Workshop 01 - Transfer Chute

Part B: Post-Processing

R4.3

rocky-dem.com
OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this workshop is to introduce some basic methods for analyzing
a simulation after you have processed it. We will continue from where we left off
in Part A.
You will learn how to: And you will use these features:
Create an Animation Animation panel (videos)
Visualize Properties in a 3D View Time toolbar
Window Multi Time plot
Create Graphs and Plots Time plot
Filter Data with User Processes User Process - Cube
User Process - Plane

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AGENDA

Part B: Project Setup and Processing

User Interface Overview
Animation Setup and Generation
Time-Dependent Plots, Properties and Curves
User Processes, Cubes and Planes
Accessing the User Manual
Conclusion

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OPEN PROJECT
If you completed Part A of this workshop, ensure that Rocky project is open. (Part B
will continue from where Part A left off.)
If you did not complete Part A, do all of the following:
Ensure that you have downloaded and extracted the workshop_01_input_files folder
that was provided along with this PDF.
Open Rocky 4. (Look for Rocky 4 in the Program Menu or use the desktop shortcut.)
From the Rocky program, click the Open Project button, find the
workshop_01_input_files folder, then from the workshop_01_A_pre-processing
folder, open the workshop_01_A_pre-processing.rocky file.

Process the simulation. (From the Data panel, select Solver and then from the
Data Editors panel, click the Start button.) rocky.esss.co
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MOVING TROUGH TIMESTEPS
Now that the project has completed processing, we can begin to analyze it. For
example, you can use the Time toolbar in the following ways:

1 Select a specific timestep/time from the drop-down list.

2 Use the arrow buttons (from left-to-right) to:
(a) Go to first timestep
(b) Step back one timestep
(c) Step forward one timestep
(d) Go to last timestep
3 Play the animation.
4 Slide to the timestep you want using the slider bar.
5 Use the Timeset Filter to display only a specified time range.
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COLORING BOUNDARY/PARTICLES

There are 3 different ways to color the boundaries and/or the particles:
Use the Coloring service toolbar to color all the boundaries/particles by a property:

Use the Coloring Tab by doing the following:

From the Data panel, select either a boundary under
Geometries or the Particles entity.
From the Data Editors panel, select the Coloring
tab, expand Faces (for boundaries) or Nodes (for
particles) and then select the desired property to
color. This way, only the selected item will be
colored (not all of them as with the other options).
Use the Properties tab by dragging and
dropping the desired property over the 3D View.

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COLORING BOUNDARY/PARTICLES

For this workshop, we want to color our particles by velocity.

From the Data panel, select Particles and then from the Data Editors panel,
select the Properties tab.
Select Absolute Translational Velocity and then drag and drop it onto the 3D
View window.
You can then use your mouse to zoom and pan, and use your mouse or the
options on the Fit toolbar (as shown) to change the orientation.

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ANIMATION

To create an animation (video) in Rocky, you set key frames of a particular 3D

View window at specified timesteps.
Rocky will interpolate between the created key frames using the available
outputs saved during the simulation.
To show the Animation panel, from the Tools menu, select Animation.

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ANIMATION PANEL
1 Frames per Second (FPS) will change the resolution of the
animation. At least 30 FPS is recommended. To create a
smooth animation, the Output Frequency should not be
9 greater than 1/FPS.
8 2 Key Frames list.
1
3 Select a specific moment in the animation.
4 Add Key Frame / Remove Key Frame / Update Current Key
Frame / Remove All Key Frames / Play / Stop / Export (video or
7
images).
2
6 5 Number of frames between the selected Key Frame and the
next one. The Number of Frames divided by the FPS gives the
5 real animation time. This value can be changed to display the
animation in real time.
3 6 Duplicate the selected Key Frame.
4
7 Move the selected Key Frame Up or Down to change the order.
8 Camera Interpolation method.
9 Name of 3D View window that is currently selected. rocky.esss.co
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CREATING AN ANIMATION
For this workshop, a simple animation using only 2 Key Frames in real time will be created (13s).
Since we use an Output Frequency of 0.05 s, we should use an
FPS of 20 or less (FPS should be less or equal 1/Output
Frequency). Use FPS 20 (as shown).
Select the 3D View you set up earlier. Then, using the Time
toolbar, change the timestep to 0 s.
Add the first Key Frame by clicking the Add Key Frame (green
plus) button.
Select the new frame and then from the Frame tab, change the
Number of Frames to 260 (as shown). Since there are 260 output
files in this simulation, and our FPS is 20, this will give us the full 13
seconds between our first and second frames. (260 / 20 = 13)
Use the Time toolbar to change the time to the last output, and add
a second Key Frame.
Your Total Time should be 00:13 (real time).
Click Play to preview the movie in the 3D View window.
Click Export Animation to save the movie to an AVI file.
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TIME-DEPENDENT PLOTS

All the Properties are calculated for every timestep and every Triangle (boundary
mesh) or Particle.
In order to create a Time Plot or a Multi Time Plot, you must select one of the
following operations to transform the Properties into a single time-dependent curve:
Minimum: Lowest value among all particles/triangles
Maximum: Highest value among all particles/triangles
Average: Mean value among all particles/triangles
Sum: Sum of all values among all particles/triangles
Sum Squared: Sum of the squared values among all particles/triangles
Variance: Squared deviation of a value from its mean
Standard Deviation: Squared root of the variance

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TIME-DEPENDENT PLOTS

Particles and Solver each contain a Curves tab, which includes several
pre-defined curves that can be plotted without applying any additional operations.
Particles Curves: Solver Curves:

