In the course of a finite element solution, matrix representations of a structure's stiffness, mass, damping, and loading are generated.

The matrices are based on the information provided in the bulk data section of the input file. Depending on the analysis type, system equations using these matrices are solved to simulate the structures behavior. In a linear static analysis, for example, a system of linear equations Ku=f is solved. Here, K is the stiffness matrix, f is the loading vector, and u is the vector of the unknown displacements. The time taken for these matrix solutions is about proportional to the square of the number of degrees-of-freedom of the structure. The solution speed can be improved by representing sections of the structure (superelement assemblies) with a smaller subset of degrees of freedom of those sections (boundary degrees of freedom of the superelement assemblies) and a representative set of reduced matrices. In an optimization, for example, the solution speed can be improved dramatically by reducing out the non-design portion of the structure and keeping only the design portion of the model. For the purpose of deriving the matrices, the displacement vector may be partitioned into displacements of inner (OSET) and outer (ASET, interface) degrees of freedom. (1)

Here, the subscript o denotes the inner degrees of freedom, and a the interface degrees of freedom. The static equilibrium is given as: (2)

The eigenvalue problem for a normal modes analysis of the body using a diagonal mass matrix represents itself as: (3)

There are two ways of obtaining the reduced matrices: Static Condensation (or Guyan Reduction) reduces the linear matrix equation to the interface degrees of freedom of the substructure through algebraic substitution. The result can be used 1. as external matrices, representing a superelement assembly, in a finite element analysis. This

method is accurate for the stiffness matrix and approximate for the mass matrix. Component Mode Synthesis (CMS) reduces a finite element model of an elastic body to the interface degrees of freedom and a set of normal modes. The result can either be used for inclusion as a flexible body in a multi-body dynamics analysis (see Flexible Body Generation) or as external matrices, representing a superelement assembly, in a finite element analysis. It is always an approximation, however it is the preferred method for dynamic 2. analysis as it captures the mass matrix correctly.

Static Condensation The first line of equation (2) reads as:

The displacements of the inner degrees of freedom, therefore, are: (4) Also from equation (2):

Substituting equation (4) into this:

or

This is interpreted as:

So the reduced stiffness is:

And the reduced loading is:

The reduced matrix can also be written as:

Then, using the same transformation, we can obtain the reduced mass matrix:

The solution of the reduced linear static problem provides an exact solution, whereas the solution of the reduced eigenproblem, , only provides approximations to the solution of the full eigenvalue problem as only vectors that satisfy the constraint will be included in the solution.

Component Mode Synthesis (CMS) The interface or boundary degrees of freedom (ASET) that are used in the construction of mode shapes should be representative of the set of force-bearing degrees of freedom in the subsequent analysis. For a finite element analysis, this refers to those nodes that connect to either the residual structure or other superelement assemblies. The purpose of specifying the interface or boundary degrees of freedom for CMS is mainly to account for the static deformation due to constraint or applied forces acting on the interface degrees of freedom. A large number of eigenmodes is required if these static modes are omitted. The flexible deformations due to constraint forces, compared to the deformation due to the body inertia forces, are often dominant in most constrained models. The inclusion of all force-bearing degrees of freedom as interface degrees of freedom is therefore an essential step to get accurate results from subsequent analyses. The task of the component mode synthesis is to find a set of orthogonal modes that represent the displacements u of the reduced structure such that:

where q is the matrix of modal participation factors or modal coordinates which are to be determined by the analysis. For creating external matrix representations of superelement assemblies for use in subsequent finite element analyses, only the Craig-Bamption method of component mode synthesis is currently available.

Craig-Bampton Method

This method uses a system constrained in the interface degrees of freedom. Normal modes analysis of the system yields the diagonal matrix of eigenvalue and the matrix of eigenmodes . In this normal analysis, you can select the cut-off frequency or the number of modes to be solved. This determines the column dimension of . In addition, a static analysis is performed with a unit displacement in each interface degree of freedom while all other interface degrees of freedom are fixed. The number of subcases in this static analysis is six times the number of interface nodes. Note that it is important to constrain each interface node with its neighboring nodes, if necessary, to ensure that it has non-zero stiffness along the direction of all six DOF. This yields the displacement matrix and the interface forces . Reduced modal stiffness and mass matrices are now generated using

which yields

. It follows an othogonalization step that transforms the original shapes X a set of orthogonal modes .

