ANSYS, Inc.

Release Notes

ANSYS, Inc. Release 14.5

Southpointe October 2012
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Table of Contents
Global ......................................................................................................................................................... vii
1. Advisories .......................................................................................................................................... vii
2. Installation ........................................................................................................................................ vii
3. Licensing .......................................................................................................................................... viii
4. ANSYS Customer Portal ..................................................................................................................... viii
I. ANSYS Structural Products ...................................................................................................................... 1
1. Mechanical ........................................................................................................................................ 3
1.1. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous Releases .................................. 3
1.2. General Enhancements ............................................................................................................... 4
1.3. Performance Enhancements ....................................................................................................... 4
1.4. Analysis Enhancements .............................................................................................................. 5
1.5. Contact and Connection Enhancements ...................................................................................... 6
1.6. Graphics Enhancements ............................................................................................................. 6
1.7. Loads/Supports/Conditions Enhancements ................................................................................. 7
1.8. Finite Element (FE) Enhancements .............................................................................................. 7
1.9. Mapping Enhancements ............................................................................................................. 8
1.10. Solution Enhancements ............................................................................................................ 9
1.11. Results Enhancements ............................................................................................................ 10
1.12. Ease of Use Enhancements ...................................................................................................... 11
1.13. Documentation Enhancements ............................................................................................... 11
2. Mechanical APDL ............................................................................................................................ 13
2.1. Structural ................................................................................................................................. 13
2.1.1. Contact ............................................................................................................................ 13
2.1.1.1. User-Defined Friction Enhancements ....................................................................... 14
2.1.1.2. User-Defined Contact Interaction ............................................................................. 14
2.1.1.3. Defining Real Constants via Subroutine .................................................................... 14
2.1.1.4. Defining Real Constants in Tabular Format ............................................................... 14
2.1.1.5. Elastic Slip ............................................................................................................... 14
2.1.1.6. Controlling the Units of Normal Contact Stiffness ..................................................... 15
2.1.1.7. Surface-Based Constraints ....................................................................................... 15
2.1.1.8. 3-D Node-to-Node Contact Element ......................................................................... 15
2.1.2. Elements and Nonlinear Technology ................................................................................. 16
2.1.2.1. 2-D to 3-D Analysis .................................................................................................. 16
2.1.2.2. Nonlinear Submodeling ........................................................................................... 16
2.1.2.3. Initial Curve Effects for Shells ................................................................................... 16
2.1.3. Material Modeling ............................................................................................................ 16
2.1.3.1. Initial State .............................................................................................................. 17
2.1.3.2. User-Defined Field Variables and Field-Variable-Dependent Coefficient of Thermal
Expansion .......................................................................................................................... 17
2.1.3.3. Isotropic Hardening for Chaboche Curve Fitting ....................................................... 17
2.1.4. Linear Dynamics .............................................................................................................. 17
2.1.4.1. Shared Memory Parallel (SMP) in PSD Analyes .......................................................... 17
2.1.4.2. Multiple Pressure Load Vectors in MPRS and PSD Analyses ........................................ 18
2.2. Coupled-Field ........................................................................................................................... 18
2.3. Low-Frequency Electromagnetics .............................................................................................. 18
2.4. Acoustics .................................................................................................................................. 18
2.5. Diffusion ................................................................................................................................... 19
2.5.1. New Diffusion Elements ................................................................................................... 19
2.5.2. New Diffusion Surface and Body Loads ............................................................................. 19
2.6. Radiation .................................................................................................................................. 19

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of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. iii
Release Notes

2.7. Solvers ..................................................................................................................................... 19

2.7.1. Distributed ANSYS Enhancements .................................................................................... 19
2.7.2. GPU Acceleration Enhancements ...................................................................................... 20
2.7.3. Other Solver Changes and Enhancements ........................................................................ 20
2.8. Linear Perturbation ................................................................................................................... 21
2.8.1. Support for Static Analysis ................................................................................................ 21
2.8.2. Support for Superelements .............................................................................................. 21
2.8.3. Nonlinear Spring Element Support ................................................................................... 21
2.9. Results File ................................................................................................................................ 21
2.10. Commands ............................................................................................................................. 21
2.10.1. New Commands ............................................................................................................. 22
2.10.2. Modified Commands ...................................................................................................... 22
2.10.3. Undocumented Commands ........................................................................................... 24
2.11. Elements ................................................................................................................................ 25
2.11.1. New Elements ................................................................................................................ 25
2.11.2. Modified Elements ......................................................................................................... 25
2.11.3. Undocumented Elements ............................................................................................... 26
2.11.4. Archived Elements ......................................................................................................... 26
2.12. Other Enhancements .............................................................................................................. 26
2.12.1. Soil-Pile Analysis ............................................................................................................. 27
2.12.2. Tabular Data Stored on Jobname.LDHI ........................................................................ 27
2.12.3. Documentation .............................................................................................................. 27
2.12.3.1. Acoustic Theory ..................................................................................................... 27
2.12.3.2. Technology Demonstration Guide ............................................................................ 27
2.12.3.2.1. Fitting Parameters for a Chaboche Kinematic Hardening Model ..................... 27
2.12.3.2.2. Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Simulation ................................................. 27
2.12.3.2.3. Analysis of a Piezoelectric Flextensional Transducer in Water .......................... 27
2.12.3.3. Feature Archive ....................................................................................................... 27
2.12.3.4. Documentation Updates for Programmers ............................................................. 28
2.12.3.4.1. Using Mixed Languages for Compiling and Linking User Programmable Fea-
tures ............................................................................................................................ 28
2.12.3.4.2. Routines and Functions Updated ................................................................... 28
2.13. Known Incompatibilities ......................................................................................................... 28
2.13.1. Results File Format ......................................................................................................... 28
2.13.2. LINK180 Element Results ................................................................................................ 29
2.13.3. Hydrostatic Fluid Elements with KEYOPT(1) = 1 ............................................................... 29
2.13.4. Contact Stiffness Behavior .............................................................................................. 29
2.13.5. Radiation View Factor as a Function of GAP ..................................................................... 29
2.13.6. Ramped Friction Coefficient in a Brake Squeal Analysis .................................................... 29
2.13.7. User-Defined Friction Subroutine (userfric) .............................................................. 29
2.13.8. Material Mass Density for FLUID130 Element .................................................................. 29
3. AUTODYN ........................................................................................................................................ 31
3.1. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous Releases ................................ 31
3.2. New Features ............................................................................................................................ 31
3.3. Documentation ........................................................................................................................ 31
4. AQWA .............................................................................................................................................. 33
4.1. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous Releases ................................ 33
4.2. AQWA Solver Modules .............................................................................................................. 33
4.3. Hydrodynamic Analysis Systems ................................................................................................ 33
5. Beamcheck ...................................................................................................................................... 35
5.1. New Features ............................................................................................................................ 35
6. Fatjack ............................................................................................................................................. 37

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iv of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Release Notes

6.1. New Features ............................................................................................................................ 37

II. ANSYS Fluids Products .......................................................................................................................... 39
1. FLUENT ............................................................................................................................................ 41
1.1. New Features in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5 ......................................................................................... 41
1.2. Supported Platforms for ANSYS FLUENT 14.5 ............................................................................. 47
1.3. Known Limitations in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5 ................................................................................. 47
1.4. Limitations That No Longer Apply in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5 ........................................................... 52
1.5. Updates Affecting Code Behavior .............................................................................................. 53
2. CFX .................................................................................................................................................. 57
2.1. New Features and Enhancements .............................................................................................. 57
2.1.1. General Changes to ANSYS CFX ....................................................................................... 57
2.1.2. ANSYS CFX-Solver ............................................................................................................ 57
2.1.3. ANSYS CFX-Pre ................................................................................................................. 59
2.1.4. ANSYS CFX Documentation .............................................................................................. 59
2.2. Incompatibilities ....................................................................................................................... 60
2.2.1. CFX-Solver ....................................................................................................................... 60
3. TurboGrid ........................................................................................................................................ 61
4. BladeModeler .................................................................................................................................. 63
4.1. BladeGen .................................................................................................................................. 63
4.1.1. BladeGen New Features and Enhancements ..................................................................... 63
4.2. BladeEditor ............................................................................................................................... 63
4.2.1. BladeEditor New Features and Enhancements ................................................................... 63
5. CFD-Post .......................................................................................................................................... 65
5.1. New Features and Enhancements .............................................................................................. 65
5.2. Incompatibilities ....................................................................................................................... 66
6. POLYFLOW ....................................................................................................................................... 67
6.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 67
6.2. New Features ............................................................................................................................ 67
6.3. Defect Fixes .............................................................................................................................. 68
6.4. Known Limitations .................................................................................................................... 69
III. ANSYS Electronics Products ................................................................................................................. 71
1. Icepak .............................................................................................................................................. 73
1.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 73
1.2. New and Modified Features in ANSYS Icepak 14.5 ...................................................................... 73
IV. ANSYS Geometry & Mesh Prep Products ............................................................................................. 77
1. DesignModeler ................................................................................................................................ 79
1.1. General Enhancements ............................................................................................................. 79
1.2. CAD Integration ........................................................................................................................ 81
2. Meshing ........................................................................................................................................... 83
2.1. Resuming Databases from Previous Releases ............................................................................. 83
2.2. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous Releases ................................ 84
2.3. Assembly Meshing Changes and Enhancements ....................................................................... 84
2.4. Fracture Meshing ...................................................................................................................... 84
2.5. MultiZone Quad/Tri Mesh Method Enhancements ..................................................................... 84
2.6. MultiZone Mesh Method Enhancements ................................................................................... 85
2.7. Local Size Control Enhancements .............................................................................................. 85
2.8. Ease of Use Enhancements ........................................................................................................ 85
2.9. ANSYS ICEM CFD Workbench Component ................................................................................. 86
3. IC Engine ......................................................................................................................................... 87
4. ICEM CFD ......................................................................................................................................... 89
4.1. Highlights of ANSYS ICEM CFD 14.5 ........................................................................................... 89
4.2. Key New Features/Improvements .............................................................................................. 89

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of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. v
Release Notes

4.2.1. Workbench Add-In Component ........................................................................................ 89

4.2.2. General ............................................................................................................................ 90
4.2.3. Prism Meshing ................................................................................................................. 90
4.2.4. Blocking ........................................................................................................................... 90
4.2.5. Ogrid Smooth Transition .................................................................................................. 90
4.3. Documentation ........................................................................................................................ 90
4.3.1. Tutorials ........................................................................................................................... 91
5. FLUENT Meshing ............................................................................................................................. 93
5.1. New Features ............................................................................................................................ 93
5.2. Known Limitations .................................................................................................................... 96
V. ANSYS Simulation Products .................................................................................................................. 97
1. Workbench ...................................................................................................................................... 99
1.1. ANSYS Workbench 14.5 ............................................................................................................. 99
1.1.1. Design Point Enhancements ............................................................................................. 99
1.1.2. User Interface Enhancements ......................................................................................... 100
1.1.3. Licensing Enhancements ................................................................................................ 101
1.1.4.Tighter Integration Between ANSYS Workbench and EKM ................................................ 101
1.1.5. Incompatibilities ............................................................................................................ 102
1.2. Engineering Data Workspace Release Notes ............................................................................. 102
1.3. External Data Release Notes .................................................................................................... 103
1.4. FE Modeler Release Notes ....................................................................................................... 103
1.5. Remote Solve Manager (RSM) Release Notes ............................................................................ 103
1.6. System Coupling ..................................................................................................................... 105
1.6.1. Numerics Changes ......................................................................................................... 106
1.6.2. Known Limitations ......................................................................................................... 106
1.7. TurboSystem Release Notes ..................................................................................................... 107
1.7.1. New Throughflow Analysis System .................................................................................. 107
1.7.2. ANSYS TurboGrid in Workbench ...................................................................................... 107
1.7.2.1. TurboGrid New Features and Enhancements .......................................................... 107
1.7.3. Vista CPD ....................................................................................................................... 107
1.7.3.1. Vista CPD New Features and Enhancements ........................................................... 108
1.7.4. Vista CCD Limitation ....................................................................................................... 108
2. EKM ............................................................................................................................................... 109
2.1. New Features .......................................................................................................................... 109
3. DesignXplorer ............................................................................................................................... 111
3.1. Optimization Systems and Methods ........................................................................................ 111
3.2. Optimization Criteria and Properties ........................................................................................ 112
3.3. Design of Experiments ............................................................................................................ 113
3.4. Candidate Points ..................................................................................................................... 114
3.5. Chart Enhancements ............................................................................................................... 114
3.6. Design Point Enhancements .................................................................................................... 115
3.7. User Interface Enhancements .................................................................................................. 116

Release 14.5 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
vi of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Global Release Notes
The release notes are specific to ANSYS, Inc. Release 14.5 and arranged by application/product, with
the exception of:

• Advisories (p. vii)

• Installation (p. vii)

• Licensing (p. viii)

• ANSYS Customer Portal (p. viii)

Note that installation- and licensing-specific information is detailed in some application and product
sections. The release notes are available as a printed manual included with the product, and accessible
in the ANSYS Help Viewer or online via the ANSYS Customer Portal (p. viii).

Release notes specific to previous ANSYS, Inc. releases:

• Version 14.0

• Version 13.0

• Version 12.1 for Linux

• Version 12.1

1. Advisories
In addition to the incompatibilities noted within the release notes, known non-operational behavior,
errors and/or limitations at the time of release are documented in the Known Issues and Limitations
document, although not accessible via the ANSYS Help Viewer. See the ANSYS Customer Portal for in-
formation about the ANSYS service packs and any additional items not included in the Known Issues
and Limitations document. First-time users of the customer portal must register to create a password.

The legacy ANSYS Flotran fluid dynamics capability embedded in some ANSYS Mechanical family
products (such as ANSYS Mechanical/FLOTRAN and ANSYS Multiphysics) will no longer be supported
after ANSYS Release 14.5.

2. Installation
The following features are new or changed at Release 14.5. Please review these items carefully.

• ANSYS, Inc. has discontinued support for the Linux Itanium 64 platform for all products.

• The installation package on Windows now features a new entry screen for easier navigation and faster
access to installation help.

• If you have any non-commercial versions of the software installed, such as a preview version, you will be
prompted to uninstall that version before continuing.

• Installation packages are now compressed using 7Zip for smaller packages and typically faster installation
on Windows.

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of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. vii
Global

• Dual media installation has been improved.

• BladeEditor is now supported on Linux platforms.

• The PDF help for certain products has been removed from the installation and is now available on the
ANSYS Customer Portal.

• EKM Server installation is now part of the unified installation process. See the EKM Installation Guide for
detailed installation instructions.

3. Licensing
The following enhancements have been made to ANSYS, Inc. Licensing for Release 14.5:

• The Complete Unfinished Licensing Installation Configuration option of the server ANSLIC_ADMIN
utility is no longer enabled on Windows machines.

• The Sun Solaris x64 (solx64) and Linux Itanium 64 (linia64) are no longer supported by the ANSYS, Inc.
License Manager.

• ANSYS Workbench users can now track license usage, and those who are running Design Point studies
can reserve the licenses that will be needed to complete a study. With that capability, we provide the license
administrator the ability to turn either/both the license tracking and license reservation capabilities off at
the site level. For more information, see Modify Startup Options in the Installation and Licensing Document-
ation.

• ANSYS, Inc. now offers additional license options called HPC Parametric Packs for ANSYS Workbench jobs
requiring multiple design point updates. HPC Parametric Packs enable you to simultaneously update
multiple design points of a single design study while using only a single license of each required base li-
cense. You must use the ANSYS Workbench reserved licensing feature to use HPC Parametric Pack licenses.
For more information, see HPC Parametric Pack Licensing in the Installation and Licensing Documentation.

• Release 14.5 licensing has significantly improved robustness and client load capability. For example, the
Licensing Interconnect is now able to support three times more client connects in Release 14.5 as compared
to Release 14.0.

• The ANSYS, Inc. License Manager can now be installed to any location on Windows machines.

• ANSYS, Inc. now offers the Application Customization Toolkit (ACT) as a licensed product. With the ACT
product, you can extend existing capabilities, add new capabilities, and automate repetitive tasks in an
interactive, Python-based environment.

4. ANSYS Customer Portal

If you have a password to the ANSYS Customer Portal (support.ansys.com), you can view additional
documentation information and late changes. The portal is also your source for ANSYS, Inc. software
downloads, service packs, product information (including example applications, current and archived
documentation, undocumented commands, input files, and product previews), and online support.

All the product documentation is available in printable format (PDF). Note that the content of the files
can be copied into word processing programs.

Customer Portal access points:

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viii of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 ANSYS Customer Portal

• Tutorials and input files To access tutorials and their input files on the ANSYS Customer Portal,
go to http://support.ansys.com/training.

• Documentation To access documentation files on the ANSYS Customer Portal, go to http://sup-

port.ansys.com/documentation.

• General information For further information about tutorials and documentation on the ANSYS
Customer Portal, go to http://support.ansys.com/docinfo.

Release 14.5 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. ix
 Release 14.5 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
x of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Part I: ANSYS Structural Products
Release notes are available for the following ANSYS Stuctural products:

Mechanical Application
Mechanical APDL
AUTODYN
AQWA
Beamcheck
Fatjack
Chapter 1: Mechanical Application Release Notes
This release of the Mechanical application contains all of the capabilities from previous releases plus
many new features and enhancements. Areas where you will find changes and new capabilities include
the following:
1.1. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous Releases
1.2. General Enhancements
1.3. Performance Enhancements
1.4. Analysis Enhancements
1.5. Contact and Connection Enhancements
1.6. Graphics Enhancements
1.7. Loads/Supports/Conditions Enhancements
1.8. Finite Element (FE) Enhancements
1.9. Mapping Enhancements
1.10. Solution Enhancements
1.11. Results Enhancements
1.12. Ease of Use Enhancements
1.13. Documentation Enhancements

1.1. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous

Releases
Release 14.5 includes several new features and enhancements that result in product behaviors that
differ from previous releases. These behavior changes are presented below.

• New Edit Mode for Section Planes. Mechanical now includes an explicit option for editing section planes.

• Creating Contour Result from Frequency Response Results. The feature to create contour results from
Frequency Response results has undergone a behavior change. When the contour result is generated, the
Phase Angle value now has a sign that is opposite of the Frequency Response result value. This matches
the response amplitude of the generated contour result and the frequency response result.

• Fatjack Stress Histogram Results in Design Assessment: If Fatjack Stress Histogram DA Results were
defined in an R14.0 project, when the project is opened in R14.5 it will be reset to the default (Damage
Values, Per Wave (Solution)) and the user will have to redefine it if the results are to be re-evaluated. If
the reset has not taken place automatically, the user may be required to reset the definitions manually.
This can be accomplished by re-selecting the Fatjack Assessment Type from the Setup cell of the Design
Assessment system on the Project Schematic.

Importing Pressures from External Data. When importing pressures from External Data, any rotation
transformations (Theta XY/YZ/ZX) specified in the External Data system will now be applied to the
mapped data. Rotations, resulting from using a cylindrical projection coordinate system, for 2D to
3D mapping will also be applied. Prior to Release 14.5, these rotations were ignored. For legacy
databases, re-importing data will result in rotations being applied and possibly differences in mapped
results from what was observed in prior releases.

Release 14.5 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 3
Mechanical

• Plot Elements Attached to Named Selections: A new annotation preference, Plot Elements Attached to
Named Selections, replaces the Show Mesh object property in the Details view of the Named Selections
folder object. This option is off by default.

• Disconnect Job from RSM. Previously, solutions submitted through the RSM from Mechanical that are
then removed directly from the RSM window (Remove...Del while in Queued state) before it gets submitted,
the job is automatically disconnected. Now, you need to use the Solution folder RMB option Disconnect
Job from RSM from Mechanical.

1.2. General Enhancements

The following general enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• Coupling Formulation on Remote Points. You can now specify a Coupled Behavior for a Remote Point.
Using the Coupled option, your geometry will have the same solution for the selected Active DOFs on its
underlying nodes as at the Remote Point location.

• Filtering of Objects in Tree Outline. You can now filter a large tree for objects matching one or more
search terms.

• Generating Objects from a Template Object. A new Object Generator enables you to create one or
more copies of a template object, scoping each to a different piece of geometry.

• Tagging Objects. You can now tag objects in the tree and use those tags for filtering and searching.

• Named Selection Worksheet Criterion - Distance. Distance is a new worksheet criterion. This value
defines a distance from the origin of a selected Coordinated System. This property allows you to find
nodes within a specified radius from a points or find the closest face, edge, etc.

• Symmetry Region. The Symmetry Region object now includes the new Linear Periodic type that allows
the simulation of the structural models with translational symmetry. This option automatically enforces
match meshing of selected geometries similar to Periodic and Cyclic Symmetry Regions.

• Cyclic Symmetry With Remote Boundary Conditions. The following objects and boundary conditions
are now supported in analyses that contain cyclic symmetry: Remote Forces, Remote Displacement, Mo-
ments, Point Masses, and Constraint Equations.

1.3. Performance Enhancements

Release 14.5 has given special attention to the performance of Mechanical in various areas in order to
provide a better responding product for both small and large models:

• Animation Performance Improvements. Animation performance has been improved. Typical speedup
is about a factor of two as compared to prior versions. Additionally, you can specify how scaling is calcu-
lated for further control using the Compute Auto Scale Factor button.

• Result File Size Improvement - Random Vibration Analysis. Modal results are no longer included in
the result file for a Random Vibration Analysis. As a result, the size of the result file has been significantly
reduced for projects with large models and for projects that include a large number of modes.

• Complex Analysis Improvement. For complex analyses with thousands of bodies that use name selections,
mesh connections, contacts or joints scoped to a over a thousand entities, the graphics performance has
improved drastically and the memory footprint has decreased.

Release 14.5 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
4 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Analysis Enhancements

• Copying Tabular Data. The time required to copy large amounts of tabular data has been improved by
at least a factor of 10.

• Faster post-processing of results for models with many bodies. The gathering of elemental information
has been streamlined in Mechanical to improve the post-processing of results. With models containing
large number of bodies and elements, post-processing can now be post-processing can now be 2x to 5x
faster.

• Improved speed and performance in post-processing and drawing of Harmonic Stress results.
Mechanical now implements a better data caching mechanism for Harmonic Stress results, which sharply
reduces the file I/O (by a factor of 5) and speeds up post-processing times by up to 75% and drawing
times by up to 60%.

• Improved slice plane performance. Slice plane creation is faster in 14.5. The Edit mode of slice planes
is now an explicit option in Mechanical and Meshing; therefore models and meshes now interact more
quickly when slice planes are present. You can activate Edit mode by toggling a button in the Section
Plane window. Slice planes now also remain activated over geometry and mesh views thus cutting out
operation times in re-activation.

• Improved performance in cyclic symmetry results: A number of enhancements have been made to
improve the performance of the post-processor for cyclic symmetry models. First, the calculations have
been streamlined for faster execution and parallelization and can perform 25-50% faster than in previous
versions. Second, the calculation of phase sweeps has been deactivated by default on harmonic indices
associated with frequency couplets in order to reduce the expense of obtaining contours at a given phase.
Finally, it is now possible to display and animate results over a fraction of the total symmetry expansions
and incur a corresponding fraction of the memory and computational expense. For example, on a model
with Cyclic Symmetry of N, it is possible to use as little as 1/N of the memory and computation time when
post-processing a single sector, which could pose a significant advantage when working with large models
with small sector angles.

• Faster Named Selections. The general performance of Named Selections has improved in the areas of
generation, selection, and usage. The improvement can be as much as 10x faster than in previous releases
on large models.

• FE Connections Display. Displaying and exporting FE Connections has been improved by over a factor
of 10.

1.4. Analysis Enhancements

The following analysis enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• Pre-Stress MSUP Transient Analysis. You can now perform a Mode Superposition Transient Structural
analysis that is linked to a pre-stressed Modal analysis.

• Submodeling. You can now perform a structural or thermal submodeling analysis, on solid bodies, by
linking systems in the Project Schematic. Several mapping options are available to transfer displacements
and temperatures at the cut-boundaries.

• Fracture Analysis. You can now compute fracture parameters that help you design within the limits of
catastrophic failure to a structure. Fracture analysis assumes the presence of a crack in the structure.

• Composite Analysis. You can now perform solid composite analysis inside of Mechanical from ACP
models.

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1.5. Contact and Connection Enhancements

The following contact and connection enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• Connection Matrix. You can now view how bodies are connected in a new Connection Matrix in the
Connections Worksheet.

• Model Topology. You can now view a summary of joint connections between bodies in a rigid dynamics
analyses model using the new Model Topology Worksheet.

• Penetration Tolerance. For a Formulation setting of Program Controlled or Augmented Lagrange, you
can now specify a Penetration Tolerance for a Contact Region.

• Joint Configure Context Toolbar. A new toolbar is now available when you have the Joint object selected,
the Joint Configure Context Toolbar. The toolbar clarifies which configuration options are available when
working with joints. These options were previously available on the Connections Context Toolbar.

• Forced Frictional Sliding. This new contact type is available. Using forced frictional sliding, a tangent
resisting force is applied at each contact point. For more information, refer to Type

• No Separation. No separation contact is now fully supported for rigid body analyses.

• Radial Gap Stop. A new type of joint stop, radial gap stop, is available. A radial gap stop can be used to
simulate a revolute joint with a gap between the inner and the outer cylinder that allows the shaft to
translate and tilt in the outer cylinder.

• Shell Thickness Effect. This new contact property allows you to include or exclude the thickness of a
surface body for an analysis involving contact pairs of surface bodies. See the Scope Settings section for
more information.

• Trim Contact. This new contact property speeds the solution process by reducing the number of contact
elements of each contact pair involved in the analysis. See the Definition Settings section for more inform-
ation.

