Oven Manual

Version 4.1

P+Z Engineering GmbH, Munich www.theseus-fe.com

Legal Notices
Copyright 2011 P+Z Engineering GmbH. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein is the property of P+Z Engineering GmbH. Any use, copy, publication, distribution, display, modification, or transmission of the information in whole or in part in any form or by any means without the prior express written permission of P+Z Engineering GmbH is strictly prohibited. Except when expressly provided by P+Z Engineering GmbH in writing, possession of this information shall not be construed to confer any license or rights under any of P+Z Engineering GmbHs intellectual property rights, whether by estoppel, implication, or otherwise. ALL COPIES OF THE INFORMATION, IF ALLOWED BY P+Z ENGINEERING GMBH, MUST DISPLAY THIS NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT AND OWNERSHIP IN FULL. THESEUS-FE is a copyright protected and registered trademark of P+Z Engineering GmbH. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. Printed in Germany. August 2011

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About this manual

P+Z Engineering GmbH reserves the right to make changes or improvements to the software product described in this document without notice. P+Z Engineering GmbH assumes no responsibility for any factual or typographical errors or omissions that may have occurred. P+Z Engineering GmbH has however made every effort to ensure that the information contained in this Manual is accurate. This manual contains some essential examples that will introduce the practical usage of THESEUS-FE. Additional background information can be found in the Theory Manual Keyword Manual GUI Manual Validation Manual Transformer Manual also shipped with this release.

If you have any further questions, please contact: P+Z Engineering GmbH Anton-Ditt-Bogen 3 80939 Munich Germany Phone: +49 89 31857 466 Fax: +49 89 31857 333 To see the latest THESEUS-FE software and services, please visit our web site at: http://www.theseus-fe.com Questions about pricing, sales, availability and general issues should be directed to: sales@theseus-fe.com Technical and scientific support issues should be addressed to: support@theseus-fe.com

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Contents
0. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1. Tutorial 1: Door............................................................................................................ 2 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5. 1.6. 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.4. 2.5. 2.6. 2.7. 2.8. 3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4. 3.5. 3.6. 3.7. 4.1. 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. 4.5. 4.6. 4.7. What you will learn.................................................................................................. 2 Example description ............................................................................................... 2 Basic GUI operation................................................................................................ 3 Pre-processing and model definition....................................................................... 9 Running the analysis ............................................................................................ 17 Post-processing .................................................................................................... 19 What you will learn................................................................................................ 31 Example description ............................................................................................. 31 Pre-processing...................................................................................................... 32 Running the sensitivity analysis ............................................................................ 39 Post-processing of the sensitivity analysis ............................................................ 39 Running the optimization analysis ........................................................................ 43 Post-processing of the optimization analysis ........................................................ 44 Testing the optimized variables ............................................................................ 46 What you will learn................................................................................................ 48 Example description ............................................................................................. 48 Pre-processing...................................................................................................... 49 Running the first analysis ...................................................................................... 56 Post-processing for first analysis .......................................................................... 57 Running the second analysis ................................................................................ 58 Post-processing for second analysis .................................................................... 59 What you will learn................................................................................................ 61 Example description ............................................................................................. 61 Variant 1 ............................................................................................................... 61 Variant 2 ............................................................................................................... 63 Sensitivity study .................................................................................................... 66 Optimization .......................................................................................................... 70 Variant 3 ............................................................................................................... 72

2. Tutorial 2: Door calibration ...................................................................................... 31

3. Tutorial 3: Ford F250 ................................................................................................. 48

4. Tutorial 4: Ford F250 calibration .............................................................................. 61

Appendix A: Background on modelling......................................................................... 74 A.1. General ideas ....................................................................................................... 74 IV

A.2. Heat conduction .................................................................................................... 74 A.3. Radiation .............................................................................................................. 75 A.4. Convection ............................................................................................................ 76 Appendix B: Hints for practice ....................................................................................... 83 B.1. Classification of oven parameters ......................................................................... 83 B.2. Basic model building guidelines ............................................................................ 84 B.3. Interpreting temperature measurements ............................................................... 87 B.4. Details on error calculations ................................................................................. 90 B.5. Common problems and fixes ................................................................................ 91

0. Introduction
This manual is an introduction to the THESEUS-FE Oven Module. The Oven Module uses a specialized version of the THESEUS-FE solver and GUI. Its purpose is to provide rapid simulations of an automobile paint and adhesive drying oven. The oven consists of an assembly line that runs the car bodies through several heating or holding stages, known as oven sectors. Nozzles in the oven walls blow hot air onto the car body in the heating stages to speed up the paint and adhesive curing processes. The convective heat transfer on the body surfaces is modelled using a specialized technique based on calculating visibility between individual nozzles and parts of the car body. It is essentially a variant of the ray-tracing algorithm typically used to calculate longwave radiation view factors in THESEUS-FE. For details of the convection modelling procedure see Appendix A.4. The simple heuristic approach to deal with flow and convection requires the use of model calibration to minimize the difference between simulation and measured temperatures. The Oven Module is equipped with a parallelized optimization tool to carry out this task with high efficiency. In another mode the same tool can be used to perform sensitivity analysis. This is useful to determine the relevant input parameters affecting the results of an oven analysis. This manual presents a series of tutorial problems to demonstrate the Oven Module capabilities. We suggest working through these in order. The appendix includes sections on the modelling methodology as well as some practical suggestions for carrying out simulations and model calibration. It may be helpful to study and understand these sections before carrying out real-life oven calibrations. The files belonging to a given tutorial are grouped in a separate subdirectory under the <INSTALLATION_DIR>/Examples/OvenTutorials folder. Each tutorial includes a completed reference model named according to the scheme <TUTORIAL_NAME>_COMPLETED.tfe. For most tutorials, the starting point will be a NASTRAN geometry file named <TUTORIAL_NAME>.nas. Some notes on the typography and presentation: we will use a typewriter style monospace font to present parameters, keywords, variables, and generally anything you can expect to see on your screen in the GUI, as opposed to abstract physical or engineering concepts. An example: RADAB is the solver post-processing variable representing the absorbed long-wave heat flux. The same font in blue is used to present solver keywords which can be looked up in the companion Keyword Manual. It is important to recognize that the GUI is designed to expose the user to the actual keyword syntax that is passed as input to the THESEUS-FE solver. This gives you the opportunity to edit solver input files using a text editor as an alternative to using the GUI, or even using a scripting language such as Perl or Python to automate the model building process. You are encouraged to consult the Keyword Manual as a reference while building your model.

1. Tutorial 1: Door
1.1. What you will learn
Pre-processing o o o o o o starting a new project, importing a NASTRAN file, changing GUI settings basic scaling and transformation operations assigning materials and element types defining oven walls, nozzles, and general settings defining boundary and initial conditions editing the post-processing settings, solver settings, and initial conditions

Analysis o starting the solver directly from the GUI

Post-processing o viewing and interpreting basic results

1.2. Example description

Our example model here and in the following tutorials is based on a Ford F250 4-door pickup. The first tutorial serves to illustrate basic concepts and only uses the left front door from the complete model. A single oven sector with a duration time of 300 s is used. There are four walls and one nozzle row in the sector as shown in the diagram below. We will simulate a simple heat-up situation, with the circulating air temperature rising from 20 C to 95 C over the course of the simulation. When the simulation is completed, we will examine the nozzle influence on the temperature distribution.

oven wall ceiling

oven wall left oven dimensions: xmin = 0 m, xmax = 1.5 m ymin = -1 m, ymax = 1 m zmin = 0 m, zmax = 2 m nozzle: y = -1 m z = 0.5 m L = L = 1 m range 1 = 0 direction 2 = 30 inner angle 3 = 60 outer angle oven wall floor

oven wall right

1.3. Basic GUI operation

1.3.1. Starting the GUI
The GUI can be started from a terminal using theseus gui oven Note that the precise name of the THESEUS-FE executable or call script may have been renamed or moved to a custom location by your system administrator. Please contact your system administrator if you are experiencing trouble at this stage.

1.3.2.

Create a new case

in the File toolbar to clear the memory and start a new

The GUI will start with an empty case initially. Later on, you can use the File New menu entry or the New button case from scratch.

We will import the problem geometry from a NASTRAN file and complete the model step by step to learn the Oven Module functionality. You may alternatively open the file 01_Door_COMPLETE.tfe which contains the completed model.

1.3.3.

GUI configuration

The global GUI settings are accessible via the main menu Tools Options or the toolbar button: . Most settings use sensible defaults. Any changes by the user are saved for future runs. The settings are divided into three categories: Environment o General o Solver (and Optimizer) paths and command line arguments o Keymap to define key bindings for common actions, e.g. CTRL-S for saving a file o Project for some default modelling options 3D Plot o o o o Help Presentation colours and visualization settings Light and View lighting intensity and light positions Fringebar to control the legend display for field variables Controls zoom sensitivity and move speed paths to the pdf manuals

1.3.4.

Import NASTRAN geometry

Navigate to the main menu File Import NASTRAN geometry. The following dialogue will appear:

Set the Geometry length scale to mm (millimetres). This setting is important! NASTRAN geometry is typically defined in millimetres, while THESEUS-FE works with metres. With the scaling setting above, all lengths (grid coordinates and thicknesses) in the imported model are multiplied by 10-3. All areas, e.g. PBAR/PBEAM/PROD cross sections, are multiplied with 10-6. The necessary offset to position the model within the oven walls is not known yet and will be set later. Choose the NASTRAN file 01_Door.nas and confirm the dialogue. The Model tab will appear in the Project window:

After reading the THESEUS-FE file several new entities will be added to the Model tab. You may expand any branch by clicking the symbol. When the Elements branch is selected with mouse button 1, the Properties window will display the number of elements of each type defined in the current model:

The shell elements (CTRIA3,CQUAD4) are the bulk of the model. They are used to define all major surfaces and panels. Welding points are modelled as a combination of CHEXA solid elements and RBE3 connectors. The remaining CHEXAs are used to define a line of adhesive between the outer door and the inner door bracket. Finally, a small number of RBE2 connectors are present to model screw connections. Expand the Elements branch now. You will be presented with the following view:

The display of any element type can be activated or deactivated by clicking on the check boxes under the Elements branch (shown within the red circle in the previous figure). This feature is useful for uncluttering the visualization of complex models containing many connectors.

