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ESAComp 4.3 RELEASE NOTES

Version 4.3.0.015, July 8, 2011 Note: ESAComp 4.2 was officially released for Linux only. Besides the platform support, only minor enhancements to the 4.1 version were introduced. PANEL ANALYSIS The curved plate analyses of the 4.1 version have been extended to cover buckling and natural frequency analyses. The old plate analyses of ESAComp have become obsolete and have thus been removed from the user interface. The curved plate objects and analyses have been renamed as panel objects/analyses to better describe their applicability for both flat and curved plates. The use of the integrated Elmer FE solver, the introduction of new load types and boundary conditions, together with the 3D result viewer give significantly improved capabilities compared to the old plate analyses. Edge loads have been introduced for panels. Both normal loads and in-plane shear loads can be defined. Edge loads may vary linearly along the side of the panel. Edge loads can be combined with other panel load types and they are applicable for both load response/failure and buckling analyses. A possibility to define boundary conditions for corners of the panel has been added besides the edge boundary conditions. The corner boundary conditions are needed, for instance, when edges are left free to allow application of edge loads, but the free body motions of the panel must be constrained for the FE analysis. Old ESAComp cases with plate objects are converted when opened in ESAComp 4.3. An old plate object converts into a panel and panel boundary condition object. Laminate in-plane loads (for plate buckling) are converted into panel edge loads. The old plate load objects are compatible with the panel analyses as such, but they are now called panel loads. Especially for buckling analyses, the boundary conditions of the old plate analysis may be too restrictive and prevent application of the edge loads. User interaction is needed to fix such cases. The theoretical basis of the analyses remains unchanged and hence only minor differences are usually visible in the end results when switching from the plate analyses to panel analyses. Mesh parameters under analysis options allow changing the default number of elements on the long side of the panel to a value that better suits the panel being studied. The 3D result viewer includes many enhancements (also related to the cylindrical shell add-on). For example, the animation of the buckling/vibration modes has been improved.

CYLINDRICAL SHELL ADD-ON MODULE ENHANCEMENT A pressure vessel option has been added in the cylindrical shell load specification. When selected, the axial load induced in the cylinder, as if it was a pressure vessel, is automatically added based on the given pressure load. Forced displacements of the cylinder ends have been added as an option for defining the boundary conditions.

Mesh parameters under analysis options allow changing the default number of elements in the circumferential direction and the default element aspect ratio to values that better suit the case being studied (e.g. short ring type cylinders vs. slender tubes).

DATA BANK UPDATE The material group adhesives has been re-established. Some foam cores have been updated and new materials have been introduced. New honeycomb cores, textile cores, and polypropylene cores have been added. New epoxy resins have been introduced. Material data for carbon fiber reinforced epoxy UD tapes and fabric prepregs have been added.

OTHER ENHANCEMENTS Micromechanics analyses include now a possibility to define the ksi coefficient for the Halpin-Tsai micromechanics model in the analysis specification dialog. Halpin-Tsai has been set as the default model. User defined variables are now supported in xml import/export and when importing objects from the ESAComp database. Batch capability enhancements have been introduced, for example, to be able to run the panel and cylindrical shell analyses in batch. ComPoLyX 0.9 introduced the sampling element export (laminate lay-up, laminate forces and moments) to ESAComp. On the ESAComp side, the required upgrades for this function are introduced in the 4.3 version. Laminate free edge analysis implementation has been changed so that the result files are no longer saved with the case file. Now results are created in a temporary directory and hence the earlier required write permission in the case directory is not needed. Numerous smaller enhancements.

FIXED BUGS In the cylinder and curved plate analyses (4.1/4.2 versions), the laminate out-of-plane shear stiffnesses in the zx and yz directions were reversed. The out-of-plane shear failure of honeycomb cores was computed incorrectly using stresses in the laminate coordinate system instead of the layer coordinate system. When the core was in the zero degrees direction, the results were correct. In ESAComp xml data exchange with SI units, the unit of mass (for density and mass per unit area) was always in kg regardless of the units of length and force selected in the FE import/export unit options. This caused problems, for example, in FE export to Ansys ACP in xml if the unit system was not N-m-kg. The old xml files created with ESAComp are not compatible with the current version unless the basic SI or British units were used. In addition, many noncritical bugs have been fixed.