• Elastic Slip Tolerance. This new contact property allows you to set the allowable elastic slip values for a
contact. See the Advanced Settings section for more information.

• Nonlinear Spring Stiffness. Nonlinear (or multi-rate) springs can now be simulated in a rigid dynamics
analysis.

• Nonlinear Bushing. During rigid dynamics analyses, a nonlinear stiffness curve can now be added with
a bushing joint. This can be used to simulate multi-rate bushing with nonlinear stiffness.

1.6. Graphics Enhancements

The following graphical enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• Graphical Views. The ability to manage and save multiple view settings has been introduced. This feature
allows for a consistent graphical view between sessions. You can also export a view as Mechanical APDL
Commands.

• Mesh Visibility. You can now indicate whether the mesh is automatically displayed when the Mesh object
is selected in the Tree Outline, or if it’s only displayed when you toggle it on.

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• Maximum Number of Annotations. In the Graphics options, you can now select the maximum number
of annotations to be displayed, from 0 to 50. The default is 10.

• Variable Data Toolbar. A new toolbar enables you to view contours or isolines effects on variable data,
including spatial varying loads, imported loads, and thicknesses

• Random Colors Display. A new toolbar button on the Graphics Options toolbar enables you to view
each distinct load, support, named selection, or contact with a random color at each redraw.

• Annotation Preferences. A new Annotation Preferences dialog box allows you centralized control over
the visibility of annotations, including custom annotations and annotation labels and annotations on objects
such as cracks, point masses, and springs.

1.7. Loads/Supports/Conditions Enhancements

The following loads/supports/conditions enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• EM (Electro-Mechanical) Transducer. This new node-based boundary condition allows you to model
simple Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) devices.

• Fluid Solid Interface. The Fluid Solid Interface boundary condition is now supported for Steady-State
Thermal Analyses.

• Coupling Formulation on Remote Boundary Conditions. You can now specify Coupled as the Behavior
for Remote Boundary Conditions.

• Bearing. A new connection object, Bearing, is now available for use in Rotordynamic analyses to confine
the relative motion/rotation of a rotating part.

• Tabular Loads. Tabular Loads now allow up to 100,000 entries.

• Bolt Pretension. The Bolt Pretension boundary condition can now be applied in a 2D analysis.

1.8. Finite Element (FE) Enhancements

The following FE enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• Coordinate Systems at Nodes. You can now create a coordinate system at a node.

• Results. Result objects can now be scoped to user-selected nodes.

• Frequency Response and Phase Response Charts. Frequency Response and Phase Response objects
can now be scoped to user-selected nodes.

• Result Trackers. Structural Result Trackers and Thermal Result Trackers can now be scoped to a single
node of the mesh or to geometry-based Named Selections or to a node-based Named Selection for a
single node.

• Node Annotations: You can now toggle the visibility of mesh node annotations in Named Selection displays
and mesh node numbers in Named Selection, Mesh, and Result displays.

• Plot Elements Attached to Named Selections: You can now toggle the visibility of elements for all items
in the Named Selections group. In order to plot elements attached to Named Selections, toggle off the
Show Mesh button. With the Show Mesh button toggled ON, you will always see the full mesh.

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• Coordinate System Based on System Normal: You can now orient the principal axis based on the hit point
normal of an existing coordinate system and create an aligned coordinate system based on the hit point.

1.9. Mapping Enhancements

The following mapping enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• Faster mapping with Kriging. Data mapping using the Kriging algorithm now utilizes multiple cores. For
larger meshes utilizing 8 cores, a 6 to 7 times speedup can be obtained.

• Adaptive Kriging. By default, the Kriging technique now uses an adaptive algorithm to prevent gross errors
in the estimation of mapped values. The new adaptive algorithm works separately for each target point
and ensures that the mapped value does not exceed a user-specified limit by controlling the polynomial
order and the number of source points used in the interpolation.

• New Graphics Options for Validation Objects. Validation objects have several new graphics options in-
cluding:

– An option to plot source values as isolines or contours (Available only when source element data is
provided from External Data using MAPDL CDB mesh input.).

– The ability to control the number of legend divisions.

– A new validation type, Undefined Points, has been added to allow displaying nodal data that does not
have an associated data value.

• New Legend Controls for Imported Load Objects. Imported Load objects have new legend controls for
modifying the legend minimum and maximum range values

• Displacement and Force Import from External Files. Displacements and forces, specified in the External
Data system, can now be imported and applied in a static or transient structural analysis.

• Complex Pressure Import from External Files Pressures, specified in the External Data system, can now
be imported and applied in a Harmonic Response analysis.

• Enhancements for Thermal-Stress Analysis.

– Rigid Transformation Controls. New translation and rotation controls are now available to transform
the source mesh and can be used to align the source with the target mesh.

– Display of Source Nodes. The Display Source Points option on the Imported Body Temperature object
now allows you to display the source nodes on the target geometry and can be helpful in ensuring
proper alignment.

• Enhancements when Handling Vectors.

– Rotation transformations (Theta XY/YZ/ZX) specified in the External Data system are now applied to
the mapped data.

– Rotations, resulting from using a cylindrical projection coordinate system, for 2D to 3D mapping are
now applied to the mapped data.

– When transferring data from the External Data system, you can choose to ignore specifying a source
component identifier in the worksheet of the Imported Load if data for that direction is not available.

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 Solution Enhancements

– Contour Plots for Imported Vector Data. For imported vector loads, the Data property in the details
pane now allows you to view contours plots of the magnitude or X/Y/Z components.

• Scoping Enhancements.

– Imported Loads, that import data on nodes (displacement, force, and temperature), can now be scoped
to node-based Named Selections.

– Imported Temperature and Imported Displacement loads, when used to transfer data from the Ex-
ternal Data system, can be scoped to all geometry entity types (body, face, edge, or vertex).

• Source Point Id Display Option for Imported Loads. Imported load objects have new option to display
points with their corresponding identifier number.

1.10. Solution Enhancements

The following solution enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• Output Controls – Velocity and Acceleration. The option to calculate velocity and/or acceleration results
for a Random Vibration Analysis are now available allowing you to customize your random vibration
solution. This option allows you to reduce solution time for random vibration analyses by not including
the velocity and/or acceleration results.

• Output Controls – Calculate Reactions on Constrained Nodes. For Mode Superposition (MSUP) Harmonic
and Transient analyses that are linked to a Modal analysis, the Nodal Forces option of the Output Controls
property of the Analysis Settings object has a new option: Constrained Nodes. This option causes only
constrained nodes to be used in the calculation of reaction forces and moments. As a result, the result
file size is reduced and in some cases, processing time may be reduced.

• Options Control for Harmonic Analysis. Variational Technology is a new solution method option. Based
upon the Full method, Variational Technology expedites solution processing time by using a harmonic
sweep capability of an add-on VT Accelerator.

• Include Residual Vector. The Analysis Settings Option group property, Include Residual Vector, has
been added. It allows you to calculate or include residual vectors for Harmonic and Transient Structural
Analysis Using Linked Modal Analysis Systems. This feature accounts for high frequency dynamic responses
with fewer eigenmodes.

• Damping Controls. The Damping Controls for Harmonic Response, Transient Structural, Response Spectrum,
and Random Vibration analyses now support all constant damping ratios, stiffness matrix multiplier
damping (Beta damping), and mass matrix multiplier damping (Alpha damping).

• Explicit Dynamics Solution Settings Options. Explicit may be used for a wide range of applications, and
the default set of Analysis Settings are not necessarily suited to every application. The Analysis Settings
defaults for Explicit have been selected in order to provide the most robust solution. This is sometimes
at the expense of speed of solution. Therefore, a new Analysis Settings Type property has been added.
This will allow selection of particular defaults depending on the requirements of the user. The following
options are available:

– Program Controlled – This is the default setting and is identical to the analysis settings for older versions
of Explicit. The priority is for a robust solution.

– Low Velocity – Recommended for low deformation/velocity (<100m/s) analyses.

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– High Velocity – Recommended for high deformation/velocity (>100m/s) analyses.

– Efficiency – Settings for minimum runtime. In some cases, this may have an impact on robustness and
accuracy.

– Quasi-static – Recommended for quasi-static analyses.

• Explicit Dynamics Minimum Strain Rate Cutoff Setting. A Minimum Strain Rate Cutoff setting has been
added to the Explicit Dynamics Solver Controls settings.

• Explicit Dynamics Strain Rate Correction for the Johnson-Cook and Cowper-Symonds Material
Models. For all shell element types, a first order as well as an implicit strain rate correction is available
for the Johnson-Cook and Cowper-Symonds material models to reduce high frequency oscillations that
are sometimes observed in the yield surface under high strain rates. The first order strain rate correction
is applied by default. The implicit strain rate correction can be used in cases where the first order strain
rate correction does not suffice, although at the cost of extra CPU time usage.

• Explicit Dynamics Output Contact Forces Option. You can now write out the contact forces for 3D Ex-
plicit Dynamics analyses to text files. The frequency and number of contact forces can be specified.

1.11. Results Enhancements

The following results enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• Reactions. You can now obtain reaction forces and moments for Mesh Connections, Remote Points,
grounded Beams, and grounded Springs using the Force Reaction or Moment Reaction probes.

• Reaction Probe Scoping Extended to Imported Loads. Imported Displacements and Imported Temper-
ature loads can now be used to obtain force and heat reactions respectively.

• Node Picking on Result Plots. You can now pick nodes on the contour results.

• Reactions on Cutting Planes. You can now extract member forces and moment reactions through a
model using a reaction probe scoped to a Surface Construction Geometry object.

• Contact Tool Fluid Pressure Penetration Result. You can now access the contact result for fluid pressure
penetration in the contact tool. See Contact Results for more information.

• Design Assessment. The following enhancements have been made to the Design Assessment system:

– Multiple step results can now be defined, including tabular and graphical output.

– Solution combinations can now optionally include the combination of multiple steps or substeps, and
presentation as a multiple step result.

– Solution combinations can now replicate the features previously presented using the Mechanical APDL
LCOPER command. Results can now be determined based on a number of different combination or
comparison methods.

• Phase Response in Harmonic Analysis. A Phase Increment control is now available when calculating
the maximum phase response of results in a harmonic analysis.

• Cyclic Symmetry Results: In Cyclic Analyses you can now display and animate results over a fraction of
the total symmetry expansions.

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 Documentation Enhancements

• Contact Result Trackers. Fluid Pressure, Minimum Geometric Sliding Distance, and Maximum Geo-
metric Sliding Distance are new Contact Result Trackers.

• Damage Results: Mechanical now supports a number of damage results using non-linear material models,
including the Mullins Effect, Progressive Damage, and Physical Failure Criteria.

1.12. Ease of Use Enhancements

The following usage enhancements have been made in Release 14.5:

• Surface (Construction Geometry). You can now create a Surface Construction Geometry object from a
highlighted coordinate system object using the new right-click feature, Create Construction Surface.

• Engineering Data Workspace: You can now switch to the Engineering Data Workspace and perform
operations from the highlighted Material Assignment Property of a selected body.

• Coordinate Systems Based on Nodes. You can now select one or more nodes, then create a coordinate
system directly in the Graphics window. You can also select an individual node and create an aligned
coordinate system on a solved vector principal stress or strain result.

• Coordinate Systems Based on a Surface Normal. You can now create a coordinate system based on a
surface normal, either by orienting the principal axis of an existing coordinate system by hit point normal,
or by creating a coordinate system aligned with a hit point.

• Show Errors Button. The Standard Toolbar now includes a Show Errors button. This feature populates
the Message window with the error messages for any tree objects that are not properly defined.

• Disconnect Job from RSM. The new RMB option Disconnect Job from RSM is now available from the
Solution folder allowing you to disconnect Mechanical from the current RSM job.

1.13. Documentation Enhancements

The following documentation enhancements have been made in Release 14.5:

• Title Change. The title of the Mechanical Application User’s Guide had been simplified to Mechanical User
Guide.

• General Help Restructure. The Mechanical documentation underwent restructuring that changed the
hierarchical organization of the content to elevate subsections to lessen the degree to which a user must
"drill" into the Help.

• User Interface. The Mechanical interface documentation was reorganized to group together relevant
sections, reduce unnecessary topics, and more effectively arrange the material to aid customers in locating
relevant material.

• Boundary Conditions. Large portions of the boundary conditions documentation were redesigned for
the Mechanical 14.5 release. The majority of the sections were reorganized and given a common look and
feel to give users the ability to navigate more quickly to a desired topic within each section.

• Example of Explicit to Implicit Analysis. In order to show how to exploit features of Explicit Dynamics,
Design Assessment, and Mechanical APDL, an example (including sample files) is now available showing
how to initialize an implicit analysis using results from an Explicit Dynamics analysis.

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Chapter 2: Mechanical APDL Release Notes
Release 14.5 of the Mechanical APDL application offers most of the capabilities from prior releases plus
many new features and enhancements. Areas where you will find changes and new capabilities include
the following:

• Structural (p. 13)

• Coupled-Field (p. 18)

• Low-Frequency Electromagnetics (p. 18)

• Acoustics (p. 18)

• Diffusion (p. 19)

• Radiation (p. 19)

• Solvers (p. 19)

• Linear Perturbation (p. 21)

• Results File (p. 21)

• Commands (p. 21)

• Elements (p. 25)

• Other Enhancements (p. 26)

Also see Known Incompatibilities (p. 28) and ANSYS Customer Portal (p. viii) for important information
about this release.

2.1. Structural
Release 14.5 includes the following new features and enhancements for structural analyses:
2.1.1. Contact
2.1.2. Elements and Nonlinear Technology
2.1.3. Material Modeling
2.1.4. Linear Dynamics

2.1.1. Contact
Release 14.5 includes the following enhancements for structural analyses involving contact:
2.1.1.1. User-Defined Friction Enhancements
2.1.1.2. User-Defined Contact Interaction
2.1.1.3. Defining Real Constants via Subroutine
2.1.1.4. Defining Real Constants in Tabular Format
2.1.1.5. Elastic Slip

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2.1.1.6. Controlling the Units of Normal Contact Stiffness

2.1.1.7. Surface-Based Constraints
2.1.1.8. 3-D Node-to-Node Contact Element

2.1.1.1. User-Defined Friction Enhancements

In prior releases, the USERFRIC user-defined friction subroutine was valid only for structural analysis,
and could only be used with penalty-based tangential contact. Those restrictions have been removed.
You can now use USERFRIC with any non-structural degrees of freedom and with the Lagrange multi-
plier method. The frictional stresses can be defined as a function of the slip increments and the con-
tact/target temperatures. For more information, see Writing Your Own Friction Law (USERFRIC) in the
Contact Technology Guide.

2.1.1.2. User-Defined Contact Interaction

The USERINTER subroutine is now available for defining complex interactions between contacting
surfaces when the existing interaction models are not adequate. This capability includes interaction in
the normal direction, interaction in the tangential direction, and interaction among coupled multiphysics
fields.

You can write a USERINTER subroutine to program your own contact interactions for all current-
technology contact elements (CONTA17x). The contact normal stress, tangential stresses, and the heat
flux can be defined as a function of a number of variables such as slip increments, sliding rate,
gap/penetration, temperature, and other passed-in variables. You can also introduce extra solution-de-
pendent state variables that you can update and use within this user subroutines. You can specify a
number of properties or constants associated with it.

For more information, see Defining Your Own Contact Interaction (USERINTER) in the Contact Technology
Guide.

2.1.1.3. Defining Real Constants via Subroutine

You can now write a USERCNPROP subroutine to program your own real constants for all current-
technology contact elements (CONTA17x). For example, you can perform any nonlinear contact pres-
sure/penetration operation instead of a linear operation (that is, use a varied contact stiffness instead
of a constant stiffness). The contact stiffness can vary with pressure, penetration, temperature, and your
own defined state variables. For more information, see Defining Your Own Real Constant (USERCNPROP)
in the Contact Technology Guide.

2.1.1.4. Defining Real Constants in Tabular Format

You can now define certain contact element real constants (such as FKN, FKT, TCC, ECC) as a function
of primary variables (such as temperature, contact pressure, and gap function) via tabular input. This
capability applies to all current-technology contact elements (CONTA17x), allowing more flexibility for
accurately modeling contact behaviors. For more information, see Defining Real Constants in Tabular
Format in the Contact Technology Guide.

2.1.1.5. Elastic Slip

In prior releases, the elastic slip due to sticking in a contact analysis was guaranteed not to exceed the
maximum allowable limit within a substep. In this release, a new slip algorithm implemented for the
contact elements ensures that the elastic slip never exceeds the user-defined absolute limit (a negative
value input for real constant SLTO) during the entire solution, not just within a substep.

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In addition, the following output quantities are now available (ETABLE) for all current-technology contact
elements (CONTA17x): accumulated irreversible slip due to frictional sliding (PLSI), and total accumulated
sliding (GSLID). By outputting these quantities, you can easily track the contact status (such as sticking,
sliding, possible near-field opening) and the sliding distance from the start position to the current pos-
ition for a given contact point. For more information, see Reviewing the Results in the Contact Technology
Guide.

2.1.1.6. Controlling the Units of Normal Contact Stiffness

When you input an absolute normal contact stiffness by specifying a negative value for real constant
FKN, you can now control the units of FKN in contact elements CONTA171 through CONTA174. By default,
the units of the user-specified absolute normal contact stiffness is FORCE/LENGTH3. If a penalty-based
algorithm is used, you can change the units to FORCE/LENGTH. In addition, you can use the CNKMOD
command in a brake squeal analysis to change the units of the normal contact stiffness from
FORCE/LENGTH3 to FORCE/LENGTH during the linear perturbation stage of the analysis.

2.1.1.7. Surface-Based Constraints

The following enhancements to surface-based constraints have been added:

• New Coupling Constraint -- In addition to the force-distributed surface constraint and rigid surface
constraint, you can now use the internal multipoint constraint (MPC) feature of most current-technology
contact elements (CONTA171 through CONTA177) to model coupling constraints. In this type of constraint,
the degrees of freedom of contact nodes are constrained to have the same solution as the degrees of
freedom of the pilot node, similar to a constraint defined via the CP command. For more information, see
Surface-Based Constraints in the Contact Technology Guide.

• Multiphysics Support -- The surface-based constraints (force-distributed, rigid surface, and coupling
constraint types) are no longer limited to structural degrees of freedom only. They now support temper-
ature and other non-structural degrees of freedom. As an example, defining a force-distributed constraint
on the temperature degree of freedom allows distribution of the heat flow to the contact surface.

2.1.1.8. 3-D Node-to-Node Contact Element

The following enhancements are available for the 3-D CONTA178 node-to-node contact element:

• A new spherical gap type is available, in addition to the existing unidirectional gap and cylindrical
gap.

• You can now model rigid Coulomb friction, in which sliding always occurs regardless of the magnitude
of the normal contact force and the friction coefficient. The option is useful for displacement-controlled
problems or for certain dynamic problems where sliding dominates.

• You can now use the node-to-node contact element, in combination with coupled thermal-structural
solid elements, thermal-electric-structural solid elements, or thermal elements to model multiphysics
contact, including: thermal conduction, convection, radiation, heat generation due to friction, external
heat flux, electric conduction, and heat dissipation due to electric current.

For more information, see Node-to-Node Contact in the Contact Technology Guide and the CONTA178
element description.

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2.1.2. Elements and Nonlinear Technology

Release 14.5 includes the following enhancements to elements and nonlinear technology used in
structural analyses:
2.1.2.1. 2-D to 3-D Analysis
2.1.2.2. Nonlinear Submodeling
2.1.2.3. Initial Curve Effects for Shells

2.1.2.1. 2-D to 3-D Analysis

It is sometimes necessary to extend 2-D nonlinear finite element results to a corresponding extruded
3-D body such that the solution can continue based on the 3-D model. For example, a 2-D axisymmetric
rubber sealing simulation could be followed by a 3-D loading analysis of the same structure.

A new 2-D to 3-D analysis capability extrudes (EEXTRUDE) a 2-D deformed mesh to a new 3-D mesh.
The program updates the database as necessary, generates contact elements if needed, and transfers
boundary conditions, loads, and nodal temperatures from the 2-D mesh to the extruded 3-D mesh. All
solved variables (node and element solutions) are then mapped (MAP2DTO3D) to the new 3-D mesh
automatically so that a 3-D analysis can be continued based on the 2-D results.

Extrusion operates automatically on current-technology plane elements (PLANE182 and PLANE183)

based on the element KEYOPT(3) setting. Direct axisymmetric or plane strain extrusion is available. The
extrusion behavior of accompanying contact (CONTA171 and CONTA172), and flexible target (TARGE169)
elements is determined by the plane element settings. Rigid target (TARGE169) elements are extruded
in the global Z direction unless axisymmetric extrusion is in effect.

For more information, see 2-D to 3-D Analysis in the Advanced Analysis Guide.

2.1.2.2. Nonlinear Submodeling

Submodeling allows you to obtain an accurate solution for critical mesh regions while requiring fewer
computational resources and less simulation time. It is useful when your finite element model is large
and you need to use a fine mesh, but only certain critical mesh regions are of interest. A nonlinear
submodeling capability is available for a more robust analysis of load-history-dependent problems. For
more information, see Submodeling in the Advanced Analysis Guide.

2.1.2.3. Initial Curve Effects for Shells

The SHELL181 shell element now offers an advanced formulation option, for use with a smooth and
adequately refined mesh, that accurately incorporates initial curvature effects. The calculation for effective
shell curvature change accounts for both shell-membrane and thickness strains. The new formulation
generally offers improved accuracy in curved shell structure simulations, especially when thickness strain
is significant or the material anisotropy in the thickness direction cannot be ignored, or in thick shell
structures with unbalanced laminate construction or with shell offsets.

2.1.3. Material Modeling

Release 14.5 includes the following enhancements to material modeling technology used in structural
analyses:
2.1.3.1. Initial State
2.1.3.2. User-Defined Field Variables and Field-Variable-Dependent Coefficient of Thermal Expansion
2.1.3.3. Isotropic Hardening for Chaboche Curve Fitting

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Some material properties are not available via the material property menus of the GUI. For a list of such
material properties, see GUI-Inaccessible Material Properties in the Material Reference.

2.1.3.1. Initial State

Initial state support is now available for coupled pore-pressure mechanical solid elements CPTnnn, and
pipe elements PIPE288 and PIPE289. You can now define the initial stress, strain, and other supported
variables for those elements. Applications for the enhanced initial state capability include soil-consolid-
ation analysis, prestress pipe analysis, residual stress or strains for pipe analyses.

The initial state feature now allows user-defined data types (UF01, UF02, ..., UF09). You can define a
field of user-specified variables based on nodes or element integration points with initial state. The
enhancement allows you to define a field of user variables to a finite element model, then associate
the field to solution data such as the material properties including elasticity (TB,ELASTIC) and coefficient
of thermal expansion (TB,CTE).

For more information, see Initial State in the Basic Analysis Guide and the documentation for the INISTATE
command.

2.1.3.2. User-Defined Field Variables and Field-Variable-Dependent Coefficient of

Thermal Expansion
Related to the enhancement allowing user-defined field variables with the initial state capability, the
elastic material properties (TB,ELASTIC) are now extended to support field-variable dependence. The
data table for coefficient of thermal expansion (TB,CTE) has been added to allow field-dependent CTEs.
To define a field-dependent material property, use the TBFIELD command as part of the data table
definition. Valid user-defined field variables are UF01 through UF09. Among other uses, the new capab-
ilities are helpful for analyzing functional gradient material, where the material properties are a function
of geometrical locations.

For more information, see User-Defined Field Variables and Thermal Expansion in the Material Reference,
and the TBFIELD documentation.

2.1.3.3. Isotropic Hardening for Chaboche Curve Fitting

Chaboche material curve fitting determines your material constants by relating your experimental data
to the Chaboche nonlinear kinematic hardening model. Now, isotropic hardening can also be modeled
by including a supported isotropic hardening model with the kinematic hardening model in the curve-
fitting process. For more information, see Chaboche Material Curve Fitting in the Material Reference.

2.1.4. Linear Dynamics

Release 14.5 includes the following enhancements for structural analyses involving linear dynamics:
2.1.4.1. Shared Memory Parallel (SMP) in PSD Analyes
2.1.4.2. Multiple Pressure Load Vectors in MPRS and PSD Analyses

2.1.4.1. Shared Memory Parallel (SMP) in PSD Analyes

In PSD analyses, Shared Memory Parallel (SMP) is now automatically activated when a large number of
modes is present. As a result, the performance of modal covariance matrices calculations and response
power spectral density (RPSD) calculations are greatly improved.

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2.1.4.2. Multiple Pressure Load Vectors in MPRS and PSD Analyses

Multiple pressure load vectors are now supported in MPRS and PSD analyses. For more information,
see Reusing Eigenmodes Structural Analysis Guide.

2.2. Coupled-Field
The following coupled-field elements now support plasticity, viscoelasticity, viscoplasticity and creep
in structural-diffusion and structural-thermal-diffusion analyses: PLANE223, SOLID226, and SOLID227.
The elements also support the new surface and body diffusion loads, DFLUX (diffusion flux) and DGEN
(diffusing substance generation rate), in structural-diffusion, thermal-diffusion, and structural-thermal-
diffusion analyses.

2.3. Low-Frequency Electromagnetics

Release 14.5 includes the following enhancements in the area of low-frequency electromagnetics:

• Hall Effect -- The Hall effect is now available with the electromagnetic analysis option (KEYOPT(1)=1) of
3-D electromagnetic elements SOLID236 and SOLID237. To model the Hall effect, specify the Hall constant
RH via the new MP,RH command option. The Hall effect is applicable to steady-state or transient electro-
magnetic analyses. For more information about the Hall effect, see Hall Effect in the Mechanical APDL
Theory Reference.