1.3.5.

Basic GUI controls and display manipulation

Rotate model 6

Some of the basic GUI controls are listed in the following table: CTRL+ mouse button 1 + mouse drag

CTRL+ mouse button 2 + mouse drag CTRL+ mouse button 3 + mouse drag CTRL + mouse button 1 and 2 + mouse drag CTRL + mouse wheel

Pan (translate) model Rotate model about screen axis Zoom model Zoom model (if mouse wheel available) Optimal zoom and position for model Toggle display of mesh edges Toggle coordinate axis display Choose centre of rotation in model Choose a standard view aligned with coordinate axes

Finite element shells in the model can be shaded according to six criteria. These can be chosen from the following toolbar menu:

The following table demonstrates the effect on the model shading, assuming that the mesh edge display is toggled off:

Group Wireframe

Group Shaded

Material Shaded

Orientation shaded: Grey = positive, Yellow = negative

Orientation shaded:
back side

Results Shaded:
only available after simulation run

Some functions included in the THESEUS-FE GUI work only on visible model parts. The status of any model element can be toggled between hidden and shown. Essentially, making only certain model parts visible is the same as selecting them. The Selection toolbar can be used for this purpose:

Model elements can be selected by group id (GID) as shown above, or by element id (EID). The logical selection functions act as follows: OR: Hide all unselected groups (GID) or elements (EID) NOT: Hide all selected groups (GID) or elements (EID) ALL: Show all model parts INVERT: Toggle show/no-show status of all model parts !NOT: Hide all selected groups (GID) or elements (EID). After confirming with mouse button 2, perform INVERT AND: In EID mode, show all elements of a selected group

When one of these functions is activated, model parts can be selected by individual click or by marking a rectangular selection with button 1 + mouse drag. Pressing ESC aborts the function.

The lock feature

can be used to capture a given selection of visible elements. After

activating the lock, the symbol turns red: . The ALL feature will now revert the current selection to those elements visible at the time the lock was activated. The lock can be deactivated by pressing the button again; after this ALL will show the complete model as before. More GUI documentation is available in our GUI Manual, also included with a THESEUSFE installation.

1.4. Pre-processing and model definition

The Project window contains an overview of the complete model hierarchy. The toplevel categories are Model Oven BC Data Output Solver

These are shown in individual tabs in the Project window. The Model tab shows the complete finite element representation. It is the only visible tab at this point, after the NASTRAN import. Other tabs become visible when corresponding keywords are added to the model.

1.4.1.

Create and edit a new title

Follow the main menu to Add Model TITLE. A TITLE branch will appear under the Model tab. After expanding the branch you will find a default TITLE1 object.

Left-click on Default TITLE. In the Properties window of the GUI you may now change the value of the TITLE1 property. TITLE properties may be used to store project specific information, authors, or dates, see the example below. Use this property according to your needs.

Further TITLE objects can be added by right-clicking on the TITLE branch and selecting New. This procedure is the general way to add new features to your simulation model. This might be a good moment to save your work. You will find the Save as function in the File menu. Choose a name for the THESEUS-FE file and leave the other settings unchecked:

Confirm the dialogue. Later on you can use the function File Save or the Save button in the toolbar.

1.4.2.

Rotation and translation of model

We will rotate and translate the door model to illustrate the working of the Transform tool. The Transform function is applied only on visible parts of the model. Therefore, ensure that the entire model is visible by making all element types visible and clicking ALL. We also recommend adjusting the camera position by means of the function AutoScale Top in the toolbar. Next, navigate to Tools Transform or use the toolbar button following settings in the dialogue to define a rotation about the z-axis of 7: . Apply the

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The Min and Max values at the top represent a bounding box about the selected elements. They will change to reflect the effect of each applied transformation. Offset and Direction define the rotation axis as a vector starting from Offset and pointing towards Direction. Angle is the rotation angle according to the right-hand rule. The blue arrow button on the lower left applies the rotation one time. The red button applies the inverse operation, undoing the last step. Apply one rotation step. You will see the result in the 3D Plot window. Next, we will perform a translation. Enter the following settings and apply them using the blue arrow:

Here, Offset is simply the translation vector. Finally click Finish to leave the Transform tool. Note that scaling operations are also possible in addition to translation and rotation.

1.4.3.

Defining materials

We will now define proper material values for a thermal simulation. Open the MATerials branch to reveal the three materials defined in the NASTRAN model: 11

Clicking on one of the materials will highlight it and render the rest of the model transparently. Additionally, the properties of the selected material become available for editing in the Properties window. Select SPOT WELDS now and apply these values in the Properties window: Note that some property values may be specified using several different options depending on the context. For example, the internal heat generation H_GEN may be a simple value, or a time dependent quantity defined via a table. Common options are Text, List, etc. The property input option can be set after left-clicking a Value field in the Properties window. A small widget at the right will appear with the choice of valid input options:

Note that specific choices made for some properties may affect the possible choices available for following property entries. Enter the following thermal properties for the wall. The input option to use for each parameter is described below using [square brackets]: Object name: [Text] SPOT WELDS Material type: [List] MAT4 COND Conductivity in W/(m K): [Text] 500 CP - Specific heat in J/(kg K): [Text] 1 RHO Specific mass in kg/m3: [Text] 1

All settings are confirmed and immediately applied after hitting Return. Blank properties assume default values during the simulation. To see the details of keyword syntax, please refer to the Keyword Manual. It can be accessed through the main menu entry Help Keyword Manual. We have used very low values for specific heat capacity and density for the spot weld solid elements. This causes the spot welds to act as thermal bridges without the capacity to store heat themselves. Now select the ADHESIVE material and apply the following values: Object name: [Text] ADHESIVE Material type: [List] MAT4 COND Conductivity in W/(m K): [Text] 0.2 CP - Specific heat in J/(kg K): [Text] 1500 12

RHO Specific mass in kg/m3: [Text] 1200

Last, select the material STEEL and apply these values: Object name: [Text] STEEL Material type: [List] MAT4 COND Conductivity in W/(m K): [Text] 40 CP - Specific heat in J/(kg K): [Text] 500 RHO Specific mass in kg/m3: [Text] 8000

1.4.4.

Defining oven walls and nozzle

Navigate to the main menu entry Add Oven OVENWALL. This will create a new tab labelled Oven in the Project window and a default entry for an oven wall:

Click on the entry Default OVENWALL and apply the following settings: Object name: [Text] floor EMIS - Emissivity: [Text] 1 OVENWALL Type: [List] INTERNAL [METHOD] GID for external walls: [List] SIMPLE X1 Corner x-coordinate in m: [Text] 0 Y1 Corner y-coordinate in m: [Text] -1 Z1 Corner z-coordinate in m: [Text] 0 Plane orientation: [List] XY DX Vector extension x in m: [Text] 1.5 DY Vector extension y in m: [Text] 2

Once all entries are filled, the oven wall will become visible as a green surface in the 3D Plot window. The ceiling wall is defined with nearly identical settings. To save time, we will duplicate the floor wall entry and change settings as necessary. Right-click on the floor entry and select Duplicate in the context menu:

Change the following settings of the new object: 13

Object name: [Text] ceiling Z1 Corner z-coordinate in m: [Text] 2

Add a new OVENWALL keyword and apply the following values: Object name: [Text] right EMIS - Emissivity: [Text] 1 OVENWALL Type: [List] INTERNAL [METHOD] GID for external walls: [List] SIMPLE X1 Corner x-coordinate in m: [Text] 0 Y1 Corner y-coordinate in m: [Text] 1 Z1 Corner z-coordinate in m: [Text] 0 Plane orientation: [List] XZ DX Vector extension x in m: [Text] 1.5 DZ Vector extension z in m: [Text] 2

Duplicate the right wall object and change the settings to define a left wall: Object name: [Text] left Y1 Corner y-coordinate in m: [Text] -1

Next, we will define a nozzle row. Go to the main menu item Add Oven OVENNOZ:

Enter the following settings: Object name: [Text] nozzle SYM - Symmetry: [List] NO Y Global y coordinate in m: [Text] -1 Z Global z-coordinate in m: [Text] 0.5 PHI1 Direction angle in deg: [Text] 0 PHI2 Inner spread angle in deg: [Text] 30 PHI3 Outer spread angle in deg: [Text] 60 L Nozzle influence range in m: [Text] 1 POST Write influence factors to hdf file: [List] YES

Nozzles are also visualized using red (inner) and blue (outer) planes to show the direction and spread of a nozzle jet. The POST setting used here will output the nozzle influence factors to the result file for visualization.

1.4.5.

Defining an oven sector

An oven sector is defined in two steps. First, a keyword entry OVENSEC needs to be added, using Add Oven OVENSEC in the main menu. Second, the user needs to 14

supply the number of heat sources, i.e. walls and nozzles, to be used in the sector. In our case, we will use all walls and the nozzle, for a total of five heat sources:

Select the new sector object. Apply these settings: Object name: [Text] heatup TIME Sector duration time in s: [Text] 300 DT Fixed time step in s: [Text] 30 T_CIRC Circulating air temperature in C: [Text] 95 H_CIRC Circulating air HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 12 H_GAP Gap HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 10 Heat source 1: [Heat source] WAL1 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: 100 Heat source 2: [Heat source] WAL2 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: 100 Heat source 3: [Heat source] WAL3 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: 100 Heat source 4: [Heat source] WAL4 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: 100 Heat source 5: [Heat source] NOZ1 L Ramping distance in m: [Text] 1 T_F Fluid air temperature in C: [Text] 100 H_MX Max. convective HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 30

The visualization changes to reflect these definitions. You will now see all four walls and the nozzle, as well as a blue horizontal bar in the 3D Plot window. The blue bar is used to show the current sector being edited or visualized. This display makes more sense when more than one sector is defined in the simulation. The Oven Module provides a global option in the 3D Plot group called nozzle magnification. This setting can be used to adjust the graphical display of nozzles as needed.