Eigenvector Normalization First, a new eigenvalue problem using the reduced matrices above is solved.

The resulting diagonal matrix of eigenvalues D and the normal modes N are used to transform the set of original shapes into the set of orthogonal modes .

It can be shown that the resulting modes are orthogonal with respect to the system stiffness matrix K and mass matrix M.

If the orthogonal modes are normalized with respect to the mass matrix M, the reduced matrices for the subsequent analysis appear as:

Generating the Matrices Through the inclusion of certain bulk data and I/O options entries, described here, static condensation and component mode synthesis may be performed on a structure and the reduced matrices written to a file for use in subsequent analyses. For static condensation, only stiffness, mass, and load matrices can be generated. For component mode synthesis, stiffness, mass, structural and viscous damping, and fluidstructure coupling matrices can all be generated. Matrix reduction is activated by the presence of ASET or ASET1 bulk data entries. These bulk data entries indicate the interface or boundary degrees of freedom of a superelement assembly, i.e. the set of degrees-of-freedom where the component, being replaced by direct matrix input, connects to the modeled structure. If ASET or ASET1 bulk data entries are present, and there is no CMSMETH I/O Option, then the static condensation method is used to generate the reduced matrices. Component mode synthesis is activated by the presence of the I/O Option CMSMETH. The I/O Option references a CMSMETH bulk data entry which defines the method of matrix reduction to be used (CBN or GUYAN methods apply to external superelement generation). When CBN is the selected method, the frequency range or number of modes to be calculated and the starting SPOINT ID for storing the modal data are also defined on CMSMETH. For GUYAN, this additional information is ignored. With component mode synthesis, no loads or SPC boundary conditions can be applied directly to the portion of the structure that is being reduced out. For the definition of loads or SPCs, however, an ASET can be defined at the grid point of a load or SPC. Then, loads or SPCs can be applied to that grid point in the assembled model. Reduced matrices are automatically written to the .h3d output format, unless OUTPUT,H3D,NONE is defined. The matrices can also be saved in the Nastran punch format (.pch file) or in a binary format (.dmg file) by using the PARAM, EXTOUT bulk data entry. The matrices are written to the .pch file in the DMIG bulk data entry format. They are defined by a single header entry and one or more column entries. The I/O option entry DMIGNAME

provides the user with control of the name of the matrices written to the .pch and .dmg files. This is an optional entry and if not used matrices are given the suffix AX. With static condensation, the stiffness matrix is always output when PARAM, EXTOUT is present in the input file; however, the load matrix is only output if a linear static subcase is present, and the mass matrix is only output if an eigenvalue subcase is present. All subcases must use the same boundary conditions (SPC set) and Multi-point constraints (MPC set) or an error termination will occur. With component mode synthesis, the orthogonal modes and the corresponding eigenvalues D are exported to the .h3d file by default. The export of the model to this file can be controlled using the MODEL output statement. This allows for only a small portion of the model or a display model (a coarse representation of the structure consisting of PLOTELs) to be exported.

Using the Matrices in a Finite Element Analysis To use the reduced matrices that were written to an .h3d file, the ASSIGN I/O option must be used to assign names to such matrices. Unlike matrices stored in .pch or .dmg formats, those stored in the .h3d file are named on retrieval, rather than on creation. The ASSIGN, H3DDMIG command provides a suffix matrixname for the matrices retrieved from that file. Once matrices in a .h3d file have been assigned a name they may be referenced using one of the subcase information entries listed below. Reduced matrices that are written to .pch files are stored as DMIG bulk data input. As these reduced matrices are already in a recognized input format, the files simply need to be included in the bulk data section by an INCLUDE statement. Reduced matrices that are written to a .dmg file are stored in a binary format. Similar to the .pch file, these reduced matrices simply need to be included in the bulk data section by an INCLUDE statement. As matrices are referred to by name, it is important to ensure that when multiple reduced matrices are used that they have unique names. Matrices may be chosen through one of the following subcase information entries as either stiffness, mass, damping, or load matrices. The K2GG subcase information entry references a matrix by name, indicating that it is a stiffness matrix. The stiffness matrix must be symmetric and it applies to all subcases. The M2GG subcase information entry references a matrix by name, indicating that it is a mass matrix. The mass matrix must be symmetric and it applies to all subcases. Gravity and centrifugal loads are not considered on the external mass matrix (M2GG). Gravity and centrifugal loads must be included in generating the reduced loads (P2G). The P2G can then be used in DMIG input to get the exact static results.