• New command -- The new DFLX command imposes a uniform magnetic flux B on an edge-element
electromagnetic model.

2.4. Acoustics
Release 14.5 includes the following enhancements in the area of acoustic analysis:

• Johnson-Champoux-Allard Equivalent Fluid Model of Perforated Material -- The Johnson-Champoux-

Allard equivalent fluid model of porous material (TB,PERF) is available for problems involving porous
material behavior with effective complex density and sound speed that justifies the internal energy losses
and phase shift between pressure and sound velocity. For more information, see Johnson-Champoux-Allard
Equivalent Fluid Model of a Porous Media in the Material Reference

• Surface Velocity or Acceleration Excitation -- The arbitrary surface velocity or acceleration load on the
exterior surface introduces more flexible excitation to the acoustic model and makes one-way coupling
possible from the structural vibration to the acoustic propagation. For more information, see Finite Element
Formulation of the Wave Equation in the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference.

• Far-field Enhancements -- Far-field functionality has been extended to models with 2-D features. The
phase angle of the complex pressure is available for near-field and far-field results. Retrieve far-field
parameters via the *GET command. Output the phase angle via the PRNEAR, PLNEAR, PRFAR, and PLFAR
commands.

• Second-Order Absorbing Boundary Condition for High-Order Acoustic Elements and Attenuation
Coefficient -- A 3-D infinite acoustic element with a spherical envelope (FLUID130) is available for the
high-order acoustic elements for radiated sound pressure. The boundary attenuation coefficient is available
for defining the lossy property with derived boundary impedance on the exterior surface. For more inform-
ation, see Acoustic Boundary Conditions in the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference.

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 Solvers

2.5. Diffusion
The following enhancements to diffusion analysis are available in this release:
2.5.1. New Diffusion Elements
2.5.2. New Diffusion Surface and Body Loads

2.5.1. New Diffusion Elements

A new 2-D element, PLANE238, and two new 3-D elements, SOLID239 and SOLID240, are now available
for modeling diffusion processes.

PLANE238 is an 8-node quadrilateral solid. SOLID239 is a 20-node brick-shaped solid, and SOLID240 is
a 10-node tetrahedral solid. The elements have one concentration (CONC) degree of freedom at each
node and are applicable to steady-state or transient diffusion analyses. For more information about the
new elements, see the Element Reference.

2.5.2. New Diffusion Surface and Body Loads

A new surface load, DFLUX (diffusion flux), and a new body load, DGEN (diffusing substance generation
rate), are now available in diffusion analyses using PLANE238, SOLID239, or SOLID240 elements and
coupled-diffusion analyses using PLANE223, SOLID226 or SOLID227 elements. These loads are analogous
to the thermal loads, HFLUX and HGEN, respectively.

The DFLUX surface load can be specified via the SF and SFE commands. The new DFLUX load label is
also supported by the SFSCALE, SFGRAD, SFFUN, SFLIST, SFELIST, SFCUM, ESEL commands.

The DGEN body load can be specified via the BF and BFE commands. The new DGEN load label is also
supported by the BFUNIF, BFSCALE, BFESCAL, BFECUM, NSEL, ESEL, and *GET commands.

2.6. Radiation
The QUASI option on the THOPT command, used for speeding up the solution of nonlinear transient
thermal analyses, is now supported in the radiosity solver for radiation analyses. The corresponding
restriction has been removed from the THOPT command description.

2.7. Solvers
Release 14.5 includes the following new enhancements that improve solution procedures and features.
2.7.1. Distributed ANSYS Enhancements
2.7.2. GPU Acceleration Enhancements
2.7.3. Other Solver Changes and Enhancements

2.7.1. Distributed ANSYS Enhancements

The following enhancements are available for Distributed ANSYS:

• A file-combination feature is now available for combining results files and other solution files following
a Distributed ANSYS solution. This feature is useful if you opt to bypass the file-combination step
(DMPOPTION,,NO) that occurs automatically at the end of every distributed solution. By issuing the
COMBINE command, you can manually combine the local or distributed results files into a single,
global results file at a later time.

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Mechanical APDL

• The performance of the file-combination step, for example to combine the local or distributed results
file into a single, global results file, has been greatly improved, particularly on the Windows platform.
In some cases, the file-combination step is more than ten times faster than in the prior release.

• Support is now available for running the Block Lanczos and Supernode eigensolvers (MODOPT,LANB;
SNODE) using shared-memory parallelism (SMP) inside Distributed ANSYS. In prior releases, the eigen-
solvers were available in Distributed ANSYS, but only used distributed memory parallelism (DMP)
outside of the eigensolver and only used a single core to extract the modal solution inside the eigen-
solver. The eigensolvers can now use multiple cores to extract the modal solution and, therefore,
operate in the mixed SMP/DMP mode.

• Support is now available for running the Jacobi Conjugate Gradient (JCG) iterative equation solver,
the Incomplete Cholesky Conjugate Gradient (ICCG) iterative equation solver, and the Quasi-Minimal
Residual (QMR) iterative equation solver (EQSLV,JCG; ICCG; QRM) using shared-memory parallelism
(SMP) inside Distributed ANSYS. In prior releases, the equation solvers were not available in Distributed
ANSYS, and the solver was automatically switched to the Sparse direct solver instead. The solvers
now operate in the mixed SMP/DMP mode.

• Improvements made to the solver kernel used for the Unsymmetric, Subspace, and Damped eigen-
solvers (MODOPT,UNSYM; SUBSPACE; DAMP) result in reduced analysis times, especially when running
Distributed ANSYS. For a large model run on a 32-core machine, the solver process can be two to
three times faster than in the previous release. Memory used when running Distributed ANSYS with
these eigensolvers is also reduced.

• The Variation Technology (VT) method for harmonic analysis is now fully supported in a Distributed
ANSYS solution. The VT harmonic method speeds up the solution compared to the full (FULL) har-
monic method. By default (HROPT,AUTO), the program selects the VT harmonic method (instead of
the FULL method) when there are no frequency-dependent materials present in the model.

• The SECFUNCTION command is now fully supported in a Distributed ANSYS solution.

2.7.2. GPU Acceleration Enhancements

The following enhancements are available for the GPU accelerator capability.

• Support for multiple GPUs -- When using GPU acceleration, you can now use multiple GPUs per
machine or per compute node on a cluster. For the iterative solvers (PCG and JCG), multiple GPUs
are supported with both shared-memory ANSYS and Distributed ANSYS. For the Sparse direct solver,
multiple GPUs are only supported when running Distributed ANSYS.

• Improved functionality for the iterative solvers -- A new hybrid algorithm has been employed to
make use of the CPU cores in addition to the GPU device for increased acceleration. Also, larger
problem sizes can now be accelerated when using GPUs.

2.7.3. Other Solver Changes and Enhancements

The following are solver-related changes and enhancements.

• The PCG solver now supports the Lagrange multiplier method of the entire MPC184 family of elements.
The imposed Lagrange multipliers are transferred into multiple point constraints so that the PCG
solver can be used to obtain a solution. To activate this functionality, set LM_Key = ON on the
PCGOPT command.

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 Commands

2.8. Linear Perturbation

The following enhancements for linear perturbation analyses have been added:
2.8.1. Support for Static Analysis
2.8.2. Support for Superelements
2.8.3. Nonlinear Spring Element Support

For more information, see Linear Perturbation Analysis in the Structural Analysis Guide and the discussion
of linear perturbation in the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference.

2.8.1. Support for Static Analysis

In many engineering applications, the linear behavior of a structure based on a prior linear or nonlinear
preloaded status is of interest. In addition to prior support of linear perturbation buckling, modal, and
harmonic analyses, you can now use the linear perturbation analysis procedure to solve a linear problem
from this preloaded case for static analyses. The preloaded case can include any nonlinear materials
and geometric and contact nonlinearities. The linear perturbation static analysis also includes support
for random vibration (PSD) analyses that are performed subsequent to a linear perturbation modal
analysis.

To perform a linear perturbation static analysis after a static or full transient analysis, restart the analysis
at the load point of interest, apply your perturbation load, then use the PERTURB and SOLVE commands
to execute the linear perturbation analysis.

2.8.2. Support for Superelements

The use of superelements (MATRIX50) during a linear perturbation static or modal analysis is now sup-
ported.

2.8.3. Nonlinear Spring Element Support

The COMBIN39 nonlinear spring element now supports linear perturbation. For a complete list of elements
supporting this capability, see Elements Under Linear Perturbation in the Element Reference.

2.9. Results File

The following enhancements to the results file (Jobname.RST, Jobname.RTH, and so on) appear in
this release:

• Element results are now written in single precision, including stresses, strains, nodal forces, miscel-
laneous data (SMISC), and so on. Nodal solutions (such as displacements) and reaction solutions
(PRRSOL) remain in double precision.

• The modal results file (Jobname.MODE) is now smaller when element results are written during the
modal expansion (MXPAND,,,,YES,,YES).

• Results files are now up to 50 percent smaller than results files in prior releases.

2.10. Commands
This section describes changes to commands at Release 14.5.

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Mechanical APDL

Some commands are not accessible from menus and are available via the command input area or batch
file input only. The documentation for each command indicates whether or not a menu path is available
for that command operation.
2.10.1. New Commands
2.10.2. Modified Commands
2.10.3. Undocumented Commands

2.10.1. New Commands

The following new commands are available in this release:

• COMBINE -- Combines distributed memory parallel (Distributed ANSYS) files.

• DFLX -- Imposes a uniform magnetic flux B on an edge-element electromagnetic model.

• EEXTRUDE -- Extrudes 2-D plane elements into 3-D solids. Typically used in a 2-D to 3-D analysis.

• *LSDUMP -- Dumps a linear solver engine to a binary File.

• *LSRESTORE -- Restores a linear solver engine from a binary file.

• MAP2DTO3D -- Initiates a 2-D to 3-D analysis.

• *WRK -- Sets the active workspace number.

2.10.2. Modified Commands

The following commands have been enhanced or otherwise modified in this release:

• ACCOPTION -- Specifies GPU accelerator capability options. The MinSzThresh and SPkey arguments
are obsolete and have been removed from this command. The program now automatically determines
the optimal minimum frontal matrix size threshold based on the current CPU and GPU hardware in your
system.

• BF -- Defines a nodal body force load. You can now define non-uniform velocity (Lab = EF) in a harmonic
analysis or non-uniform acceleration in a transient analysis.

• BFA -- Defines a body force load on an area. You can now define non-uniform velocity (Lab = EF) in a
harmonic analysis or non-uniform acceleration in a transient analysis.

• CNKMOD -- Modifies contact element key options. You can now change the units of normal contact
stiffness during a brake squeal analysis.

• /CONFIG -- Assigns values to program configuration parameters. The option to set maximum number of
results sets on the results file (Lab = NRES) has been removed. The number of results sets is now unlimited.

• CUTCONTROL -- Controls time-step cutback during a nonlinear solution. You can now set minimum stress
or elastic strain thresholds for calculating the creep ratio criterion. For integration points with stress or
elastic strain below the defined thresholds, the creep ratio is not calculated and no time-step cutback
occurs.

• *DMAT -- Creates a dense matrix. The command can now be set to transpose the original matrix. Import
features have also been extended. The command can now import records from RFRQ files, and imported
RST file records now offer access to a larger set of nodal results, including the nodal solution (NSL), the
transient velocity solution (VSL), the transient acceleration solution (ASL), and the reaction forces (RF).

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 Commands

• DMPOPTION -- Specifies distributed memory parallel (Distributed ANSYS) file combination options. The
modal load vector file (.MLV) and initial state file (.IST) have been added to the list of files that this
command can affect.

• *EIGEN -- Performs a modal solution with unsymmetric or damping matrices. The command now supports
symmetric matrices when used with the MODOPT,LANB option.

• EXPROFILE -- Exports interface loads to a CFX Profile file. The command can now export mode shapes
and frequencies (Load = MODE) from a modal analysis to a CFX Profile file.

• *FREE -- Deletes a matrix or a solver object and frees its memory allocation. You can now delete all APDL
Math matrices and solver objects belonging to a given workspace, and also set the memory workspace
number.

• *GET -- Retrieves a value and stores it as a scalar parameter or part of an array parameter. The ability to
retrieve far-field acoustics parameters has been added (Entity = ACUS).

• HROPT -- Specifies harmonic analysis options. The command is now valid for Distributed ANSYS using
Method = AUTO, FULL, or VT. Also, the reduced harmonic analysis method has been undocumented.

• LDREAD -- Reads results from the results file and applies them as loads. You can now apply concentrations
from a diffusion analysis to a subsequent diffusion analysis as nodal loads or initial conditions.

• MODOPT -- Specifies modal analysis options. The reduced modal analysis method has been archived.

• MP -- Defines a linear material property as a constant or a function of temperature. A new label allows
you to specify the Hall coefficient for SOLID236 and SOLID237 elements. For more information about the
Hall effect, see Hall coefficient in the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference. Also, other labels have been added
allowing you to specify the heat coefficient at constant pressure per unit of mass and the heat coefficient
at constant volume per unit of mass, respectively.

• MPDATA -- Defines property data to be associated with the temperature table. You can now specify the
Hall coefficient for SOLID236 and SOLID237 elements, the heat coefficient at constant pressure per unit
of mass, and the heat coefficient at constant volume per unit of mass.

• NLDIAG -- Sets nonlinear diagnostics functionality. When contact diagnostic information is requested
(NLDIAG,CONT), the following items are now included in the Jobname.CND file: maximum and minimum
total sliding distance, and maximum fluid penetration pressure on the contact and target surfaces.

• NLHIST -- Specifies result items to track during a solution. Specification that you set via this command
are now saved in the database (Jobname.DB). Also, the following contact result items can now be tracked:
maximum and minimum total sliding distance (GSMX and GSMN), and maximum fluid penetration pressure
on the contact and target surfaces (FPSC and FPST).

• OCDATA -- Defines an ocean load using non-table data. The default behavior of the vertical offset from
the global origin to the mean sea level has changed. (See the VAL6 argument description for the Zmsl
value.)

• PLCAMP -- Plots Campbell diagram data for applications involving rotating structure dynamics. You can
now directly determine the stability threshold in a Campbell analysis.

• PLFAR -- Plots electric or pressure far fields and far field parameters. The command can now output the
pressure phase angle (Opt = PHSC).

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Mechanical APDL

• PLNEAR -- Plots the electric field or pressure in the near zone exterior to the equivalent source surface.
The command can now output the phase angle of complex pressure for acoustics (Opt = PHAS).

• PRCAMP -- Prints Campbell diagram data for applications involving rotating structure dynamics. The
command can now directly determine the stability threshold in a Campbell analysis.

• PRFAR -- Prints electric or pressure far fields and far field parameters. The command can now output the
pressure phase angle in a Cartesian coordinate system plot and the pressure phase angle in a polar co-
ordinate system plot.

• PRNEAR -- Prints the electric field or pressure in the near zone exterior to the equivalent source surface.
The command can now output the phase angle of complex pressure for acoustics.

• RADOPT -- Specifies radiosity solver options. You can now specify the maximum number of iterations for
convergence when the full solver (THOPT,full) is used.

• RPSD -- Calculates response power spectral density (PSD). You can now use a significance level (SIGNIF)
to include only the significant modes in the response power spectral density, resulting in less computa-
tional time.

• SECCONTROL -- Supplements or overrides default section properties. For naming consistency with other
control commands, this command has been renamed (from SECCONTROLS). Input files that still issue the
command using the old name are unaffected and require no editing.

• SFE -- Specifies surface loads on elements. You can now specify acoustic surface loads on elements.

• *SMAT -- Creates a sparse matrix. The TRANS option has been added to allow users to transpose the ori-
ginal matrix.

• TB -- Activates a data table for material properties or special element input. The following material options
have been added: an instantaneous coefficient of thermal expansion (TB,CTE) input; user-defined contact
interaction specifications (TB,INTER), and Johnson-Champoux-Allard equivalent fluid material model of
porous media (TB,PERF).

• TBFIELD -- Defines values of field variables for material data tables. The command now supports user-
defined field variables (UF01 through UF09).

• THOPT -- Specifies the nonlinear transient thermal solution option. The QUASI option, used for speeding
up the solution of nonlinear transient thermal analyses, is now supported in the radiosity solver for radiation
analyses.

• TRNOPT -- Specifies transient analysis options. The reduced transient analysis method has been undocu-
mented.

• *VEC -- Creates a vector. You can now import records from RFRQ files, and imported RST file records now
offer access to a larger set of nodal results, including the nodal solution (NSL), the transient velocity
solution (VSL), the transient acceleration solution (ASL), and the reaction forces (RF).

Several commands were enhanced to include new diffusion surface and body load options. The com-
mands are listed in New Diffusion Surface and Body Loads (p. 19).

2.10.3. Undocumented Commands

The following features have been undocumented at this release:

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 Elements

• Variational Technology (VT)

• The reduced method for harmonic and transient analyses.

• PGR file support

The following legacy commands have therefore been undocumented:

PGSAVE TOTAL VTGEOM VTREAL VTSTAT

PGRAPH /VT VTIN VTRFIL VTTEMP
PGRSET VTCLR VTMETH VTRSLT VTVMOD
PGSELE VTDISC VTMP VTSEC
PGWRITE VTEVAL VTOP VTSFE
POUTRES VTFREQ VTPOST VTSL

For information about commands that have been undocumented in prior releases, see the archived
release notes on the ANSYS Customer Portal (p. viii).

2.11. Elements
This section describes changes to elements at Release 14.5.

Some elements are not available from within the GUI. For a list of those elements, see GUI-Inaccessible
Elements in the Element Reference.
2.11.1. New Elements
2.11.2. Modified Elements
2.11.3. Undocumented Elements
2.11.4. Archived Elements

2.11.1. New Elements

The following elements have been added in this release:

• PLANE238 -- 2-D 8-Node Diffusion Solid

• SOLID239 -- 3-D 20-Node Diffusion Solid

• SOLID240 -- 3-D 10-Node Tetrahedral Diffusion Solid

2.11.2. Modified Elements

The following elements have been enhanced in this release:

• COMBIN14 -- This spring-damper element COMBIN14 now supports stiffness and damping coefficients
function of the frequency in a full harmonic analysis. This is especially useful when modeling a frequency-
dependent material.

• COMBIN39 -- This nonlinear spring element now supports linear perturbation.

• CONTA171, CONTA172, CONTA173, CONTA174, CONTA175, CONTA176, CONTA177, CONTA178 -- These

contact elements now support the following features: user-defined contact interaction via the USERINTER

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Mechanical APDL

subroutine; user-defined real constants (for certain real constants) via the USERCNPROP subroutine; tabular
input for certain real constants; additional elastic slip output quantities.

• CONTA171, CONTA172, CONTA173, CONTA174, CONTA175, CONTA176, CONTA177 -- For these contact
elements, you can now use the internal multipoint constraint (MPC) feature to model coupling constraints,
similar to constraints defined by the CP command.

• CONTA171, CONTA172, CONTA173, CONTA174 -- For these surface-to-surface contact elements, you can
now control the units of absolute normal contact stiffness (that is, a negative value input for real constant
FKN).

• CONTA178 -- This node-to-node contact element now supports the following features: a spherical gap
type; rigid Coulomb friction; multiphysics contact.

• CPT212, CPT213, CPT215, CPT216, CPT217 -- These coupled pore-pressure mechanical solid elements now
support initial state loading.

• FLUID30, FLUID220, FLUID221 -- These 3-D Acoustic Fluid elements now support the Johnson-Champoux-
Allard equivalent fluid material model of porous media (TB,PERF).

• PIPE288, PIPE289 -- These pipe elements now support initial state loading.

• MATRIX50 -- This substructure element now supports linear perturbation.

• PLANE223, SOLID226, SOLID227 -- These coupled-field elements offer a new surface load, diffusion flux
(DFLUX), and a new body load, diffusion substance generation (DGEN).

• SHELL181 -- This four-node structural shell element offers a new formulation option for incorporating
initial curvature effects.

2.11.3. Undocumented Elements

The following legacy elements have been undocumented at this release:

SOLID62
INTER115

For information about other elements that have been undocumented in prior releases, see the archived
release notes on the ANSYS Customer Portal (p. viii).

2.11.4. Archived Elements

The following legacy elements have been moved to the Feature Archive:

FLUID79
FLUID80
FLUID81

2.12. Other Enhancements

This section contains information about Release 14.5 enhancements not listed elsewhere in this document.

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 Other Enhancements

2.12.1. Soil-Pile Analysis

For soil-pile analysis, format details for database results have been added. Links have also been added
to Beamcheck documentation describing the use of a Microsoft Excel plug-in for retrieving and manip-
ulating results.

2.12.2. Tabular Data Stored on Jobname.LDHI

Tabular data is now stored on the Jobname.LDHI file, making the restart process simpler when tabular
loading is used.

2.12.3. Documentation
ANSYS, Inc. continues to refine the Mechanical APDL documentation set. To that end, the following
changes and enhancements to the documentation have occurred with this release:

2.12.3.1. Acoustic Theory

A new, greatly expanded Acoustics chapter has been added to the Mechanical APDL Theory Reference.

2.12.3.2. Technology Demonstration Guide

The following new example problems have been added to the Technology Demonstration Guide:
2.12.3.2.1. Fitting Parameters for a Chaboche Kinematic Hardening Model
2.12.3.2.2. Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Simulation
2.12.3.2.3. Analysis of a Piezoelectric Flextensional Transducer in Water

2.12.3.2.1. Fitting Parameters for a Chaboche Kinematic Hardening Model

This example problem demonstrates how to determine material parameters for a third-order Chaboche
kinematic hardening model using the curve-fitting tool. A method is presented to estimate the initial
parameters and obtain a least-squares best fit to the data. The fitted parameters are validated by con-
ducting uniaxial simulations using a single element and comparing the results with the experimental
data.

2.12.3.2.2. Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Simulation

This example problem simulates the response of an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) of a human knee
subjected to tension, flexion, and rotation. The problem uses an anisotropic hyperelastic material
model with viscoelasticity.

2.12.3.2.3. Analysis of a Piezoelectric Flextensional Transducer in Water

This example problem demonstrates the coupling of structural, piezoelectric, and acoustic elements to
analyze the acoustic response of a flextensional transducer to voltage excitation. The problem highlights
fluid-structure interaction (FSI), piezoelectric materials, infinite acoustic elements, the Robin boundary
condition, and far-field postprocessing.

2.12.3.3. Feature Archive

Legacy features, commands, elements, and theory information continue to be moved to the Feature
Archive. While ANSYS, Inc. continues to support these legacy capabilities for the immediate future, some
may be undocumented in future releases. Consider moving to their recommended replacements.

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Mechanical APDL

2.12.3.4. Documentation Updates for Programmers

The following documentation updates are available for programmers:

2.12.3.4.1. Using Mixed Languages for Compiling and Linking User Programmable Features
When compiling and linking user programmable features (UPFs) into the Mechanical APDL program,
you can now write your user routines in a combination of languages: Fortran, C, and C++. The new
capability applies for all methods of linking user routines on both Linux and Windows platforms. Examples
of using mixed languages with the /UPF command method are included on the distribution media for
both Linux and Windows platforms. For more information, see Compiling and Linking UPFs on Linux
Systems and Compiling and Linking UPFs on Windows Systems in the Programmer's Reference.

2.12.3.4.2. Routines and Functions Updated

Routines and functions documented in the Programmer's Reference have been updated to reflect the
current source code. To see specific changes in a file, ANSYS, Inc. recommends opening both the old
and current files (using a text editor that displays line numbers), then comparing the two to determine
which lines have changed. You can copy the updated files to your system by performing a custom in-
stallation of the product.

2.13. Known Incompatibilities

The following incompatibilities with prior releases are known to exist at Release 14.5.
2.13.1. Results File Format
2.13.2. LINK180 Element Results
2.13.3. Hydrostatic Fluid Elements with KEYOPT(1) = 1
2.13.4. Contact Stiffness Behavior
2.13.5. Radiation View Factor as a Function of GAP
2.13.6. Ramped Friction Coefficient in a Brake Squeal Analysis
2.13.7. User-Defined Friction Subroutine (userfric)
2.13.8. Material Mass Density for FLUID130 Element

2.13.1. Results File Format

Numerous changes to the results file format allow for future expansion of the file in order to accom-
modate more advanced analyses and to reduce the current file size. The changes include the following:

• Results header record and geometry header record have increased from 40 to 80 integers.

• Multiple geometry sets are now supported by the file.

• Principle stresses are no longer written to the file.

• Element results are now single-precision.

• The maximum number of sets stored on the results file is now dynamic. As a result, the /CONFIG,NRES
command is no longer required to exceed the initial default of 10,000 result sets.

For more information, see the description of the results file in the Programmer's Reference.

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 Known Incompatibilities

2.13.2. LINK180 Element Results

The LINK180 3-D spar (truss) element has been changed so that the consistent mass matrix is now the
default (rather than the former lumped mass matrix). The new default behavior causes result differences
when compared to the former default.

2.13.3. Hydrostatic Fluid Elements with KEYOPT(1) = 1

For analyses including hydrostatic fluid elements (HSFLD241 or HSFLD242), if both the HDSP and PRES
degrees of freedom are activated by setting KEYOPT(1) = 1, you may see changes in the analysis results
when compared to the previous release. This is because the program now builds internal constraint
equations to tie the HDSP and PRES degrees of freedom together. Previously, this was achieved through
a penalty method, which could lead to convergence difficulties in some cases.

2.13.4. Contact Stiffness Behavior

When the command NEQIT,1,FORCE is issued to force one iteration per substep, the program now in-
ternally sets KEYOPT(10) = 0 for contact elements (CONTA171 through CONTA177) present in the
model so that contact stiffness will be constant during the entire analysis. This behavior differs from
that of prior releases.

