RBF Morph ACT Extension for Mechanical V192

About

RBF Morph ACT Extension for Mechanical

Radial Basis Functions Mesh Morphing (RBF Morph) is a powerful mathematical tool to update the shape of a computational mesh by changing the nodal positions. RBF Morph has been packaged as an extension to ANSYS Mechanical using the ANSYS Customization Toolkit (ACT). It is based on a fast RBF solver accelerated with GPU (CUDA) and multi-core processing technologies (OpenMP). Originally developed for a leading Formula 1 racing team by pioneers in mesh-morphing technology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, RBF Morph utilizes state-of-the-art scientific research results to meet top-level industrial needs.

The GUI is fully embedded in the ANSYS Mechanical Tree and leverages the standard scoping tools to specify sets of nodes (sources and targets). Multiple targets, which nodes will be morphed, can be flexibly controlled using multiple sources. The desired shape is obtained by specifying the deformation of each source by basic modifications (translation, rotation, scaling, surface offset, curve offset, surface target, curve target) or by chaining multiple modifications to create complex ones. The target mesh is smoothly deformed by the (linear or cubic) RBF.

The set-up is persistent in Mechanical and shape parameters can be created within all the basic modifications to get an automated optimization workflow ready to be steered by ANSYS Workbench. The quality of the deformed mesh is very well preserved for a wide range of input parameters and can be monitored during automatic runs.

A strong integration with CAD is implemented. The final CAD geometry can be rebuilt as a deformation of the original one or by driving Space Claim to reconstruct it keeping the same topology. Local reshaping can also be achieved adopting new curves/surfaces as targets. This is feasible also when the baseline model is available only as a mesh not connected to any underlying geometry: a functionality that is especially useful for the updating of legacy models.

Since its introduction in 2009, RBF Morph has been used successfully by more than 100 organizations worldwide and has garnered several awards for innovation in simulation and high-performance computing. All the industrial fields in which Mechanical is adopted can benefit from this technology. Successful applications include: automotive (engine, suspension, wheel), manufacturing (press parts), electronics (PCB solder joints), aeronautical (turbine blades, wing box), power transmission (gearbox housing, gear wheel), nuclear (superconductor magnets), and medical (challenging physiological geometries).

Basic and advanced functionalities are demonstrated by a suite of seven step-by-step tutorials (which include written commentary and before/after Workbench project files for each exercise). A comprehensive explanation of all RBF Morph features is given in the Users Guide.

Version R192.0.0 comes with automatic shape optimisation based on the biological growth method (BGM). Stress results are used to drive the evolution, and intermediate shapes are stored as Design Points for complete post-processing.

To learn more, consider the following resources:

• our You Tube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/RbfMorph .

• the paper about RBF Morph published in the Enginsoft Newsletter ( http://www.rbf-morph.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/NLEnginSoft13n_1_64.pdf )

• the book, Fast Radial Basis Functions for Engineering Applications (Springer) https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319750095

• case studies: http://www.rbf-morph.com/case-studies/

Support Information