The B2GG subcase information entry references a matrix by name, indicating that it is a viscous damping matrix. The viscous damping matrix must be symmetric and terms are added to it before any constraints are applied. The K42GG subcase information entry references a matrix by name, indicating that it is a structural element damping matrix. The structural element damping matrix must be symmetric and terms are added to it before any constraints are applied. The P2G subcase information entry references a matrix by name, indicating that it is a load matrix. The load matrix must be columnar and terms are added to it before any constraints are applied. Gravity and centrifugal loads are not considered on the external mass matrix (M2GG). Gravity and centrifugal loads must be included in generating the reduced loads (P2G). The P2G can then be used in DMIG input to get the exact static results. The A2GG subcase information entry references a matrix by name, indicating that it is a fluidstructure coupling matrix. Only one instance of the fluid-structure coupling matrix is allowed.

Example Figure 1 shows a finite element model composed of two components: a design component and a non-design component. The structure is fully clamped along the left-hand edge and has a downward vertical force applied along its right-hand edge. This example will demonstrate how we can replace the non-design component with a set of reduced matrices at the interface nodes (the nodes which are common to both components) for both an analysis problem and an optimization problem.

Figure 1: Example model indicating design and non-design components and boundary nodes. First of all, a linear static analysis is performed on the complete structure. The displacement and von Mises stress results from this analysis are shown in Figure 3. Next, a reduced stiffness matrix and load vector are generated for the non-design component. This is achieved by creating a new finite element model containing just the non-design component and the loads and boundary conditions directly applied to that component. This is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Reducing out the non-design component. All of the degrees of freedom at the interface nodes (see Figure 1) are selected as boundary degrees of freedom. ASET or ASET1 bulk data entries are used to indicate this. The reduced matrices output is requested through the inclusion of the PARAM, EXTOUT, DMIGPCH bulk data entry. The model is submitted to OptiStruct, resulting in the creation of the file filename_AX.pch which contains the reduced matrices in ASCII format. (Had PARAM,EXTOUT,DMIGBIN been used, the reduced matrices would be written in binary form to the file filename_AX.dmg). The non-design component can now be replaced in the original model by its reduced matrix representation. This is done by manipulating the original model as follows:
1. Delete the bulk data entries for the nodes and elements of the non-design component.

Delete all loads and boundary conditions that were only applied to the non-design
2. component. 3. Include the file containing the reduced matrices in the bulk data section.

Select the reduced stiffness matrix with the subcase information entry K2GG. (In this 4. example, the reduced stiffness matrix will have the default name KAAX). Select the reduced load vector with the subcase information entry P2G. (In this example, the 5. reduced load vector will have the default name PAX). Figure 4 shows the displacement and von Mises Stress for the design component when the nondesign component was replaced by a reduced matrix representation. As can clearly be seen, they match perfectly with the original model's results.

(a) Displacements

(b) von Mises Stress

Figure 3: Displacement and von Mises stress results for a linear static analysis on the complete structure.

(a) Displacements

(b) von Mises Stress

Figure 4: Displacement and von Mises stress results for a linear static analysis with reduced matrix substitution. Finally, for both the complete structural model and the reduced matrix model, a topology optimization was performed. For both models, the design component was identified as designable, the objective was to minimize the global compliance, and an upper limit of 50% was put on the volume fraction. The optimization results are shown in Figure 5.

(a) Complete Structure

(b) Reduced Matrix Substitution

Figure 5: Density results for a topology optimization. Compliance results not matching for reduced models. If external forces are applied to the degrees of freedom that are reduced out of the model, then the strain energy or compliance values for the complete model will not match the strain energy or compliance values for the reduced model. The reduced loading is:

Therefore, strain energy for the reduced model is:

The strain energy for the complete model is:

So the compliance for the reduced model is missing the term:

But when no external forces are applied to the degrees of freedom that are reduced out of the model, then [f0] = 0, and the strain energy or compliance values for the reduced model match the complete model.

In this tutorial, an existing finite element model of a simple cantilever beam will be used to demonstrate how to reduce the finite element model using static reduction and also how to perform topology optimization on that reduced model. The full cantilever beam model without static reduction is shown here.

Cantilever beam model.