2.13.5. Radiation View Factor as a Function of GAP

When modeling radiation via thermal contact, the radiation view factor (input as real constant RDVF
for contact elements CONTA171 through CONTA177) can be defined as a function of gap distance by
using tabular input to define RDVF, with GAP as a primary variable.

In prior releases, a positive GAP index value represented an open gap. In this release, the implementation
of GAP has changed such that a negative GAP index value represents an open gap. If you are using
input from a previous release that includes RDVF defined by tabular input, you must adjust your table
parameters accordingly. See Defining Real Constants in Tabular Format for more information.

2.13.6. Ramped Friction Coefficient in a Brake Squeal Analysis

When using the full nonlinear perturbed modal analysis procedure to model brake squeal, forced fric-
tional sliding can be induced by defining a rotational velocity (CMROTATE). In prior releases, if the
friction coefficient for the contact pair undergoing forced frictional sliding was modified after the first
load step (MP), the friction was step-applied. Now, if the friction coefficient is modified after the first
load step and the ramping option is set (KBC,0), the friction coefficient is linearly interpolated for each
substep based on the values from the previous and current load steps. The change is intended to improve
the convergence for this type of brake squeal analysis.

2.13.7. User-Defined Friction Subroutine (userfric)

Due to user-defined friction enhancements, new arguments have been added to the userfric sub-
routine. Furthermore, the array sizes and values of the rlconst, kstat, and dt arguments have been
changed. You must therefore modify any userfric subroutines programmed in previous releases to
correspond to the revised subroutine.

2.13.8. Material Mass Density for FLUID130 Element

The FLUID130 element requires that the mass density of acoustic fluid be specified.

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Chapter 3: AUTODYN Release Notes
The following enhancements are available in release 14.5. Please refer to the product specific document-
ation for full details of the new features.
3.1. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous Releases
3.2. New Features
3.3. Documentation

3.1. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous

Releases
Release 14.5 includes new features and enhancements that result in product behaviors that differ from
previous releases. These behavior changes are presented below.

• Platform MPI Support. On the Windows operating systems, best performance of the AUTODYN parallel
solver is obtained by using Platform MPI version 8.1.2. The version that will be installed via the ANSYS
Installer menu is 8.2.1; please refrain from using this version. Refer to Windows Systems using Platform
MPI for further guidance.

3.2. New Features

The following new features are exposed in ANSYS AUTODYN for Release 14.5:

Strain Rate Correction for the Johnson-Cook and Cowper-Symonds Material Models. For all shell
solver types a first order as well as an implicit strain rate correction is available for the Johnson-Cook
and Cowper-Symonds material models to reduce high frequency oscillations that are sometimes observed
in the yield surface under high strain rates. The first order strain rate correction is applied by default.
The implicit strain rate correction can be used in cases where the first order strain rate correction does
not suffice, although at the cost of extra CPU time usage.

Please see the Solution Enhancements section of the Mechanical Application Release Notes for more
information about the following AUTODYN features available in the Explicit Dynamics System in the
Mechanical application:

• Explicit Dynamics Solution Settings Options

• Explicit Dynamics Minimum Strain Rate Cutoff setting

• Explicit Dynamics Output Contact Forces Option

3.3. Documentation
The following documentation changes have been made for ANSYS AUTODYN for Release 14.5:

Documentation Added to ANSYS Help Viewer. The AUTODYN folder has been removed from the
Start > All Programs > ANSYS 14.5 > Help folder. The following documents that used to be accessed
from that folder are now available in the ANSYS Help Viewer.

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AUTODYN

• AUTODYN Composite Modeling

• AUTODYN Parallel Processing Tutorial

• AUTODYN User Subroutines Tutorial

Example of Explicit to Implicit Analysis. In order to show how to exploit features of Explicit Dynamics,
Design Assessment, and Mechanical APDL, an example (including sample files) is now available showing
how to initialize an implicit analysis using results from an Explicit Dynamics analysis.

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32 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 4: AQWA Release Notes
This release of the AQWA related products contains all capabilities from previous releases plus many
new features and enhancements. The following enhancements are available in release 14.5. Please refer
to the product specific documentation for full details of the new features.
4.1. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous Releases
4.2. AQWA Solver Modules
4.3. Hydrodynamic Analysis Systems

4.1. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous

Releases
Release 14.5 includes several new features and enhancements that result in product behaviors that
differ from previous releases. These behavior changes are presented below.

• A new field (Start and Finish Frequency/Period Definition) has been added to the Details panel of the
Jonswap, Pierson Moscovitz and Gauss wave types in Workbench. When reading in project files from
earlier versions, the program chooses the value of this field depending on the saved values of Start Fre-
quency/Period and Finish Frequency/Period. If both of the fields are zero, the Definition field is Program
Controlled. If both fields are nonzero, the Definition field is User Defined. If only one of the fields is nonzero,
the Definition field is set to User Defined for the nonzero field.

4.2. AQWA Solver Modules

The following new features provide extended capabilities in the AQWA Solver modules:

• Multiple Simultaneous Wave Spectra in AQWA-FER. The ability to model multiple simultaneous wave
spectra has been extended to AQWA-FER.

• Linearization of Morison Drag. Linearized Morison drag effects can be applied to AQWA-LINE and AQWA-
FER analyses for TUBE, DISC, and STUB elements. In AQWA-LINE the model can contain only one structure
and only one spectrum can be specified. In AQWA-FER, the linearization can be applied to multiple
structures and multiple spectra.

• DISC and STUB elements have been added to the Shear Force and Bending Moment graphs in the
AGS.

4.3. Hydrodynamic Analysis Systems

The following new features provide extended capabilities in the Hydrodynamic Analysis Workbench
systems:

Model Animation. A Time History Motions result object has been made available for the Hydrodynamic
Time Response system. This object allows you to view the animation of the motion of the parts in your
project over the entire analysis period.

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34 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 5: Beamcheck Release Notes
The following enhancements are available in release 14.5. Please refer to the product specific document-
ation for full details of the new features.
5.1. New Features

5.1. New Features

The following new features are available in Release 14.5 of Beamcheck:

Design Assessment Integration:

• Results access speed has been significantly improved, reducing the time taken to obtain results from
minutes to seconds.

• Results can now be obtained and presented in single result object over a time or pseudo time range
spanning multiple substeps (can also span multiple steps) for an upstream transient or static analysis.

• Python result access functions are now documented for user customization of scripts to allow presentation
of their own compound results.

• Added database result format details, and commands to retrieve results within Excel.

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 Release 14.5 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
36 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 6: Fatjack Release Notes
The following enhancements are available in release 14.5. Please refer to the product specific document-
ation for full details of the new features.
6.1. New Features

6.1. New Features

The following new features are available in Release 14.5 of Fatjack:

Design Assessment Integration:

• Results access speed has been significantly improved, reducing the time taken to obtain results from
minutes to seconds.

• Results can now be obtained and presented in single result object based on multiple intervals, wave cases,
or spectrums. The Stress Histogram Results have been renamed to better define results; existing projects
will need to have the input for these results reselected.

• Python result access functions are now documented for user customization of scripts to allow presentation
of their own compound results.

• Added database result format details and linked to Beamcheck section for commands to retrieve results
within Excel.

• Added the ability to specify a particular inspection point for the result, and the ability to search all the
inspection points and retrieve the minimum, maximum, absolute minimum, or absolute maximum result
for that joint.

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38 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Part II: ANSYS Fluids Products
Release notes are available for the following ANSYS Fluids products:

FLUENT
CFX
TurboGrid
ANSYS BladeModeler
CFD-Post
POLYFLOW
Chapter 1: FLUENT Release Notes
The following sections contain release information for ANSYS FLUENT 14.5.
1.1. New Features in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5
1.2. Supported Platforms for ANSYS FLUENT 14.5
1.3. Known Limitations in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5
1.4. Limitations That No Longer Apply in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5
1.5. Updates Affecting Code Behavior

1.1. New Features in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5

New features available in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5 are listed below. Where appropriate references to the
relevant section in the User's Guide are provided.

Integrated Meshing

• FLUENT now includes an integrated volume mesher that you can use to create high-quality unstructured
grids from within FLUENT in the meshing mode. See FLUENT Meshing Release Notes.

Solver-Numerics

• Simulations using the deforming mesh capability can be solved using second-order discretization in time.

• The Green-Gauss Node Based gradient method is now available with polyhedral meshes.

• The pressure-based solver can now be used for periodic flows with the mass flow rate specification
method.

• You can now define source terms and fixed variables using profiles or UDFs.

• Solution stabilization methods added to help achieve convergence for system coupling cases. (System
Coupling Motion)

Solver-Meshing

• A matching option is now available to enforce matching of mesh interfaces or periodic zones that are
poorly matched (Using a Non-Conformal Mesh in ANSYS FLUENT).

• Additional controls in the Mesh Method Settings dialog box and the Dynamic Mesh Zones dialog box
(for deforming motion) to enhance flexibility in applying spring-based smoothing on various element
types (e.g., tetrahedral, triangular) (see Smoothing Methods and Deforming Motion).

• You can now include cells in the poor mesh numerics that are not included automatically but nevertheless
cause convergence problems or otherwise adversely effect the solution using the solve/set/poor-
mesh-numerics/user-defined-on-register text command (see Robustness on Meshes of Poor
Quality).

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FLUENT

• You can now use the CutCell zone remeshing method to remesh a complete cell zone, including all
boundary zones of the remeshed cell zone (3D simulations only) (see CutCell Zone Remeshing
Method).

• The ability to detect if the computed mesh motion will result in contact with other surfaces in dynamic
mesh simulations and trigger associated user-defined actions (see Contact Detection Settings).

• A new option, Exclude Mesh Motion in Boundary Conditions, is available in the Dynamic Mesh
Zones dialog box for rigid body and user-defined zone types. This option allows you to specify that
the boundary mesh motion should not be included in the physical boundary conditions of that zone.
This option is only available for non-periodic boundary zones. (see Contact Detection Settings).

Models

• Turbulence

– The default value for the turbulence intensity is set to 5% (medium intensity) and the turbulence viscosity
ratio has a default value of 10. (Determining Turbulence Parameters)

– The Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) concept is now available with all omega-based turbulence models.

• Heat Transfer and Radiation

– Periodic boundary zones are now supported when using the ray tracing method to calculate view factors
with the surface-to-surface (S2S) radiation model.

– Improved ray-tracing method gives faster view factor calculation for large and complex cases.

– Improved encapsulation of coupled wall with S2S results in faster case file reads.

• Combustion and Species Transport

– Reacting flow variables have been included under the bounded second order time discretization option.

– The ability to generate lookup tables for the non-premixed and partially-premixed combustion
models using Automated Grid Refinement and second order interpolation, providing substantially
quicker run times. (Generating Lookup Tables Through Automated Grid Refinement in the Theory
Guide). You can revert to fourth order interpolation using the /define/models/species/non-
premixed-combustion-expert TUI command.

– The ability to model steady premixed flamelets in the partially premixed combustion model with
Flamelet Generated Manifolds. (Steady Premixed Flamelet Turbulent Closure in the Theory Guide)

– The ability to define multiple fuels for the NOx and SOx pollutant models. (Defining the Fuel Streams
and Defining the SOx Fuel Stream Settings)

– The ability to perform faster NOx tabulation with the premixed and partially premixed combustion
models.

• Discrete Phase Model

– Azimuthal angle properties have been added for cone and solid-cone injection types in 3D models.

– Cone angle can now be specified as a transient profile for cone and solid-cone injections.

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 New Features in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5

– Several new parcel release methods are available when using unsteady particle tracking. These allow
you to specify the number of particles per parcel, the mass of the parcels, or the diameter of the parcels.
(Steady/Transient Treatment of Particles)

– Node based averaging is now available as a supported feature. (Node Based Averaging of Particle Data)

– You can now select whether to include virtual mass forces and pressure gradient effects in the particle
force balance. ( Including the Virtual Mass Force and Pressure Gradient Effects on Particles)

– The Lagrangian wall film model can now be used with wet combusting particles.

– Additional cell-averaged discrete phase quantities are available for postprocessing. ( Reporting of In-
terphase Exchange Terms (Discrete Phase Sources) and Reporting of Discrete Phase Variables)

– You can now use the DEFINE_DPM_PROPERTY macro to create a User-Defined Function for particle
density. This capability is not available when using the Wet Combustion Model. (
DEFINE_DPM_PROPERTY ).

• VOF

– Hydrostatic pressure profiles can be specified for non-open channel flows.

– Variable surface tension capability can be modeled with the CSF model for any field variable.

– For cases involving moving meshes or moving reference frames (MRF), you can use the Relative Velocity
Resistance Formulation option to better predict porous media sources.

– You can now generate random/regular waves by wave superposition of linear/non-linear waves. (Super-
position of Waves)

– You can now generate shallow water waves with finite amplitude using the Solitary/Cnoidal wave theory.
(Cnoidal/Solitary Wave Theory)

• Eulerian Multiphase Model

– Drag models from Grace et al. and Tomiyama et al. have been implemented for Mixture and Eulerian
Multiphase flows. (Specifying the Drag Function)

– A drag modification factor can be applied when using the mixture and Eulerian multiphase models.
The drag modification factor applied can be based on the Brucato correlation, a user-defined
function, or a constant value. (Drag Modification)

– Additional lift models have been added for Eulerian Multiphase flows. Saffman-Mei and Legendre-
Magnaudet models have been introduced and the Moraga and Tomiyama models previously im-
plemented for boiling flows have been extended and are now available for non-boiling flows. (In-
cluding the Lift Force)

– Wall lubrication forces can now be included when using the Eulerian multiphase model. (Including
the Wall Lubrication Force)

– Additional models for turbulent dispersion have been added when using the Eulerian multiphase
model. Previously, turbulent dispersion was accessed as Turbulent Drift Force in the Viscous model
dialog box. Turbulent dispersion for the Eulerian model is now accessed from the Phase Interaction
Dialog Box. (Including the Turbulent Dispersion Force)

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FLUENT

– When using the Mixture model, the Turbulent Drift Force option in the Viscous dialog has been renamed
Mixture Drift Force.

– New models have been added to account for the influence of dispersed phases on the multiphase tur-
bulence models. (Including Turbulence Interaction Source Terms).

– The Tomiyama model for interphase heat transfer has been added for the Eulerian multiphase model.
(Including Heat Transfer Effects)

– You can now select an algebraic model to compute interfacial area when using the Eulerian multiphase
model. (Using an Algebraic Interfacial Area Model)

– A degassing boundary condition is now available when using the Eulerian multiphase model for two-
phase liquid-gas flow. This is applicable to bubble-columns where you want to model the escape of
gas bubbles from the domain without modeling the complete freeboard region. (Degassing Boundary
Conditions).

– An additional method, dpm-averaged, is available for estimating Granular Temperature when using
the Dense Discrete Phase Model (DDPM). (Defining a Granular Secondary Phase)

• Eulerian Wall Film Model

– Options to enable adaptive time stepping for film marching. (Setting Eulerian Wall Film Solution
Controls)

– Options to enable the inclusion of surface tension and random locations for film separation. (Setting
Eulerian Wall Film Model Options)

– Options to account for the effect of the interaction of the wall film with Eulerian multiphase flow.
(Setting Eulerian Wall Film Model Options)

– Options to account for the effect of condensation and vaporization at the film wall with species
transport. (Setting Eulerian Wall Film Model Options)

– Coupling of the Eulerian wall film model with the multiphase mixture model. (Setting Eulerian Wall
Film Model Options)

Material Properties

• Option to select the vapor or liquid phase at sub-critical conditions while using real gas models. (Real Gas
Models)

• Compatibility of the real gas models with the partially premixed combustion model.

• You can now model compressible liquids using the Tait equation of state. (Compressible Liquid Density
Method)

Boundary Conditions

• The general non-reflecting boundary conditions (NRBC) are available for the pressure-based solver. (Gen-
eral Non-Reflecting Boundary Conditions)

• For cases involving moving meshes or moving reference frames (MRF), you can use the Relative Velocity
Resistance Formulation option to better predict porous media sources.

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 New Features in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5

• Support for receiving temperature and heat flow data for wall boundaries via System Coupling. (Heat
Transfer Boundary Conditions Through System Coupling)

• Ability to define a convective augmentation factor for walls, in order to augment the diffusive heat
flux for applications that have perturbed flow and/or disturbed boundary layers. TUI only. (Augmented
Heat Transfer)

Mesh Morpher/Optimizer

• Ability to use a bounding box based on boundary zones to define the deformation region for the
mesh morpher/optimizer. (Setting Up the Mesh Morpher/Optimizer)

• Ability to use input parameters to define deformation parameters for the mesh morpher/optimizer,
so that you can use Design Exploration in ANSYS Workbench to easily explore multiple deformation
scenarios. (Setting Up the Mesh Morpher/Optimizer)

• Performance has been improved for cases with larger numbers of control points, such that the time
required to deform the mesh is reduced.

• Ability to save intermediate case and data files during an optimization run, so that you can restart
an interrupted solution in the same or a different FLUENT session without increasing the overall
number of design iterations needed to reach convergence. (Setting Up the Mesh Morpher/Optimizer)

• Ability to read and write ASCII text files that define the scaling factor settings for deformation para-
meters. (Setting Up the Mesh Morpher/Optimizer)

• Ability to reject meshes of poor orthogonal quality during the optimization process. (Setting Up the
Mesh Morpher/Optimizer)

• Ability to disable a general mesh check that rejects meshes that produce errors during the optimization
process. (Setting Up the Mesh Morpher/Optimizer)

Parallel Processing

• Enhanced performance for reading and writing mesh-to-mesh solution interpolation files. (Mesh-to-Mesh
Solution Interpolation)

• Reduced case file reading time.

• Ability to enable hybrid optimization partitioning method for DPM and DEM. (Partitioning)

• View factor computations can be accelerated using the viewfac_acc and the raytracing_acc util-
ities. (Accelerating View Factor Calculations for General Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units
(GPGPUs))

• Hybrid parallelization of DEM method leading to improved scalability.

• Dynamic spawning of the right number of solver processes when switching from the meshing to the
solution modes.

• Improved AMG coarsening for better convergence in parallel.

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FLUENT

User-Defined Functions (UDFs) and User-Defined Scalars (UDSs)

• UDFs can be compiled in ANSYS FLUENT with OpenCL support for execution on General Purpose Graphics
Processing Units (GPGPUs) on lnamd64 and win64 platforms. (Enabling FLUENT UDFs to Execute on Gen-
eral Purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPUs))

Graphics, Postprocessing, and Reporting

• Additional cell-averaged discrete phase quantities are available for postprocessing. (Reporting of Interphase
Exchange Terms (Discrete Phase Sources) and Reporting of Discrete Phase Variables)

• Phase-specific mass and volume flow rates are now available as Surface Monitors and Surface Integral
Reports when using the Eulerian or Mixture multiphase models. (Overview of Defining Surface Monitors
and Surface Integration)

• A new Volume Integral report type is available that allows reporting and monitoring of the total mass of
a given phase within a fluid zone. (Volume Integration and Monitoring Volume Integrals)

• When using monitors (volume, surface, force, or moment), the monitor definitions will be updated accord-
ingly to reflect zone changes caused by merging or splitting operations which could effect zones on the
monitor list.

• When using the non-equilibrium model as part of a porous media simulation, you can display the energy
source due to the temperature difference between the fluid and solid zones. (Non-Equilibrium Thermal
Model)

• A new display option is available to display the ANSYS logo as white (default) or black if it’s being displayed
in the graphics window.

User Interface

• A convergence manager has been implemented that allows you to set solution convergence conditions
that are based on values of surface, volume, lift, drag, or moment monitors. (Convergence Manager)

• FLUENT as a Server capability is now available as a full feature. This allows you to connect and provide
interactive commands to a running ANSYS FLUENT session from the FLUENT Remote Console or a custom-
ized C/C++ client application. (FLUENT as a Server User's Guide)

• You can start ANSYS FLUENT in meshing mode (rather than the default solution mode) by selecting the
Meshing Mode check box (available only for 3D simulations) in the FLUENT Launcher (Starting ANSYS
FLUENT). This option is not available with FLUENT under Workbench.

Workbench

• Two-way coupling between FLUENT and Ansoft. (Performing FLUENT and Ansoft Coupling in Workbench)

• Surface losses can now be mapped, along with volumetric losses, when coupling FLUENT and Ansoft.
(Performing FLUENT and Ansoft Coupling in Workbench)

• Ability to graphically monitor FLUENT solution residuals in Workbench. (Monitoring FLUENT Solutions in
Workbench )

• Performance enhancements to the Parametric Analysis in ANSYS Workbench Using ANSYS FLUENT tutorial.
(Parametric Analysis in ANSYS Workbench Using ANSYS FLUENT)

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 Known Limitations in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5

• You can register or unregister a customized Scheme file through your FLUENT setup using the context
menu for the FLUENT Setup cell. (Registering and Unregistering Startup Scheme Files)

• A new FLUENT Meshing component system is available, allowing you to use FLUENT in meshing mode
while in Workbench. (Getting Started With FLUENT Meshing in Workbench)

• The Import Initial Data context menu option for a FLUENT-based system’s Solution cell has been replaced
by the Use Solution Data From File option under Initialization Method in the Properties view for the
Solution cell. (Specifying FLUENT Launcher Settings Using Cell Properties and Using the Update Command)

Add-Ons

• Adjoint Solver

– Rotational periodic boundaries are now supported in the adjoint solver.

– Additional observable types and operation types available with an enhanced graphical user interface.
(Defining Observables)

– Additional postprocessing variables are available: sensitivity to viscosity, normal shape sensitivity,
normal optimal displacement, and optimal displacement (Field Data), as well as the ability to export
optimal surface displacements to a file. (Shape Modification)

– Enhancements to the adjoint solver tutorial that include the new observable types. (Tutorial: 2D
Laminar Flow Past a Cylinder)

• Battery Model

– You can modify the batt_user.c file to modify temperature-dependent corrections to U and Y. (User-
Accessible Functions)

1.2. Supported Platforms for ANSYS FLUENT 14.5

Platform/OS levels that are supported in the current release are posted on the ANSYS website.

1.3. Known Limitations in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5

The following is a list of known limitations in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5.

• File import/export (for a list of supported files, refer to the table in this section, under Third-party software)

– If you change the File Storage Options settings in he Autosave dialog box, the solution history will
be lost.

– Data export to Mechanical APDL result file is not available on the linx64 platform. (Mechanical APDL
data export to .cdb file is available on all platforms.)

– When exporting EnSight Case Gold files for transient simulations, the solver cannot be switched between
serial and parallel, and the number of compute nodes cannot be changed for a given parallel run.
Otherwise, the exported EnSight Case Gold files for each time step will not be compatible.

– EnSight export with topology changes is not supported.

– To properly view Fieldview Unstructured (.fvuns) results from a parallel ANSYS FLUENT simulation

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FLUENT

→ Mesh files must be exported from the parallel solver via the TUI command fieldview-unstruct-
grid.

→ Mesh and data files should all be exported from parallel ANSYS FLUENT sessions with the same
number of nodes.

– Tecplot file import does not support the Tecplot360 file format.

• Mesh

– Boundary zone extrusion is not possible from faces that have hanging nodes.

– For simulations that involve the FLUENT, Mechanical, and Meshing applications, meshing problems
can arise in instances where there are multiple regions and contacts between them. In FLUENT, a
zone can only exist in a single contact region. The Mechanical and Meshing applications both use
a different approach concerning contact regions when compared to FLUENT.

– ANSYS FLUENT does not support FSI data mapping of edges and, therefore, in 2D..

• Models

– ANSYS FLUENT supports the Chemkin II format for Oppdif flamelet import only.

– The surface-to-surface (S2S) radiation model does not work with sliding and moving/deforming meshes.

– The DPM work pile algorithm is not compatible with the wall film boundary condition.

– The shell conduction model is not applicable on moving walls.

– The heat exchanger model is not compatible with mesh adaption.

– The FLUENT/REACTION DESIGN KINetics coupling is not available on the win64 platform.

– DO-Energy coupling is recommended for large optical thickness cases (> 10) only.

– FMG initialization is not available with the shell conduction model.

– FMG initialization is not compatible with the unsteady solver.

– The MHD module is not compatible with Eulerian multiphase models.

– Bounded 2nd order discretization in time is not compatible with moving and deforming meshes.

– When simulating porous media, the value of the Porosity (defined in the Fluid dialog box) cannot be
0 or 1 (i.e., it must be in between these values) if the non-equilibrium thermal model is enabled.

– When simulating porous media, the non-equilibrium thermal model is not supported with radiation
and/or multiphase models.

• Parallel processing

– These features are currently unavailable in the parallel solver:

→ Discrete transfer radiation model (DTRM)

→ Continuous Fiber Model (CFM) add-on module

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 Known Limitations in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5

→ Data export to non-native formats other than EnSight, FIELDVIEW, Tecplot, and the generic heat flux
data file

– Mellanox OFED version 1.5.3–1.0.0 is known to cause random crashes or startup issues in FLUENT when
using core counts greater than approximately 64. The last known stable Mellanox version is 1.5.2. The
following are suggested workarounds:

→ Revert to OFED 1.5.2.

→ Set the value of log_num_mtt to 24 in the mlx4_core driver on all machines. For more information
refer to Solution #2024818 from the Knowledge Resources at the ANSYS Customer Portal (ANSYS
Customer Portal (p. viii)).

• Platform support and drivers

– ANSYS FLUENT is not compatible with the job scheduler on HPC Server 2008 with the packaged version
of Platform MPI. The default MPI (MSMPI) should be used.

– The minimum OS requirements for Linux are SLES 10 or Red Hat Enterprise 5.0.

– The path name length to the cpropep.so library (including the lib name) is limited to 80 characters.
(Linux Opteron cluster using Infiniband interconnect only.)