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1.4.6.

Global oven definitions

Next, we need to add an OVEN keyword. It contains all the global settings and boundary conditions. Add an OVEN object via Add Oven OVEN:

Most settings will be left at default values. Change only the following values: Object name: [Text] oven 16

T0_FE Initial temperature in C: [Text] 20 [POST_GAP] Write gap factors: [List] YES

We have enabled POST_GAP in order to visualize the resulting distribution of gap factors. These are written to the result file 01_Door.hdf when the simulation is run. This concludes the definition of the Oven Module settings. If you are interested in the details of the applied modelling, have a look at the appendices of this document.

1.4.7.

Solver and post-processing settings

Before running the simulation a few more keywords will be added to the model. First, add a solver settings keyword via Add Solver SOL:

No settings need to be changed for SOL. Now add the following three post-processing keywords: Add Output POSTDOF Add Output POSTFE Add Output POSTFRQ

POSTDOF does not require further settings. With this keyword defined, the solver will output temperature results at all degrees of freedom (including solids) for visualization. POSTFE causes the solver to output all result quantities defined on shell elements, e.g. heat transfer coefficients and fluid temperatures. The following setting guarantees output on all shell elements: [FLAG] Post all: [List] ALL The keyword POSTFRQ defines when to output post-processing results. The setting we will use here is DTPOST Time between 2 post-processor calls: [List] STEP which instructs the solver to output post-processing results after every time step. Please save the model at this point.

1.5. Running the analysis

Go to the menu item Run Start solver. You will then be presented with a solver output window:

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The command line to start the solver can be changed in the GUI settings. The argument inter forces THESEUS-FE to display detailed progress messages, convergence information, and errors. The argument oven activates the Oven Module. After clicking on Run, you should see THESEUS-FE solver output scrolling down in the output area of the window. This window displays the status of the current calculation. The following solver information can be observed: step number nonlinear iteration number analysis time analysis time step maximal relative residual maximal temperature correction

The solver will also display any errors here that prevent further processing. The case should complete after 11 time steps and display a success message. Close the solver output dialogue by clicking on Close. Four new files are created after the calculation has finished: Report file (extension .rpt) in ASCII format: This file contains very detailed information about the model and information (errors and warnings) returned by the THESEUS-FE solver pre-processor. Furthermore a lot of useful numerical information from every iterated time step is available. Restart file (extension .rst) in binary format: contains the temperature results calculated in the last time step at each degree of freedom. This file is needed for restart calculations. Nozzle influence factor file (extension .noz) in binary format: contains the nozzle influence factors. The keyword OVENREAD can be used to read these in later simulations. This can speed up calculation time. Result file (extension .hdf) in binary format: contains all calculated results at the defined output times (see Section 1.4.7).

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1.6. Post-processing
The .hdf result file contains the complete finite element model of the simulation, as well as results at all output times. In addition, it contains the following information: version number of the solver status of the simulation (e.g. RUNNING, FINISHED) convergence behaviour CPU times (for pre-processing, solver, and post-processing)

The result file can be loaded on its own by the GUI to visualize the results, via the main menu item File Read HDF results. Alternatively, you may use a utility such as HDFView to view the complete contents of the file in a low-level manner. The result file is automatically loaded by the GUI when the calculation completes. This is reflected by the new Post tab appearing in the Project window, and by the display of the loaded .hdf file at the bottom of the 3D Plot window:

1.6.1.

Examining tabular results

Change to the Post tab in the Project window. Double-click on the object oven:

The display in the Data window will change to show a tabular view of the oven boundary conditions. Tabular data can be shown in a spreadsheet view as in the figure above, or as a 2D plot. To create plots, click on a column heading such as T_CIRC (circulating air temperature) to select the data for plotting. Then change the table mode from Table to Plot using the setting in the lower right hand corner of the Data window This will produce the following 2D plot of the marked data:

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Switch back into Table mode. A right click on the marked data opens the context menu offering several functions such as Copy or Paste.

Data values can be copied and pasted into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, or exported as a comma-separated-value (CSV) file.

1.6.2.

Examining field results, DOF temperatures

Field results are available for each output time. There are two types of field results: element-based results, marked with , and node-based results, marked with . At the moment, the only node-based result is DOF Temperatures. Double-click on this item. This will create a plot of nodal temperatures on shells and solids. The output time can be controlled in the post time toolbar:

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The temperature result for time t=300 s at the inner door side is the following:

The colour legend display can be adapted in the GUI options dialogue. Open the options now via Tools Options. Apply the following settings for Fringebar:

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We have applied a display of 10 discrete colours instead of the usual continuous spectrum. Clicking on the ends of the colour bar (marked with red circles) allows the user to define colours for the display of extreme (off-legend) values. The legend text style can be changed between scientific format and floating point format. The legend range can be controlled in the range toolbar:

Deactivate the Auto setting and enter a range of 40 to 80 C for the temperature legend. Values outside of this range are now plotted using the chosen extreme value colours. The result for the temperature distribution is now displayed as follows:

Individual node values can be queried by right-clicking on a given node. The following context menu will open, allowing access to the current node value:

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Follow the menu to NID. Clicking on PLOT HISTORY will create a table of node values versus time:

Another useful feature is TAG NODE. This creates node annotations:

Specific node IDs, say node 15261, can be identified with the Identify Find Node function in the toolbar:

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The desired node ID (NID) can be entered in the dialogue. Clicking OK creates an annotation at the node. Annotations can be cleared with the refresh toolbar button .

1.6.3.

Examining nozzle influence factors

Apply the following legend settings in the global options:

Click OK to close the options dialogue. Now double-click on the item NZ_1 in the Post tab. The element result NZ_1 is the nozzle influence factor Fi,1 for nozzle 1 and every shell i. The resulting distribution of this quantity on the outer door side is shown in the following figure:

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This quantity is only written for t=0 s. It measures how much each shell side feels the influence of a given nozzle on a scale between 0 and 1. The detailed algorithm of how this quantity is calculated by the solver is presented in Section A.4.2.

1.6.4.

Examining gap factors

Double-click on GAPFC in the Post tab. This will display the gap factor Gi for each shell i. The gap factor determines to what degree a given shell surface is within an enclosed cavity on a scale between 0 and 1. The quantity is only written for t=0 s. The result for the inner door side is shown in the following figure:

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1.6.5.

Examining heat transfer coefficients

Double-click on CONVC (Convection Coefficient) in the Post tab. This will display the heat transfer coefficient hi for each element surface i. The coefficient is visible larger within the influence region of the nozzle. The maximal value H_MX=30 W/(m2K) as set in the OVENSEC keyword is not reached due to the nozzle distance factor ti,1, see Formulas ( A.5 ) and ( A.11 ). Note that the minimal value is H_GAP=10 W/(m2K). The following plot was created by turning off the mesh edge display:

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1.6.6.

Examining fluid temperature values

Double-click on CONVT (Convection Temperature) in the Post tab. This will display the ambient fluid temperature TF,i for each element surface i. The fluid temperature reaches its maximal value of T_F=100C within the core influence region of the nozzle. Outside of the core region the fluid temperature is linearly ramped with the angle down to T_CIRC, compare Formulas ( A.4 ) and ( A.5 ).

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1.6.7.

Examining heat fluxes and element temperatures

Two element-based heat flux results are available: the convective heat flux CONVQ and the net radiation heat flux RADAB into each element surface. These are shown in the following diagrams at t=300 s:

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29

Also available is the average element temperature TEMPE, shown here at t=300 s:

TEMPE is only available for shell elements, solid elements are shaded in grey. Solid element display was deactivated in the previous plots. Clearly visible is the fact that the highest heat fluxes into the shells coincide with relatively cool temperatures and vice-versa. The net radiation heat flux is relatively noisy; this is due to the rather coarse discretization used in the Hemicube method, see Section A.3.

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2. Tutorial 2: Door calibration

2.1. What you will learn
Pre-processing o o o loading a finished model defining CONM2 mass points preparing an optimization run

Analysis o o o reading pre-calculated nozzle and radiation influence factors performing sensitivity analysis performing optimization

Post-processing o interpreting results of optimization runs

2.2. Example description

Based on the door model of the prior tutorial we will perform a model calibration on heat transfer coefficients in order to achieve a best fit of temperature results to measured values. The measured values are available as a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file measuredData.csv, readable by Microsoft Excel or any text editor. The first column is time in seconds, followed by four columns corresponding to temperatures in C at four measurement locations thermo1 through thermo4. For the spatial positions see the following figure:

thermo3

thermo1

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thermo2

thermo4 (inside door)

The model from the prior tutorial will be extended by the definition of fit variables. A sensitivity study will show us whether our choice of fit variables is reasonable. The next step is the model calibration. We will aim for a best fit of the simulated temperature to measured results at the four measurement locations. The calibration will be done with OpenMPI parallelization using two processes on the localhost.

2.3. Pre-processing
2.3.1. Configuring parallelization options
Start the THESEUS-FE GUI and open the options menu. Navigate to the settings for Environment Solver. We need to define which machines, and how many CPUs on each machine are to be used for parallel runs. We will assume a simple scenario of two CPUs used on the local machine. Note that on a Linux machine, the file /proc/cpuinfo will provide you with the number of available CPUs in your system. If the mpirun utility is in your path, then simply enter mpirun in the field MPI client. Otherwise, choose the correct path. For more complex simulations distributed over several physical machines, an MPI hostfile may be useful. See the manual page for mpirun for details on the format of hostfiles.

2.3.2.