The optimization problem may be stated as: Objective: Minimize compliance. Constraints: Upper bound constraint of 40% for the designable volume. Design Variables: The density for each element in the design space.

Topology optimization results for the full cantilever beam model.

The part to be reduced out of the model through the static reduction model reduction technique is referred to as a superelement. In OptiStruct, ASET or ASET1 bulk data entries are required to indicate the boundary degrees of freedom of a superelement, meaning the set of degrees-offreedom where the component (being replaced by direct matrix input) connects to the modeled structure. Both the accuracy and the cost of static reduction increase as the number of ASET entries is increased. For example, by using static reduction, the size of the matrix to solve will become smaller, but if the reduced matrix (DMIG) is very dense, then the solution time will become larger than the solution time for the full model where the matrix may be sparse. Hence, the selection of ASET entries is very important in performing an efficient analysis using DMIG. In order to prevent the reduced matrix from being too dense, ASET entries are chosen carefully (see the next figure) instead of creating ASET entries for all of the boundary nodes between the design and non design spaces. Due to the small size the problem used for this tutorial, the selection of ASET entries may not affect the solution time.

ASET for the cantilever beam model.

The following exercises are included:

y Selecting the boundary degrees of freedom of a superelement. ASET or ASET1 bulk data entries are used to indicate this. y y y

Submitting the job to output the reduced matrices (DMIG) Setting up the model for optimization Submitting the optimization job

Viewing the results in HyperView

Selecting the boundary degrees of freedom

To retrieve the file cantilever_full.hm and load the OptiStruct template: 1. Launch HyperMesh and choose the OptiStruct user profile in the User Profiles dialog. User Profiles can also be accessed from the Preferences pull-down menu on the toolbar. 2. 3. 4. 5. Click the Files panel toolbar button . Select the hm file subpanel using the radio buttons on the left side of the panel. Click retrieve. Select cantilever_full.hm located in <install_directory/tutorials/os>. 6. Click Open. The cantilever_full.hm database is loaded into the current HyperMesh session, replacing any existing data. . To change the constraint load types to ASET: The load type for constraint is SPC by default in the OptiStruct template, and needs to be changed to ASET. 1. 2. 3. 4. Go to the Analysis page. Click load types. Click constraints= and select ASET. Click return.

To select the boundary nodes: 1. 2. 3. 4. Click constraints. Select the create subpanel using the radio buttons on the left-hand side of the panel. Select the boundary nodes (as in the previous figure) by clicking in the graphics window. Make sure dofs 1 through 6 are checked. Dofs with a check will be assigned to the ASET. Dofs 1, 2, and 3 are x, y, and z translation degrees of freedom. Dofs 4, 5, and 6 are x, y, and z rotational degrees of freedom. 5. Click create.

6. Click return to go to the main menu. To delete the elements which will be retained in the subsequent optimization: The reduced stiffness matrix and load vector will be generated for only those elements that will be reduced out (superelement). Therefore, a new model needs to be created containing just the superelement part and the loads and boundary conditions applied directly to that part. 1. Select the delete panel on the Tool page. or Press F2 on the keyboard to jump to the delete panel. 2. Click the entity selection switch and select elems from the pop-up menu. 3. Click elems and select by window from the pop-up menu. 4. Move the mouse over to the graphics area and draw a window around the elements as shown in the figure below.

Elements to be deleted.

5. Click delete entity. 6. Click return to go to the main menu. To define the parameter card, PARAM, EXTOUT, DMIGPCH: The PARAM,EXTOUT bulk data entry is required to activate the matrix save process. Without this parameter, the run will proceed as normal. This parameter has two options: DMIGPCH, which will save the matrices in an ASCII format to a .pch file and DMIGBIN, which will save the matrices in a binary format to a .dmg file. DMIGPCH will be used for this tutorial. 1. Select the control cards panel on the Analysis page. 2. Select PARAM, check the box next to EXTOUT. 3. Select DMIGPCH.