– On Linux platforms, including a space character in the current working directory path is not supported.

– Visit the ANSYS Customer Portal (ANSYS Customer Portal (p. viii)) for the latest Windows graphics FAQ.
Version 2.0 or higher of .NET Framework must be installed in order to run ANSYS FLUENT on the winx64
platform.

– If you are installing ANSYS FLUENT 14.5 on a Windows machine that already has one or more previous
versions of ANSYS FLUENT, then after installing Platform and Intel MPI libraries from the prerequisites,
make sure to delete the environment variables MPI_ROOT (for Platform MPI) and I_MPI_ROOT (for Intel
MPI). Otherwise there will be a conflict while running previous ANSYS FLUENT versions in parallel mode.

– Remote Solver Facility (RSF) is no longer supported in ANSYS FLUENT.

– Itanium platform (lnia64) is no longer supported.

– The coupling between Ansoft and FLUENT in Workbench is not supported on Windows Vista (32 bit
and 64 bit) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10. On Linux, the coupling is supported for Red Hat 5, Red
Hat 6, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.

• Solver

– The non-iterative time advancement (NITA) solver is applicable with only a limited set of models. See
the ANSYS FLUENT User's Guide for more details.

– NITA (using fractional time step method) is not compatible with porous media.

– The following models are not available for the density-based solvers:

→ Volume-of-fluid (VOF) model

→ Multiphase mixture model

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FLUENT

→ Eulerian multiphase model

→ Non-premixed combustion model

→ Premixed combustion model

→ Partially premixed combustion model

→ Composition PDF transport model

→ Soot model

→ Rosseland radiation model

→ Melting/solidification model

→ Enhanced Coherent Flamelet model

→ Inert model: transport of inert species (EGR in IC engines)

→ Dense discrete phase model

→ Shell conduction model

→ Floating operating pressure

→ Spark ignition and auto-ignition models

→ Physical velocity formulation for porous media

→ Selective multigrid (SAMG)

– The pressure-based coupled solver is not available with the following features:

→ Porous jump boundary condition

→ Fixed velocity

– When a monitor is defined on a zone, memory is allocated based on the zone id. Therefore a large value
for zone id on a zone with a monitor will result in significant memory overhead and should be avoided
(or corrected) where possible.

– On some Linux platforms, pressing Ctrl+C will not interrupt the solution. A suggested workaround is
to use the checkpoint mechanism in FLUENT to save files and/or exit FLUENT. (Checkpointing an ANSYS
FLUENT Simulation in the FLUENT Getting Started Guide)

• User-defined functions (UDFs)

– Interpreted UDFs cannot be used while running in parallel with an Infiniband interconnect. The compiled
UDF approach should be used in this case.

• Graphics, Reporting, and Postprocessing

– Monitors may continue to print/plot values, even if the zones on which they are defined are deactivated.

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50 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Known Limitations in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5

• FLUENT in Workbench

– Coupling between FLUENT and Q3D is not supported.

• Third-party software

– FLUENT-Platform LSF integration is not supported on the MS Windows platform.

– FLUENT-SGE integration is supported only on Linux platforms.

– Wave and GT-Power coupling are available only with stand-alone ANSYS FLUENT and not in the Work-
bench environment.

– ANSYS FLUENT releases 14.0 and later use the CHEMKIN-CFD KINetics library 2.4.

– GT-Power is supported on the 32- and 64-bit Linux and Windows platforms.

– Supported versions of third party software are listed below:

Third Party Software Supported Version

Abaqus 6.9
Altair HYPERMESH 5.1
ANSOFT-MAXWELL 15.0
AVS 5.0
CGNS 2.5–3
CHEMKIN 2.4
Data Explorer 4.2
Ensight 9.1.2
EnSight 6 (TUI only) 7.6
EnSight Case Gold 9.1.2
FAST 1.3
Fieldview 12.2.1
Gambit 2.4
GT-POWER 7.2
HOOPS 17.15
I-DEAS IDEAS NX Series 11
LSTC-DYNA 970.0
MPCCI 3.0.5
MPI-HP/Platform 8.1.2
MPI-Intel 4.02
MPI-OpenMPI 1.3.3
NASTRAN Bulk data input file - MSC.NASTRAN 2007
PATRAN 3.0
PTC MECHANICA PTC/Mechanica Wildfire 4.0

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FLUENT

Third Party Software Supported Version

TECPLOT 9.0 (Export). Tecplot file format, version 11.2 (Im-
port)
VKI 3.6.0
WAVE 8.4

• Other

– In parallel, custom vectors cannot be created from components that are custom field functions them-
selves.

– The IRIS Image and HPGL hardcopy formats are no longer supported in ANSYS FLUENT.

– When using ANSYS FLUENT with the Remove Solve Manager (RSM):

→ Only one copy of a saved project that is in the pending state can reconnect successfully.

→ System Coupling is not supported.

→ Ansoft Coupling is not supported.

→ UDFs are supported with limitations as detailed in Submitting FLUENT Jobs to RSM in Workbench
User Guide.

– The turbo-averaged contour plot in turbomachinery post-processing may give an unexpected

contour region in a selected topology.

1.4. Limitations That No Longer Apply in ANSYS FLUENT 14.5

• Models

– The boundedness of planes is now considered when sampling particle tracks using the DPM
model.

– Periodic boundary zones are now supported when using the ray tracing method to calculate the
view factors as part of the surface-to-surface (S2S) radiation model.

• Parallel

– Automatic compilation of UDFs in mixed Windows/Linux modes is now available.

• FLUENT in Workbench

– The data mapping step for the coupling between FLUENT and Ansoft is now supported in the parallel
version of FLUENT.

• Third-party software

– Wave is now supported on Windows 64–bit platforms.

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52 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Updates Affecting Code Behavior

1.5. Updates Affecting Code Behavior

The sections in this chapter contain a comprehensive list of the code changes implemented in ANSYS
FLUENT 14.5 which may affect the ANSYS FLUENT 14.0 solutions.

Please note that text that is in bold font represents key words that may facilitate your search for the
changes in code behavior.

Solver-Numerics

• The algorithm for enforcing a specified mass flow at periodic boundary conditions has been changed.
This eliminates a dependency on flow domain scale which could previously cause convergence difficulties.
As a result, the convergence rate and the path to convergence for existing cases may differ from those
in previous releases. For most cases, the new formulation will give faster and more stable convergence.
In some cases, the residuals may fluctuate in an approximately cycloidal manner as they converge. This
is expected behavior. If the new formulation results in slower convergence, it is recommended to change
to the pressure based coupled solver or adjust the relaxation factor for the periodic mass flow (in the
Periodic Conditions Dialog Box). In most cases, the coupled solver will give faster convergence.

• Accuracy has been improved when computing node based gradients for cells with faces on a mesh interface.
This change improves solution convergence for both the density-based and pressure-based solvers when
using node based gradients with mesh interfaces. Solution quality across mesh interfaces will improve
compared to previous releases when using unstructured grids.

Solver-Meshing

• The local remeshing algorithm in the dynamic mesh model has been improved to better preserve spatial
resolution during remeshing. As a result, solutions for mesh-dependent cases may differ from those in
previous releases.

• Improvements have been made to the polyhedra conversion algorithm which may result in a slightly dif-
ferent polyhedral mesh. As a result, solutions for mesh-dependent cases may differ from those in previous
releases.

• An option to Exclude Mesh Motion in Boundary Conditions has been added when using moving dy-
namic cell zones. Since release 14.0, walls adjacent to moving cell zones will automatically be made
moving walls and do not need to be declared as dynamic zones. When enabled for a wall, the Exclude
Mesh Motion in Boundary Conditions option treats the wall in the way release 13.0 and earlier did,
preventing that wall from automatically inheriting motion properties from an adjacent cell zone (see Rigid
Body Motion).

It is important that users familiar with older versions of FLUENT understand these changes and review
the dynamic mesh setup if an older case file is read into FLUENT 14.5. For cases where a wall moves
as part of a moving dynamic cell zone, it may be necessary to make changes to the setup when an
older case file is read into FLUENT 14.5. An exception to this are cases which use the FLUENT built-
in in-cylinder model. In-cylinder cases set up prior to 14.5 do not require to be changed when run
FLUENT 14.5. However, in-cylinder cases set up new in FLUENT 14.5 will need to be set up according
to the new dynamic mesh guidelines.

Turbulence

• The compressibility modification in the k—ε models (see Effects of Compressibility on Turbulence in
the k- ε Models) is used with the real-gas models. It can be switched off by typing the following
commands in the text interface:

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FLUENT

(rpsetvar 'real-gas-compressible-turbulence? #f)

(models-changed)

• A bug in the scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) turbulence model in FLUENT 13 (all Service Packs) and FLUENT
14.0 has been fixed in FLUENT 14.5. This bug caused artificially low eddy viscosity values on non-ortho-
gonal meshes leading to flow predictions that could differ slightly or significantly from reality.

• The default turbulence boundary conditions have been changed. The new defaults are Turbulent Intens-
ity=5% and Eddy Viscosity Ratio=10. Results may differ for cases which do not explicitly set turbulence
boundary conditions.

• The vortex method was adjusted so that identical results (identical synthetic fluctuations) can be obtained
in serial and parallel FLUENT.

• When using the SAS/DES models, the procedure used to reduce the modeled turbulence directly behind
a synthetic turbulence generator at a RANS/LES interface has been changed from WALE to WMLES. This
change can be reverted with the following command in the text interface:
(rpsetvar 'synthetic-turb/sas-des/adjust-mu_t/sgs-model 1)

Heat Transfer

• Improvements have been made to the clustering algorithm in order to avoid the formation of hot-spots.
This applies only to the cluster-to-cluster approach. Surface clusters created using the face-to-face approach
are unaffected. R14 behavior can be reproduced by using the following command in the text interface:
(rpsetvar 's2s/c2c-cluster-algo 0)

Reacting Flow

• Changes to the G-Equation combustion model have improved the accuracy of the flame front tracking,
particularly at low CFL numbers.

• Multiple fuels for pollutant models can be defined. The functionality of the Fuel NOx and SOx models with
liquid and solid fuels has been extended; several restrictions concerning the fuel N and S sources have
been removed. As a result the Fuel NOx model and the SOx model setup has changed. Previous version
cases with multiple fuels need to be set up according to the new functionality and rerun (see Defining
the Fuel Streams and Defining the Fuel Streams).

• When a PDF file created in Release 14.0 or earlier is read into FLUENT 14.5 the interpolation algorithm is
automatically reverted to fourth order interpolation to match Release 14.0 behavior. You can switch to
second order interpolation using the define/models/species/non-premixed-combustion-expert TUI command
which is significantly faster than fourth order interpolation, but not as robust to converge. Hence, it is
recommended that you also regenerate the PDF table with Automated Grid Refinement enabled which
will yield both a more accurate solution and faster computations.

• There have been changes to the EGR reset functionality. In FLUENT 14.0, the Inert composition for EGR
Reset is determined by the species at specified pressure outlet boundaries. This has several limitations,
including the inability to handle equivalence ratio fluctuations (that is, only a single inert composition is
modeled), temperature jump on EGR Reset (due to cp changes from different species), and inaccuracies
if the burnt species in the domain differ from the burnt species at the specified EGR outlets. In FLUENT
14.5, instead of specifying outlet zones for EGR composition in the Dynamic Mesh Events dialog box,
fluid zones are specified. The Inert composition for EGR reset is calculated as the stoichiometric composition.
Lean regions are set to a mixture of oxidizer and inert, and rich regions are set to a mixture of fuel and

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 Updates Affecting Code Behavior

inert. Temperature is unchanged in the EGR reset. This is more accurate than the FLUENT 14.0 approach
(see Resetting Inert EGR).

Eulerian Multiphase Models

• In releases prior to FLUENT 14.5, turbulence interaction source terms were included by default when using
the dispersed turbulence model in an Eulerian mutliphase simulation. In FLUENT 14.5, no turbulence in-
teraction terms are included by default. A version of the previous turbulence interaction model can be
included by selecting the simonin-et-al model (Including Turbulence Interaction Source Terms in the
FLUENT User's Guide). There is no need to explicitly enable the model if case files from previous versions
are read into FLUENT 14.5. However, the model has been enhanced so results may differ slightly from
previous releases.

• The particle relaxation time has been changed to account for the indirect effect of the virtual mass via
the density ratio. This may result in slightly different results in cases where the density of the primary
phase approaches that of the secondary phase.

FLUENT in Workbench

• In order to address certain parametric study limitations involving Cutcell meshes generated for multi-body
parts in Workbench, a Cutcell mesh will now resemble the mesh topology of other mesh formats once it
is imported into FLUENT.

• The following behavior changes exist for initializing the solution under Workbench when compared with
FLUENT 14.0.

– Initial Data File: a data file provided either by you using the Use Solution Data from File initialization
method, or by an upstream FLUENT solution cell.

– Existing Solution Data: solution data from the last simulation.

FLUENT 14.0 FLUENT 14.5

Initialize the solution for the first design point (DP) Initialize all design point solutions us-
using the Initial Data File option, however, use ing only the Initial Data File option.
the solution for the first design point to initialize
the remaining design points.
If the Initial Data File and the Existing Solution If the Initial Data File and the Existing
Data both exist, then use Existing Solution Data Solution Data both exist, then use Initial
to initialize the solution. Data File to initialize the solution.

If the data file is not compatible with the available mesh, then FLUENT's default solution initialization
method is used.

Graphics, Reporting, and Postprocessing

• Volume integrals using Sum in axi-symmetric simulations do not include multiplication by 2π. This is a
change from previous behavior. A new Volume integral, Sum2Pi (twoPiSum in the TUI), is available which
includes the factor of 2π.

• The Display Mesh After Reading option in FLUENT Launcher is no longer enabled by default. Once you
enable it, your selection will be saved for future sessions.

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FLUENT

Input/Output

• FLUENT data file format for species data has been modified. Species data was formerly written out as a
series of individual blocks of data — one for each specie. This data is now written out as one contiguous
block of data. Essentially, the blocks of species data are now concatenated into a single block.

For example, in R14 the species data for a problem containing 3 species would have appeared in the
data file as follows:
(0 "SV_Y_0, domain 1, cell zone 9 1600 cells:")
(2300 (200 9 1 0 1 1 1600)
(....................))

(0 "SV_Y_1, domain 1, cell zone 9 1600 cells:")

(2300 (201 9 1 0 1 1 1600)
(....................))

(0 "SV_Y_2, domain 1, cell zone 9 1600 cells:")

(2300 (202 9 1 0 1 1 1600)
(....................))

In R14.5, the same data appears as:

(0 "SV_Y, domain 1, cell zone 9 1600 cells:")
(2300 (200 9 3 0 1 1 1600)
(...............................................................))

Note the change in the header section from (200 9 1 0 1 1 1600) to (200 9 3 0 1 1
1600), 3 being the number of species in this example.

• If you want to post-process Total Pressure, Total Temperature, or Total Enthalpy in CFD-Post you must
now explicitly include them in the FLUENT data file. CFD-Post will no longer calculate these total quantities
if they are not included in the data file. Refer to Setting Data File Quantities in the FLUENT User's Guide
for details about how to include these quantities in the data file.

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56 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 2: CFX Release Notes
This section summarizes the new features in ANSYS CFX Release 14.5.
2.1. New Features and Enhancements
2.2. Incompatibilities

2.1. New Features and Enhancements

New features and enhancements to ANSYS CFX introduced in Release 14.5 are highlighted in this section.

2.1.1. General Changes to ANSYS CFX

Parallel Processing Enhancements

• The following parallel processing improvements have been introduced in ANSYS CFX:

– Reduced communication overhead for radiation cases

– Improved solver memory estimates for cases with many face sets

– Improved partitioner memory estimates

– Windows Distributed Parallel no longer requires rsh

2.1.2. ANSYS CFX-Solver

New features and enhancements to the CFX-Solver introduced in Release 14.5 are highlighted in this
section.

• Transient Blade Row: Blade Flutter

You can now perform a blade flutter analysis with the new periodic displacement boundary condition
(see Mesh Motion below). You can apply the blade flutter model to a full wheel or use Fourier
Transformation for reduced model size. The following features can be used to perform a blade flutter
analysis:

– You can export mode shapes from modal analysis performed in ANSYS Mechanical. You can use
the Expand Profile Data option in CFX-Pre to replicate a 360° profile. You can use the Initialize
Profile Data option to visualize the imported modal data to ensure that the data from ANSYS
Mechanical is aligned to the in CFX-Pre.

– You can specify mode shape, frequency, scale factor, and nodal diameter.

– You can set a sliding mesh boundary condition at the shroud by setting one of the new mesh
motion boundary conditions: Parallel to Boundary or Surface of Revolution.

– CFX-Solver can calculate work and power per unit area on the blade. This can be used to evaluate
aeroelastic damping of the applied motion.

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CFX

• Transient Blade Row: Wet Steam

You can now perform a Transient Blade Row Time Transformation analysis with equilibrium wet steam.

• Mesh Motion

Three new mesh motion options have been added to subdomains and boundary regions:

– The Periodic Displacement option allows you to set a transient periodic mesh motion that repeats itself
at a given frequency and has an associated phase offset. For details, see Periodic Displacement in the
CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

– The Parallel to Boundary option allows the mesh to slide over an arbitrary boundary definition, with
no component of deformation normal to it. This option attempts to preserve the geometry of the
boundary as defined by its initial mesh. For details, see Parallel to Boundary in the CFX-Solver Modeling
Guide.

– The Surface of Revolution option allows the mesh to slide over a boundary definition while maintaining
the radial profile defined by the initial boundary mesh, and the axis of revolution. For details, see Surface
of Revolution in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

You can now set the Displacement Relative To option under Mesh Deformation to Initial
Mesh. For details, see Displacement Relative To in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

• Transient Results

Transient results can now be output on boundaries only, as a way to reduce the volume of data
output. For details, see Option in the CFX-Pre User's Guide.

• Particle Track Output

Two new Particle Tracking Output options have been added to Output Control:

– You can use the Particle Histogram option under the Particles tab of Output Control to define
particle histogram data of track variables on user-specified boundary patches and/or particle injection
regions. For details, see Particle Histogram in the CFX-Pre User's Guide.

– You can also use the Particle Track Data option under the Export Results tab in Output Control
to export a specified list of particle data on specified boundaries or particle injection regions. For details,
see Particles Tab in the CFX-Pre User's Guide.

• Non-ideal Thermodynamic Mixture Properties

For variable composition mixtures and reacting mixtures, the thermodynamic mixture properties have
non-ideal mixture options. For details, see Mixture Properties Tab in the CFX-Pre User's Guide.

• Upgrade to Platform MPI

The CFX-Solver now uses Platform MPI 8.2.1 for parallel solver runs on Windows and Platform MPI
8.2 for parallel solver runs on Linux.

• Callback Functions on Regions

Callback functions on regions now always return conservative values. In previous versions, hybrid
values were sometimes used.

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 New Features and Enhancements

• RPI Wall Boiling Model

The RPI Wall Boiling Model is more robust and has additional controls to specify under-relaxation of
wall superheat, consistent under-relaxation of individual wall heat partition components, and the
ability to visualize heat flux split in CFD-Post. For details, see Wall Boiling Model in the CFX-Solver
Modeling Guide.

• Monitor Location Control

You now have the option to define monitor points at a fixed physical location for moving geometries
. For details, see Monitor Points and Expressions: [Monitor Name]: Monitor Location Control in the
CFX-Pre User's Guide.

2.1.3. ANSYS CFX-Pre

New features and enhancements to CFX-Pre introduced in Release 14.5 are highlighted in this section.

• Profile Geometry Visualization

In the Initializing Profile Data dialog box you can select the Visibility option to visualize the geometry
of the profile shape to ensure that it is correctly aligned and scaled with the boundaries of the CFD
model. You can use the Render Options dialog box to control the appearance of profile geometries
that were imported from external profile data files. For details, see Render Options - Profile Geometry
in the CFX-Pre User's Guide.

• New RPI model settings

The RPI model for near-wall boiling has additional settings. For details, see RPI Model in the CFX-
Solver Modeling Guide.

• Improved partitioning algorithm

An improved partitioning algorithm for moving mesh cases with moving GGIs can be enabled by
setting the part mmesh intersect option = 1 expert parameter. For details, see Physical
Models Parameters in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

• Expand Profile Data

Given an existing profile data file that describes, in Cartesian coordinates, a section that possesses
rotational periodicity around a Rotation Axis, you can use the Expand Profile Data dialog box to
obtain a new profile file that contains a 360° profile. For details, see Expand Profile Data in the CFX-
Pre User's Guide.

2.1.4. ANSYS CFX Documentation

No organizational or display mechanism changes have been made to the ANSYS CFX documentation
in this release.

The Air Conditioning Simulation tutorial can be run in parallel. In previous releases, parallel runs (would
have) failed for this tutorial whenever the partition containing the thermostat was assigned to a slave
process. The Fortran subroutine and CCL expressions have been revised.

The Optimizing Flow in a Static Mixer tutorial now uses a Response Surface Optimization system to
change the geometry and physics of the static mixer. The Goal Driven Optimization system, which was
used in the previous version of the tutorial, is not available in ANSYS Workbench 14.5.

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CFX

2.2. Incompatibilities
This sections highlights differences in the behavior between Release 14.0 and Release 14.5 of ANSYS
CFX.

2.2.1. CFX-Solver
Discretization changes (that affect the converged solution):
Boundary Conditions/GGI Interfaces

• To improve performance of mesh motion, changes have been made to defaults in the mesh motion
solution algorithms. These changes produce different results for many mesh motion cases in the linear
solver.

These defaults can be reverted by setting the following expert parameters:

– agglomerate algebraic eqns meshdisp = t

– solver relaxation meshdisp = 1

File Loading:
Support for ANSYS Meshing Files

• When CFX-Pre is run outside of ANSYS Workbench, and when importing or loading .cmdb or . dsdb
files into CFX-Pre, meshes generated with the "Assembly Mesh" method cannot be read.

Efficiency Calculations
Corrections for Polytropic Efficiencies for Total-to-Static

• Calculation of polytropic efficiencies for the total-to-static option has been fixed in this release. This will
cause results for polytropic efficiencies in prior releases to differ from the ones in Release 14.5. For details,
see Isentropic Efficiency and Total Enthalpy in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

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60 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 3: TurboGrid Release Notes
This section summarizes the new features in ANSYS TurboGrid Release 14.5.

New Features and Enhancements

The following is a list of new features and enhancements in ANSYS TurboGrid:

• For backwards compatibility, the Release 14.0 topology templates are provided under names that include
the string “140”. For example, the updated TEDoubleHerring template, which is stored in the file TEDouble-
Herring.tgt, has a corresponding Release 14.0 version, TEDoubleHerring140, which is stored in the
file TEDoubleHerring140.tgt. Existing state files will automatically use the updated templates unless
you edit them to refer to the Release 14.0 templates.

• The topology selection process has been simplified by adding topology families, which automatically select
appropriate topology templates based on the machine type (if specified) and characteristics of the geometry.
The following ATM topology families are available in Release 14.5:

– Single Round Round Symmetric

– Single Round Round Refined

– Single Round Cutoff Symmetric

– Single Round Cutoff Refined

– Single Cutoff Round Symmetric

– Single Cutoff Cutoff

– Single Splitter

• ATM Topology Selector

When using ATM Topology, you can now see which templates were used, both by name and with a
graphical representation. You can also override the default template selection if other eligible templates
are available.

For details, see ATM Choices in the TurboGrid User's Guide.

• Region Name Prefix

When writing the mesh to file, you can specify a string of characters that is prefixed to all mesh region
names.

• Machine Type Selector

You can specify a machine type. This setting is used by TurboGrid to help choose appropriate topology
templates.

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TurboGrid

• Blade Tip First Element Size Factor

Blade Tip First Element Size Factor linearly scales mesh elements near the blade tip region so that
you can get a better match overall between the rows of elements just inside and just outside the
blade tip region. For details, see Blade Tip First Element Size Factor in the TurboGrid User's Guide.

• The Rotor 37 tutorial now uses ATM topology.

• The Steam Stator tutorial now uses ATM topology.

• The Radial Compressor tutorial now uses a geometry that contains a splitter blade.

• The traditional version of the Axial Fan tutorial contains more teaching points.

For the remaining TurboGrid release notes, see ANSYS TurboGrid in Workbench.

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62 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Chapter 4: ANSYS BladeModeler Release Notes
This section summarizes the new features in BladeModeler Release 14.5. Topics include:
4.1. BladeGen
4.2. BladeEditor

4.1. BladeGen
BladeGen is a geometry-creation tool for turbomachinery blade rows.

4.1.1. BladeGen New Features and Enhancements

• Vista CPD is no longer available from BladeGen, after having moved to Workbench. For details, see
TurboSystem: Vista CPD in the TurboSystem User Guide.

• When converting from %Cam to %M-Prime view, the correct blade thickness is now shown. In previous
versions, the blade thickness was reduced by a factor of two.

4.2. BladeEditor
ANSYS BladeEditor is a plugin for ANSYS DesignModeler for creating, importing, and editing blade
geometry.

4.2.1. BladeEditor New Features and Enhancements

• BladeEditor is now supported on Linux platforms.

• Camberline/Thickness Definition

If the Angle Definition Type is set to Theta with LE/TE Beta, then you can control the theta
distribution as well as specify the leading and trailing edge Beta values. For details, see Camber-
line/Thickness Definition Sub-feature in the TurboSystem User Guide.

• Blade Comparison

You can now take a snapshot of a blade design so that, as you modify the current design, you can
easily compare it against the snapshot to visualize the changes you have made. For details, see Blade
Comparison in the TurboSystem User Guide.

