Results Initializer

The tool can be accessed by clicking the icon in the Crash toolbar or by clicking BCs > Results initializer from the menu bar.

HyperForm's One-Step solver capability is leveraged in this tool for estimation of the stamping history.

Invoking the Results Initializer opens a Process Manager tab that guides you through the process seamlessly to initialize the parts with the stamping strain history.

Select Components

A tab, as shown below, appears to manage the selection of components for initializing with stamping strains.

Figure 1.

The selected components appear in the Process Manager tab.

Selecting the checkbox for TWB search will prompt the software to check for Tailor Welded Blanks (TWB) among the selected blanks.

Clicking Proceed or Next moves you to the next step.

Review TWBs

A tab, as shown below, appears to allow you to edit the parts that are automatically detected as part of the TWB search.

Figure 2.

Right-clicking the TWB crash parts provides an option to edit TWBs, which will result in a tab, as shown below.

Figure 3.

TWB Components List	Lists the parts that are auto detected as TWB's for the selected TWB in crash parts.
Non-TWB Components List	Lists all other components that are selected by you for results initialization. These are potential components that can be added to the selected TWB.
	Moves the selected component(s) from the TWB Components List to the Non-TWB Components List.
	Moves the selected component(s) from the Non-TWB Components List to the TWB Components List.
Accept	Accepts the changes to the component list of the selected TWB.
Reject	Rejects the changes to the component list of the selected TWB.
Display Selected	Isolates the selected components in the graphics area.
Display All	Displays all of the components in the corresponding list.

Clicking Proceed or Next moves you to the next step.

Solve and Initialize Components

The next tab lists the selected components and their assigned material and its thicknesses. The last column allows you to assign the Blank Holding Force for each component. None, Low, Medium, High, Crashform, Optimum-FLC and Optimum-EPS are seven options available to choose for Blank Holding Force. The default is Optimum-FLC.

Figure 5.

No. of Cores

Define the number of cores used in the initialization process. By default it is set to the number of cores in your desktop.

Advanced Options

Selecting this checkbox will add a new Bending/Unbending column to the table that lists all of the components. By default Bending/Unbending will be on for all components.

During this process, the Engineering Solutions session is live. Messages are continuously posted to update you with the status of the initialization process. At the end of this stage, the file that has the result for each selected component are attached as an include file to the model.

Review Results

A tab, as shown below, appears that lists available result types and components that were initialized for review. At any time, only one component can be selected for reviewing the results. In addition to the selected components, there will be a component with the name All that contains the results of all the components for easy review.

Figure 6.

Legend threshold option

The Legend Threshold option allows you to set the maximum and minimum threshold value of the results legend and accordingly contour the results.

Click Review to contour the selected result type in the graphics area and open the Contour panel to adjust the legend and switch to other results.

Figure 7.

Apply Cutoff

This stage is a correction step that you can bypass if it is not required. Depending on the component’s topology, some of the selected components could show very high strains. It is quite normal in real process as the component is formed by building an addendum that enhances material flow. Also, it would be stamped in more than one stages. Hence, in this step, you can select these components and apply a cutoff on the components maximum plastic strain and rerun the initializing analysis. This will limit the maximum strain after analysis to the cutoff value.

Figure 8.

Click Initialize to rerun the analysis with the cutoff value for the selected components, as explained in the solve and initialize phase. The results from this rerun for the selected components will overwrite the results from the earlier run.

Review Cutoff Results

This phase is similar to the earlier review phase; it allows you to review the results after applying cutoff. This step can be bypassed if phase four is bypassed.

Batch Results Initializer

Batch Results Initializer is a tool that can initialize the sheet metal components in the FE model with one step stamping results in batch mode. Currently it is available for the solver decks of Radioss and LS-DYNA. The Batch Results Initializer can be invoked using the executable LAUNCHRIGUI.bat/.sh for Windows and Linux, respectively. The GUI appears as follows:

Figure 9.

The options are as follows:

Solver

This is a destination solver of the CAE analysis. Currently LS-DYNA and Radioss are supported. Based on the choice of the solver some of the options change.

File Selection

Input deck

The solver deck that has components/ assemblies that need to be initialized with stamping results.

Input entity file

The initialize.dat file that has the components that need to be initialized with stamping results. This is a text file with four columns with space as a delimiter.

Column 1

Component Name. Ensure that no special characters are used.

Column 2

Component ID

Column 3

Type. It is limited to Part for LS-DYNA and Part and Subset for Radioss.

Column 4

Blank Holder Force. You can choose one of the following: Crash-form, None, Low, Medium, High, Optimum-FLC or Optimum-EPS.

One-Step Solver Options

Entity type

You can choose Part for LS-DYNA and Part and Subset for Radioss. These settings will be used if column 3 in the initialize.dat file is blank/undefined.

Blank Holder Force

You can choose one of the following: Crash-form, None, Low, Medium, High, Optimum-FLC or Optimum-EPS. These settings will be used if column 4 in the initialize.dat file is blank/undefined.

Plastic strain cutoff

This is the max strain value beyond which strain from stamping will be saturated to this value. The value is provided in percentage. For example, a strain value of 0.2 should be provided as 20.

TWB (Tailor Welded Blank) search

If this is turned on, a search is performed within components selected for Results Initializer to have potential TWBs. The TWB components are then subjected to one step stamping analysis together.

Fill holes

If turned on, the holes on the component are filled and then subjected to one step stamping analysis together.

Hole fill size

This field is available only if the Fill holes option is turned on. Provide the maximum size (perimeter) of the hole that needs to be filled before one step stamping analysis.

No. of cores

You can define the number of cores available in your computer. By default it will use all the cores in your computer.

Generate .res

If turned on, a res file that has the results of all the components chosen for Results Initializer will be created at the end of run.

Result File Options

These options are self explanatory.

Input files

• Solver deck that has components that need to be initialized with stamping results.
• Initialize.dat: The list of components in the solver deck that need to be initialized and corresponding stamping information.

Output files

• LS-DYNA: Key file that has the stamping results from Results Initializer.
• Radioss: STA file that has the stamping results from Results Initializer.

Batch Results Initializer and Nesting

Batch Results Initializer and Nesting is a tool that can initialize the sheet metal components in the FE model with one step stamping results and/or do nesting of the blanks from one step stamping results for material utilization in batch mode. Currently it is available for CAD files in the format supported by HyperMesh and the solver decks of Radioss, LS-DYNA, OptiStruct and Nastran. The Batch Results Initializer and Nesting tool can be invoked using the executable LAUNCHRINESTINGGUI.bat/.sh for Windows and Linux, respectively.