Altair HyperWorks CFD 2021.2 Release Notes

Modeling Highlights

External Aero modeling
  • Extensions
  • Leak detection
  • CAD wrapper
  • Rigid body mesher
AcuConsole replacement capabilities
  • Extrusion meshing
  • 2D BL (Through extension)
AcuSolve features
  • Physical velocity for porous media
  • AS/EDEM coupling enhancements
  • Update in restart solution
Generic process improvements
  • Fillet defeaturing
  • Mesh checks
  • Advance creation

Post Highlights

  • New tools for managing boundary groups
  • Automatic streamline seeding on surfaces
  • Thinned/uniformly spaced vectors
  • Normal and tangential vector projection options
  • New box and scalar clipping tools
  • New tool for adding notes to post-processing scenes
  • Import of results in H3D format has been added

Modeling

New Features

Extensions
Added capability to define custom tools with extensions. You can define tools, guide bars, selections, and dialogs using an xml file and automation using tcl. Many new technologies and existing technologies not exposed in UI can be exposed using extensions.
Leak Check
Added new tool to check leaks in geometric model for CAD and FE geometries. You can select input parts, source and target seeds, define leak search size, and run leak check. If a leak is found paths, between source and target nodes are created. If a leak is not found, you can enable an option to extract wetted faces and optionally duplicate wetted surfaces to a new part. Very useful for large external aero models.
CAD Wrapper
Added wrap type “CAD wrapper” in Wrapping tool. This option enables you to keep most shape and features of input geometry as it is and modify only where needed. Will keep original organization of input parts as it is. First release of this option will help to prepare watertight cabin models for external aero simulation model preparation.
Rigid Body Mesher
New option added in surface mesh tools to generate body fitted rigid body mesh on CAD surfaces. Rigid body mesh is required for external aero model preparation.
Extrusion Meshing
New tool to define mesh controls on solid to generate extrusion mesh on mappable CAD solids. If defined, extrusion mesh is created during batch volume meshing process. You can select a solid, select a source surface, and define extrusion layers along the solid from source to target. You can optionally define biasing options as well.
Mesh Repair
Added new tool to check mesh issues, review them using model tour, and fix them using various options available. This tool works for both CAD and FE geometry models. For CAD models with mesh, repair options are exposed such that it will keep CAD and mesh associativity. Very important tool to check surface meshing issues for complex models before volume meshing to avoid any volume meshing failures. While in the Mesh ribbon, new “Find and Isolate” options to find surface mesh issues.

Enhancements

Fillet removal improvement
New option in fillet removal tool to utilize Parasolid kernel for fillet removal. With this enhancement, fillet finding and removal is extremely robust. Not only fillets, but you can also now remove slots, grooves, and complex features to simplify geometry.
Option to fill solids during section cut
Added a new preference to fill section cut of solids. If turned on, solid cuts are filled upon creating a section cut. Works for both CAD and FE geometry
Physical velocity for coupling enhancements
New option added to define superficial or physical velocity for porous media.
AcuSolve-EDEM coupling enhancements
New options related to AcuSolve-EDEM coupling are exposed in UI. Now you can define Torque model for Non-spherical particles, Drag/Lift force scale, and new Lift model for Non-spherical particles. Species are enabled for EDEM coupling as well.
User-defined function for mesh motion
The Advance motion definition tool now allows you to define motion on selected surfaces and solids using a user function. With this enhancement, you can set a user-defined function name and “String” and “Values” list. During the run, the solver evaluates the functions and applies the appropriate motion.
Advance creation
Added option in Setup Browser to create multiple groups, mesh controls, and boundaries based on given selection. You can create multiple groups based on selected metadata, parts, and assemblies. A group is created per selection with the same name as the selection. Multiple boundary and mesh controls can be created per selected groups. You can define default setting for all instances.
Similar “Advance create” options are available in the Template Manager for creating groups, mesh controls, and wall boundaries.
Add nodal residual and time average outputs to the list of field outputs
Added option in “Field Output” tool to define nodal residual and time average outputs.
Update in restart solution
Enhanced “Restart Solution” segment in AcuSolve Job Launcher dialog. You can now define previous run from any directory. Option added to define “Frozen Flow” at run time ,which will turn off the flow equation and just run the temperature equation.
Model files removed from installation package
To reduce the footprint size, the following tutorial model and demo model files are no longer included in the local installation. You can now find zipped tutorial model files and demo model files on Altair One via the Altair Community, Altair Marketplace, and Altair Connect sites. Altair recommends that you create an Altair One account and use it as your primary portal to access product documentation, a Knowledge Base, and customer support.
Tutorial Model Files
  • HyperWorks CFD

Resolved Issues

  • Boundary layer imprint issues on CAD and FE models are resolved.
  • Performance on capping operation.

Known Issues

  • HyperWorks CFD 2021.2 should be used with AcuSolve 2021.2.
Note: For more information on issues found throughout the release, and their workarounds, please see the Altair Community.

Post

New Features

New tools for managing boundary groups
Powerful new tools have been added to accelerate the task of managing boundaries on complex models. Boundaries can now be organized into sub-collections through a right-click context menu or via a drag and drop operation in the Model Browser. In addition to sorting the boundaries into sub-collections, you can also multi-select to edit properties on multiple groups at once. This permits the unification of properties across multiple faces without having to regroup them. These multi-select and edit operations are supported via browser and graphics window selection mechanisms.
New box and scalar clipping tools
Clipping tools have been added into HW-CFD Post that allow you to clip away portions of surfaces that are not of interest. Boundaries, slice planes, streamlines, and iso-surfaces can be clipped using the new tools. Any number of clips can be combined to hone in on the specific region of interest quickly and efficiently. Clips can be easily enabled and disabled through the model tree.
New Notes tool
You can now annotate your post-processing scenes using the new Notes tool. Notes allows you to add formatted text and call-outs to your model. Notes can be fixed to a specific location in space or anchored to a selected point on the model. Special fields are available for interrogating the time step, name of the results file, and so on. Additional fields will be added in future releases.
H3D reader support for AcuSolve results
H3D files are now supported as an import format for AcuSolve results. The H3D format has the benefit of being very compact and can be read very quickly into HW-CFD Post. Comparison against directly reading the AcuSolve database via .Log file reader shows that H3D is approximately 3 times faster to read the same results. You are encouraged to use this format if you plan to revisit the same set of results more than once.

Enhancements

Automatic streamline seeding on surfaces
The streamlines context has been enhanced with a new feature that automatically places seed points on the selected surface. The seed points are spaced evenly on the surface to provide a uniform source for the streamlines. The automatic seeding is supported on boundary faces, slice planes, and iso-surfaces.
Vector display enhancements
HW-CFD Post 2021.2 supports a number of new options for the display of vectors. Surfaces can now be re-sampled to thin and uniformly space the vectors. In addition to the new spacing options, the vectors can be restricted to showing only the normal component or tangential components.
SOS file support
HW-CFD Post 2021.2 supports reading in .sos files which have references to multiple ensight case files.

Known Issues

  • HW-CFD post 2021.1 will crash if a state file from a newer version is read in. This issue has been addressed starting in version 2021.2, but older releases are still impacted.
Note: For more information on issues found throughout the release, and their workarounds, please see the Altair Community.