• In previous versions of BladeEditor, in cases where one or more splitters were present, a .geo file (produced
via the VistaTFExport feature) would contain an overestimate of the total blade thickness. This has been
corrected.

• The Centrifugal Compressor tutorial has been replaced by two new tutorials:

– Tutorial 1: Blade Editing With Emphasis On Sketches, Layers, and Blade Comparison in the TurboSystem
User Guide

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BladeModeler

– Tutorial 2: Blade Editing With Emphasis On Camberline and Thickness Distributions in the TurboSystem
User Guide

A demonstration of blade comparison has been added to the first of these two tutorials.

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Chapter 5: CFD-Post Release Notes
This chapter summarizes the new features and incompatibilities in CFD-Post Release 14.5. Topics Include:
5.1. New Features and Enhancements
5.2. Incompatibilities

5.1. New Features and Enhancements

• Transient Blade Row Post-processing

Transient Blade Row results now include transient statistics such as arithmetic averages, RMS, and
standard deviation.

The timestep selector has been enhanced to read data from a Transient Blade Row results file. For
details, seeUsing the Timestep Selector with Transient Blade Row Cases in the CFD-Post User's Guide

• Export External Data

The Export External Data File action enables you to export your results as an ANSYS External Data
File (.axdt). This file can be imported into the External Data system, which can be read into a
Mechanical application or System Coupling component system. For details, see Export External Data
File in the CFD-Post User's Guide.

• Mapping Success Label

The Mapping Success label indicates the percentage of the ANSYS surface (.cdb) nodes that have
been directly mapped to the CFX boundary surface. For details, see Mapping Success Label in the
CFD-Post User's Guide.

• FLUENT Post-processing

Improvements have been made to increase the speed of reading of variable data from FLUENT cases
with multiple domains

• Quick Animations

The robustness of Quick Animations have been improved by updating only dependent objects.

• Report Selection during Project Update in Workbench

You can choose to reload a pre-selected report template with a project update in Workbench. For
details, see Properties View in the CFX Introduction.

• Post-processing for Multi-config CDAT Files

You can now save and post-process cdat files for multi-configuration (IC Engine) cases. Prior to Release
14.5, only dat files with changing topologies were supported.

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CFD-Post

5.2. Incompatibilities
This section describes the operational changes, the procedural changes (actions that have to be done
differently in this release to get an outcome available in previous releases), and the support changes
(functionality that is no longer supported) in Release 14.5 of CFD-Post.

Operational Changes

CFD-Post may not be able to read state files that contain FLUENT cases, and use Total Pressure or
similar Total variables. These variables are no longer calculated by CFD-Post, and should be deleted
from the state file. To continue using Total variables in Release 14.5, you need to export them into the
file from FLUENT.

Procedural Changes

View Transformation transforms the geometry, without making a copy of the original object. Previously,
View Transformation replicated the object. In order to keep the original, as well as the copy, you can
use Instance Transform.

Support Changes

There are no support changes in this release.

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Chapter 6: POLYFLOW Release Notes
The following sections contain release information for ANSYS POLYFLOW 14.5.
6.1. Introduction
6.2. New Features
6.3. Defect Fixes
6.4. Known Limitations

6.1. Introduction
ANSYS POLYFLOW 14.5 is the fourth version of ANSYS POLYFLOW to be integrated into ANSYS Workbench.
Starting in version 12.1, ANSYS POLYFLOW users were able to create interlinked systems with geometry,
meshing, solution setup, solver and postprocessing inside ANSYS Workbench, using shared licensing
and HPC. Blow molding and extrusion application-specific versions of ANSYS POLYFLOW were introduced
to allow specific industrial processes to be simulated. With regard to modeling, two new models were
introduced: the volume of fluid (VOF) model for free surface modeling in a fixed domain; and the discrete
ordinates (DO) model for radiation.

In ANSYS POLYFLOW 14.5, the ANSYS Workbench integration, licensing, and modeling capabilities have
been further enhanced to meet the needs of ANSYS POLYFLOW users.

Note

ANSYS POLYFLOW 14.5 is installed under ANSYS Inc\v145\polyflow on Windows and

ansys_inc/v145/polyflow on Linux platforms.

ANSYS POLYFLOW 14.5 is available within ANSYS Workbench for Windows and Linux platforms.

6.2. New Features

The new features in ANSYS POLYFLOW 14.5 are as follows:

• ANSYS POLYFLOW allows you to define the normal force and species concentration at a
boundary using a CSV (comma separated variable) file.

• ANSYS POLYFLOW allows you to impose a fixed temperature distribution on moving parts when
the mesh superposition technique (MST) is used. This temperature distribution can vary spatially
but cannot change over time.

• ANSYS POLYDATA now allows you to enable and customize a preset statistical analysis as part
of your mixing task, so that you can proceed directly to postprocessing the results in ANSYS
POLYSTAT after the solver has completed the calculation.

• You no longer have to manually revise the definition of the following environment variables for
the circumstances noted, as ANSYS POLYFLOW will adjust them automatically:

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POLYFLOW

– MKL_DISABLE_FAST_MM will automatically be defined with the necessary option for parallel
runs.

– PAGESIZE will be automatically set to the correct value for large problems in the AMF direct
solver.

• A new method is available for adaptive meshing for contact when using shell elements. This
method refines the fluid mesh as it approaches the mold based on either the angle between
neighboring mold elements or the local curvature of the mold elements.

This new adaptive method improves upon the existing method that is based on curvature alone.
The curvature computation is based on the nodes of the mold mesh. When the mold has large
elements along an edge, the curvature is largely underestimated; if only curvature is used for
the adaptive meshing, the resulting fluid elements will be too big to accurately represent the
mold geometry. By also taking into account the angle between mold elements, the new method
can achieve better results and produce fluids element that are sized to allow “close contact”.

• The algorithm for contact detection has been improved for blow molding and thermoforming
applications that employ a shell model. The new algorithm is more robust, and has a user interface
that is more straightforward and requires less input from you. The default settings result in rel-
atively fast computations for contact detection, and are proven to be appropriate for many cases
of industrial relevance.

• POLYDATA and POLYSTAT allow you to save Images of the view displayed in the graphics display
window as a file.

• POLYMAT and POLYCURVE allow you save images of the currently displayed chart as a file.

• POLYSTAT allows you to save animations and series of individual images of visualized slices or
trajectories.

• In order to provide faster download times for the application software, PDF files of the document-
ation available in the help viewer are not installed by default, but can be downloaded from
ANSYS Customer Portal (p. viii).

• POLYDATA allows you to specify the units when exporting output files for IGES.

6.3. Defect Fixes

The defect fixes in ANSYS POLYFLOW 14.5 are as follows:

• A fix was introduced to avoid erroneous results of parison programming if the parison axis is
not set to the z direction.

• It is now possible to use a data file with a mesh that has a slightly different topology than the
mesh used to create the data file. Note that PMeshes that are not used in the setup are ignored
when the compatibility of the mesh and data files is checked.

• A fix was introduced for optimization, so that the computation of sensitivities does not crash
when a decoupled scheme is used.

• A fix was introduced for the incremental involvement of moving boundaries, such that the
solver always performs enough iterations to fully involve the free surfaces.

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 Known Limitations

• A fix was introduced to avoid the freezing of POLYFLOW when POLYDATA is used to convert a
set of CSV files.

• A fix was introduced to ensure that CSV files can be transferred from an upstream POLYFLOW
system in Workbench.

• It is now possible to combine transport of species (with or without reaction) and VOF in POLY-
DATA.

• A fix was introduced so that temperature results on screw boundaries do not appear as non-di-
mensional in CFD-Post.

• It is now possible to transfer the latest CSV file from a POLYFLOW system that contains a setup
with more than one task.

• A fix was introduced to ensure that the correct memory requirements are reported in POLYDIAG
when you are using the AMF direct solver.

• A fix was introduced so that the postprocessor evaluation of viscous dissipation takes into account
the friction along slipping boundaries.

• It is now possible to impose species and pressure boundary conditions through a CSV file.

• A fix was introduced to ensure that you cannot define an MST setup with a variable density in
POLYDATA, since this combination is not supported.

• A fix was introduced to improve the conversion of CutCell meshes.

• A fix was introduced to allow more robust handling of named selections that do not cover the
whole border of the geometry.

• A fix was introduced to avoid random crashes of POLYMAT when called from POLYDATA.

• A fix was introduced for shell simulations, so that density can be defined as a template parameter.

• A fix was introduced for the scenario when you are running POLYDATA on Windows XP, so that
importing a material data file does not cause a crash. Consequently, you no longer need to ensure
that the default TEMP directory is not deeply nested in other directories.

6.4. Known Limitations

The known limitations for ANSYS POLYFLOW 14.5 are as follows:

• The Interrupt action in ANSYS Workbench has no effect on an ANSYS POLYFLOW solver run.

• You cannot perform any actions that modify an ANSYS POLYFLOW system (e.g., saving or closing a
project, duplicating an ANSYS POLYFLOW system) while an ANSYS POLYFLOW tool is open. In some
cases, ANSYS Workbench will allow such an action, but an error is generated.

• CutCell meshes are not compatible with mixing or volume of fluid (VOF) tasks, viscoelastic flow
sub-tasks, contact detection, internal radiation, the Narayanaswamy model, flow-induced crystal-
lization, or the adaptive meshing technique. Moreover, the interpolation for the velocity field is
limited: for a pure CutCell mesh, it must be the linear element; for a portion of a CutCell mesh
that has been converted into a sliceable mesh, it can be either the linear element or the mini-
element.

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POLYFLOW

• Due to some modifications of the contact algorithm to accommodate the needs of the automatic
contact release feature, you may need to make small revisions to the contact parameters of a
blow molding or thermoforming problem that was originally set up using version 13.0, in order
to run it using version 14.0 or later.

• The boundary conditions for a moving interface that is by definition shared by two sub-tasks
must be modified in the sub-task in which they were originally defined. Any modification per-
formed in the other sub-task will not be recorded by POLYDATA.

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 Part III: ANSYS Electronics Products
Release notes are available for the following ANSYS Electronics products:

Icepak
Chapter 1: Icepak Release Notes
Release 14.5 of the ANSYS Icepak application offers most of the capabilities from previous releases plus
many new features and enhancements.

• Introduction (p. 73)

• New and Modified Features in ANSYS Icepak 14.5 (p. 73)

1.1. Introduction
ANSYS Icepak 14.5 is a release of ANSYS Icepak that has new features and defect fixes. New features
are listed in the following section of this document.

1.2. New and Modified Features in ANSYS Icepak 14.5

• Graphical User Interface

– Implemented scale to fit option in the right click menu. See Using the Context Menus in the Graphics
Display Window of the User's Guide.

– Implemented rotation around mouse selected point. See Rotating a Model of the User's Guide.

– Implemented 3D mouse functions such as panning and zooming.

– Implemented pop-up dialog boxes in all editable fields. See Text Entry of the User's Guide.

• ECAD Import/Export

– Implemented display of trace layers in 3D.

– Implemented import of die powermaps exported from Apache Sentinel TI. See Gradient, Cadence, SIwave
and Apache Sentinel Powermap Files of the User's Guide.

– Implemented export of temperatures, heat flux, and heat transfer coefficients for packages to Apache
Sentinel TI. See Write Sentinel TI HTC File of the User's Guide.

– Implemented import of TSV packages using ECAD files. See Adding a Package to Your ANSYS Icepak Model
of the User's Guide.

– Implemented import of stacked die packages that consist of both wirebonds and solder bumps. See
User Inputs for Stacked Die Packages of the User's Guide.

– Implemented PCB layer-by-layer specifications. See Adding a PCB to Your ANSYS Icepak Model of the
User's Guide.

• Model Import/Export

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Icepak

– Implemented simultaneous import of multiple IDF files. See Updating the Imported IDF File in ANSYS
Icepak of the User's Guide.

– Implemented one-way coupling between Ansoft (HFSS and Maxwell) and ANSYS Icepak applications
within ANSYS Workbench. Both volumetric and surface mapping are possible. See Ansoft - Icepak
Coupling in Workbench of the User's Guide.

• Modeling and meshing

– Implemented radial and tangential conductivity as material property for objects. See Editing a Solid
Material of the User's Guide.

– Implemented polygonal block for PCB object. See Adding a PCB to Your ANSYS Icepak Model of the
User's Guide.

– Altitude correction of material properties and fan curves is available through the Altitude option in the
Advanced tab of the Basic parameters panel. See Including Temperature-Dependent Density Effects
of the User's Guide.

– Implemented transient heat transfer coefficient boundary condition specification for the individual sides
of blocks. See User Inputs for the Block Surface Specification of the User’s Guide.

– Implemented separate solid fill options for object and plane cut meshes in the Mesh panel. See Displaying
the Mesh on Individual Objects of the User's Guide.

– Implemented LED source option for block and source objects. See User Inputs for Thermal specification
and Solid and Fluid Blocks of the User's Guide.

– Implemented temperature dependent option for die power in the package object. See User Inputs for
BGA Packages of the User's Guide.

– Implemented new controls for combining size function and per object level in the mesh panel. See
Global Refinement for a Hex-Dominant Mesh and Global Refinement for a Hexahedral Mesh of the User's
Guide.

– Implemented additional mesh checks into Icepak. See Hexahedral Meshing Procedure and Hex-Dominant
Meshing Procedure of the User's Guide.

– Implemented Wedgelock, Bolt, and Stiffner macros. See Adding PCB Attachments to Your ANSYS Icepak
Model of the User's Guide.

– Implemented library of common BGA components in the Libraries tab.

• Solving

– Writing .fdat and .dat files in transient runs at regular intervals. See User Inputs for Transient Simulations
of the User's Guide.

– Implemented running the solver remotely on Linux nodes from Windows using ssh. See Configuring
Remote Linux Nodes of the User's Guide.

• Postprocessing and reporting

– Implemented option to change legend text. See Using the Context Menus in the Graphics Display
Window of the User's Guide.

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 New and Modified Features in ANSYS Icepak 14.5

– Implemented color map data with changed color divisions. See Using the Context Menus in the
Graphics Display Window of the User's Guide.

– Thermal resistance variable is available for reporting of heat sink objects. See Variables Available for
Reporting of the User's Guide.

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 Release 14.5 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
76 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
 Part IV: ANSYS Geometry & Mesh Prep Products
Release notes are available for the following ANSYS Geometry & Mesh Prep products:

DesignModeler
Meshing
IC Engine
ICEM CFD
FLUENT Meshing
Chapter 1: DesignModeler Release Notes
This section summarizes the new features in DesignModeler Release 14.5. Topics include:
1.1. General Enhancements
1.2. CAD Integration

1.1. General Enhancements

The following general enhancements have been made in Release 14.5:

Performance Enhancements
Improved performance for large models is the primary focus of this release. Several enhancements have
been made to:

• load/save AGDB files faster,

• improve performance for geometry import and modeling, and

• data transfer between DesignModeler and other Workbench applications.

In addition, the import quality for some previously difficult cases has been improved.

Support for Multiple Geometry Types

The Import/Attach feature now supports two formats for the geometry when imported:

• Workbench

• DesignModeler

The Workbench format is native to Workbench applications such as Mechanical and can be used for
faster import while reading geometry from an external CAD into DesignModeler. The DesignModeler
format is the native format used for model editing in DesignModeler. Geometry is automatically changed
to DesignModeler format during modeling, if/when needed.

For more information, see Geometry Representations (DesignModeler Help> Geometry Representations)
in the DesignModeler User Guide.

Conversion Feature for Manual Conversion

A new Conversion feature is available to convert selected bodies from Workbench geometry type to
DesignModeler geometry type. This tool also supports healing and cleaning options to repair faults in
the geometry.

For more information, see Conversion (DesignModeler Help> 3D Modeling> Advanced Features and
Tools> Conversion) in the DesignModeler User Guide.

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DesignModeler

Visualization and Suppression Controls for Named Selections

The Named Selection feature now supports additional visualization controls, including, options to
hide/show, and suppress/unsuppress entities associated with the selection.

For more information, see Named Selection Suppress/Hide Body and Face (DesignModeler Help> Menus>
Context Menus> Named Selection Suppress/Hide Body and Face) in the DesignModeler User Guide.

Base Plane Support for Point and Curve Features

The From Coordinates File option of the Point and Curve features now supports base plane selection
to allow appropriate orientation of the input data.

For more information, see Point (DesignModeler Help> 3D Features> Point ) and 3D Curve (DesignModeler
Help> 3D Modeling> Concept Menu> 3D Curve) in the DesignModeler User Guide.

Plane Definition from a Centroid of Selections

A plane’s origin can now be specified by centroid of an arbitrary selection set.

More Intuitive Move and Align

The Body Operation feature now supports two new move types, i) by vertices and ii) by direction. New
move types offer intuitive options to move geometry to a desired location and align it to an existing
geometry. Existing entities (vertices) of the geometry can be selected to indicate translation, rotation,
and plane alignment.

For more information, see Body Operation (DesignModeler Help> 3D Modeling> Advanced Features
and Tools> Body Operation) in the DesignModeler User Guide.

Slice Operation after Share Topology

The Slice operation can be applied after Share Topology. This helps ensure proper connectivity while
performing geometry decomposition.

For more information, see Slice (DesignModeler Help> 3D Modeling> Advanced Features and Tools>
Slice) in the DesignModeler User Guide.

Operation Type Property Enhancement

The default setting of the Operation Type property for the Attach to Active CAD Geometry and Import
External Geometry File options has been changed from Add Material to Add Frozen. This is done to
enhance the effectiveness of the multiple geometry types described above, and helps to avoid unne-
cessary Boolean operations while generating the model.

For more information, see Attach to Active CAD Geometry (DesignModeler Help> Menus> File Menu>
Attach to Active CAD Geometry) and Import External Geometry File (DesignModeler Help> Menus> File
Menu> Import External Geometry File) in the DesignModeler User Guide.

Shrink / Expand Face Selection

Using the Expand Face Selection and Shrink Face Selection features, you can now select adjacent
faces from a model and hide all the other faces. In addition, the hot key support has been added to

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 CAD Integration

enhance its usability. Ctrl+ + (positive key) is now equivalent to Expand Face Selection and Crtl+ -
(negative key) is now equivalent to Shrink Face Selection.

For more information, see Expand/Shrink Face Selection (DesignModeler Help> Selection> Selection
Toolbar> Expand/Shrink Face Selection) in the DesignModeler User Guide.

Model Units and Large Model Support in Details View

The Details section of the Details View in Modeling Mode has been expanded to include Model Units
and Large Model Support fields to show whether it is turned on or off.

For more information, see Details (DesignModeler Help> 3D Modeling> Details View in Modeling Mode>
Details) in the DesignModeler User Guide.

Face Selection Support for Axis of Rotation

For features which can define a rotation axis, the axis input can now be specified by selecting a face.
This option is available for cylindrical, elliptical, toroidal, and conical faces. Axis is defined using the
central axis of the surface.

Preview Circle for Feedback on Sizes

A preview circle is displayed to give feedback on gap or size for features that use ranges, gaps or sizes.
This can be used to help identify the proper gap/size during modeling.

1.2. CAD Integration

The following general enhancements have been made in Release 14.5:

Cancel Option for Contact Detection

An option is now available to cancel automatic contact detection during the detection process.

Smart Update Support for CAD Systems

PTC Creo and Autodesk Inventor now support smart update. Smart update support for Siemens NX has
been dropped.

SpaceClaim Plug-In/Add-In Modes

Users of ANSYS SpaceClaim Direct Modeler may now choose whether they wish to operate SpaceClaim
as a Workbench add-in (add-in mode) or as a traditional CAD plug-in (plug-in mode).

Geometry Interfaces Update for New CAD Releases

Geometry interfaces are updated to support new CAD releases including:

• Autodesk Inventor 2013

• ACIS 22

• CATIA V5–6R2012 (Spatial reader only)

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DesignModeler

• Creo Elements/Pro (Pro/ENGINEER) Creo Parametric 2.0

• Creo Elements/Direct Modeling 18.1

• Parasolid 24.1

• SolidWorks 2012

For more information, see CAD Integration.

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Chapter 2: Meshing Application Release Notes
This release of the Meshing application contains many new features and enhancements. Areas where
you will find changes and new capabilities include the following:
2.1. Resuming Databases from Previous Releases
2.2. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous Releases
2.3. Assembly Meshing Changes and Enhancements
2.4. Fracture Meshing
2.5. MultiZone Quad/Tri Mesh Method Enhancements
2.6. MultiZone Mesh Method Enhancements
2.7. Local Size Control Enhancements
2.8. Ease of Use Enhancements
2.9. ANSYS ICEM CFD Workbench Component

2.1. Resuming Databases from Previous Releases

Note the following when resuming databases from previous releases:

• Models created in versions of ANSYS older than ANSYS 14.5 that have a MultiZone mesh method defined
on them will be resumed in ANSYS 14.5 with the Surface Mesh Method set to Uniform so that the mesh
is similar to what it was in previous versions.

• Models created in versions of ANSYS older than ANSYS 14.5 that have a Uniform Quad/Tri mesh method
defined on them will be resumed in ANSYS 14.5 as a MultiZone Quad/Tri mesh method with the Surface
Mesh Method set to Uniform so that the mesh is similar to what it was in previous versions.

• Models created in versions of ANSYS older than ANSYS 14.5 that have a Uniform Quad mesh method
defined on them will be resumed in ANSYS 14.5 as a MultiZone Quad/Tri mesh method with the Surface
Mesh Method set to Uniform, and the Free Face Mesh Type set to All Quad. This is done so that the
mesh is similar to what it was in previous versions.

Note

In the latter two cases, the Method control that appears in the Details View will be set to
MultiZone Quad/Tri, but the old mesh method name (Uniform Quad/Tri Method or Uniform
Quad Method) will appear in the Tree Outline. To avoid confusion, it may be helpful to force
the software to rename the mesh method object in the Tree Outline. To do so, set Method
to a different value (for example, Quadrilateral Dominant) and then reset Method to MultiZone
Quad/Tri. In some cases, you may also see messages containing references to the old mesh
method names. The names in the messages will be updated to the new names if/when you
re-mesh.

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Meshing

2.2. Incompatibilities and Changes in Product Behavior from Previous

Releases
In Release 14.5, a new annotation preference, Plot Elements Attached to Named Selections, replaces
the Show Mesh object property in the Details view of the Named Selections folder object. This option
is off by default, so you will not automatically see the mesh elements when you select a Named Selection.

Changes in Release 14.5 affect mesh interface handling during export to ANSYS FLUENT. For this reason,
you may receive an error message after resuming a Release 14.0 project in which a mesh generated in
the Meshing application was exported to ANSYS FLUENT. Specifically, when you try to Update the Mesh
cell, you may receive an error message indicating the mesh file exporter failed. To correct the problem,
you can Reset the Mesh cell, define the mesh sizes and controls, and then Update the Mesh cell.

2.3. Assembly Meshing Changes and Enhancements

The following assembly meshing changes and enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• Assembly meshing supports the Polyflow solver (Solver Preference is set to POLYFLOW).

• Meshes generated using assembly meshing are not supported for Mechanical solvers. If you try to use a
Mechanical solver to solve an analysis of an assembly mesh, the solution is blocked and an error message
is issued. To proceed using a Mechanical solver, you must first deactivate assembly meshing (set Method
to None) and then regenerate the mesh.

• If you connect a Mesh component system to an analysis system and the mesh file contains an assembly
mesh, using Update requires that the mesh file be an ANSYS FLUENT mesh file (*.msh) for it to be consumed
by the downstream system's solver.

• In cases where two parts/bodies overlap in space, the Intersection Feature Creation control determines
whether the intersection between faces is computed. When activated, Intersection Feature Creation
computes additional feature edges to be respected during the snapping that occurs within assembly
meshing. Activating this feature is very useful for avoiding zigzag boundaries at an intersection, because
it ensures that the “real” intersection lines are respected. However, this operation can be computationally
expensive, so you should de-activate it if you have many non-intersecting bodies in the model.

• In the CutCell inflation algorithm, inflation layers are grown into the CutCell mesh. The volume mesh is
morphed so the boundary of the CutCell mesh matches the cap of the inflation. The value set for the
new Morphing Frequency control determines how often the morphing is repeated.

2.4. Fracture Meshing

The Meshing application supports fracture meshing capabilities enabling you to insert multiple surface
cracks into a mesh. These fracture meshes can then be used to analyze crack fonts in static structural
analyses.

2.5. MultiZone Quad/Tri Mesh Method Enhancements

At Release 14.5, the functionality of the Uniform Quad/Tri and Uniform Quad mesh methods has been
combined into a single mesh method called MultiZone Quad/Tri. The Uniform Quad mesh method has
been retired. In its place, use the MultiZone Quad/Tri mesh method with Free Face Mesh Type set to
All Quad. The following enhancements have been made in support of MultiZone Quad/Tri:

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 Ease of Use Enhancements

• The new Surface Mesh Method option enables you to choose between a uniform recursive loop-splitting
method and a paving mesh method which creates a good quality mesh on faces with high curvature, and
also when neighboring edges have a high aspect ratio.

• The new Free Face Mesh Type option enables you to choose between a mesh of pure quad, pure tri, or
a combination of quad/tri elements.

• MultiZone Quad/Tri supports the Advanced Size Function.

• MultiZone Quad/Tri supports the Behavior option for sizing controls.

• MultiZone Quad/Tri supports the Inflation Algorithm control.

2.6. MultiZone Mesh Method Enhancements

The following MultiZone mesh method enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• MultiZone meshing between the inflation layer and the swept/hex mesh has been improved. When you
use the Smooth Transition option with MultiZone meshing, the local last inflation height of the O-Grid
edge is now calculated, instead of a local initial height calculated as a constant.

