Altair HyperWorks CFD 2022.2 Release Notes
New Features
- AcuTrace Ribbon
- A new ribbon is added to support AcuTrace - which computes particle traces as a series of segments solving particle motion. It computes traces for unsteady as well as steady flow fields, for flows with mesh motion as well as without, and for flows computed on meshes with interface surfaces. To solve a problem with AcuTrace, you must first run AcuSolve. You can set up for finite mass and massless particles. You can set up your model for AcuSolve, run a simulation, then set up for AcuTrace. If you already have a previously ran simulation – you can still set up AcuTrace for that simulation.
- Engineering Quantities Calculator
- A new tool called "Engineering Quantities" has been added to HW-CFD Post. This tool simplifies the calculation of derived values that are commonly used during the post-processing of CFD results. For example, the calculation of pressure drop between two surfaces in the model can be computed by selecting "difference" in the engineering quantities tool, then choosing the first collection of surfaces over which to average the pressure, then selecting the second group of surfaces over which to average the pressure. HW-CFD Post automatically computes the area weighted average of the selected variable (in this case pressure) across all surfaces of each selection group, then computes the difference. The resulting values are displayed in a table that updates upon change of time step. The first release of this tool supports the following operations; Sum, Difference, Area Average, and Mass flow rate. Sum can be used to compute the area weighted sum of a value on a surface. For example, if the wall shear stress is an output field from the solver, the sum over the surface will yield the viscous force. The difference can be used to compute pressure or temperature differences, the area average option yields the area average of a variable over a surface. The mass flow rate option provides the ability to compute the mass flow rate through a surface based on a velocity vector and a density field.
- “Info” Mechanism Added to Post Browser Right-Click Menu
- A new “Info” option has been added to the right-click menu options in the Post Browser. This feature displays a summary of the data for the object that is selected. The data is displayed in a tabular form that can be saved to disk and shows the number of nodes and elements in the dataset as well as the min and max values for each variable that exists on the dataset.
- Intersection Curve Plotting
- 2D plotting along a rake was first introduced in the 2022.1 release. The ability to plot data along an intersection curve expands on this capability. The intersection curve plot is created by first choosing the dataset on which the intersection curve is desired. This dataset can be a single boundary surface, a collection of boundary surfaces, a slice plane, or an iso-surface. The plane on which to intersect the geometry is then specified. After calculating the location of intersection, a 2D plot appears with the ability to plot each variable that was present on the source dataset. The curve can be plotted at the intersection points between the element edges and the plane, or the points on the curve can be resampled to create a uniformly spaced curve.
- Particle Dataset Import and Display
- HyperWorks CFD Post now supports the import and display of datasets containing particles. This feature is primarily directed at support for reading AcuTrace output through the EnSight format. When particles are detected by a data reader, they are categorized into a separate branch in the model tree. The particles can be displayed as spheres or points, colored by a constant color or by a scalar. Vectors can also be rendered on the particles to illustrate the direction of travel.
- Option to Retain Inside/Outside for Scalar Clip
- The scalar clipping tool has been enhanced to support clipping away values that are inside the specified range or outside the specified range. The functionality was previously only available for the box clip.
- Points Display Style for Geometry
- A new points display style has been added to all surfaces and parts. The points display style is an alternative to displaying the surface mesh. When points display style is active, the faces of the surface mesh are hidden and only the points are rendered. Control over the geometry versus point display style is exposed in a hamburger menu in the geometry tab of the display properties microdialog. For solid parts, all points in the part are displayed, not just those falling on the surface. When combined with transparency, this can cause slow graphics performance on systems with low end graphics cards.
- Addition of Coordinates in the Calculate Tool
- The Calculate tool now exposes the nodal coordinates of the mesh in the python expression syntax. The coordinates are exposed as a numpy array that can be sliced to access the index of interest. For example, the x-coordinate can be stored as a variable for visualization using the following expression:
Enhancements
- Performance Improvements
- Many commonly used operations in HyperWorks CFD Post have been optimized for performance in the 2022.2 release. In some cases, the tools are benefiting from multi-threading. In other cases, the algorithms have been revised to yield improved speeds. Examples of the expected performance improvements are shown below.
Resolved Issues
- Resolved segmentation faults associated with models that have different sets of output variables on different surfaces. HW-CFD Post now supports different variables on different surface types. For example, the volume data can have different outputs than the boundary surface data. However, all surfaces of a given type must still have a consistent set of variables at all time steps. Consistency is enforced within the boundary surfaces, slice planes, volumes, and so on.
- Saved view preview images in the view toolbar no longer have overlapping images of the model.
- Plot manager now remembers time versus time step axis settings when changing pages or creating new plots.
- Resolved some selection clearing/highlighting items in the scalar clip tool.
- Improved the sizing of the preview box in the box clip tool when clipping 2D geometries.
- Reader options are now applied when loading a model into HW-CFD Post through the Run Manager dialog.