ANSYS has announced the latest release of its “pervasive engineering simulation” package, ANSYS 19. The latest version covers a wide range of updates across multiple domains, including structures, fluids, thermal, electromagnetics and more.
3D Design
Of course, much of engineering simulation starts with a 3D model, so that also seems like a good way to start this article.
ANSYS Discovery SpaceClaim, the 3D modeller in ANSYS 19, gets several upgrades designed to speed up the modelling process, simplify manipulation of parts and assemblies, and enhance STL modelling capabilities for 3D printing.
A new assembly tab in Discovery SpaceClaim adds configurations and enhanced exploded views, improving the visibility and workability of assemblies in Discovery SpaceClaim.
There are new Local Meshing and New Infill Types available, including infills for hexagonal or triangular openings. Users can now completely remove material from the centre of an object for weight reduction purposes.
New blending for concept modeling functionality has been added to this version, allowing users to add guide curves to create organic shapes more easily.
Electromagnetics Suite
Users will now be able to perform radar cross section (RCS) analysis using ANSYS HFSS shooting-and-bouncing ray plus (SBR+) solver. This is useful for those designing autonomous vehicles, and even stealth aircraft.
Fluids Suite
New functionalities in the fluids suite reduce the computational effort needed for spray nozzle designers to optimize product performance. By using the volume of fluid model to directly track interface instabilities and surface tension effects, ANSYS 19 can accurately droplet formation.
Calculating droplet size distribution using conventional methods was previously a computationally intensive process, but this new method functionality reduces the computational effort significantly.
Also new to the Fluids Suite is the introduction of ANSYS Chemkin Enterprise, which is a combustion and flow simulation tool, good for those wishing to virtually blow things up without the fire department knocking on their door.
In addition to these offerings, the Fluids Suite now includes EnSight, which is a post-processing and visualization package that will help engineers to show off their fancy simulation data.
Structures Suite
New to the structures suite is separating, morphing, adaptive and re-meshing technology (SMART) fracture modelling, but note that this is only available to ANSYS Mechanical Enterprise licence owners. SMART fracture modelling allows engineers to simulate crack growth without the need for crafted meshes, and instead uses remeshing to avoid relying on the initial mesh distribution and orientation. This means that the crack propagation predictions are more accurate, and are quicker to achieve.
Also new to the structures suite are enhancements to acoustic simulations, with improvements to enclosure requirements, far field microphones and transfer admittance matrices (for grilles).
Systems Suite
Good news for systems engineers working in safety critical fields: the systems suite now comes with ANSYS medini analyze which allows users to perform functional safety analysis in a range of fields including nuclear, aerospace, and rail and ensures compliance with industry specific safety standards. ANSYS medini analyze implements key safety analysis methods (HAZOP, FTA, FMEA, FMEDA) all in one integrated platform.
Systems suite now also comes with a battery management systems tool which can simulate from the component level all the way up to the system level, enabling engineers to test out their battery and battery systems designs before costly prototyping.
Semiconductor Suite
The semiconductor suite has got a whole load of new upgrades this time around.
The ANSYS RedHawk-SC big data platform promises to cut simulation time from days to mere hours and features actionable analytics to help prioritize design fixes.
Also included in the semiconductor suite is the Chip Package System Co-design tool; Powerartist, which is a design-for-power platform; TOTEM, a transistor-level power noise and reliability simulation tool; and Pathfinder, an electrostatic discharge tool designed to identify layout issues that can lead to discharge events.
So, there you have it. There are a lot of new updates in ANSYS 19, making it a very comprehensive simulation package covering a wide spectrum of domains geared towards designers in a range of emerging industries (many features seem to be designed with autonomous and electric vehicles in mind).
Give ANSYS 19 a try. If the hype is anything to believe, then you can save a lot of simulation time and give your productivity a shot of adrenaline with this latest offering.