• The new Surface Mesh Method option enables you to choose between a uniform recursive loop-splitting
method and a paving mesh method which creates a good quality mesh on faces with high curvature, and
also when neighboring edges have a high aspect ratio.

• Side face handling in MultiZone meshing has been improved. These improvements include several situations
where MultiZone could not properly submap side faces into mappable regions required for a valid swept
mesh. In these cases MultiZone is more robust.

• MultiZone supports the Advanced Size Function.

• MultiZone supports the Behavior option for sizing controls.

2.7. Local Size Control Enhancements

The following local size control enhancements have been made at Release 14.5:

• The new Bias Option drop-down menu provides better biasing options for edge meshing by enabling
you to set the following options:

– Bias Factor. Defines the ratio of the largest edge to the smallest edge.

– Smooth Transition. Defines the growth rate for the smooth transition.

• The MultiZone Quad/Tri and MultiZone mesh methods now support the Behavior option for body, edge,
and face sizing.

2.8. Ease of Use Enhancements

The following ease of use enhancements have been made at Release 14.5. These enhancements are
available in both the Mechanical application and the Meshing application:

• The new Object Generator enables you to make one or more copies of a template object, scoping each
to a different piece of geometry. When defining mesh controls, you can use the Object Generator to make

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Meshing

copies of a template mesh control, which may reduce the necessity to manually define multiple related
mesh controls.

• You can use the new Mesh Visibility option to determine whether the mesh is automatically displayed
when the Mesh object is selected in the Tree Outline (Automatic), or if it is displayed only when you
toggle it on via the Show Mesh button (Manual). Using the Manual setting and toggling off Show Mesh
allows you access to mesh controls without the mesh having to be drawn.

• Section plane creation has been improved. Dynamic section plane editing is disabled by default, but you
can activate it by toggling a button in the Section Planes window. Section planes now also remain activated
over geometry and mesh views thus cutting out operation times in re-activation.

• For complex models with large trees, you can create tags to mark objects in the tree with meaningful labels
and then use the tags to filter the tree to include only relevant data.

• Using the Manage Views window, you can create and manage multiple model views, each containing an
orientation and zoom level.

2.9. ANSYS ICEM CFD Workbench Component

ANSYS ICEM CFD provides advanced geometry acquisition, mesh generation, and mesh optimization
tools used especially in engineering applications such as computational fluid dynamics and structural
analysis.

You can now use the ICEM CFD Workbench component to export Geometry and Mesh data into ICEM
CFD using any of the following methods:

• Double-click the ICEM CFD system template in the Toolbox.

• Drag-and-drop the ICEM CFD system template onto the Project Schematic.

• Choose File>Import or click the Import button from ANSYS Workbench and select a file of type
.cdb.

• Right-click on a Geometry project and select Transfer Data to New> ICEM CFD.

For more information about the ICEM CFD System Component, see Component Systems in the ANSYS
Workbench User Guide.

For detailed information on working with ICEM CFD, see the online documentation available under the
Help menu within ICEM CFD.

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Chapter 3: IC Engine Release Notes
The IC Engine Analysis System is a customized tool that automates many of the required steps for setting
up and simulating the flow inside internal combustion engines with moving geometry. It is used to
examine the flow rate, swirl and tumble, and other flow parameters during the engine cycle. The IC
Engine system uses ANSYS DesignModeler and ANSYS Meshing for geometry decomposition and
meshing steps of the simulation. The ANSYS Fluent solver for fluid flow analysis and ANSYS CFD-Post
is used for postprocessing. In this release IC Engine System supports port flow simulation along with
the cold flow simulation. Also, the IC System is now available on Linux. The new features in this release
are:

IC Engine System Properties

• Option to choose the type of simulation: cold flow and port flow.

Geometry
• Support of geometry preparation for port flow analysis.

• Automatic insertion of cylinder decomposition planes.

• Complete support for parametric study of cold flow and port flow geometries.

Meshing
• Support of automatic meshing for port flow geometries.

• Complete support for parametric study of cold flow and port flow geometries.

Solver
• Automatic solver setup for port flow simulation.

– Automatic tumble and swirl calculations.

• Support for parametric study of cold flow and port flow geometries.

• Support for starting cold flow simulation from any crank angle.

Report
• Tabular view of contours at different crank angles and/or at different parameters.

• Ability to include user generated images in the report.

Usability Improvements
• Flexible definition of post processing images.

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IC Engine

• Automatic view setting in ANSYS Meshing and in cut plane view.

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Chapter 4: ICEM CFD Release Notes
This section summarizes the new features in ICEM CFD Release 14.5. Topics include:
4.1. Highlights of ANSYS ICEM CFD 14.5
4.2. Key New Features/Improvements
4.3. Documentation

4.1. Highlights of ANSYS ICEM CFD 14.5

Release 14.5 development efforts included enhancement of ANSYS ICEM CFD as a standalone application
as well as continued development of its underlying technology exposed within the ANSYS Workbench-
based Meshing application. Specific enhancements are outlined in the following sections.

4.2. Key New Features/Improvements

ANSYS ICEM CFD 14.5 includes the following new features and improvements:
4.2.1. Workbench Add-In Component
4.2.2. General
4.2.3. Prism Meshing
4.2.4. Blocking
4.2.5. Ogrid Smooth Transition

4.2.1. Workbench Add-In Component

• The ICEM CFD component system enables you to launch ICEM CFD from ANSYS Workbench and use it
to build a project using upstream data from Geometry, Mesh, or combined Geometry and Mesh system
components, and to use ICEM CFD to provide data to downstream component systems, such as ANSYS
FLUENT, ANSYS CFX, ANSYS POLYFLOW, and FE Modeler.

• The data-integrated ICEM CFD interface has been modified to provide additional functionality that en-
hances the integration of ICEM CFD and Workbench. These menu options include:

– Save Project: Saves the entire project, including Workbench data.

– Refresh Project: Refreshes the upstream data in the ICEM CFD project.

– Update Project: Brings the entire ICEM CFD system up to the most current status, including upstream
and downstream data.

– Start Replay Recording: Begins recording the commands needed to generate the block topology
model. All of the steps in the mesh development process are recorded, including blocking, mesh size,
edge meshing, boundary condition definition, and final mesh generation.

You can also click on the arrow to choose Pause Replay Recording, Run Replay File, or Delete
Replay File.

– Output Mesh: All the previous output formats are still available under the output tab, but within the
Workbench environment, this pull-down provides and easy way to generate an output file for FLUENT,

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ICEM CFD

CFX, or POLYFLOW projects. If this file is not generated while in the FLUENT session, the FLUENT system
will go out of date when a solver is connected via the Workbench schematic. Updating the system in
the Workbench schematic will prompt FLUENT to automatically produce the correct file in batch mode.
If the output file is generated while in ICEM CFD, it will already be available when the appropriate
solver system is connected and no update will be necessary.

• You can also create and set input and output parameters using the Workbench component and the
data-integrated FLUENT interface. Setting Input and Output parameters in Workbench enables you to
pass parameters to ICEM CFD and other downstream analysis tools. The interaction of parameters between
applications provides you with greater flexibility and capabilities to run optimization and what-if scenarios.

4.2.2. General
Temporary Directory Setting
A new setting, Temporary Directory, is available under Settings > General to define a temporary dir-
ectory where ICEM CFD data files are written. To define the location, list the path of an existing directory
using UNIX notation (for example, c:/users/temp instead of c:\users\temp). If the directory
does not exist, ICEM CFD will not create it.

4.2.3. Prism Meshing

• A new Global Prism setting, Advanced Prism Meshing Parameters > Interpolate Heights applies to
prisms whose initial height is set to 0. When active, it will interpolate prism initial heights between prisms
of set initial height. For instance, you can set heights on the perimeter curves and the interior surface
heights will be interpolated across the surface. If this option is off, and the initial height is set to 0, the
size of the triangle is used to calculate an initial height that will result in a smooth transition between the
last prism and the tetra volume mesh.

4.2.4. Blocking
• The Blocking > Worst option has been changed to Blocking > Find Worst blocks (range). You can now
set the number of worst blocks to display by clicking on Settings and choosing Meshing Options > Hexa
Meshing, then setting a numerical value for Find Worst. The default setting is 1-3, but you can choose
any range (for example, 2-5 or 1-9). The worst blocks are listed by their determinant values and are shown
in red in the model.

4.2.5. Ogrid Smooth Transition

• The Ogrid smooth transition provides a smooth transition from the offset layer to interior layers. This
option uses transfinite interpolation to prevent intermediate unprojected Ogrid splits from adversely af-
fecting the smoothness of the mesh.

4.3. Documentation
All documentation for ANSYS ICEM CFD Release 14.5 including several tutorials is accessible using
the Help menu. Please visit the ANSYS ICEM CFD website for more information.

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 Documentation

4.3.1. Tutorials
To access tutorials and their input files on the ANSYS Customer Portal, go to http://support.ansys.com/
training. The Customer Portal also contains links for training, for hard copies of the Tutorial manual, or
for PDF format copies of the tutorials.

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Chapter 5: FLUENT Meshing Release Notes
The following sections contain release information for ANSYS FLUENT Meshing Release 14.5:
5.1. New Features
5.2. Known Limitations

5.1. New Features

FLUENT now includes an integrated volume mesher that you can use to create high-quality unstructured
grids from within FLUENT in the meshing mode. (ANSYS FLUENT Meshing User Guide). The meshing
mode in FLUENT comprises former TGrid meshing capabilities integrated within the FLUENT solver
along with several new features, including support for importing CAD models using the CAD readers
or associative geometry interfaces (via plug-ins), a new meshing workflow, improved prism meshing,
enhancements to many existing features, and improved robustness through defect fixes.

To start the meshing mode in ANSYS FLUENT, select Meshing Mode in FLUENT Launcher or type
fluent 3d -meshing at the Command Prompt.

User Experience
The following enhancements have been made:

• The Mode toolbar contains the Switch to Solution button, which allows you to switch from meshing
mode to solution mode. You can thus, transfer all data to the solver directly when the meshing process
is complete.

You can alternatively use the switch-to-solution-mode command to switch to the solution
mode.

• The meshing capabilities are available in a single frame graphical user interface. You can switch
between embedded and detached graphics windows.

Note

When embedded graphics windows are used on Linux systems, there may be issues
with multiple entity selections made in quick succession, resulting in messages indic-
ating that the application is busy.

• A new graphics clipping tool has been added to allow you to interactively clip the displayed mesh.

CAD Import
You can import CAD models using the CAD readers or associative geometry interfaces (via plug-ins).

• Supported formats include:

– ANSYS Workbench formats: *.agdb, *.meshdat, *.mechdat

– ANSYS legacy formats: *.cmdb, *.dsdb, ICEM CFD (*.tin), GAMBIT (*.dbs)

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FLUENT Meshing

– Standard/Free CAD formats: IGES (*.igs, *.iges), STEP (*.stp, *.step), ACIS (*.sat, *.sab), Parasolid (*.x_t,
*.xmt_txt, *.x_b, *.xmt_bin)

– Licensed Readers: Autodesk Inventor (*.ipt, *.iam), CATIA V4 (*.model, *.exp, *.session, *.dlv), CATIA
V5 (*.CATPart, *.CATProduct), Creo Parametric (*.prt, *.asm), JTOpen (*.jt), NX (*.prt), SolidWorks
(*.sldprt, *.sldasm)

– Plug-ins: AutoCAD (*.dwg, *.dxf ), , Autodesk Inventor (*.ipt, *.iam), CATIA V5 (*.CATPart, *.CATProduct),
Creo Parametric (*.prt, *.asm), Creo Elements/Direct Modeling (*.pkg, *.bdl, *.ses, *.sda, *.sdp, *.sdac,
*.sdpc), NX (*.prt), SolidWorks (*.sldprt, *.sldasm), SpaceClaim (*.scdoc), Solid Edge (*.par, *.asm,
*.psm, *.pwd)

– Non-CAD formats: STL (*.stl)

– Native format: PMDB (Part Manager Database, *.pmdb)

• Advanced options can be specified to use tessellation refinement parameters, specify units, import
part/body names/Named Selections, etc.

• The conformal tessellation options allow you to produce size function driven, CFD-ready mesh upon
import, for single and multibody parts.

• Objects will be created for each body/part during import.

Reading Files
The following enhancements have been made:

• You can import FLUENT case (.cas) files and maintain all the FLUENT controls within the meshing
mode, as well as during transfer to solution mode.

• You can read in polyhedral meshes and perform selected operations like displaying the polyhedral
mesh, performing limited mesh manipulation operations, checking the mesh quality on the polyhedral
cells.

Object Based Meshing Workflow

A new object based meshing workflow has been introduced:

• Object definition:

– Object definition has been modified to include edge zones.

– Objects can be of type geometry, wrap, or mesh.

– Object manipulation operations like deleting objects optionally including face and edge zones,
merging geometry objects, extracting edges from faces comprising the object, separating faces
comprising the object, etc. are available.

• A capping surface tool allows you to cap inlets/outlets based on edge or node selection, and assign
the appropriate name and zone type.

• Size functions (previously used only for surface remeshing and CutCell meshing) can be used for the
object wrapping and sewing operations.

• Object Wrapping:

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 New Features

– The object wrapping operation allows you to create a good quality, well-connected representation
of each topological body.

→ The cut-wrap method uses the CutCell mesher to create the wrap object. This method usually
yields higher quality and better feature capturing.

→ The shrink-wrap method uses the wrapper utility to create the wrap object. This method allows
you to walk over unnecessary features.

– The following options are available:

→ For each geometry object, a conformal surface mesh suitable for further repair operations or as
the final surface mesh can be created (Individual Object Surfaces).

→ Multiple solids can be merged into one and any interior voids and faces can be ignored to sim-
plify the geometry (Unified Solid Surface).

→ The flow volume can be extracted using a material point to identify the “wetted” region comprising
the flow volume (Fluid Surface).

– Gaps between the wrap objects and/or thicknesses within a wrap object can be removed.

• Sewing:

– The Sewing operation allows you to create a good quality, conformal surface mesh ready for volume
meshing by connecting the individual wrap objects into a single mesh object. This operation is
typically used for conjugate heat transfer problems or models including porous media volumes.

– A face zone group is automatically created when a mesh object is created using the Sew operation.
This allows easy selection of mesh object face zones for various operations (improve, smooth, etc.).

– The surface mesh resulting from the sewing operation is topology-verified and normals are appro-
priately oriented for prism meshing.

– The surface mesh quality can be improved further based on skewness, size change, aspect ratio, or
area.

• Volume Mesh:

– You can select a mesh object along with material point(s) and generate the volume mesh
(prism+tetrahedra, prism+hexcore) using the Auto Mesh options.

– The cleanup operation cleans up the mesh for transfer to the solution mode by removing unnecessary
entities and renaming the zones as appropriate.

Prism Meshing
The following prism meshing enhancements have been made:

• The post ignore operation allows you to remove bad prism cells and stacks around them based on
various criteria like quality, intersection, interior warp, and features.

• In cases where prism quality is adequate, but the quality of adjacent tetrahedra is poor, you can create
a cavity comprising the tetrahedral cells and (optionally) the adjacent prism cells. The cavity can then
be remeshed to improve quality.

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FLUENT Meshing

• For mesh objects, additional options are available to separate and select boundary zones that corres-
pond to the walls for which inflation layers are to be created.

CutCell Meshing
The following CutCell meshing enhancements have been made:

• You can select geometry or wrap objects along with material point(s) and generate the CutCell mesh.

• The objects defined include the corresponding edges which are used for capturing features during
the CutCell mesh generation. If you are starting from an earlier setup, you need to use the options in
the Manage Objects dialog box to add the appropriate edge zones to the object before proceeding.

• A group is created for the face zones of each fluid cell zone. You can use this group for example, to
determine the face zones for which prism meshing parameters are to be specified.

Miscellaneous Enhancements

• A faster face-face proximity size function algorithm replaces the earlier proximity size function algorithm.

• A new option allows you to create default size functions based on face and edge curvature and
proximity.

• The Check Quality option allows you to verify the quality of the mesh before transferring the mesh
data to solution mode or writing out the mesh/case file.

5.2. Known Limitations

• If you read a case file in meshing mode and then change to solution mode, you must read the case file
in again in solution mode before attempting to read in a data file.

• A case file written from meshing mode and read in solution mode may not support previously saved data
files.

• In Workbench, if you read a case file into Meshing mode and then change to Solution mode, only the
mesh information will be transferred.

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 Part V: ANSYS Simulation Products
Release notes are available for the following ANSYS Simulation products:

Workbench
EKM
DesignXplorer
Chapter 1: Workbench Release Notes
The ANSYS Workbench platform offers many new features and enhancements. Areas where you will
find changes and new capabilities include the following:
1.1. ANSYS Workbench 14.5
1.2. Engineering Data Workspace Release Notes
1.3. External Data Release Notes
1.4. FE Modeler Release Notes
1.5. Remote Solve Manager (RSM) Release Notes
1.6. System Coupling
1.7.TurboSystem Release Notes

1.1. ANSYS Workbench 14.5

Enhancements have been made to the following ANSYS Workbench areas:
1.1.1. Design Point Enhancements
1.1.2. User Interface Enhancements
1.1.3. Licensing Enhancements
1.1.4.Tighter Integration Between ANSYS Workbench and EKM
1.1.5. Incompatibilities

1.1.1. Design Point Enhancements

Full Project Update for Exported Design Points
When you update design points for which the Exported option is selected, Workbench now performs
a full update of all cells and systems so that the project resulting from the export is fully independent
and up to date.

For more information, see Activating and Exporting Design Points and dpall Subdirectory and Working
with Design Points in the Workbench User Guide.

Specify Maximum Number Jobs for Design Point Updates via Remote Solve Manager
For design point updates submitted to Remote Solve Manager, a new Specify Maximum Number of
Jobs option is available for the Solution cell Job Submission property. When you select this option,
design points are divided into groups and submitted in multiple jobs, up to the specified maximum
number of jobs. The Maximum Number of Jobs property is also enabled, allowing you to specify the
maximum number of jobs that can be created.

For more information, see Updating Design Points via Remote Solve Manager (RSM) in the Workbench
User Guide.

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Workbench

Default Changed for Restarting the Mechanical and Meshing Applications During a
Design Point Update
The defaults for the options During a design point update, periodically restart the Mechanical ap-
plication and During a design point update, periodically restart the Meshing application have
been changed. These options will now restart the Mechanical (or Meshing) applications after every
design point update unless changed by the user. The new defaults provide better performance for
design point updates in computationally intensive solutions.

For more information, see Mechanical in the Workbench User Guide.

1.1.2. User Interface Enhancements

New Add/Edit Note Option
The Add/Edit Note option, available by right-clicking inside a Project Schematic, system or cell, displays
an editable panel where you can enter notes about the project schematic, system, or cell. There is no
limit to the amount of text you can type into a note; as you type, the panel increases in length. You
can also edit an existing note by editing the Notes field in the Properties table, or by left- or right-
clicking on the green triangle in the upper right corner of a system or cell. To close the note, click
outside the panel. To delete a note, delete the text within the panel or from the Properties view.

The content of notes are also included in project reports.

For more information, see Common Context Menu Options in the Workbench User Guide.

New ANSYS Logo Appearance Option

The Appearance section of the Options dialog includes a new ANSYS Logo option. This option allows
you to specify the color or disable the display of the ANSYS logo on application windows. Available
options are White, Black, and Off.

For more information, see Appearance in the Workbench User Guide.

New Space Claim Interaction Mode Option

The Geometry Import section of the Workbench Options dialog includes a new Use SpaceClaim Direct
Modeler as an External Cad option that allows you to specify the interaction mode for the SpaceClaim
application. When you select this option, SpaceClaim is controlled as an External CAD system, with no
direct integration into the Project Schematic. When you leave the option deselected, SpaceClaim is fully
integrated into the Project Schematic as a geometry editor.

For more information, see Geometry Import in the Workbench User Guide.

Help Menu Links to the ANSYS Customer Portal

The ANSYS Workbench Help menu now has new links to the ANSYS Customer Portal, providing you
with more convenient access to online support and documentation from the Workbench interface.

For more information, see ANSYS Customer Portal.

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 ANSYS Workbench 14.5

1.1.3. Licensing Enhancements

License HPC Parametric Packs for Design Point Studies
ANSYS, Inc. now offers license options called HPC Parametric Packs for ANSYS Workbench jobs requiring
multiple design point updates. HPC Parametric Packs enable you to simultaneously update multiple
design points of a single design study while using only a single license of each required base license.
You must use the new reserved license feature to use HPC Parametric Pack licenses. For more information,
see Using HPC Parametric Pack Licenses in the Workbench User Guide.

License Tracking and Reserve Capability for Design Point Studies

ANSYS Workbench users can now track license usage and then reserve specific licenses for use during
a design point study. License usage is automatically tracked for any cell in a Workbench project when
that cell is updated; however, the application used by that cell needs to be closed for the license usage
to be tracked. To see which licenses were used for any cell, see the Last Update Used Licenses field
in the Properties table for that cell after it’s been updated. We recommend that you first do a test run
of your study with only one or few design points and review the usage data so that you know which
licenses need to be reserved to complete the study. You can then reserve the necessary licenses when
you run the actual design point study. To reserve licenses, use the License Checkout field from the
Properties table of the Parameter Set bus bar. License tracking is available for any project in Workbench,
but reserving licenses is applicable only to design point studies. For more information, see Reserving
Licenses for a Design Point Update in the Workbench User Guide.

1.1.4. Tighter Integration Between ANSYS Workbench and EKM

Version Control for Workbench Projects Saved to EKM Repository
Version control is now available for ANSYS Workbench Projects saved to an EKM repository. The Access
control menu in the Workbench EKM dialog now offers two new options: Get Exclusive Control and
Place under Version Control.

• The Get Exclusive Control option gives you exclusive control of the project, preventing other users
from editing it.

• The Place under Version Control option allows you to place the project under version control so
that it can only be checked out and edited by one user at a time. Once a project is under version
control, you can check it out of the repository if you have permissions to the project and the project
is not locked or checked out by another user. You can also update your local copy of the project with
recent changes to the repository version of the project.

Once you have checked out a project, you can send changes to the repository version of the project.
When saving changes to the repository, you have the option of keeping the project checked out,
checking the project back in, or checking the project in and then checking it back out. The version of
the project is updated upon check in.

Note that once a project has been saved with either of these settings, the settings cannot be changed
from the Workbench user interface.

For more information, see Working with ANSYS Workbench and EKM in the Workbench User Guide.

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Workbench

Improved Performance for Send and Get Transfers

Send and Get transfers from Workbench to EKM have been reworked for improved efficiency.

1.1.5. Incompatibilities
There are the following changes in behavior in Release 14.5.

The "My Processes" View in EKM Becomes the "My Processes" Folder
In the Release 14.0 version of EKM, "My Processes" was just a view that showed all processes created
by the current user in any folder.

In Release 14.5, "My Processes" is a standard Windows folder (just as "My Reports" and "My Saved
Queries" are) and is the default location for the storing of any process. Of course, you can still store
processes elsewhere.

As a consequence of the change, the process objects created in Release 14.0 will still exist in their ori-
ginal location, but will not appear in the new "My Processes" folder.

Migration Affects Saved Search Queries

After migration from EKM 14.0 to 14.5, the search criterion for a saved query will have been changed
from "Contains" to "Equal To". This causes the query to fail. You need to manually change the search
criterion back to "Contains" in EKM 14.5.

1.2. Engineering Data Workspace Release Notes

The following new material models are now available in Engineering Data:

• Shape Memory Alloy- This material model is always available for Static Structural and Transient Structural
analyses. Available for Modal, Linear Buckling, Random Vibration and Response Spectrum analyses when
performed using linear perturbation.

– Superelasticity

– Shape Memory Effect

• Hyperelastic Material Models- These material models are available for Static Structural and Transient
Structural analyses.

– Ogden Compressible Foam Hyperelastic Material

– Extended Tube

• Special Hyperelastic Material Models

– Mullins Effect (an extension to existing nearly and fully incompressible existing hyperelastic models to
model softening or damage)

• Enthalpy property is available for Transient Thermal analysis.

• Material Damage - These damage models are available for Static Structural and Transient Structural analyses.

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 Remote Solve Manager (RSM) Release Notes

– Damage Initiation Criteria

– Damage Evolution Law

1.3. External Data Release Notes

The following new features are now available in External Data:

• External Data now supports the selection of MAPDL CDB formatted files as an input for providing mesh
information for data transfers.

• Support for Displacement and Force Data. Displacements and forces can now be imported from text
files and applied as loads in a Mechanical analysis.

1.4. FE Modeler Release Notes

The following changes to FE Modeler have been made in Release 14.5:

Beam elements imported from Mechanical are shown as line elements. The cross section shapes
are no longer shown.

1.5. Remote Solve Manager (RSM) Release Notes

The following enhancements have been made to the Remote Solve Manager:

New ANSYS Remote Solve Manager Setup Wizard

In this release, the ANSYS Remote Solve Manager Setup Wizard can guide you through the process
of setting up and configuring Remote Solve Manager. The wizard will help you through tasks such as
starting RSM services, configuring machines to be used with RSM, performing various cluster configur-
ations, define queues, create accounts, and test the final RSM configuration.

For more information, see Using the ANSYS Remote Solve Manager Setup Wizard in the Remote Solve
Manager User Guide.

Redesigned Accounts Dialog

The RSM Accounts dialog has been redesigned to enhance usability in the creation and maintenance
of RSM accounts. The dialog includes a button that allows you to add primary accounts and a right-
click context option that allows you to add alternate accounts. For existing accounts, you can also
change passwords, assign Compute Servers, or delete the account.

For more information, see Accounts Dialog Box or RSM User Accounts and Passwords in the Remote
Solve Manager User Guide.