Opening an existing case, defining point masses

First, create a copy the reference case from the previous tutorial as a starting point. This can be done in a terminal using cp ../01_Door/01_Door_COMPLETED.tfe 02_DoorCalibration.tfe assuming you are working in the directory where the current tutorial files are located. Navigate to the main menu File Open. The following dialogue will appear:

32

Choose the file 02_DoorCalibration.tfe and confirm the dialogue. We will define four dummy CONM2 (CONcentrated Mass) objects at the measurement locations. They will not influence the physical modelling and are only needed as reference locations at which to output local temperature results in the simulation. Navigate to the main menu entry Add Model CONM2. Now move the mouse pointer to the 3D Plot window. Here the mouse pointer will change to query mode, allowing you to select a single node. Choose any node with left-click for now. Having done this, the Project window will update to show the newly defined CONM2 object. Ensure that the display of CONM2 elements is active:

The 3D Plot window will show the concentrated mass object using a label. Change the properties of the object as follows: Object Name: [Text] thermo1 NID Grid Point ID: [Text] 9003 MASS Concentrated mass in kg: [Text] 0

Using zero mass implies that the concentrated mass will not affect the thermal results. Changing the node ID (NID) will select a new node as attachment point for the point mass. Right-click on the object in the Project window and select Duplicate in the context menu:

This will clone the selected object. Change new objects properties as follows: Object Name: [Text] thermo2 NID Grid Point ID: [Text] 6373 33

We will need two more point masses. Create these by duplication and apply the following properties: Object Name: [Text] thermo3 NID Grid Point ID: [Text] 2260 Object Name: [Text] thermo4 NID Grid Point ID: [Text] 25971 Colour: [Text] #ffaa00

You may also wish to change the colour definitions for better visual recognition, e.g. CONM2 objects are best visible in Group Wireframe display, see Section 1.3.5. The size of the corresponding dots in the visualization can be changed in the global options using 3D Plot Presentation Grid Size.

2.3.3.

Importing measurement data as a table

Add a new time-dependent data table using the main menu entry Add Data TABTIME. This step is necessary to open the Data tab in the Project window and add a branch for TABTIME objects:

Right-click on the branch to open the context menu containing the Import function. In the following file dialogue, select the file measuredData.csv. A new TABTIME object is created containing the experimental temperatures as time-dependent data. You can now safely remove the first default object by right-clicking on it and selecting Remove:

A double-click on the object in the Project window will open a spreadsheet view of the data, similarly to the tabular display of post-processing results. However, all values can be edited and stored here for use in the model definition.

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Plots of the data can be created as described in Section 1.6.1:

Note that the columns are designated by THESEUS-FE according to the scheme TABx_y with x as the table ID and y as the column ID. Some model keywords expecting value information can reference table columns using this scheme. This is demonstrated in the following section.

2.3.4.

Defining error quantities

We will compare simulation and measured temperatures at the four locations marked with CONM2 objects. For details on error calculations in THESEUS-FE, see the Appendix B.4. Go to the main menu entry Add Output POSTDAT:

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All POSTDAT objects are collected under a common branch. Open the branch and edit the new item as follows: Object OBJECT [ID] [REF1] Name: [Text] thermo1 Monitor object: [List] CONM2 Object id: [CONM2] 32172 (thermo1) First reference temperature in C: [TABLE] TAB2_2

Note that we have used a reference to the table id 2, column 2 containing the thermo1 measured data. The other three locations thermo2, thermo3, and thermo4 need to be defined analogously using the Duplicate feature:

Save your model at this point.

2.3.5.

Further post-processing settings

To save CPU time during the optimization runs we will suppress the output of all field results in the .hdf result file. Remove the POSTDOF and POSTFE objects in the Project window by right-clicking them and selecting Remove in the context menu. Additionally, change the following setting in the OVEN object: [POST_GAP] Write gap factors: [List] NO and in the OVENNOZ object: POST Write influence factors to hdf file: [List] NO Further time can be saved in the calculations by reusing the radiation view factor file 01_Door.vfr and the nozzle influence factor file 01_Door.noz from the previous tutorial. To do this, add a VFREAD object via Add Data VFREAD and fill the resulting object as follows: NAME Filename: [File] .../02_DoorCalibration/01_Door.vfr Similarly, add an OVENREAD keyword via Add Oven OVENREAD and fill the object with NAME Filename: [File] .../02_DoorCalibration/01_Door.noz As a result, the solver will read the factor information from these two files instead of recomputing it for every new simulation. 36

2.3.6.

Optimization settings for sensitivity analysis

The optimization settings are entered using a special tool, accessible through the main menu item Tools Optimization Setup. This will open the following dialogue:

Our first goal will be to perform a sensitivity analysis. In the first step we will define three variables whose influence on the simulation results will be studied systematically. To define a variable, enter the name, lower bound, and upper bound in the three fields at the bottom of the window. We will start with h_circ:

Terminate the definition of a variable by clicking on the + button. This will create a new optimization variable VAR1 in the list. Proceed to define the other two variables with the values shown in the following figure.

Then click on Next to proceed to the next step. This will open the constraint definition window, which is not needed at the moment. Click Next again to proceed to the final step. Enter these settings in the window: 37

Click Finish to complete the tool. All settings are stored as special keywords starting with the hash character #. These are not visible in the Project window, but may be edited by opening the Optimization setup tool again. Alternatively, you may review the settings in the .tfe file using a text editor. With the number of individuals set to 10, the solver will perform the following 30 parameter variation runs:
h_circ=5,6.667,...,20 h_circ=12.5 h_circ=12.5 h_gap=12.5 h_gap=5,6.667,...,20 h_gap=12.5
Table 2.1

h_mx=35 h_mx=35 h_mx=20,23.333,...,50

In other words, one parameter is varied in 10 steps between its lower and upper bound while fixing the other two parameters at their average values. Why perform a sensitivity study at all? A sensitivity study systematically probes how strong the influence of a given variable is. In the extreme case a variable may not have any influence, meaning that an optimization based on this variable is pointless. We can (roughly) determine whether the lower and upper bounds where chosen sensibly. Choosing too small an interval will make the optimization ineffective, especially if the optimal value is outside of the chosen interval. Choosing too large an interval will slow down the optimization needlessly. A sensitivity study may give hints at useful constraints, which in turn accelerate the optimization. A sensitivity study is much faster than an optimization. Optimization can use hundreds of individual solver runs and take days to complete all settings should be chosen sensibly beforehand.

2.3.7.

Assigning optimization variables

The final pre-processing step involves assigning the abstract optimization variables to actual model settings. We will optimize settings of the OVENSEC object heatup. Apply the following settings now: H_CIRC Circulating air HTC in W/(m2K): [Parameter] VAR1 38

H_GAP Gap HTC in W/(m2K): [Parameter] VAR2 Heat source 5: [Heat source] NOZ1 H_MX Max. convective HTC in W/(m2K): [Parameter] VAR3

Save the model now.

2.4. Running the sensitivity analysis

Go to the main menu and select Run Start optimization. Hit the Run button to start the sensitivity study. THESEUS-FE will run 30 individual simulation jobs, employing two CPUs as specified. When the sensitivity study is done, the dialogue window will show output similar to the following:

The window can be closed when the success message appears.

2.5. Post-processing of the sensitivity analysis

The sensitivity analysis creates a number of intermediate files originating from the individual THESEUS-FE jobs. These can be ignored. The only significant data is located in the three CSV files 02_DoorCalibration_sens_sum_h_circ.csv 02_DoorCalibration_sens_sum_h_gap.csv 02_DoorCalibration_sens_sum_h_mx.csv

The automatically generated suffix sens_sum_ stands for sensitivity summary. Each file corresponds to a row in Table 2.1 above. In each file, the global error F1 from Equation ( B.3 )is stored as a function of the currently varied fit variable (with the other two fit variables held constant). We will import all three files as TABTIME objects. Change to the Data tab in the Project window and import all three files as in Section 2.3.3:

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The data in all three tables may be plotted to yield

40

Plot of F1 over h_circ h_gap = 12.5 h_mx = 35

Plot of F1 over h_gap h_circ = 12.5 h_mx = 35

Plot of F1 over h_mx h_circ = 12.5 h_gap = 12.5

The final plot suggests that our range of h_mx values between 20 and 50 could be extended upwards a bit since the minimum value appears to be close to the upper interval limit. Keep in mind however that the location of an optimum for multiple fitness variables cannot be generally determined from the one-dimensional samples taken in a sensitivity analysis. 41

Open the optimization settings and change the values for lower and upper limit as follows:

Note that field values in the table are changed by double-clicking inside the areas marked with red circles. Click Next to open the constraint window:

The Oven Module allows you to define inequality type optimization constraints. One useful constraint is h_circ > h_gap as shown in the figure above. Add this constraint now. Proceed to the third step by clicking Next again. In the final window we will now change the task from Sensitivity to Optimization:

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This activates further options. You may leave all values at their default settings. The Oven Module employs a genetic algorithm to find an optimal fit to reference temperature results. For more information on the algorithm settings, see the indicated Keyword Manual entries next to each setting. The following general remarks may be of use: The number of individuals (#NINDI) should be increased for more than three fit variables. #NINDI should be a multiple of 2 in order to form pairs. If adaptivity (#ADPTVE) is active, then the number of children #NCHLD should be greater than 3. The three keywords #CNVCRT, #BSTFIT, #NGEN define convergence criteria. Optimization stops when at least one criterion is fulfilled.

Close the dialogue by clicking on Finish and save the model.

2.6. Running the optimization analysis

Go to the main menu and select Run Start optimization. Hit the Run button to start the optimization. The optimizer will run nine evolution generations which can take a few minutes, depending on your machine. At the dialogue window will show output similar to the following:

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Note that a best fit of 999.00 is an indication of problems in your model. The precise values of the optimized variables will be slightly different for each run due to the randomness (mutation) incorporated into the genetic algorithm. The window can be closed when the success message appears. Two new files will be created in your working directory: 02_DoorCalibration_opti_report.txt 02_DoorCalibration_opti_summary.csv

The first file is a log displaying detailed progress information on the optimization run. The second file contains the key convergence information in CSV format, ready for plotting.