4. Click return to exit PARAM. 5. Click return to return to the main menu.

Submitting the job to output the reduced matrices (DMIG)

To launch OptiStruct: 1. Select the OptiStruct panel on the Analysis page. 2. Click save as following the input file: field. A Save file browser window pops up. 3. Select the directory where you would like to write the OptiStruct model file and enter the name for the model, cantilever_dmig.fem, in the File name: field. .fem is the suggested extension for OptiStruct input decks. 4. Click Save. Note that the name and location of the cantilever_dmig.fem file is displayed in the input file: field. 5. Set the memory toggle, located in the center of the panel, to memory default. 6. Click the run options switch, located at the left-hand side of the panel, and select analysis. 7. Set the export options toggle, located underneath the run options switch, to all. 8. Click OptiStruct. This launches an OptiStruct run in a separate shell (DOS or UNIX). If the analysis is successful, no error messages are reported to the shell. The analysis is complete when the line Processing complete appears in the shell. The default files written to the directory are: cantilever_dmig.out OptiStruct output file containing specific information on the file set up, the set up of your optimization problem, estimates for the amount of RAM and disk space required for the run, information for each optimization iteration, and compute time information. Review this file for warnings and errors. cantilever_dmig_AX.pch Reduced matrices (DMIG) file. cantilever_dmig.stat Summary of analysis process, providing CPU information for each step during analysis process.

The matrices are written to the .pch file with the same format as the DMIG bulk data entry. They are defined by a single header entry and one or more column entries. By default, the name of the stiffness matrix is KAAX, the mass is MAAX, and the load is PAX. Since mass matrix is not used in this tutorial, it is not written to .pch file. The I/O Option entry, DMIGNAME, provides you with control over the name of the matrices.

Setting up the model for optimization

Inclusion of the reduced matrices (DMIG), cantilever_dmig_AX.pch, in the remaining structural model as well as the optimization problem set up will be demonstrated here. To delete the model: 1. Select the delete panel on the Tool page. or Press F2 on the keyboard to jump to the delete panel. 2. Click delete model. 3. Click return to go to the main menu. To retrieve the file cantilever_full.hm and load the OptiStruct template: 1. Select the File pull-down menu on the toolbar and click Open. An Open file browser window pops up. 1. Select the cantilever_full.hm file, located in <install_directory>/tutorials/os/. 2. Click Open. The cantilever_full.hm database is loaded into the current HyperMesh session, replacing any existing data. To delete the superelement part which was reduced out using DMIG: Since the matrices for the superelement part will be replaced by DMIG, the bulk data entries for the nodes and elements, as well as all loads and boundary conditions that are in the superelement, should be deleted. 1. Select the delete panel on the Tool page.

or Press F2 on the keyboard to jump to the delete panel. 2. Click the entity selection switch and select elems from the pop-up menu. 3. Click elems and select by window from the pop-up menu. 4. Move the mouse over to the graphics area and draw a window around the elements as shown in the following figure.

The elements to be deleted.

5. Click delete entity. All of the loads and boundary conditions associated with those elements will be deleted automatically. 6. Click return to go to the main menu. To define the cards necessary for topology optimization with DMIG: 1. Select the control cards panel on the Analysis page. 2. Click INCLUDE BULK. 3. Enter the file name cantilever_dmig_AX.pch. The reduced matrices (DMIG) will be included in OptiStruct input deck. 4. Click return to exit INCLUDE BULK. 5. Select K2GG. 6. Enter KAAX in the K2GG= field. 7. Click return to exit K2GG subpanel. 8. Select the P2G subpanel. 9. Enter PAX in the P2G= field. 10. Click return to exit P2G. 11. Click return to go to the main menu.

To define design variables for topology optimization: 1. Select the optimization panel on the Analysis page. 2. Select the topology panel. 3. Select the create subpanel using the radio buttons on the left-hand side of the panel. 4. Click comps. 5. Check the box next to design. 6. Click select. 7. Set the type toggle to PSHELL. 8. Click desvar = and enter topo. 9. Click create. 10. Click parameters. 11. Toggle the mimmemb off to mindim = and enter 1.2. 12. Click update. 13. Click return to go back to the optimization page. To define the optimization problem: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Select responses. Turn the response type selector to volumefrac. Enter Volfrac in the response = field. Click create. Turn the response type selector to compliance. Enter Compl in response = field. Just eight characters can be used here, since the name is used, a label is needed for the response. 7. Click create. 8. Click return to go back to the optimization panel. To define the objective: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Click objective to define the objective function. Click the min/max switch in the upper left corner and select min. Click response and select Compl. Click loadstep. Select the loadstep step. Click create. Click return to go back to the optimization panel.

To define the constraint and optimization option: 1. Click dconstraints to define the constraints. 2. Enter Constr in constraint = field.