Exit Project During RSM Solution Cell and Design Point Updates
When either a Solution cell update or a design point update has been submitted to RSM, you can exit
the project while the update is still in progress. If you have never saved the project since the update
job was initiated, you will be prompted to do so. If you have saved the project at least once after the
design point update job was initiated:

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Workbench

• All RSM jobs that are queued and running will continue to run after you exit the project; results can be
retrieved when the project is reopened.

• Any results retrieved before the last Save operation will be saved to the project.

• If results have been retrieved after the last Save operation, you will be prompted to save them before
exiting.

For more information, see Exiting a Project during an RSM Solution Cell Update and Updating Design
Points via Remote Solve Manager (RSM) in the Workbench User Guide.

Specify Component Execution Mode for RSM Updates

For design point or Solution cell updates submitted to RSM, a new Component Execution Mode
property allows you to specify serial or parallel solver execution mode. If you select Parallel, the Max
Number of Processes per Job property is enabled, allowing you to specify the maximum number of
processes to be used in the solver for each job in the update.

Note

• The parallel option is available only if the selected solver supports parallel execution mode.
This option may not be available with all systems.

• When design points are configured to be updated via RSM, the Solution cell cannot also be
updated via RSM. For special circumstances, however, the update of both the Solution cell and
design points via RSM can be enabled. Contact your ANSYS Support Engineer for assistance
with enabling this functionality and configuring your system to support it.

For more information, see Submitting Solutions for Local, Background, and Remote Solve Manager
(RSM) Processes and Updating Design Points via Remote Solve Manager (RSM) in the Workbench User
Guide.

Specify Maximum Number Jobs for Design Point Updates via RSM
For design point updates submitted to RSM, a new Specify Maximum Number of Jobs option is
available for the Solution cell Job Submission property. When you select this option, design points are
divided into groups and submitted in multiple jobs, up to the specified maximum number of jobs. The
Maximum Number of Jobs property is also enabled, allowing you to specify the maximum number of
jobs that can be created.

For more information, see Updating Design Points via Remote Solve Manager (RSM) in the Workbench
User Guide.

New Context Menu Options for RSM Progress Pane

The RSM Progress Pane offers the following new context options:

• Debug Messages: Allows you to view debugging information and toggle between standard job log
messages and debugging messages.

• Save Job Report: Allows you to generate a Job Report for the job selected in the RSM List view. You can
specify whether debug messages is included, a log time stamp is included, and where the report will be

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 System Coupling

saved to. When saving, you can browse to the directory in which the report will be saved, specify and
report filename, and choose between HTML and text format.

For more information, see Progress Pane in the Remote Solve Manager User Guide.

Released Indicator for Completed RSM Job Statuses

In the RSM List view, the Status column for jobs that have completed shows an icon indicating the final
status of the job (Cancelled, Finished, or Failed). The addition of an asterisk (*) to the final status icon
indicates that the job has been released.

For more information, see List View in the Remote Solve Manager User Guide.

Split Configuration Files for RSM Versions

For different versions of RSM, the RSM.Config file is now stored in different directories.

For details on the location of the configuration file for 14.5, see Accessing the RSM Configuration File
in the Remote Solve Manager User Guide.

Improved File Transfer Performance

In this release, the Remote Solve Manager provides faster, more efficient file transfers, reducing the
overhead associated with performing solutions via RSM.

Note

The enhanced file transfer speeds are not available for configurations using the SSH
communication protocol.

Increased RSM Robustness

Enhancements to RSM improve the robustness of connections, the job submission process, and job
uploads and downloads.

1.6. System Coupling

New features and enhancements to System Coupling introduced in Release 14.5 are highlighted in this
section.

New workflow for one-way steady thermal data transfers via an External Data connection to System
Coupling:

• One-way transfer of temperature and heat flow to ANSYS FLUENT

• One-way transfer of temperature and heat flow to Mechanical

• One-way transfer of near wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient to Mechanical

Enhancements for two-way fluid-structure interaction:

• Support for linear ramping of all data transfers

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Workbench

• Solution stabilization algorithm for System Coupling motion available in ANSYS FLUENT

• ANSYS FLUENT 6-DOF motion available for co-simulation with System Coupling

• ANSYS FLUENT residual and MAPDL results tracker data available for System Coupling chart monitors

General Extensions:

• Charting in the System Coupling user interface is now supported on all Workbench platforms (previ-
ously disabled for Linux)

• Charting of data transfer value diagnostics such as nodal minimum, maximum, average and sum

• Charting of data transfer convergence diagnostics added for source-side data (previously limited to
target-side)

• The same participant, region and variable may be used on the source-side in multiple data transfers.
This is referred to as ‘one-to-many’ transfers.

1.6.1. Numerics Changes

The changes noted below may affect either the convergence to the final solution or the final solution
itself.

• Target-side values generated using the conservative mapping algorithm now only include flows from the
portion of source-side elements that were mapped. Full flows from partially mapped source-side elements
were previously applied. This is most apparent when many-to-one transfers are used.

• Sum of target-side values generated using the conservative mapping algorithm now better matches the
sum of source-side values for curved interfaces. Mapping weights were previously calculated as an average
of weights generated by mapping source-to-target and target-to-source faces. The algorithm now only
uses source-to-target mapping weights.

• Target points are more accurately placed on source-side mesh elements by the profile-preserving mapping
algorithm. Target points were previously placed on one of several source-side elements that satisfied a
given tolerance. Additional criteria have been introduced to determine the best source-side element. This
issue was most evident with co-planar source-side elements.

• Forces applied on Fluid Solid Interfaces in Static Structural analyses are now correctly applied when the
analysis is extended and restarted. Forces in excess of the correct values were previously applied upon
restarting the analysis, which led to incorrect displacements.

1.6.2. Known Limitations

• ANSYS Workbench allows schematic connections from component and analysis systems for which no
sensible data transfers can be defined in the System Coupling setup. For example, Transient Thermal and
Fluid Flow (Fluent) systems may be connected to the System Coupling system, however the Steady Thermal
system can only consume thermal data while the Fluid Flow (Fluent) system can only serve forces.

• System Coupling analysis runs on some clusters from within the Workbench environment will not start
due to an invalid host entry in the System Coupling Server (SCS) file. This is caused by a system call that
returns an invalid host name for where the coupling server is running. To work around this issue, please
start the coupled analysis from the command line, using the correct coupling server host name when
starting the solver participants.

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 TurboSystem Release Notes

1.7. TurboSystem Release Notes

TurboSystem is a set of software applications and software features that help you to perform turboma-
chinery analyses in ANSYS Workbench.

ANSYS TurboGrid is a meshing tool for turbomachinery blade rows. The release notes for the use of
ANSYS TurboGrid in Workbench are located in this section. The release notes for ANSYS TurboGrid
without regard to Workbench are given at TurboGrid Release Notes”.

CFX-Pre, a CFD preprocesor, and CFD-Post, a CFD postprocessor, are part of the ANSYS CFX product.
Both of these products have Turbomachinery-specific features. The release notes for CFX-Pre are given
at “ANSYS, Inc. Release Notes > CFX Release Notes”. The release notes for CFD-Post are given at “ANSYS,
Inc. Release Notes > CFD-Post Release Notes”.

Release notes for the remaining TurboSystem applications are provided in the following sections:

• BladeEditor (p. 63)

Note

After reviewing these release notes, you are encouraged to see Usage Notes, which describes
some known TurboSystem-related workflow issues and recommended practices for overcoming
these issues.

1.7.1. New Throughflow Analysis System

In this release, TurboSystem offers a new Throughflow analysis system that is essentially a Vista TF system
with an added Geometry cell. A Throughflow analysis system provides a streamlined method for exploring
and analyzing geometry created from Vista RTD, Vista CCD, or Vista CPD. This system can be accessed
by selecting Create New > Throughflow in the context menu of the Blade Design cell in a Vista RTD,
Vista CCD, or Vista CPD system. For details, see Vista TF User's Guide in the TurboSystem User Guide.

1.7.2. ANSYS TurboGrid in Workbench

1.7.2.1. TurboGrid New Features and Enhancements
• TurboGrid can automatically generate meshes in batch, including turning on the inlet and outlet domains
as needed. For more details, see TurboSystem: ANSYS TurboGrid in the TurboSystem User Guide.

• You can now launch TurboGrid from ANSYS Workbench with the topology suspended. For more details,
see TurboSystem: ANSYS TurboGrid in the TurboSystem User Guide.

For the remaining TurboGrid release notes, see TurboGrid Release Notes.

1.7.3. Vista CPD

Vista CPD is a program that employs a 1D approach for the preliminary design of pumps.

Vista CPD was developed by PCA Engineers Limited, Lincoln, England.

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1.7.3.1. Vista CPD New Features and Enhancements

• Vista CPD is now available from Workbench. It is no longer available from BladeGen. See TurboSystem:
Vista CPD in the TurboSystem User Guide for details on using this new version of Vista CPD.

• The Quick Pump tutorial (Quick Pump Tutorial in the TurboSystem User Guide) has been changed to make
use of Vista CPD from Workbench. In addition, the tutorial now uses TurboGrid to produce the mesh.

1.7.4. Vista CCD Limitation

• The Angle Definition and Thickness Definition for intermediate camberlines created using the Create
New > Geometry option under a Vista CCD system in Workbench do not behave as expected.

When you create a new geometry from Vista CCD in Workbench, the intermediate camberlines that
are created show Angle Definition and Thickness Definition to be set as User-Specified.
However, you will not be able to modify the control points to control the angle or thickness curves.

In order to modify the user-specified control points for the Angle Definition and Thickness Definition
parameters, you have to choose either of the other two options and then switching back to User
Specified.

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Chapter 2: EKM Release Notes
ANSYS Engineering Knowledge Manager (EKM) 14.5 consists of EKM, the EKM server product, and EKM
Desktop, its companion desktop client application. New features that are available in ANSYS EKM 14.5
are listed in this section.

2.1. New Features

If you have used previous versions of EKM, Release 14.5 offers many significant changes and improve-
ments:

Product Installation and Setup

EKM Server can be installed directly by selecting the appropriate EKM server type from the ANSYS Release
14.5 unified installer.

Integration with ANSYS Workbench

When you install ANSYS Workbench, the EKM Desktop client is automatically installed on your system.
You can save your current Workbench project directly to a selected repository, and search for a Work-
bench project and open it from a selected repository. After updating the local copy of your Workbench
project, you can then send changes to the copy of the project that resides in the EKM repository. Other
users who have updated the same Workbench project can get your changes in order to access the
most-up-to-date project version. You can also use the revision control options and set alerts while saving
the Workbench projects in the EKM repository. This tighter integration with Workbench facilitates col-
laboration with ongoing projects and enables multiple users to leverage the work being done by their
colleagues.

ANSYS Workbench Project Representation in EKM

When an ANSYS Workbench project is saved to an EKM repository from Workbench or EKM Desktop,
the project is automatically saved as a Workbench Project Archive File (with a .wbpz extension), making
it easier to manage and act on the project as a single object in EKM. Project and component-system-
level metadata are extracted and an extensive Workbench Project Report that summarizes component
systems and all aspects of the Workbench project is auto-generated. This data can be used to display,
identify, search, and reuse Workbench projects. When the Workbench Project is updated locally and
changes are sent to the EKM Repository from the Workbench, only the changed/modified files are updated
in the repository. This makes the send/get changes operation faster and more efficient. From within
the repository, users can also display the component subsystem files from a Workbench Project Archive
File and access/reuse them, if necessary.

Graphical Interface to Create Simulation Templates

EKM Studio enables you to create multi-step web forms or simulation templates by simply using Drop
and Drop of standard widgets such as Text Boxes, List Boxes, Buttons, Images, Grids, Tables, and so on.

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EKM

These templates or forms can be published in EKM and used for the simulation what-if studies and
parametric scenarios.

Automated Migration
You can upgrade EKM Release 14.0 repositories to Release 14.5 by using the interactive Server Upgrade
procedure. This procedure supports repositories with external databases such as Oracle, DB2, and MySQL.
During this upgrade process the Workbench Project Archive Files from the prior repository will be
converted to the newer representations of files of this type.

EKM Studio Enhancements

EKM Studio enables users to interactively create work flows and Web form templates. You can now
save the work-in-progress work flows locally. The Error tab will automatically display the errors, if any,
from the work flow and help debug and correct them. The Iterative work flow definition logic is made
more robust and efficient.

Usability Enhancements
Numerous other usability enhancements have been made to EKM. These include:

• Support for Tablets/Mobile devices such as Android, iPad2 and so on

• Support for Google Chrome 15, Internet Explorer 9 in compatibility mode, Safari version in iPad2, and the
stock browser in ANDROID 3.1 Honeycomb.

• Improved security including, JSM (Java Security Manager) support and workflow-approval mechanism

• Metadata extraction and report generation support for ANSYS Maxwell format files

• Enhancements to Record and Replay of Journals capability to include additional features and actions.

Note

The Release 14 argument name changePassowrd has been renamed to changePass-

word. Journals created in Release 14 need to be edited to the new spelling in order to
work in Release 14.5.

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Chapter 3: DesignXplorer Release Notes
Enhancements have been made to the following DesignXplorer areas:
3.1. Optimization Systems and Methods
3.2. Optimization Criteria and Properties
3.3. Design of Experiments
3.4. Candidate Points
3.5. Chart Enhancements
3.6. Design Point Enhancements
3.7. User Interface Enhancements

3.1. Optimization Systems and Methods

New Direct Optimization System
DesignXplorer offers a new Direct Optimization System as a second type of Goal Driven Optimization.
A Direct Optimization system is a single-component system that utilizes real solves, and so is not de-
pendent on the quality of a response surface. It can retrieve information via data links from other
components that contain design point data, thus reducing the time needed for the optimization without
altering the original source of the design points.

To add a Direct Optimization system to your project, drag it from the Design Exploration section of
the Workbench Toolbox and drop it on your Project Schematic.

For more information, see "Using Goal Driven Optimization" and Transferring Design Point Data for
Direct Optimization in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

New Adaptive Single-Objective Optimization Method

DesignXplorer offers a new Adaptive Single-Objective optimization method for Direct Optimization
systems. This gradient-based optimization method uses automatic intelligent refinement, combining
an LHS Design of Experiments, a Kriging response surface, the NLPQL algorithm, and domain reduction
to provide a refined, global result.

The Adaptive Single-Objective method is available only for continuous input parameters and can handle
only one output parameter objective.

For more information, see Performing an Adaptive Single-Objective Optimization and Adaptive Single-
Objective Optimization (ASO) in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

New Adaptive Multiple-Objective Optimization Method

DesignXplorer offers a new Adaptive Multiple-Objective optimization method for Direct Optimization
systems. This iterative optimization method combines a Kriging response surface and the MOGA al-
gorithm, applying the Kriging error predictor to reduce the number of evaluations needed to find the
global optimum.

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DesignXplorer

The Adaptive Multiple-Objective method is available only for continuous input parameters and can
handle multiple objectives and constraints.

For more information, see Performing an Adaptive Multiple-Objective Optimization and Adaptive Multiple-
Objective Optimization (AMO) in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

New Mixed-Integer Sequential Quadratic Programming (MISQP) Optimization

Method
DesignXplorer offers a new Mixed-Integer Sequential Quadratic Programming (MISQP) optimization
method for both Direct Optimization systems and Response Surface Optimization systems. This gradient-
based optimization method solves mixed-integer linear programming problems by using a modified
sequential quadratic programming method. After linearizing constraints and constructing a quadratic
approximation of the Lagrangian function, mixed-integer quadratic programs are successively generated
and solved by an efficient branch-and-cut method.

The MISQP method is available for both continuous and discrete input parameters and can handle only
one output parameter objective.

For more information, see Performing an MISQP Optimization and Mixed-Integer Sequential Quadratic
Programming (MISQP) in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

Initialize Screening Optimizations with Min-Max Search Results

For Response Surface Optimization systems, Min-Max search results are now available to the Screening
optimization method. The sample points obtained from a response surface Min-Max search are now
automatically added to the sample set used to initialize or run the optimization, allowing for better
optimization results.

3.2. Optimization Criteria and Properties

Optimization Criteria Divided into Objectives and Constraints
The DesignXplorer Optimization component now divides goals into Objectives and Constraints. For
input parameters, you can define an Objective. For output parameters, you can now define both an
Objective and a Constraint. Objective values, constraint values, and various parts of the user interface
have been modified and/or renamed to enhance consistency and usability.

See Defining Optimization Objectives and Constraints in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

Improved Naming Capabilities for Objectives and Constraints

With this release, DesignXplorer offers improved capabilities for naming optimization objectives and
constraints. By default, objectives and constraints are now assigned a descriptive name based on defined
properties and which is updated each time the objective or constraint is modified. In addition, you can
now edit the name of an objective or constraint, giving it a descriptive name that persists and is no
longer changed by modifications to its definition. To resume the automated naming system, delete the
custom name and leave the property empty.

See Defining Optimization Objectives and Constraints in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

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 Design of Experiments

New Constraint Definition

When defining a constraint for a continuous output parameter, a new constraint type, Lower Bound
<= Values <= Upper Bound, allows you to specify that values should fall inside a defined range. You
can enter values for the Lower Bound and the Upper Bound, defining an acceptable range for the
output.

See Defining Optimization Objectives and Constraints in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

Additional Optimization Properties

DesignXplorer now offers additional optimization properties that provide you with greater control over
the optimization process. In this release, the following properties have been made available.

Input Properties:

• Derivative Approximation: Allows you to control the way the NLPQL optimizer calculates its gradient.

• Maximum Number of Points: Allows you to specify the maximum possible number of candidates to be
generated by the algorithm.

Output Properties:

• Converged: Indicates whether the optimization has converged.

• Number of Iterations: Indicates the number of iterations executed in the optimization.

• Number of Evaluations: Indicates the number of evaluations performed in the optimization.

• Obtained Pareto Percentage: Displays a percentage representing the ratio of the number of Pareto
points obtained by the optimization.

For a full listing of the properties for each optimization method, see Goal Driven Optimization Methods
in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

3.3. Design of Experiments

New Latin Hypercube Sampling Design DOE Type
DesignXplorer has added Latin Hypercube Sampling Design as a new Design of Experiments type.
When selected, the DOE is generated by the LHS algorithm, an advanced form of the Monte Carlo
sampling method that avoids clustering samples. In a Latin Hypercube Sampling, the points are randomly
generated in a square grid across the design space, but no two points share input parameters of the
same value (i.e., so no point shares a row or a column of the grid with any other point).

Improved Performance for Optimal Space-Filling Design DOE Type

This release contains visible performance improvements for the generation of an Optimal Space Filling
Design DOE and the creation of a large number of design points.

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DesignXplorer

3.4. Candidate Points

Improved Candidates Table Display
Candidates data is now available to view and edit in the Candidate Points Table. To access this table,
select Candidate Points under the Results node of the optimization workspace Outline view. Each
candidate point, whether generated by the optimization or manually added as a custom candidate, is
displayed, along with its input values, output values, and candidate rating.

For each parameter with an objective defined, the table also calculates the percentage of variation for
all parameters with regard to an initial reference point. You can set any candidate point as the initial
reference point by selecting the radio button in the Reference Point column. A percentage value dis-
played in green text indicates that the variation is in the expected direction, while a percentage value
in red text indicates that the variation is not. When there is no obvious direction (as for a constraint),
the percentage value is displayed in black text.

See Viewing and Editing Candidate Points in the Table View in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

Create Custom Candidate Points

You can now create custom candidate points to represent the existing design of a product, the initial
design of the parametric study, or other points of interest. In the Optimization workspace, when Can-
didate Points is selected under the Results node of the Outline view, you can add a custom candidate
point via either the Table or Charts view.

Once created, the point is automatically plotted in the Candidate Points chart and can be treated as
any other candidate point. You have the ability to edit the name, edit input parameter values, and select
options from the right-click context menu.

For more information, see Viewing and Editing Candidate Points in the Table View in the DesignXplorer
User Guide.

Intermediate Optimization Candidates

If your optimization criteria have been met midway through the optimization process, you can now
stop the optimization and retrieve the results without needing to run the rest of the optimization. When
the optimization is stopped, candidate points are generated from the data available at that time, such
as solved samples, results of the current iteration, the current populations, etc.

For more information, see Retrieving Intermediate Candidate Points in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

3.5. Chart Enhancements

New History Chart for Objectives, Constraints, and Input Parameters
DesignXplorer now provides a History Chart that allows you select a single enabled objective, constraint,
or input parameter and view its evolution throughout the optimization process. Color coding and a legend
make it easy to distinguish the history of an object, as well as those of any constraints applied to it.

Additionally, the History chart gives you the option of monitoring the progress of the selected object
while the optimization is still in progress; if you select an object during an update, the chart refreshes
automatically and shows the evolution of the objective or input parameter throughout the update. You
can select a different object at any time during the update in order to plot and view a different chart.

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 Design Point Enhancements

For more information, see Using the History Chart in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

Sparkline Views of Optimization History Charts

In the Optimization workspace, a sparkline version of the History chart is displayed for each objective,
constraint, or input parameter object in the Outline view. During the optimization update, the sparkline
image is refreshed dynamically along with the History chart, providing you with an additional means
of monitoring the progress of the optimization. When constraints are present, a green sparkline indicates
that the constraint is being met, while a red sparkline indicates that the constraint is being violated.
Otherwise, sparkline images use the same coloring convention as the History chart.

For more information, see Viewing History Chart Sparklines in the Outline View in the DesignXplorer
User Guide.

New Candidate Points Chart

DesignXplorer now provides a Candidate Points Chart that allows you to view a graphic rendering of
different types of candidate point information. You can select one or more parameters for which can-
didate point data will be displayed, and also have the ability control the visibility of each axis, feasible
samples, candidates you’ve inserted manually, and candidates with verified output values. Color-coding
and a legend make it easy to view and interpret samples, candidate points identified by the optimization,
candidates inserted manually, and candidates for which output values have been verified by a design
point update.

For more information, see Using the Candidate Points Results in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

Create Correlation Scatter Chart from Correlation Matrix Chart

In a Parameters Correlation component, you can now easily create a Correlation Scatter chart from any
cell in the Correlation Matrix chart. Right-click on the chart cell and select the new Insert <input
parameters> Scatter Chart context option. A Correlation Scatter chart is generated for the associated
parameter combination and added beneath the Charts node in the Outline view.

Improved Default Resolution for Response Surface Charts

The Chart Resolution option (previously called “Number of Gridlines”) now defaults to 25, increasing
the default number of points used by continuous input parameter axes in the 2D and 3D Response
Surface charts. Increasing this value enhances the viewing resolution of these charts. For clarity, the
“Number of Points on X” and “Number of Point on Y” chart properties have been renamed to Chart
Resolution Along X and Chart Resolution Along Y.

For more information, see Design Exploration Options in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

3.6. Design Point Enhancements

View Raw Optimization Data
While a Direct Optimization system is being updated, the design point data calculated by DesignXplorer
is displayed in the Table view and refreshed dynamically as design points are submitted and updated.
Once the update is complete, the final raw design point data is saved. You can view this data in the
Table view by selecting the Raw Optimization Data node of the Outline view.

For more information, see Raw Optimization Data in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

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DesignXplorer

Retry Update of Failed Design Points

A new Retry All Failed Design Points option has been added to the Options dialog. This option specifies
that DesignXplorer will automatically make additional attempts to update design points that failed
during the first run. When it is selected, the Number of Retries and Retry Delay options are enabled,
allowing you to set the desired number of update attempts and the number of seconds to elapse
between each attempt.

This option is available for all DesignXplorer components except for Six Sigma Analysis and a Parameters
Correlation that is linked to a response Surface.

For more information, see Design Exploration Options in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

Default Changed for Restarting the Mechanical and Meshing Applications

During a Design Point Update
The defaults for the options During a design point update, periodically restart the Mechanical ap-
plication and During a design point update, periodically restart the Meshing application have
been changed. These options will now restart the Mechanical (or Meshing) applications after every
design point update unless changed by the user. The new defaults provide better performance for
design point updates in computationally intensive solutions.

For more information, see Preventing Design Point Update Failures in the Workbench User Guide.

Exit Project During Design Point Updates via RSM

When all design points in a DesignXplorer component are submitted to Remote Solve Manager for
update, you can exit the project while the update is still in progress. If you have never saved the project
since the update job was initiated, you will be prompted to do so. If you have saved the project at least
once after the design point update job was initiated:

• All RSM jobs that are queued and running will continue to run after you exit the project; results can be
retrieved when the project is reopened.

• Any results retrieved before the last Save operation will be saved to the project.

• If results have been retrieved after the last Save operation, you will be prompted to save them before
exiting.

For more information, see Exiting a Project during an RSM Design Point Update in the Workbench User
Guide.

3.7. User Interface Enhancements

Redesigned Optimization User Interface
The user interface for the DesignXplorer Optimization component has been redesigned to provide
enhanced usability and a richer and more scalable optimization experience.

The optimization Outline view has been modified to include nodes for Objectives and Constraints,
Domain, Raw Optimization Data, and Results. Respectively, these nodes allow you to select objectives
and constraints, select input parameters, view design point data from the optimization, and view different
results types, such as Candidate Points or the various optimization charts. Your selection in the Outline

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 User Interface Enhancements

view drives the content of the Properties, Table, and Chart views. Each of these views has been re-
designed, populated with additional content, and given new functionality to provide better control
over the optimization process.

Coloring Convention to Differentiate Outputs by Source

In the Options dialog, a new Color for Response Surface Based Output Values option allows you to
select a custom color for the display of output values that are calculated from a response surface. The
selected color will be applied to response surface-based output values in the Properties and Table views
of all components, in the Results view of the Optimization component convention, and certain optim-
ization charts. Simulation output values that have been calculated from a design point update are dis-
played in black.

For more information, see Design Exploration Options in the DesignXplorer User Guide.

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