2.7. Post-processing of the optimization analysis

Import the file 02_DoorCalibration_opti_summary.csv as a TABTIME object. This will create the following table:

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The table rows represent the generations. The best fit (value of the error quantity) is listed in the second column, and the average fit of all members of the generation is in the third one. The values of the fit variables corresponding to the best fit are in the final three columns. Information on the meaning of values in the remaining columns may be found in the Keyword Manual. The text message in the first column of the last row tells us that the optimization run completed successfully and why. The result of plotting best fit and average fit over the generation index is shown in the following figure:

Also of interest is the plot of the fit variables over generation index:

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Each generation of the optimization run used the top 10 individuals as parents. These were matched to 5 couples, with 4 children each. The total number of children per generation is 20, and the number of generations was 9. This means that a total of 180 simulation runs were necessary to carry out the optimization, six times as many as for the sensitivity study.

2.8. Testing the optimized variables

As a final test, we will take the optimized values for our fit variables h_circ = 15.038 h_gap = 10.210 h_mx = 40.257

and carry out a final normal simulation where we replace the fit variable references by the actual values. To do this, change the OVENSEC object heatup as follows: H_CIRC Circulating air HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 15.038 H_GAP Gap HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 10.210 Heat source: [Heat source] NOZ1 H_MX Max. convective HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 40.257

Next, delete the TABTIME object named 02_DoorCalibration_opti_summary.csv. The reason this is necessary is that the solver does not accept the text message in the final row of this table. Remember that we have imported this data purely for the purpose of post-processing, not as actual input for simulations. Save the simulation, preferably under a different name such as 02_DoorCalibration_check.tfe Run the simulation using Run Start Solver. Once the calculation has completed, open the table object data in the Post tab of the Project window. This table is the result of defining the POSTDAT keyword. It contains the time-dependent temperature results at the probe locations for the simulation and the reference results. Plotting the data as curves confirms the near-perfect fit:

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47

3. Tutorial 3: Ford F250

3.1. What you will learn
Pre-processing o o o o Defining multiple-sector simulations Defining symmetric nozzles Adding a skin layer of shells to solids Saving NASTRAN keyword data into separate files

Analysis o Running restart analyses

Post-processing o visualizing results for multiple sectors

3.2. Example description

In this tutorial we will create a realistic model of a Ford F250 four-door pickup truck in a paint-drying facility. The car door from the previous tutorials was in fact part of this vehicle. The paint-drying oven will use a total of 12 sectors.

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The circulating air temperature over time is shown in the following diagram:

Circulating air temperature T_CIRC

200 180 160 140

T_CIRC in C

120 100 80 60 40 20
0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

time in s
Sector boundaries are marked with dashed lines.

3.3. Pre-processing
3.3.1. Loading the NASTRAN file, adding skin to solids
Start the GUI and import the NASTRAN file 03_F250.nas, see Section 1.3.4.This model is also defined in millimetres. The model is already correctly positioned in space and employs proper material definitions. Note that three additional materials are used in the model. Open the PSOLID groups branch in the Model tab. Mark the groups describing the door hinge solid elements as shown in the left figure below, and right-click on the selection. Isolate the display of these elements by selecting OR in the context menu. Also ensure that the display of solid elements is enabled (see right figure):

The 3D Plot window will now show only these solid elements. There is a problem here: THESEUS-FE calculates thermal radiation exchange only between shell elements. Solid elements themselves do not participate in radiation and act as transparent bodies, 49

permitting radiation to pass through unhindered. The solution is to cover larger groups of solid elements with a skin of dummy shell elements. The GUI offers a feature to perform this process automatically. The first step is to hide everything except for the solid elements which are to be covered. This has already been done. Navigate to the main menu item Tools Skin Solids:

A new shell group named Automatic generated skin is created, containing the new shell elements covering the solids. The significant setting of this shell group is [SHELLTYP] Conduction type: [List] PSHELL0 This conduction type defines the shells as dummies, with no effect on the conduction in the underlying solid. The remaining settings such as layer thickness are irrelevant and ignored by THESEUS-FE. The following image shows one of the hinge groups with the solid elements rendered transparently and the covering layer of shell elements partially cut away:

3.3.2.

Defining oven walls

We will define four oven walls surrounding the car body. Add a first wall object using the main menu entry Add Oven OVENWALL. Use the following settings: Object name: [Text] floor EMIS - Emissivity: [Text] 1 OVENWALL Type: [List] INTERNAL [METHOD] GID for external walls: [List] SIMPLE X1 Corner x-coordinate in m: [Text] -2 Y1 Corner y-coordinate in m: [Text] -1.5 Z1 Corner z-coordinate in m: [Text] -1 Plane orientation: [List] XY DX Vector extension x in m: [Text] 8 50

DY Vector extension y in m: [Text] 3

Duplicate and complete this object as needed to define the remaining three walls according to the following table:
Wall ceiling right left X1 in m -2 -2 -2 Y1 in m -1.5 1.5 -1.5 Z1 in m 2 -1 -1 DX in m 8 8 8 DY in m 3 3 3 DZ in m

3.3.3.

Defining oven nozzles

We will define two symmetric nozzle rows. Add a first nozzle object via Add Oven OVENNOZ and complete its definition as follows: Object name: [Text] top row SYM - Symmetry: [List] YES Y Global y coordinate in m: [Text] -1.5 Z Global z coordinate in m: [Text] 1.6 PHI1 Direction angle in deg: [Text] -25 PHI2 Inner spread angle in deg: [Text] 60 PHI3 Outer spread angle in deg: [Text] 90 L Nozzle influence range in m: [Text] 2.5 POST Write influence factors to hdf file: [List] NO Object name: [Text] bottom row SYM - Symmetry: [List] YES Y Global y coordinate in m: [Text] -1.5 Z Global z coordinate in m: [Text] 0 PHI1 Direction angle in deg: [Text] 15 PHI2 Inner spread angle in deg: [Text] 60 PHI3 Outer spread angle in deg: [Text] 90 L Nozzle influence range in m: [Text] 2.5 POST Write influence factors to hdf file: [List] NO

Create a copy of the object and use the following data to define the bottom row:

3.3.4.

Separating NASTRAN keywords while saving

THESEUS-FE supports saving models as two separate files. The idea is to separate the bulk data in the form of NASTRAN keywords (GRID, CTRIA, CQUAD, etc.) from the actual THESEUS-FE model definitions. The former is stored in a file with extension .nas. The latter is stored as a .tfe file and usually stores only a small number of definitions. Using an INCLUDE keyword the .tfe file references the NASTRAN file. Using this feature it is possible to share the large bulk data among several THESEUS-FE model variants, thus conserving file space. It also makes it easier to create THESEUS-FE models by hand instead of with the GUI. Navigate to the main menu entry File Save as.... In the dialogue, activate the following options:

51

You need to choose a .tfe and a .nas file (the old NASTRAN file may be overwritten, as nothing significant has changed). After confirming the dialogue two files will be created. You are welcome to examine the contents using a text editor. Near the top of the .tfe file you will find a line of the form INCLUDE ...03_F250.nas This directive causes THESEUS-FE to include the contents of the named file when loading the .tfe deck. Note that all subsequent Save operations maintain the separation into two files.

3.3.5.

Sector definitions

This tutorial will use 12 sectors as described in the following table. Since the definition of sector properties is time-consuming and tedious, we will define only two sectors by hand in order to understand the process. The remaining 10 sector definitions will be copied into the model from a separate file in the following section. Navigate to the main menu entry Add Oven OVENSEC. In the dialogue box asking for the default number of heat sources, enter 6 and confirm. Change the settings of the resulting default sector as follows: Object Name: [Text] transition 1 TIME Sector duration time in s: [Text] 80 DT Fixed time step in s: [Text] 30 T_CIRC Circulating air temperature in C: [Text] 35 H_CIRC Circulating air HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 12 H_GAP Gap HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 5 Heat source 1: [Heat source] WAL1 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: [Text] 40 Heat source 2: [Heat source] WAL2 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: [Text]40 52

Heat source 3: [Heat source] WAL3 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: [Text] 40 Heat source 4: [Heat source] WAL4 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: [Text] 40

Note that the final two heat source lines remain blank. These need to be removed since the current transition sector does not employ nozzles. To achieve this, right-click on the sector object. Select Remove Heatsource and confirm with OK in the dialogue:

Repeat the process to delete the superfluous fifth heat source as well. Right-click on the OVEN SECtions branch and select New. Select 6 as number of heat sources for the new sector:

The second sector will use the following settings: Object Name: [Text] heatup 1 TIME Sector duration time in s: [Text] 450 DT Fixed time step in s: [Text] 30 T_CIRC Circulating air temperature in C: [Text] 100 H_CIRC Circulating air HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 12 H_GAP Gap HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 8 Heat source 1: [Heat source] WAL1 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: [Text] 110 Heat source 2: [Heat source] WAL2 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: [Text] 110 Heat source 3: [Heat source] WAL3 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: [Text] 110 Heat source 4: [Heat source] WAL4 T_W Radiation wall temperature in C: [Text] 110 Heat source 5: [Heat source] NOZ1 L Ramping distance in m: [Text] 2.5 T_F Fluid air temperature in C: [Text] 110 H_MX Max. convective HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 30 Heat source 6: [Heat source] NOZ2 L Ramping distance in m: [Text] 2.5 T_F Fluid air temperature in C: [Text] 110 53

H_MX Max. convective HTC in W/(m2K): [Text] 30

3.3.6.

