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Release highlights

The release of nCode 2024.1 brings improvements in functionality and performance for nCode DesignLife, nCode GlyphWorks, and nCode VibeSys software products encompassing 155 built-in processing and display glyphs and support for over 50 data formats. 

Current customers on active software maintenance can gain access to nCode 2024.1 and full release documentation using the Support Portal.

nCode StressGradient screenshot

Stress gradient correction

The effect of a notch in a finite element analysis will normally overpredict the fatigue damage. Typically, the fatigue strength reduction factor for a notch is always less then the elastic stress concentration factor.  The stress gradient correction available in DesignLife allows the user to take account of this difference and thus give a much less conservative estimate of the fatigue damage.

The stress gradient correction is now available within a Vibration Fatigue analysis, therefore now allows for a more accurate calculation of the effect of localized stress concentrations when carrying out a frequency based analysis

Seam weld vibration fatigue analysis

Seam weld fatigue analysis based on vibration loads in DesignLife only previously supported frequency response results in the FE files. DesignLife now supports modal force results. This not only allows more efficient computation in the frequency domain, but it also allows users of most FE codes to use the recommended force method with the more efficient modal results.

nCode SeamWeldVibration screenshot
GlyphWorks 03

Automatic Re-submission of Batch Jobs

Batch jobs can now be automatically re-submitted after a failure due to license availability. The new functionality is supported in both flowproc and the DesignLife specific dtproc. This feature is controlled by the use of two new command line switches that control the number of re-tries and the time period between the re-tries.

This was a beta feature at 2024.0 but is now fully supported.


Other enhancements:

  • Default number of parallel translation processes now increased to 4 for faster reading of FE results data.

Release highlights

The release of nCode 2024.0 brings improvements in functionality and performance for nCode DesignLife, nCode GlyphWorks, and nCode VibeSys software products encompassing 155 built-in processing and display glyphs and support for over 50 data formats. 

Current customers on active software maintenance can gain access to nCode 2024.0 and full release documentation using the Support Portal.

GlyphWorks 03

Automatic Re-submission of Batch Jobs – Beta Feature

Batch jobs can now be automatically re-submitted after a failure due to license availability. The new functionality is supported in both flowproc and the DesignLife specific dtproc. This feature is controlled by the use of two new command line switches that control the number of re-tries and the time period between the re-tries.

Weld Hot Spot with Shell Models

This method has been available for several years for solid element FE models and has now been extended to use with Shell models.
Weld hot spot extracts calculates stresses at the weld toe by the extrapolation of the stress in front of the weld from either 2 or 3 points. Weld toe locations and the extrapolation direction are defined in the same weld location file that is used in a solid seam weld analysis. The stresses calculated by this method can be used in the standard SN and Safety factor engines.
 

DesignLife

Extended Support for Repeated Entity IDs

More and more FE codes and pre-processors are supported either multiple parts that allow duplicate entity IDs or simple allowing the same IDs for different element types for example. DesignLife already supports repeated IDs for ABAQUS ODB file for example but now this support has been extended to ABAQUS, NASTRAN and Altair input decks, NASTRAN/Altair OP2 results files and Altair H3D results files.


Other enhancements

  • Support for multiple results cases in the ANSYS MCF file (modal coordinates).
  • Improved seam weld waning file (control over the precision of the position information).
  • Updated FE version support

o Dassault ABAQUS - now support FIL files and 5 versions of ODB directly (2019 – 2023)
o ANSYS 2024R1
o NX NASTRAN 2306
o Altair OP2 and H3D 2023
 

New Line method for Critical Distance_16.9

Critical Distance ‘Line’ method

Two options are provided in DesignLife to account for notch sensitivity: Critical Distance and Stress Gradient. A new method named ‘Line’ has been added to the Critical Distance method. A new property, CriticalDistanceMethod is added for this purpose. Another property named NumberOfPoints defines the number of points to use for the Line method stress calculation. This method is considered to give a more accurate measure of the sub-surface stress at the critical distance.

Multiple event fatigue results to a single Abaqus ODB file

A new property named MultipleEventsSingleODB has been added to ‘PostProcessorExportODB’ Post Processor object and FEOutput Glyph, which when set to True will enable writing multiple duty cycle load provider events results to a single Dassault Abaqus ODB file format. This is more convenient for the customer and also can save significant disk space.

File format version enhancements:

  • Dassault Abaqus 2023 .ODB & .FIL
  • Ansys 2023 R2 .RST
  • FEMZIP-N 1.7.13
     
Faster analysis with 4 processing threads

Faster Analysis with 4 processing Threads

The number of threads included by default in DesignLife has been increased from 2 to 4.

This will give a up to doubling of the analysis speed before needing extra thread licenses. 

