Calculation

The total time period of the simulation should be defined.

The structure is divided into tetrahedrons for the Finite Element Analysis

If the meshing is very time consuming (because of wrong meshing parameters e.g.) the meshing process can be aborted

The calculation is performed.

If the STOP-button is pressed the calculation-process will stop after the current time-step is finished. The results will subsequently be present until that time

The calculation will be restarted and proceed until “Total Process Time” is reached. In order to save memory, all previous results can be discarded by means of the check box.

The current activity and the progress of the simulation are shown in the respective text fields.

During the simulation, information is obtained about the expected time for the completion of the analysis and about how great a memory need there is.

Some calculations can be very time consuming. In preliminary calculations it is a good idea to use a coarser mesh and long timestep (e.g. 4 hours).

When you have determined appropriate arrangements make a final calculation with a finer mesh and a shorter timestep.

Tasks that require a lot of memory (a large model and/or a long simulation time) can be divided into multiple jobs. The procedure is as follows:

1.      Perform a calculation of only a part of the total period you want to simulate, 50% e.g., or what is necessary to complete the analysis.

2.      Save the job.

3.      Save the job in a new name (jobname-Part2 e.g.), extend the simulation time, check “Discard previous results” and restart the calculation.

4.       #3 can be repeated until you have reached the end of the total period you want to simulate.

5.       Together, the jobs now contain the results for the whole period.

(The batch processing (see Main window ) includes a feature that easily makes this division in one operation.)

Alternatively, you can consider using a larger timestep to reduce the amount of results.