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MULTI TIME PLOT

The Multi Time Plot is a useful tool to compare different curves at the same time, but
are plotted either on the same grid, or on a separate one (subplot).
In this workshop we will compare the amount of particles that entered the domain
(Particles In Count), left the domain (Particles Out Count), and the total amount of
particles inside the domain (Particle Count) at each timestep.
To create a Multi Time Plot, from the Windows panel select New Multi Time Plot, or
use the shortcut Ctrl+M.
From the Data panel, select Particles and then from the Data Editors panel, select the
Curves tab.
From the Curves tab, drag and drop Particles In Count over the plot window. Repeat
the same procedure for Particles Out Count.
To plot the total number of particles in a separate subplot, click and hold Particle
Count, and then with the Ctrl key pressed, drag and drop the curve over the plot.
The results are shown on the next slide.
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MULTI TIME PLOT

In the top left corner of the plot, you can select Configure Window to edit text
display, colors, axes limits, units and other related options.
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USER PROCESSES

For some DEM analyses the data must be restricted to a particular region, or a
particular subset of material.
Rocky User Processes are used to divide and analyze Particles, Geometries,
and Fluids and include the following types:
Cube: Create a subset of data based upon a box region.
Cylinder: Create a subset of data based upon a cylinder region.
Plane: Create a subset of data based upon a plane.
Polyhedron (Envelope): Create a subset of data based upon a custom shape
region that you import via .stl file.
Property: Create a subset of particles/geometry based upon a particular property
value or range.
Cell Inspector: Select a single, individual particle or triangle (boundary).
Particles Trajectory: Create the particles’ path lines for a specified time range.
Particle Time Selection: Create a subset of particles based upon a time filter.
Eulerian Statistics: Transform the discrete properties into continuous values by
averaging the values over discretized regions.
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USER PROCESSES

To illustrate the use of these tools, a Cube and a Plane User Process will be
used to analyze the mass unbalance on the receiving conveyor.

One Cube and two Planes will be used: the Cube to isolate the receiving
conveyor and the Planes to divide those particles into two subsets: left
(orange) and right (green).
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USER PROCESS - CUBE

The first User Process will be the Cube. To create it, from the Data panel,
right-click Particles, point to Processes, and then select Cube.
User Processes can be manually changed using the 3D View, or adjusted
using the parameters displayed in the Data Editors panel.
From the Data Editors panel, ensure that the Cube tab is enabled and then use
the values shown in the picture for Orientation, Order, Local Angles, Rotation,
Center, and Magnitude (as shown).

From the Coloring tab, set also the Node color as red.
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USER PROCESS - CUBE

Once the cube has been created, the

subset of particles inside this region
can be used to create specific plots,
new properties and also to create
new subsets derived from it.
In this workshop, we want to divide
only the particles on the conveyor
(not above or below it) into two sets:
left and right.
In order to do that, two Planes will be
created based upon the Cube
sub-selection of Particles and not
upon the main Particles entity itself.

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USER PROCESS - PLANE

The first Plane will be created based upon the Cube selection. To create it,
right-click Cube <01>, point to Processes, and then select Plane.
From the Data Editors panel, select the Plane tab and then define the values
for Plane Normal (as shown).

From the Coloring tab, set also the Node color as orange.
To finish, right-click Plane <01> from the Data panel and then select Rename.
Change the name to Left. rocky.esss.co
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USER PROCESS - PLANE

When a User Process is selected in the Data panel,

Rocky highlights the association between it and
other User Processes by displaying the parent User
Process name in Bold.
So, when you select Cube <01>, Particles will be
displayed in bold letters. And when you select
Plane <01>, Cube <01> will be bold.

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USER PROCESS - PLANE

The second Plane is exactly the opposite of the previous Plane (Left). To
create a copy, from the Data panel, right-click Left and then select Duplicate.
For this one, it is only necessary to change the direction of the normal vector.
From the Data Editors panel, select the Plane tab and then modify the Plane
Normal (as shown).

From the Coloring tab, set also the Node color as green.
To finish, right-click Plane <01> in the Data panel and then select Rename.
Change the name to Right. rocky.esss.co
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USER PROCESS - PLANE

Tip: You can visualize the planes in the 3D

View window by ensuring that the eye icons for
Left and Right are turned on (open eye).

The next step is to create a Time Plot

comparing the unbalance between both sides
of the conveyor.
Similar to the Multi Time Plot, create a Time
Plot by selecting New Time Plot from the
Windows panel, or by using the shortcut
Ctrl+T.
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TIME PLOT
Repeat the following instructions for both Planes:
From the Data panel, under User Processes, select the Left plane.
From the Data Editors panel, select the Properties tab, and then drag and drop
Particle Mass over the plot.
A new dialog will be displayed asking which operation you want to apply to the
properties to turn it into a curve. Select only Sum, and then click OK.
Properties will either be Instantaneous or will have resulted from a Statistical analysis.
This categorization will be shown in the Evaluation column.

Repeat this process for the Right plane.

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POST PROCESSING – USER PROCESSES

This analysis shows that there is a balance difference between the two sides of
the conveyor, which can cause operational problems and lead to additional wear
on the belt surface.

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HELP – USER MANUAL

For further information on any topic presented, we suggest searching the User
Manual, which provides in-depth descriptions of the tools and parameters.
To access it, from the main Toolbar click Help, point to Manuals, and then click
User Manual.

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HELP – USER MANUAL

In the User Manual, use the Search tab to quickly find the topic you are interested in:

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CONCLUSION

Rocky was used to study a transfer chute design.

During this workshop, it was possible to:
Create an animation of your simulation
Visualize Properties in a 3D View window
Plot Properties and Curves
Filter data using User Processes
Use post-processing tools to analyze the results
What’s Next?
Now that you understand the basics of setting up and running a Rocky project, you
are ready to move on to next workshop.

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