HyperLife Weld Certification 2020 Release Notes

HyperLife Weld Certification is a specialty module for fatigue strength assessments according to common design codes/norms and guidelines welded structures.

Design processes in rail, construction industries, and some machinery sectors rely heavily on design norms such as FKM, DVS-1612, and Eurocode-3. This HyperLife module provides an easy to use environment for CAE-driven fatigue and strength evaluation based on these popular design codes. The assessment procedures are based on nominal or local elastic stresses from Finite Element analysis.

First open the standard HyperLife, then go to File > Load > Weld Certification to launch the application.

Currently, the following procedures are supported for structures idealized with Shell(2D) elements:

FKM Guideline: The FKM guideline outlines analytical procedures for static and fatigue strength assessment of structural components made of steel, casted components, and aluminum. The procedures are available for both welded and unwelded calculations. With this release, both welded and unwelded steel structures are supported.
Eurocode 3: This is part of the European code practiced and established by the European Committee of Standardization. Eurocode 3 applies for the design of steel and aluminum structures. With this release, both welded and unwelded steel structures are supported.
DVS 1612: DVS 1612 applies to Welded joints in Railway structures published by the German Welding Society. The first release of HyperLife Weld Certification supports fatigue endurance assessment of welded joints made of steel in railway structures.

Currently, OptiStruct (FEM), Nastran (DAT), and HyperMesh binary (HM) are supported as input model files. Supported FEA result files are OptiStruct (H3D) and Nastran (OP2) formats.

New Menu System

All supported tools are organized in a ribbon, located along the top of the application. The ribbon allows you to quickly access tools and standard functions.

File Management

Opening Models: You can directly import supported FEA input and result files.

Loadcase

Loadcase Tool: The Loadcase tool allows you to create a derived load case from other load cases, or from a combination of other load cases and simulation steps. Import of an ASCII file is also supported to quickly create derived loadcases and a load combination file (*.lcf).

Screen

Mark Welds Tool: The Mark Welds tool enables you to detect, create, edit, and delete weld lines. Mark Welds is supported for node to node weld connection modeling. Mark Welds identifies the weld lines, classifies them, and populates the Weld Line Browser. The Weld Line Browser has several functionalities to isolate welds, edit welds, edit local weld coordinate systems, and update weld segments.
Inspect Tool: The Inspect tool enables you to screen and down select welds lines based on a user-defined threshold. The screening can be based on Von mises stress criteria or Envelop stress of multiple load cases. The down selected weld lines can be modified for selection for further detail assessment.

Setup

Specifications Tool

The Specifications tool enables you to choose a specific guideline (norm/regulation) to be used for the assessment. The following regulations are available with the first release:

DVS 1612 (Welds only)
Eurocode 3 (Welds and Unwelded)
FKM (Welds and Unwelded)

An additional option is available to load a pre-defined Weld Property File.

Points Tool

The Points tool enables you to assign regulation parameters to the welds. General properties, like evaluation distance and type of material, can be reviewed and updated. Also, a Weld Category can be assigned to different locations together with material allowable properties.

Materials Tool

The Materials tool dialog lists the parts/components with default fatigue parameters, which can be edited based on the required fatigue parameters specific to the selected regulation. The material dialog/context attributes are dynamically updated based on the chosen regulation. The "My material" tab enables you to define new materials, which can be applied to unwelded assessments.

Load Map Tool

The Load Map tool serves as a typical signal processing utility. The available FEA are listed and several types of durability events can be created, like envelope range definition for a set of FEA load cases and constant amplitude curves which can be paired with FEA load cases.

Analyze

Evaluate Tool: The Evaluate tool enables you to select the "Evaluate Method" for a chosen load cases envelope range or defined durability event. You can also select the "Evaluate domain" (Welded and Unwelded) before submitting the run for evaluation.
Results Explorer: This is the post-processing utility to contour the results. The Weld Line Browser is available to check the utilization and evaluation status. Exclusive result contouring options for welded and unwelded parts are available. A result summary is also available in ASCII format.