Altair Manufacturing Solver 2020.1 Release Notes
General
Enhancements
- Improved Error Messages
- Improved error messages when license checking fails.
- Command-line Run Options
- Now run options such as input Project Parameter file and the number of threads to be used can be specified via command-line arguments. This uniformity will help HW Solver Run Manager to invoke the solvers in a standard way.
Metal Casting
New Features
- New Result: Contact Heat Flux
- Simulation results now include contact heat flux. This will help to determine/understand the heat flow between the two domains (solid and fluid) that are in contact.
- Inverse Modeling Process for Material Properties Estimation
- A new process that computes the error/difference between two given graphs (reference and computed) is added so that it can be used along with HyperStudy to estimate material properties.
- Local Mass Conservation Process
- A new process has been added that corrects the free surface locally to enforce the mass conservation. It complements the global mass conservation implemented in the solver.
Enhancements
- Improved Thermal Convection Solution
- An algorithm to detect and mitigate temperature oscillations during thermal convection solution is implemented.
- Initial Conditions are Written to Results
- Results now include the specified initial conditions, which helps to verify the data specified.
Resolved Issues
- Automated Air Exits
- Automated air exits were not correctly detected if only one node was open. This is now resolved.
- Piston Shot Position During Cycling
- During cycling the piston was not placed correctly. This issue is now resolved.
Injection Molding
New Features
- Fast Solver
- A fast 3D solver for the filling phase of injection molding is introduced in this release. This new solver can be accessed from Inspire Mold, and is called Fast Solver. This solver's computational speed is comparable to midplane analysis, and supports only filling analysis in this release. This solver does not support fiber orientation analysis and models with molds. For the sake of clarity, solvers are labeled as "detailed" and "fast" solvers. The current solver that is used for all phases and models with mold/mold inserts/part inserts is called the detailed solver.
- Hot Runner Systems
- Hot runner systems are used in more than 35% of the injection molding processes. In this release, the solver supports the modeling of two types of hot runner systems: valve gated and thermally (open) gated systems. This feature is supported only in the detailed solver.
- Heater BC
- A new BC type called Heater BC is added to support hot runner systems. This BC allows three types of heater controls. They are 1) insulated, 2) feedback temperature control, and 3) sensor-based heater control (heater is turned on and off using temperature sensors).
- Valve Control BC
- A new BC type called valve BC is added to support hot runner systems. This BC allows opening and closing of the valve based on 1) flow front location, 2) percentage filled in a part, 3) time, and 4) value of pressure.
Enhancements
- New Result: Flow Front Temperature
- Flow front temperature result is added in this release. This result shows the temperature of a node when the flow front reached and filled the node. This helps to understand the temperature on the mold surface and also the temperature in weld surface regions at the time of fill.
- Normalized WLF Temperature Dependence Function in Viscosity Models
- A variation of the WLF function known as normalized WLF is added in this release to support vendor material data that use this approach to define temperature dependence of viscosity. In this model, the WLF temperature dependence is normalized to a reference melt temperature (typically the recommended inlet melt temperature).
Resolved Issues
- Weld Surface Results
- Weld surface/line is the region where the flow fronts from different zones meet during the filling process. This result in the previous releases was capturing a very small region due to tighter tolerances. This issue is resolved to capture the entire weld region.