Using the internal editor

We will use the Internal Editor feature of the GUI to enter the remaining 10 sector definitions in one stroke. Go to the main menu entry Tools Edit Internal Editor:

This will open the internal editor buffer. This buffer is used to save any extra model information, such as unsupported keywords encountered while opening a file. It can also be used to enter model definitions directly, bypassing the normal keyword object creation mechanism in the Project window. Open the file 03_F250_REMAINING_SECTOR_DEFINITIONS.tfe using any text editor (such as nedit or emacs under Linux). Copy the file contents into the clipboard. Then right-click on the blank area in the Internal Editor window and select the Paste function:

As a result the buffer now shows the remaining 10 OVENSEC keyword definitions. Close the window with OK. The new keyword definitions are not displayed in the Project window. Save the model file using File Save as... and use the following settings:

54

Finally, reopen the model file (File Open). The model now shows the complete sector definitions, while the internal editor buffer is empty. Clicking on one of the sectors will cause the sector display bar in the 3D Plot window to highlight accordingly:

3.3.7.

Global oven definitions

Add an OVEN object via Add Oven OVEN and apply the following settings: Object Name: [Text] oven T0_FE Initial temperature in C: [Text] 20 [FINALSEC] Last sector ID to be simulated: [Text] 2

55

All other settings can be left at their default values. Note that we are forcing the Oven Module to end the simulation after only 2 of the 12 defined sectors. The reason is that we will test the restart functionality of the solver.

3.3.8.

Solver and post-processing settings

Add a solver settings keyword via Add Solver SOL. To save CPU time we will relax the convergence criteria for the solver: Object Name: [Text] relaxed criteria [CRIT1] Maximum relative energy residual: [Text] 0.4 [CRIT2] Maximum temperature correction: [Text] 2

Consult the Keyword Manual for details on solver settings. Concerning the post-processing settings, we will reduce the amount of information output to the .hdf file in order to conserve disk space. Add the following three post-processing keywords: Add Output POSTDOF Add Output POSTFE Add Output POSTFRQ

POSTDOF is useful for visualizing temperatures on solid elements. The POSTFE settings will be adjusted in order to output only the fields TEMPE (shell element temperature), CONVC (heat transfer coefficient), and CONVT (fluid temperature). The following settings achieves this: [FLAG] Post all: [List] [TEMPE] Post TEMPE: [List] YES [CONVC] Post CONVC: [List] YES [CONVT] Post CONVT: [List] YES

The keyword POSTFRQ will be used with DTPOST Time between 2 post-processor calls: [List] SEC which instructs the solver to output post-processing results after every sector rather than after every time step. Please save the model at this point.

3.4. Running the first analysis

Go to the menu item Run Start solver and click the Run button in the solver output window:

56

Assuming the model was error-free the solver will simulate the first two oven sectors and stop at time t=530 s.

3.5. Post-processing for first analysis

Change to the Post tab in the Project window. A double-click on DOF temperatures will activate the display of temperature on shells and solids. Change to the final time t=530 s by clicking on the toolbar button . Then change back to the Oven tab. The sector wall and nozzle definitions can now be visualized in addition to the temperature results by clicking on one of the sectors, as shown in the following figure:

Change back to the Post tab and activate the display of the fluid temperature CONVT. Scale the results to a range from 100 C to 110 C. The results demonstrate the linear interpolation of the fluid temperature between the core and outer angles of each nozzle row (see also Appendix A.4.1):

57

3.6. Running the second analysis

We will now run a restart simulation starting from t=530 s. The temperatures from the end of the prior simulation will now serve as starting values. The second analysis will take us through sectors 3 and 4 and end at t=940 s. First save the simulation under a different name, such as 03_F250_SECTORS_3_4.tfe. Go to the main menu entry Add Data VFREAD:

In the Properties window select the .vfr file from the prior simulation: NAME Filename: [File] ...03_F250.vfr This causes the solver to read the radiation view factors from the file instead of recomputing them. 58

Now add an OVENREAD object via Add Oven OVENREAD:

Select the .noz file from the prior simulation: NAME Filename: [File] ...03_F250.noz The solver will now use the nozzle influence factors from this file. Note that the last two steps are optional, but can serve to accelerate the computation. Next, navigate to Add Data RESTREAD:

Select the .rst file from the last simulation: FNAME Name of the restart file: [File] ...03_F250.rst The solver will now use the final temperatures from the restart file as starting values for the current simulation. The analysis time will also be adjusted to begin at t=530 s. Lastly, the OVEN object needs to be changed to calculate sectors 3 and 4, then stop. Apply this setting: [FINALSEC] Last sector ID to be simulated: [Text] 4 Save the model and start the simulation.

3.7. Post-processing for second analysis

Change to the Post tab and double-click on the oven object. This opens the following table:

59

The starting time t=530 s is formally part of the prior sector 2. Clearly visible is the linear interpolation of circulating air temperature T_CIRC over time, see Appendix A.4.1.

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4. Tutorial 4: Ford F250 calibration

4.1. What you will learn
Analysis o o Calibrating a complex case Solver run from the command line

4.2. Example description

The final tutorial of this manual is about a complete model calibration of the Ford F250 model from the previous tutorial. We will introduce measurement results and calibrate the model for the first two oven sectors. The full optimization job for model calibration in Section 4.6 may take hours and might be best done in an overnight batch job. We will work with a custom evaluation spreadsheet, delivered with the tutorial as a Microsoft Excel and as an OpenOffice.org version.

4.3. Variant 1
Create a working directory under 04_F250Calibration/, e.g. by using the commands mkdir V1 cd V1 in a terminal under Linux. Then perform the following commands: cp ../../03_F250/03_F250.nas 04_F250Calibration.nas cp ../04_F250Calibration_V1.tfe . Start the THESEUS-FE GUI and open the file 04_F250Calibration_V1.tfe. Note that V1 stands for variant 1. We will create several different variants in the course of this tutorial. The model uses an INCLUDE to reference the geometry in the NASTRAN file, using a relative path. All of our variants will use the same NASTRAN geometry. When saving a model, make sure to keep the NASTRAN keywords in 04_F250Calibration.nas by using the following options:

The model uses 24 CONM2 point mass objects to describe measurement locations, see also Section 2.3.2. These are best saved in the .tfe file instead of in the .nas file 61

because THESEUS-FE uses a slightly different syntax for this keyword than standard NASTRAN. Ensure that the display of point masses is activated as shown in the following figures:

The size of the dots used to symbolize CONM2 objects in the 3D Plot window can be adjusted using the global settings:

Measured temperature results are available in three TABTIME objects, to be found under the Data tab in the Project window:

The measurements are split into three groups due to THESEUS-FEs limit of 10 columns per table. The measured temperatures are already linked to POSTDAT objects, see Section 2.3.4:

62

The OVEN keyword settings are configured to run only the first two sectors, corresponding to 590 seconds total time. The first variant will be run without changing any settings. Go to the main menu entry Run Start Solver and run the simulation. At the bottom of the report file 04_F250Calibration_V1.rpt you will find a line containing the following information: weighted time average difference over all ... sim-ref1 : 6.3672943 The meaning of this is that the global error in temperatures over all locations and times is close to 6.3 C. The Oven Module has also created the file 04_F250Calibration_V1.csv. This file contains both simulated and reference temperature results at measurement locations solid1 through solid24. We will visualize the results using a prepared spreadsheet template. Depending on your operating environment you may choose either evaluation_template.xls (Microsoft Excel 2003) or evaluation_template.ods (OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice). The figures of this tutorial were generated using the Excel version. Copy the entire content of 04_F250Calibration_V1.csv into the input sheet of the evaluation template. The spreadsheet will calculate differences and absolute differences between simulated and reference temperatures. Note that the spreadsheet uses a simple arithmetic mean to calculate global errors based on errors at each output time, whereas the Oven Module calculates true time-integrated errors. This explains the different values given by the evaluation template on sheet abs_diff and the output at the end of 04_F250Calibration_V1.rpt.

4.4. Variant 2
Examine the plots on the sheets solid1 through solid24. These plots show temperature in C versus time in s. The reference temperature curve is displayed in magenta and the simulated temperature curve in dark blue. The yellow curve corresponds to the currently unused second reference value in the POSTDAT objects. The location solid18 appears to be problematic:

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120

100

80

60

40
sim: solid 18

20

rf1: solid 18

0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600

The time averaged difference in temperature is close to 30 C with the final temperatures widely diverging. We will assume that a mistake has been made in measuring the solid temperature at this location, perhaps due to a misplaced temperature sensor or a subsequent mistake in the data processing. Consequently, we will change the weight of this measurement location to zero in the corresponding POSTDAT object: Object Name: [Text] solid18 OBJECT Monitor object: [List] CONM2 [ID] Object id: [CONM2] 18 (solid18) [REF1] First reference temperature in C: [TABLE] TAB4_3 [REF2] Second reference temperature in C: [Text] 0 [WGHT1] First weighting function: [Text] 0 [OPT] Write scalar results to csv: [List] CSV

With a weight of 0 the Oven Module optimizer will disregard this measurement location. Measurement locations 3,12,14,17 all show a faster increase of simulated temperature compared to reference temperature:

64

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 120 100 80 60

V1: solid 14 V1: solid 3 meas: solid 3

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 120 100 80 60
meas: solid 14 V1: solid 12 meas: solid 12

100

200

300

400

500

600

40 20 0 0 100 200 300 400

40 20 0

V1: solid 17 meas: solid 17

500

600

100

200

300

400

500

600

Highlighting the nozzle locations for sector 2 reveals that these four locations are all influenced by the nozzle rows:

This suggests that the nozzle opening angles are too large. We will therefore change the nozzle definitions as follows: Object name: [Text] top row 65

 resp.

