This latest release of ANSYS software has gone live and contains updated tools that will be of particular interest to those working in autonomous vehicles, additive manufacturing, optics and structures (see Figure 1).
Automotive Systems
With regards to autonomous and electric vehicles, the ANSYS 19.2 systems suite has new features and functionalities that are essential for engineers working in these fields.
ANSYS has utilized the technical expertise gained from its recent acquisition of vehicle LiDAR and optical systems simulation company OPTIS to introduce the ANSYS VRXPERIENCE in ANSYS 19.2 (see Figure 2).
VRXPERIENCE allows users to fully and realistically simulate autonomous vehicles using real-world customizable conditions, including various weather and road conditions, oncoming vehicles, pedestrian scenarios, and the ability to anticipate the vehicle’s reaction to critical situations.
In addition, the tools allow simulation of complex automotive systems such as intelligent headlamps, interior and exterior lighting, and autonomous vehicles controls. VRXPERIENCE is also interfaced to other vehicle dynamics (CarSim) and complete driver hardware simulator interfaces (SENSODRIVE) for an immersive driving experience.
More Optics
Aside from the automotive optics-specific toolset just mentioned, ANSYS 19.2 contains a wealth of general optical simulation tools thanks to ANSYS SPEOS, a complete solution for simulation of optics and optoelectronics.
The new product bundle allows for the simulation of illumination, interior and exterior lighting, cameras, and LiDARs, and provides designers with the ability to evaluate optical performance while reducing development time and costs.
Digital Twins
Have you got the digital twin bug yet? ANSYS has, and it wants you to get it too.
New capabilities in ANSYS 19.2 make it easier to build, validate and deploy digital twins more quickly. Now, users can visualize 3D fields of static ROMs (reduced order modeling) and view simulation results, such as velocity and flow rate, on the 3D geometry of the twin.
You can see how ANSYS was used to build the digital twin of a wind turbine in the video below.
Additive Manufacturing
As we mentioned in a previous article, ANSYS 19.2 will continue to provide the Additive Suite and Additive Print tools for simulating 3D printing processes, as well as offer a beta version of Additive Science, which enables users to simulate the microstructure and gain insight into the properties of the final printed part. Additionally, Additive Science allows users to analyze meltpool-scale phenomena for full-size components.
Computerized Fluid Dynamics
In the fluids suite, ANSYS 19.2 delivers new features to accelerate CFD simulations for boosting productivity. The new task-based workflow for watertight geometries supports patent-pending Mosaic meshing technology, meaning accurate results are generated faster, and with a gentler learning curve thanks to the software’s user interface.
The Mosaic technology works by automatically combining a variety of boundary layer meshes using high-quality polyhedral meshes for accurate flow resolution, resulting in fewer, higher quality cells and computed results that are delivered twice as fast as before.
Discovery Live Updates
We like Discovery Live around here, and so it’s good to see this package getting updates as the product continues to mature.
The latest version in ANSYS 19.2 features a parameter studies capability, as well as scripting and customization features that aim to empower users to make complex design changes more easily.
Discovery Live also gets a boost to its capabilities by enabling users to account for the angular velocity of rotating components in a fluid simulation. This is especially useful for understanding the effect of wheel rotation on a vehicle and observing real-world trends in virtual designs.
You can see this demonstrated in the video below.
Structural Simulations
The ANSYS Mechanical suite gets an upgrade, too, with enhanced materials modeling. The new Material Designer feature can create detailed models of fiber-filled, woven or lattice materials, and then calculate equivalent properties for use in larger-scale simulations.
In topology optimization, ANSYS 19.2 has additional loading options, manufacturing constraints that are ideal for additive manufacturing, and a unique lattice optimization capability.
Importing finite element (FE) models is now easier with the addition of smoother workflows and better interoperability with other products.
ANSYS LS-DYNA within ANSYS Mechanical has also been upgraded to take advantage of increases in functionality and performance of the LSTC solver itself.
Much More
That’s just a small taste of the features in the latest version of ANSYS 19.2, but they are the ones that caught our eye and which we thought readers might be most interested in.
You can read full details of the latest release notes over at this link, and no doubt we will be taking a deeper look at some of these new features over the coming weeks.