In the pursuit of ever higher performance, software is taking over a much larger responsibility for the function of the end product than ever before. A particularly dramatic example is the design of inherently unstable aircraft such as the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. Without the flight computers making very fine adjustments every millisecond, it would flip…
The introduction of parallel part-by-part meshing to ANSYS Mechanical 15 back in 2013 was revolutionary. Structures which took hours to mesh now wrapped up in minutes, unfortunately removing one of our favourite excuses for taking a tactical nap. One of the limitations to this new feature was the fact that Multibody parts were still meshed…
Utilising the new FREE topology optimisation ACT-extension, one can explore new innovative ways to reduce mass that were not available before. The DoE (Design of Experiments) approach may not be feasible if the design’s shape is not yet defined, while creating CAD models to capture all the potential design possibilities may be impossible. Now imagine starting with an arbitrary volume and…
The inverted pendulum on a cart is a classic control theory problem for demonstrating control of an inherently unstable system. Left to its own devices, an inverted pendulum will always fall away from the centre. The cart is controllable however and can move either left or right in order to stabilise the motion of the…
Cranes and lifting equipment pose a unique problem when considered in a finite element analysis. Their sheer size often prevents users from analysing these structures using regular solid elements. Instead, beam elements must be used to reduce the model to a manageable size. The problem with this approach, however, lies in the process of extracting…
Designing equipment intended for use in the bulk material handling industry is no simple task. Engineers need to consider day to day operating conditions as well as unpredictable loadings such as user error/misuse and erratic weather conditions. Simulation software can optimise machine design and gives engineers the capability to decrease project budgets/timeframes and minimise the…
The world of music is dominated by nonlinear devices. From the wood construction of a guitar neck to the neodymium drivers in PA speakers, every device in the chain has a nonlinear response and these are often exploited to produce a unique sound. To predict with certainty how changes to individual components are going to…
In a previous blog post, we explored the overall capabilities of ANSYS Simplorer. In this post we will be focusing on Reduced Order Modelling (ROM), specifically the techniques available within Simplorer. ANSYS has a range of solvers designed to simulate high fidelity models in each of the three main physics areas. When simulating at a…
The design and construction of composite structures represents a powerful and lucrative industry that is predicted to grow dramatically as demand increases for the high strength, low weight properties possible with composite materials. Part of the ANSYS Workbench environment, ANSYS Composite PrepPost provides tailored tools for the multitude of composite specific problems that face designers…
A wide range of industries are taking their single physics simulation tools and moving towards a multiphysics approach which couples two or more solvers to close the gap between simulation and reality. Rotational electromagnetic machines in particular use all three of the main physics areas to design products which achieve increasingly high performance and reliability…
