fe-safe 2016 - Release Notes

fe-safe 2016 enhancements and bug fixes

Enhancements, bug fixes and known issues in fe-safe 2016, are listed below.

A.1

Enhancements:

FKM Guideline Algorithm

This new algorithm option provides fatigue analysis from finite elements in accordance with the FKM
th
Guideline Analytical Strength Assessment of Components, 6 Edition.

There are two new material databases with fe-safe 2016 to be used with this new algorithm, compiled
from the tables of materials in the FKM Guideline.

Redesigned ANSYS Workbench extension

fe-safe 2016 now comes with an entirely new extension component for ANSYS Workbench 15 and 16. The
highlights of the new development are:

fe-safe results contours can now be viewed directly within ANSYS Mechanical with no awkward postprocessing
fe-safe analysis groups can be based on named selections, bodies or faces
Verity workflows are now supported
Basic loadings and surface finish information can be specified without leaving the ANSYS Mechanical
application
Units are read automatically from Workbench

Support for the previous Workbench extension has been discontinued for fe-safe 2016.
Automated weld analysis expanded to shell element models

The automatic detection of weld failure modes for use with Verity now allows welds modelled with
shell elements. A single group with all shell and solid weld fillet elements can be defined and fe-safe
will detect the weld lines and failure domains required to correctly analyse the welds. In addition, for
shell welds, the root failure mode can automatically be detected.

Enhanced project management

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fe-safe 2016 - Release Notes

It is now possible to switch between projects without restarting the fe-safe session

Projects can be exported to and imported from a single compressed file for remote execution

Licensing changes

Both SIMULIA FlexNet and DSLS now fully support redundant servers when specifying license servers.

Extended token use in fe-safe has been changed to allow users even more effective use of their
licences by no longer requiring a client QFX/QAX licence for job, batch, verity and output functions
when submitting them on the command line.

Verity - improved through-node handling

On curved weld sections the weld line normal is often not aligned with the meshed element edges,
which causes problems in locating associated through-nodes, especially in tetrahedral meshes. The
Solid Weld finder code was enhanced to provide more robust ray tracing through the mesh to find
edges (or points close to edges) where the weld-line normal leaves an element.

Virtual through nodes are provided by interpolation (unlike the original Verity "station points" which
have to be equally-spaced). Also where a wide cone tolerance is used the located through node list is
pruned as it often double counts nodes from neighbouring line nodes. Where there is a cluster of
through nodes at similar projected distance from the line, only the best-aligned one is retained.

Pro-Mechanica

ProE analyses of only surface elements using fine-scale H-nodes could not be performed (except by
potentially less accurate P-node interpolation). This has now been fixed by reading in the H-element
mesh as well as the P-element mesh.

Collapsed element handling

More robust handling of collapsed elements is provided, typically affecting Verity, PSD, and TCD
analyses using Ansys models. Previous versions could have given node failures in TCD or PSD Shear
algorithms due to failures in surface normal calculations on faces involving collapsed elements, or
potentially incorrectly aligned normal at model edges or corners with one face collapsed. Verity with
welds defined using the new weld finder can include collapsed elements along the weld line.

Material search client integration

It is no longer necessary to launch the material database server explicitly. The material database client
and server can be launched from within fe-safe by clicking a new button in fe-safes Material
Databases window.

New Manson-McKnight Octahedral fatigue algorithm

This compliance algorithm may be required by national regulatory bodies e.g. in the aviation sector. It
is a multiaxial fatigue model which allows for a multiaxial stress state and mean-stress effects to be
accounted for. It is based on the concept of a signed von Mises mean stress and is a partial
implementation of the fatigue algorithm used in NASAs NASALIFE fatigue-prediction software.

This replaces the Modified Manson-McKnight NASALife and Fillipini algorithms in previous versions of
fe-safe. Unlike those algorithms, it performs cycle counting and is therefore suitable for complex load
histories.

Other enhancements

ANSYS v16 RST files are now supported

Abaqus 2016 ODBs are now supported

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fe-safe 2016 - Release Notes

Add support for many more loading blocks than 4097

Added support for the SRF export file format for SIMPACK
Extended material database has been updated with new materials
ASME Verity plugin is now included on the fe-safe distribution
Added the Abaqus Licence Server binaries to the fe-safe distribution
Drag and drop can now be used to append FEA solutions
Extend the material's default algorithm selection to include plug-in algorithms
Improved clarity of Material and Group settings in Isight
Changed default installation directory in line with Simulia product line
Enable use of EN table data in TURBOlife
Plugins can now request non-standard variables in ANSYS RST reader
Academic and teaching licences are now supported
The General FEA Options dialog has been re-organised for clarity
The Algorithm picker dialog has been redesigned

November 2015

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