Visualizing Free Surface in the Moving Part

To check for any air or paint trapped in the chassis during the dipping process, you create a scene that follows the motion of the chassis. The motion managed coordinate system Cartesian 1 allows you to do this.

In a geometry scene you define one displayer for the chassis and another displayer for the free surface. The motion managed coordinate system Cartesian 1 is set as the active coordinate system of the view for the scene.
  1. Create a new geometry scene.
  2. Rename the scene to ISO Surface.
  3. Delete the displayer Outline 1.
  4. Select the Attributes > View node of the ISO Surface scene and set Coordinate System to Laboratory > Cartesian 1.
  5. Select the Attributes > Update node and make sure Save to File is deactivated.
  6. Right-click the Derived Parts node and select New > Isosurface.
  7. In the Create Isosurface dialog set the following properties:
    Property Settings
    Input Parts Background, Overset
    Scalar Volume Fraction of Paint
    Isovalue 0.5
    Display New Surface Displayer
  8. Click Create and then Close.
    A new Isosurface Surface 1 appears in the opened scene ISO Surface.
  9. Select the Surface 1 node and set the following properties:
    Property Settings
    Opacity 0.4
    Outline ✓
    Surface ✓
  10. Select the Surface 1 > Parts node and select the following parts:

    • In Regions > Background > Boundaries:

      • ground

    • In Regions > Overset > Boundaries:

      • cavity
      • chassis
  11. From the main simulation tree, select the Tools > Annotations > Solution Time node and drag it onto the scene ISO Surface.
  12. Adjust the view to capture the rear part of the chassis, where air is likely to be trapped.
    The defined visualization is shown below:


Create a solution history, .simh, file and use it to store motion and coordinate system data along with selected solution data at specified time intervals.
  1. Right-click the Solution Histories node and select New....
  2. Save the solution history file as chassis.
    Next to the new chassis node in the object tree, the red asterisk means that data is actively written to the file when the simulation runs. The Auto-record property controls this process.
  3. To choose what data to write to the solution history file, and the frequency of writing it, edit the Solution Histories > chassis node and set the following properties:
    Node Property Setting
    chassis Auto-record Activated
    Inputs

    In Regions > Background > Boundaries:

    • ground

    In Regions > Overset > Boundaries:

    • cavity
    • chassis

    In Derived Parts:

    • Isosurface
    Update Trigger Time Step
    Time-Step Frequency Frequency 5
    NoteAll motion and coordinate system data in the simulation is recorded in the simulation history file automatically. You do not need to select anything for motion or coordinate systems.