PHI2 Inner spread angle in deg: [Text] 30 PHI3 Outer spread angle in deg: [Text] 45 Object name: [Text] bottom row PHI2 Inner spread angle in deg: [Text] 30 PHI3 Outer spread angle in deg: [Text] 45

As a final change we will now define a VFREAD object to avoid recalculation radiation view factors in the following simulations: NAME Filename: [File] .../04_F250Calibration_V1.vfr Create a new working directory V2/ as before. Save the model there under the name 04_F250Calibration_V2.tfe and run another simulation. The report file now displays a global error of 3.4 C. Copy the values from 04_F250Calibration_V2.csv into the evaluation spreadsheet. The problematic locations 3, 12, 14, and 17 now show the following temperature curve:
120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
V2: solid 14 meas: solid 14 V1: solid 14 V2: solid 3 meas: solid 3 V1: solid 3

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 120 100 80 60
V2: solid 17 V2: solid 12 meas: solid 12 V1: solid 12

100

200

300

400

500

600

40 20 0 0 100 200 300 400

meas: solid 17 V1: solid 17

500

600

Curves in blue are the current simulation results. Yellow curves are the simulation results from Variant 1. The improvement is clear.

4.5. Sensitivity study

To achieve further improvements we will rely on automatic model calibration. Our first step will be a sensitivity study to determine the effect of varying certain parameters. The parameters we choose to vary are listed in the following table:
keyword object name property linked to optimization parameter L (VAR1) L (VAR1)

OVENNOZ OVENNOZ

top row bottom row

L L

66

OVENSEC OVENSEC OVENSEC OVENSEC OVENSEC

heatup 1 heatup 1 heatup 1 heatup 1 heatup 1

Heat source 5,L Heat source 6,L H_CIRC H_GAP H_MX

L (VAR1) L (VAR1) H_CIRC (VAR2) H_GAP (VAR3) H_MX (VAR4)

Open the optimization setup tool via Tools Optimization Setup. following four variables:

Define the

Note that range intervals for each variable are centred about the present values of Variant 2. This means that the sensitivity study tests the effect of changing only one of the Variant 2 parameter values at a time while keeping other parameters at their old value. See also Section 2.3.6. We have chosen the following sensitivity study parameters:

The number of CPUs used can be varied according to your working environment. Close the setup tool. Now assign each of parameter to the corresponding property in the Project window. For details you may refer to Section 2.3.7. Save the model as 04_F250Calibration_SENS.tfe in a new working directory SENS/ and run a sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity study will output four .csv files: 67

04_F250Calibration_SENS_sens_sum_L.csv 04_F250Calibration_SENS_sens_sum_H_CIRC.csv 04_F250Calibration_SENS_sens_sum_H_GAP.csv 04_F250Calibration_SENS_sens_sum_H_MX.csv

Section 2.5 demonstrated how these files can be imported as TABTIME objects for visualization. This has the benefit of allowing the use of the imported data in the model. We will now show an alternative import method. Navigate to the main menu entry Tools Edit Plot Data. In the file browser, choose the one of the .csv files, e.g. ...sum_L.csv. The file is now opened as ad-hoc tabular data without appearing in the Project window:

Open the other three files. The fit curves can be plotted in as usual:

68

The H_GAP curve shows that our range of values for this variable could be shifted upwards a bit since the best fit appears to be close to the value of hgap=16 W/(m2K).

69

4.6. Optimization
For the optimization run we will first change the range of the H_GAP variable. We will also introduce a new variable NVF_EXP. Open the optimization setup tool and apply the following settings:

In the next window, define the constraint H_CIRC > H_GAP:

We have used the following algorithm settings for the optimizer:

70

Close the setup tool. Remember to assign the new variable NVF_EXP to the corresponding property in the OVEN object: [NVF_EXP] Nozzle influence factor: exponent: [Parameter] VAR5

Save the model as 04_F250Calibration_OPT.tfe in a new working directory OPTI/. Go to the main menu entry Run Start Optimization, but do not click the Run button. Instead, mark the command line call in the window, right-click on the selection and choose Copy:

Open a terminal (e.g. konsole, xterm, ...) and change to the working directory. Paste the command into the terminal. Start the command in the terminal, but beware that the optimization job may take hours to complete. Running the simulation from the command line may be useful in the case special computing resources such as compute clusters are to be used. The THESEUS-FE GUI does not yet have the capability to start simulations on remote machines. Additionally, the GUI (and the GUI license) is not blocked by the run and can be used for work on other models. Due to the random character of the genetic algorithm the results will be different in every run. 71

4.7. Variant 3
As a final step, we will take the optimized variable values and test them by running a normal simulation. Once the optimization run has completed, import the file 04_F250Calibration_OPT_opti_summary.csv using the Plot Data tool. You may ignore the warning message about too many columns. Now replace all references to optimization variables in the model with the actual optimized values from the last generation of the optimization. The values we have used are listed in the following table:
L 1.6076 H_CIRC 21.862 H_GAP 14.924 H_MX 43.682 NV_EXP 0.90076

Save the model under the name 04_F250Calibration_V3.tfe in a new working directory V3/ and run the simulation via Run Start Solver. When the simulation has completed you can open the file 04_F250Calibration_V3.csv and transfer the results to the evaluation spreadsheet. The following temperature curves were created using the spreadsheet:
120

100

80

60
V3: solid 3

40

meas: solid 3 V2: solid 3

20

0 0 120 100 200 300 400 500 600

100

80

60
V3: solid 12

40

meas: solid 12 V2: solid 12

20

0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600

72

120

100

80

60
V3: solid 14

40

meas: solid 14 V2: solid 14

20

0 0 120 100 200 300 400 500 600

100

80

60
V3: solid 17

40

meas: solid 17 V2: solid 17

20

0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600

The additional improvement from Variant 2 is visible.

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Appendix A: Background on modelling

A.1. General ideas
The Oven Module calculates the temperature of car bodies moving at a fixed speed along an assembly line in x-direction through a series of oven sectors. A simulation with the THESEUS-FE Oven Module consists of four components: FE-model representing the car body oven walls oven nozzles oven sectors

The FE model serves as the reference frame for the simulation, i.e. the car body stays at a fixed location and the oven walls move. The oven walls are defined per each oven sector and defined by the keyword OVENWALL. Their only purpose is to prescribe radiation boundary conditions for the system. An oven wall can be defined either as a simple square surface or in more detail by using a number of FE shell elements. In both cases oven walls are internally represented as FE shells, but with fixed user-specified temperatures to calculate the emitted radiation flux. Oven nozzles are special model features controlled by the keyword OVENNOZ. They influence the calculation of convection on the car body. Each oven sector defines an array of nozzles emitting heated air. The effect of a nozzle is averaged along the x-direction, thus only the y and z coordinates are needed to define a nozzle position (parameters Y and Z). An oven sector is defined using the keyword OVENSEC. Each sector is characterized by the length of time the car body travels through the sector. A number of settings such as individual nozzle temperatures or surrounding air temperatures may be defined for each sector. These are typically gained from measurements. An oven simulation is always a transient analysis. We use the implicit backward Euler thermal solver also used in the standard THESEUS-FE package to deal with the arising non-linear problem of finding a temperature solution at each time step. Non-linear behaviour arises due to convection laws and long-wave thermal radiation. For details on the THESEUS-FE solver you may consult the Theory Manual, Section 1.

A.2. Heat conduction

Heat conduction in a solid is described by Fouriers Law
=

( A.1 )

Here q stands for the heat flux vector, measured in W/m 2. T is the temperature in the solid. The factor k is the thermal conductivity, given in W/(mK). The thermal conductivity can be defined as a tensor field to describe anisotropic material behaviour, e.g. for carbon-fiberreinforced plastics. Finite elements are defined using the classical NASTRAN syntax. The NASTRAN elements currently supported by the Oven Module are listed in the following figure:

74

The Oven Module does not yet support specialized welding spot elements such as CWELD. Welding spots are generally modelled using CBAR or CHEXA elements and joined to shell elements using multi-point-constraints (RBE2, RBE3). Thermal properties for materials such as thermal conductivity, specific heat, or density are specified using MAT4 or MAT5 keywords. Grouping keywords such as PSHELL, PSOLID, PROD, etc. are used to assign these materials properties to groups of finite elements. Shell elements may be either of single-layer (PSHELL) or multi-layer (PCOMP) type. By default, PSHELL elements use only a single degree of freedom for temperature in depth direction, in other words the temperature is modelled as being constant in this direction. This behaviour can be controlled with the argument PSHDSC in the OVEN keyword. Multi-layer PCOMP elements defined with n layers use n+1 degrees of freedom for temperature per default. This means that the temperature is modelled as a continuous piecewise linear function in depth direction. Using the NONLINi arguments of the PCOMP keyword the user can specify a quadratic shape function using an additional degree of freedom for a given layer. Note that this can increase the computation time significantly.

A.3. Radiation
The Oven Module models long-wave thermal radiation exchange within the car body as well as with oven walls and background. The background is simply a virtual bounding box containing the entire model and serves to close the system with respect to radiation. The typical wavelengths involved are between 1 m and 100 m. Only three input parameters are needed to define radiation properties in a model: Emissivity of the car body: EMIS_FE parameter of OVEN keyword Emissivity of the radiation background: EMIS_BGR parameter of OVEN keyword Emissivity of oven walls: EMIS parameter of OVENWALL keyword

Radiation is normally treated using a simple black-body approach, thus neglecting reflected radiation. Using the REFLEC parameter in the OVEN keyword, it is also possible to incorporate reflection on shells and oven walls, essentially a grey-body radiation approach. This comes at the price of additional CPU time, since a linear system of equations must be solved in each time step to calculate the grey-body radiation fluxes. 75

In the black-body approach, the radiation flux absorbed by an element surface i from all other elements is given by the following formula:
= ( )

( A.2 )

Note that element surface designates a given shell element and a given side (positive or negative). The symbols used here have the following meaning:

=5.6710-8 W/(m2K4): Stefan-Boltzmann constant i: Emissivity of element surface i Ti: Temperature of element surface i Fij: view factor between element surfaces i and j

The view factor describes what fraction of the radiation flux emitted from element surface i arrives at element surface j. The view factors are computed in a pre-processing step using the so-called Hemicube method. A fixed number of rays (per default 6) are sent from each element surface to sample the visibility of other elements, see the following figure.
ray 1

ray 6
ray 2 ray 5

ray 4
ray 3

i
Any solid elements in the FE model must be covered by dummy shell elements if radiation from their surfaces is to be modelled. The keyword SHELLTYP with argument TYPE=PSHELL0 can be used to define such dummy elements.

