iterative solver PETSc has been implemented on Flux 2021. Available in Beta mode, PETSc can be selected in Solving Options and will provide a parallel iterative solver. On very large 3D projects (more than 50 000 nodes), the computation time will be reduced by taking advantage of parallel computing. Moreover, it will also significantly reduce memory consumption (compared to MUMPS). As it is based on distributed computing, the list of compute node needs to be set. It can be done through Flux Supervisor options, in parallel computing tab.

New features

Description

New parallel iterative solver PETSc

see more details

A new parallel iterative solver PETSc has been implemented on Flux 2021.

Available in Beta mode, PETSc can be selected in Solving Options and will provide a parallel iterative solver. On very large 3D projects (more than 50 000 nodes), the computation time will be reduced by taking advantage of parallel computing. Moreover, it will also significantly reduce memory consumption (compared to MUMPS). As it is based on distributed computing, the list of compute node needs to be set. It can be done through Flux Supervisor options, in parallel computing tab.

Updated macros

Updated macros	Description
CreateLookUpTableFromTMProject	update documentation
Find_Rotor_Angle_2D	better take into account of periodicity
Find_Rotor_Angle_3D	better take into account of periodicity
Find_Rotor_Angle_Skew	better take into account of periodicity

New macros

New macros	Description
exportForcePerToothToCSV	This macro exports force per tooth, and generates csv files with different components of forces versus time.
Create3DAxialFluxMachine	This macro allows generating the geometry and mesh of an axial machine versus 11 modifiable parameters. *Inputs:* Number of stator slots 10 geometry parameters *Output:* 3D axial flux machine geometry and mesh

Description

exportForcePerToothToCSV

This macro exports force per tooth, and generates csv files with different components of forces versus time.

Create3DAxialFluxMachine

This macro allows generating the geometry and mesh of an axial machine versus 11 modifiable parameters.

Inputs:

Number of stator slots
10 geometry parameters

Output: 3D axial flux machine geometry and mesh

Updated examples

As a reminder, all examples are accessible via the Flux supervisor, in the context of Open an example.

Updated examples	Description
Magnetic ship signature (3D Application Notes)	A sizing error during the import have been corrected and a new parametric study in order to study the influence of two degaussing coils on the magnetic ship signature has been carried out. More precisely, best values of the currents flowing through the degaussing coils have been calculated in order to hide the magnetic ship signature on a plane placed ten meters under the sea level.

New examples

As a reminder, all examples are accessible via the Flux supervisor, in the context of Open an example.

New examples	Description
Flux switching motor (2D Application Notes)	This kind of motor is generally used in Automotive mainly in In-Wheel motor applications. Flux Switching motor has the merits of switched reluctance machine such as simple and rugged construction and have advantages of high-power density and efficiency. We propose to analyze some classical computations : cogging torque, back electromotive force (bemf), static torque and imposed speed.
Flux-SimLab-OptiStruct : NVH analysis for an inset permanent magnet synchronous motor (2D Co-Simulation)	This example aims to show magnetic and vibrational analysis of an inset permanent magnet synchronous motor. It is also dealing with how to export forces per tooth for NVH analysis. Two cases are provided: the first case is based on one working point, and the second one is about multi speed analysis.