Only eight characters can be used here. Since the name is used, a label is needed for the response. 3. 4. 5. 6. Select upper bound = by clicking in the box preceding it. Click in the text box and enter the value 0.4. Click response = and select Volfrac. Click create. The volume fraction constraint is now created. 7. Click return twice. This completes your optimization problem setup.

Submitting the optimization job

To launch OptiStruct: 1. Select the OptiStruct panel on the Analysis page. 2. Click save as following the input file: field. A Save file browser window pops up. 3. Select the directory where you would like to write the OptiStruct model file and enter the name for the model, cantilever_opti.fem, in the File name: field. .fem is the suggested extension for OptiStruct input decks. 4. Click Save. Note that the name and location of the cantilever_opti.fem file is displayed in the input file: field. 5. Set the memory toggle, located in the center of the panel, to memory default. 6. Click the run options switch, located at the left-hand side of the panel, and select optimization. 7. Set the export options toggle, located underneath the run options switch, to all. 8. Click OptiStruct. This launches an OptiStruct run in a separate shell (DOS or UNIX). If the optimization is successful, no error messages are reported to the shell. The optimization is complete when the line Processing complete appears in the shell. The default files written to the directory are:

cantilever_opti.hgdata

HyperGraph file containing data for the objective function, percent constraint violations, and constraint values for each iteration. cantilever_opti.HM.comp.cmf HyperMesh command file used to organize elements into components based on their density result values. cantilever_opti.HM.ent.cmf HyperMesh command file used to organize elements into entity sets based on their density result values. cantilever_opti.html HTML report of the optimization giving a summary of the problem formulation and the results from the final iteration. cantilever_opti.oss OSSmooth file with a default density threshold of 0.3. The user may edit the parameters in the file to obtain the desired results. cantilever_opti.out OptiStruct output file containing specific information on the file set up, the set up of the optimization problem, estimates for the amount of RAM and disk space required for the run, information for each optimization iteration, and compute time information. Review this file for warnings and errors. cantilever_opti.res HyperMesh binary results file. cantilever_opti_des.h3d HyperView binary results file to post-process element density for topology optimization. cantilever_opti_s1_h3d HyperView binary results file to post-process anything from displacement to stress results. cantilever_opti.sh Shape file for the final iteration. It contains the material density, void size parameters, and void orientation angle for each element in the analysis. The .sh file may be used to restart a run and, if necessary, run OSSmooth files for topology optimization. cantilever_opti.stat Summary of analysis process providing CPU information for each step during analysis process.

Viewing the Results in HyperView

Element density and element thickness results are output from OptiStruct for all iterations. In addition, displacement and stress results are output for the first and last iteration by default. This section describes how to view those results in HyperView. HyperView is a complete post-processing and visualization environment for finite element analysis (FEA), multi-body system simulation, video, and engineering data.

To view a contour plot of the density results: 1. From the OptiStruct panel, click the HyperView button. This will launch HyperView and load the cantilever_opti_des.h3d file, reading the model and results. 2. At the bottom of the GUI, click in the portion shown below to activate the Load Case and Simulation Selection dialog.

3. Select the last iteration listed in the Simulation list as shown below and click OK.

4. Click Lft in the view controls in the bottom right corner of the HyperView panel. 5. Click on the Contour icon on the toolbar. The Contour panel appears. 6. Click Results type: and select Element Densities[s]. 7. Click Apply. A contour plot of element densities is displayed in the graphics window as shown below.

Discrete plot of element density.

8. Click Clear Contour. To view an isosurface plot of the density results: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Click the Iso Value toolbar button . Click Results type = and select Element Densities[s]. Enter 0.3 in Current value. Make sure that Show is set to Above. Click Apply. An isosurface plot is displayed in the graphics window. Those parts of the model with a density greater than the value of 0.3 are shown in color because Show is set to Above, the rest are transparent. This is shown below in the following figure.

Isosurface plot of an optimal layout of the designable material.

The isosurface post-processing feature in HyperView as well as in HyperMesh is an excellent tool to use for viewing the density results from OptiStruct. Click and move the slider bar (currently pointing to a value representing 0.3) for your density to change the isosurface. You will see the isosurface in the graphics window interactively update when you change it to a new value. Use this tool to get a better look at the material layout and the load paths from OptiStruct. 6. Click Clear Iso. Go To OptiStruct Tutorials Return to Altair HyperWorks Index