The 4 processing threads are also available for the translation phase and can lead to a significant reduction in the translation phase of the overall process.

Further enhancements

Additional improvements in nCode 2023 include:

  • Overall spectrum available as a specific option in the ComplexFrequencyManipulation glyph  
  • MATLAB MAT file format supported up to version 7.3 
  • Time series can be saved in the MDF 4 file format 
  • CSV files now readable directly as Time Series
  • New vibration fatigue glyphs available for EN, spot weld and seam weld analyses
  • New worked example for vibration loading with modal coordinates 
  • Seven new materials in the premium material database 
  • Three new FKM material databases (5th, 6th and 7th editions of the FKM Guide

Material properties defined per entity

In nCode 2022 material properties can be defined directly from a formatted CSV file. This allows to set different properties for each entity or to default some or all the properties for all or some of the entities. This enables material properties to vary by location across a whole FE model, improving the accuracy of fatigue life predictions for components such as castings. This functionality is available for standard SN, standard EN and multi-temperature EN analyses.

Further enhancements

Additional improvements in nCode 2022 include:
  • Time series file formats updates: Dewesoft DXD, Vector MDF4, HBK BKC
  • The MDF4 file support is now included with Prenscia Access
  • Matlab 2021b is now supported in the Matlab scripting glyph
  • Save Process With Data option also saves a .flo file
  • Brown-Miller added to the multi-axial EN solver options
  • Updated support for all the major FE codes
  • Additional materials in the standard database
  • Constant and variable amplitude seam weld data
  • Two new aluminium seam weld materials
  • New ASME steel seam weld
  • PamCrash FEMZipped files now supported
  • Four versions of Abaqus ODB will be supported at this release: 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021

Frequency domain fatigue

Many dynamic events that produce fatigue damage can be more efficiently analyzed in the frequency domain. nCode DesignLife includes several enhancements to speed the calculation and ease of use of multiple simultaneous and correlated PSD loads. The Frequency Response Analysis glyph’s new MultiCrossPSD option now directly converts measured multiple time history data channels into an efficient spectral histogram format (including all cross spectra) that is read straight into the vibration load provider in DesignLife. In addition, spot weld vibration fatigue is also fully supported for Abaqus, ANSYS and NASTRAN results. With this release, nCode DesignLife provides the most extensive frequency domain fatigue simulation capabilities commercially available.

Vibration Profile Design

Vibration Profile Design enables engineers to construct or accelerate a profile for shaker tests based on real world data, saving both time and money in environmental qualification and product validation. In this release, capabilities are expanded to enable the Shock Response Spectra glyph to calculate fatigue damage spectra based on acceleration, velocity or displacement responses to cater for different failure modes. Additional time series outputs for user-specified frequency points are also provided in order to better understand the dynamic response. Vibration Profile Design is an invaluable analytical addition to electrodynamic shakers such as HBK’s LDS shaker systems.

Dynamic FEA-test correlation

In order to rely more on simulation of durability tests, it is necessary to gain greater confidence using correlation with known failure modes and physical measurements. nCode 2021 expands this capability with new animation functionality to synchronize multiple simultaneous ODS (Operating Deflection Shapes) and FE Display (Finite Element) models to give clear visual comparison. The Modal Assurance Criterion (MAC) glyph can now select to use either real or complex modes for numerical comparison. Virtual Sensors placed on FE models in DesignLife can also export both acceleration and velocity time histories as well as displacement and forces, in order to directly correlate FE results with, for example, dynamic accelerometer measurements.

Further enhancements

Additional improvements in nCode 2021 include:

  • Simulation of weld fatigue is enhanced with improved automatic seam weld detection to handle more complex geometries. Walker mean stress correction is also added for seam weld analysis.
  • FE Results files supported are updated including MSC Nastran 2020 .h5 and ANSYS 2020 R1 .rst. Abaqus ODB file versions 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 are all supported at this release.
  • FE Display is now faster to switch displayed groups for models with large numbers of properties or materials.
  • Video Player glyph is now fully multi-threaded for faster import of multiple simultaneous videos and optionally stores translated files for immediate re-loading.
  • Customer-driven enhancements including updates to supported file formats such as binary UFF, Dewesoft .dxd and Vector MDF4.

Some features listed were also included in nCode 2020.1.
Cyber essentials - certificate of assurance

We are certified Cyber Essentials Plus (CEP)

 

  • CEP is a UK Government backed industry supported scheme. It helps us to address the required cyber security standards we must meet for our customers. Certification demonstrates our commitment to cyber security. 
  • Security vulnerabilities have been resolved in IT infrastructure, software applications and our own software products. 
  • Process improvements have been made so that we do not accrue technical debt as new vulnerabilities emerge.

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