Altair AcuSolve 2018

Release Notes

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Altair AcuSolve 2018 Release Notes

What's new and changed in Altair AcuSolve 2018.

Altair AcuSolve 2018 represents a significant step forward for Altair’s premier Navier-Stokes finite
element-based CFD solver. Included in this release are features that will allow users to easily
explore potential improvements to their current designs, simulate thermal analyses with radiation
in participating media, analyze multiple dispersed material phases within a carrier field, and include
the effects of humidity natively in the thermal solution. Additionally, six new tutorials and two new
validation cases are provided.

Optimization
In Altair AcuSolve 2018 users now have the capability to run optimizations completely within the solver.
Optimization types include both Parametric and Shape and provide a wide variety of options with which
to explore a design. This response surface optimization feature positions alongside the traditional and
highly flexible Altair HyperStudy approach to which users are accustomed.

When running a simulation with Optimization a single simulation will consist of multiple Cases. Each
Case consists of multiple time steps resulting in the converged solution of one or more design variable
changes that modify a parameter or a shape. Design variables are associated with parameters through
multiplier functions or directly in the case of shapes. Shapes are created in Altair HyperMesh using
the morphing tools and are stored in and exported directly from the Altair HyperMesh database. Users
are currently restricted to running steady state optimization simulations but are free to include flow,
thermal or conjugate heat transfer physics in their optimization runs.

Response variables can be defined based on SURFACE_OUTPUT or ELEMENT_OUTPUT quantities or can

be defined using a wide range of mathematical functions.

With the addition of Optimization to Altair AcuSolve users can now plot quantities available in acuProbe
on a per-case basis in addition to the already available per-time and per-timestep basis.

P1 Radiation
In addition to Enclosure and Solar radiation, users may now incorporate the P1 radiation model into
their thermal simulations. The P1 model is a first order implementation of the more general PN spherical
harmonics approximation method. This approach approximates the radiative transfer equation as a
series expansion of radiation intensity and reduces to a single elliptic partial differential equation.
The PN class of models are particularly well-suited for higher temperature simulations involving
radiation and perform best on media that are not optically thin (aL >> 1). The setup for P1 uses the
same fundamental building blocks users are currently familiar with such as RADIATION_SURFACE,

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EMISSIVITY_MODEL, and RADIATION parameters. Additionally, users will need to specify material
information for participating media such as absorption, scattering, and phase coefficients.

Algebraic Eulerian Multiphase

Altair AcuSolve’s multiphase capability is extended in 2018 with the addition of the Algebraic Eulerian
mixture model. This is a dispersed phase model allowing users to simulate scenarios in which there is
a primary carrier field and any number of dispersed fields. With this model one mixture momentum
equation is solved along with the volume fraction equation of each phase. The relative velocity of each
phase is computed via an algebraic slip model. Examples include modeling liquid droplets in a gas, gas
bubbles in a liquid, or solid particles in a gas or liquid. A single diameter is specified for each dispersed
field, but multiple dispersed fields can be specified.

Field data for Level Set multiphase is now written with RESTART_OUTPUT enabling users to easily
restart and continue their multiphase simulations.

Humidity
Previously, humidity modeling was handled via species transport requiring the user to perform many
manual steps. With 2018 Altair AcuSolve models humidity as a separate field (along with dry air)
allowing the user to easily specify conditions in the form of relative humidity, dew point, or water mass
fraction.

Smooth material data can now be specified by the user via piecewise polynomial functions of any order.
Outside the specified range the data assumes the last data point, as is consistent with other functions.
No extra smoothing is performed by the solver and the smoothness of the data at transition points
between polynomials is up to the user.

Global Gravity
Prior to version 2018, GRAVITY was specified as a body force on all relevant element sets. This function
has been moved to the global level and now must only be specified in one location on a model.

AcuOptiStruct
A few minor bugs have been fixed regarding acuOptiStruct. They include fixing typos, formatting issues
and adding more checks on input parameters that have been passed.

AcuHeatBalance
AcuHeatBalance now incorporates radiation into balance calculations.

Tutorial Manual Additions

With Altair AcuSolve 2018 users have 4 new Altair AcuConsole-based tutorials to learn from as well
as 2 new Altair HyperMesh-based tutorials. The Altair AcuConsole tutorials include coupling with Altair
Flux, simulating a Level 1 Brake Cooling analysis, Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian mesh motion for a
closing valve, and modeling porous media. The Altair HyperMesh tutorials cover parametric and shape
Optimization.

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Tutorial No. Description Interface

1-Way Sequential Coupling with

ACU3400 AcuConsole v2018
Flux

ACU5002 Brake Cooling: Level 1 AcuConsole v2018

ACU5202 Closing Valve ALE AcuConsole v2018

ACU6010 Porous Medium AcuConsole v2018

ACU7000 Parametric Optimization HyperMesh v2017.2.4

ACU7001 Shape Optimization HyperMesh v2017.2.4

Validation Manual Additions

Altair AcuSolve 2018 includes two new validation cases. The first is of two-dimensional multiphase flow
in an oscillating tank and the second is of concentric spheres radiating heat.
• Multiphase Flow within a Sloshing Tank
• Heat Transfer Between Radiating Concentric Spheres

Notable Changes
• Intel MPI has been updated from v5.1.3 to v2018.0.1 on both Windows and Linux.
• Altair AcuSolve .Log files now contain a build tag in the header. This tag will enable support
personnel to more easily track the version of the solver build used in the simulation. It is always
recommended to include the Log file of a run associated with a support request.
• When material models with non-constant density or viscosity are used, the inlet boundary
convenience settings of turbulence_input_type [=auto/viscosity_ratio/intensity_viscosity_ratio] are
not supported because they cannot be correctly resolved with the given, non-constant information.
The solver was correctly erroring out for two-equation models in this scenario. This error also
applies to the one-equation Spalart-Allmaras model and the solver now correctly throws an error
for this turbulence model as well.

Resolved Issues
• Integrated surface output data (OSI) for multiphase runs now correctly writes mass flux where it
was previously writing volume flux.
• Altair AcuSolve utility scripts on Windows have been improved. This is particularly noticeable when
printing out the help info with the “-h” argument.

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