Simcenter 3D Solutions Simcenter Flotherm to Simcenter 3D
2023-04-13T17:33:44.000-0400
Simcenter Nastran
Simcenter 3D
Summary
How to export Simcenter Flotherm temperature results and prepare for transfer to Simcenter 3D
Details
Important note: As of Simcenter Flotherm 2210 (released October 2022), it is now possible to easily and directly export Simcenter Flotherm 3D solid temperature field results in FLD file format for use in Simcenter 3D software for thermo-mechanical analysis workflows. Please see the details in the Simcenter Flotherm 2210 release blog article for information or see the release and download information in Support Center on Simcenter Flotherm 2210.
This past article here below remains online as the prior workflow to serve as guided example of how to leverage Python scripting to aid generation and automation of customized results files. It shows a method to export Simcenter Flotherm solid temperatures in an ASCII format file and then convert them to the Simcenter 3D FLD format.
The Simcenter Flotherm ASCII FLOFEA format maps temperatures, on a part-by-part basis in the exported assembly, to 8 node hex elements. This is shown in the image below:
To provide a seamless import process to Simcenter 3D the results are converted to the preferred FLD format shown in the image below.
To obtain Simcenter Flotherm results in the FLD format the ASCII FLOFEA file is required. The default FLOFEA export file is of a format suitable for conversion in MpCCI. To extract results in an ASCII format the environment variable FLO_FEAASCII needs to be set to TRUE, prior to launching Simcenter Flotherm.
After setting the environment variable the Simcenter Flotherm model can be loaded and results exported as shown in the image below.
The last step of the process is to use the Python script in the download section of this Communities post. The image below outlines the use of the script that requires the input path to the FloFEA ASCII file and optionally the output folder.
Please feel free to provide feedback on the usefulness of or recommendations for the script.
Additional resource: Please watch this on-demand webinar that provides an overview of combining electronics cooling simulation data from several Simcenter CFD tools with FEA thermo-mechanical stress analysis in Simcenter 3D. It demonstrates thermal analysis examples in Simcenter Flotherm, Flotherm XT and FLOEFD software and the workflows to extract accurate 3D temperature field data and seamlessly map that to an FEA mesh for thermo-mechanical stress simulation.
Watch - Enhancing electronics thermo-mechanical analysis workflow
This past article here below remains online as the prior workflow to serve as guided example of how to leverage Python scripting to aid generation and automation of customized results files. It shows a method to export Simcenter Flotherm solid temperatures in an ASCII format file and then convert them to the Simcenter 3D FLD format.
The Simcenter Flotherm ASCII FLOFEA format maps temperatures, on a part-by-part basis in the exported assembly, to 8 node hex elements. This is shown in the image below:
To provide a seamless import process to Simcenter 3D the results are converted to the preferred FLD format shown in the image below.
To obtain Simcenter Flotherm results in the FLD format the ASCII FLOFEA file is required. The default FLOFEA export file is of a format suitable for conversion in MpCCI. To extract results in an ASCII format the environment variable FLO_FEAASCII needs to be set to TRUE, prior to launching Simcenter Flotherm.
After setting the environment variable the Simcenter Flotherm model can be loaded and results exported as shown in the image below.
The last step of the process is to use the Python script in the download section of this Communities post. The image below outlines the use of the script that requires the input path to the FloFEA ASCII file and optionally the output folder.
Please feel free to provide feedback on the usefulness of or recommendations for the script.
Additional resource: Please watch this on-demand webinar that provides an overview of combining electronics cooling simulation data from several Simcenter CFD tools with FEA thermo-mechanical stress analysis in Simcenter 3D. It demonstrates thermal analysis examples in Simcenter Flotherm, Flotherm XT and FLOEFD software and the workflows to extract accurate 3D temperature field data and seamlessly map that to an FEA mesh for thermo-mechanical stress simulation.
Watch - Enhancing electronics thermo-mechanical analysis workflow