A.4. Convection
A.4.1. Overview of the algorithm
=

Convective heat exchange is the most complicated mode of heat transfer. The basic relation for the convective heat flux onto a shell element surface i is ( A.3 ) Here we have used

TF,i: surrounding fluid temperature near the element, calculated from user input Ti: element wall temperature, unknown and calculated by solver hi: heat transfer coefficient, measured in W/(m2K), calculated from user input

In a general situation the heat transfer coefficient will depend on the fluid velocity near the wall. For a given shell element surface the Oven Module considers three different types of convection: The element surface is exposed to the hot air jet emitted from an oven nozzle, leading to forced convection.

76

The element side is located within a small gap or cavity, such as a beam or pillar. The fluid temperature will tend to be close to an average of the wall temperatures in this region. The element side is exposed to the surrounding circulating air. Natural convection may be the dominant effect.

These three types of convection need not be distinct. The following figure illustrates this:

support or beam

inner cavity

nozzle
d < dmx1 < dmx2 Type 1: influence region of nozzle Type 2: element surfaces in convective contact, gap Type 3: influence region of surrounding air

The user needs to specify heat transfer coefficients and fluid temperatures corresponding to each of the three convection effects. This is done individually for each oven sector. The relevant parameters in the OVENSEC keyword are: H_MX and T_F: maximal heat transfer coefficient and jet fluid temperature for each nozzle H_GAP: heat transfer coefficient within small cavities. The cavity fluid temperature is not given by the user but automatically calculated as an average of surrounding shell temperatures by the solver. H_CIRC and T_CIRC: heat transfer coefficient and fluid temperature for shells exposed to surrounding circulating air flow

All of these parameters can be automatically calibrated to fit experimental results. This is described in detail in the following section. In a pre-processing step the solver calculates the following dimensionless factors for each element surface i : gap factor Gi nozzle influence factor Fi,n for every nozzle n nozzle angle factor wi,n for every nozzle n nozzle distance factor ti,n for every nozzle n 77

The details of this calculation are stated in the following subsection. The first step in the convection routine takes into account how each element is affected by convection type 2 and type 3. For each element surface i the solver calculates
= 1 = 1

( A.4 )

The parameters used are H_CIRC, H_GAP, and T_CIRC from the keyword OVENSEC. The gap temperature Ti,GAP is calculated by the solver, as described in the following section. Note that T_CIRC specifies the circulation temperature at the end of each sector. TCIRC is calculated by linear interpolation in time between these endpoint values. The argument T0_CIRC of the OVEN keyword can be used to specify an initial value of circulation temperature at time t=0. In contrast to TCIRC, HGAP is taken as constant for the duration of each sector. In the next step, the solver takes the effect of forced convection from nozzles into account. In a loop over each nozzle n, the heat transfer coefficient and fluid temperature are updated as follows:
=1 = = ( ( ) )

( A.5 )

The term hMX,n corresponds to the parameter H_MX and TF,n to T_F in the OVENSEC keyword. Lastly, the final element side values are taken as
= =

( A.6 )

A.4.2.

Algorithmic details

What remains to explain is how the auxiliary quantities for convection are calculated. We will start with the terms describing type 2 convection within narrow cavities, namely the gap factor Gi and the gap temperature Ti,GAP. The basic idea is to send six rays from the midpoint of a given element side i. If these rays strike other elements within a fixed search distance then i is considered to be within a gap. The following figure illustrates this ray tracing idea as well as some of the involved quantities:

78

ray 1 hits element 1 temp.: T1 ray 6

ray 5

ray 2 hits element 2 temp.: T2

d1

d2
ray 3 hits element 3 temp.: T3
ray 4

searching length dmx1 (default: 0.15 m)

d3

element side i wall temperature: T i

There are two search distance parameters, dmx1 and dmx2, used for the gap temperature and the gap factor respectively. The corresponding arguments DMX1 and DMX2 of the keyword OVEN are used to define them. The following formulas are used to determine the gap temperature Ti,GAP:
= = = 1 (1 1 ) =

( A.7 )

The motivation for this formula is that the fluid gap temperature is approximately the average of the surrounding wall temperatures under steady-state conditions. Note that all six rays must hit another element within the search distance dmx1 for this effect to apply. Otherwise the surrounding air temperature TCIRC from the sector definition is used. The gap factor Gi is calculated in a similar way, using the search distance dmx2: The gap factor will always lie in the interval between 0 and 1. The angle factor wi,n describes the position of element i within the wedge-shaped region of influence of a nozzle jet. The region of influence is described by the three angles 1, 2, and 3, corresponding to the OVENNOZ arguments PHI1, PHI2, and PHI3 respectively. The angle 1 defines the direction vector nD of the nozzle jet according to
z

1
y

=[

79

The formal definition of the angle factor is then

=1 =( = )( )

( A.8 )

The essence is that the quantity is 1 within the inner jet angle, 0 outside the outer jet angle and interpolated linearly between inner and outer angles. Compare the following figure:

wall

1=180 nD 3 2 nozzle

wi,n

The nozzle influence factor Fi,n is also determined by a ray tracing method. Here the objective is to check whether an element side i is hit by the air jet from nozzle row n, or whether there are other elements between nozzle row n and i blocking the nozzle jet. The first step is to determine the connecting line between i and the projected location of i along the nozzle row, see the following figure. If the length di,n of the connecting line is greater than the parameter L of the OVENNOZ keyword or if the weight factor wi,n is zero, we set the influence factor to zero:
= =

( A.9 )

80

global z-axis oven wall

maximal influence length L

projection of element centre on nozzle row vertical angle 2 dist. di,n rays 1-5 horizontal angle 1 obscuring element element centre nozzle row n

There are several methods for calculating nozzle influence factors, controlled using the argument NVF_MTH of the OVEN keyword. The default method uses a box-like arrangement of rays, as shown in the figure. The ray tracing method follows each ray and checks if there is an obscuring shell element in the way. Oven walls do not count as obscuring shell elements, thus the figure above shows a situation where four of five rays are unblocked. ( A.10 )
=

The exponent e is controlled by the argument NVF_EXP of the OVEN keyword and is equal to 1 per default. The opening angles 1 and 2 of the box are given by the parameters NZ_SIG1 and NZ_SIG2 in OVEN. There is also an argument NZ_DSC to control the number of rays and thus the discretization level. The effect of a given nozzle is also weighted by the distance di,n between element and nozzle row. The distance factor ti,n is defined by
= ( )

( A.11 )

The parameter is set in the OVENSEC keyword. The Oven Module uses this distance weighting factor only for the nozzle contribution to the heat transfer coefficient, see Formula ( A.5 ). The following diagram illustrates these parameters and their effect on the shell fluid temperatures and heat transfer coefficients:

81

fluid temperature: TF,i=TF,n

hi=hMX,n

TF,i=TCIRC
heat transfer coefficient

range:

hi=hCIRC

L L'

di,ndistance nozzle n element i

wall
1=180 nozzle n

nD

2 3

82

Appendix B: Hints for practice

B.1. Classification of oven parameters
The THESEUS-FE Oven Module uses four keywords in an input deck for controlling a simulation. These are OVENWALL: definition of oven walls as radiation boundaries OVENNOZ: definition of hot air nozzles in the oven walls OVENSEC: definition of the oven sectors, especially nozzle arrangement and influence OVEN: general global settings for the simulation

Each keyword is followed by a number of arguments or user input parameters. These can be grouped according to their meaning: geometric and material information, e.g. position of walls and nozzles (OVENWALL, OVENNOZ) thermal boundary conditions defined per sector, e.g. wall and nozzle temperatures, heat transfer coefficients, circulation temperatures (OVENSEC) global settings: nozzle convection algorithms and parameters, radiation algorithms, conduction solver settings, initial temperatures (OVEN)

Since the Oven Module uses empirical models to achieve high speed thermal simulations the user must provide a certain number of algorithm parameters that are not usually available from measurement or theory. These parameters need to be tuned using the model calibration tool to fit available results. This yields a second classification of Oven parameters: given or measured parameters parameters approximately derivable from measurements, alternatively fit variables typical fit variables default values, in some cases fit variables

Naturally, one would aim to limit the use of fit variables as much possible, and use as much information about the actual oven as available. The following table shows an overview of relevant oven parameters:
Argument Y,Z PHI1 PHI2 PHI3 L Fittable? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Description

OVENNOZ keyword
Global nozzle coordinates in m Direction angle of nozzle in deg Inner (core) angle of nozzle in deg Outer spread angle of nozzle in deg Nozzle influence distance in m

OVENWALL keyword
EMIS X1,Y1,Z1, DX,DY,DZ Emissivity of oven radiation wall Wall position and extent

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OVENSEC keyword
TIME T_CIRC H_CIRC H_GAP L T_F H_MX T_W No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Sector duration time in s Circulating air temperature at end of sector in C, linear ramp within sector Convective heat transfer coefficient (HTC) for circulating air in W/(m2K) Convective gap heat transfer coefficient in W/(m2K) Distance ramping length for nozzle HTC in m Nozzle fluid temperature in C Maximum HTC for elements hit by nozzle in W/(m2K) Radiation wall temperature on this sector in C

OVEN keyword
T0_FE T0_CIRC EMIS_FE EMIS_BGR DMX1 DMX2 NZ_SIG1 NZ_SIG2 NZ_EXP Initial temperature for finite element model in C Initial temperature for circulating air in C Emissivity for finite element model Radiation background emissivity Max. search distance for gap temperature in m Max. search distance for gap factor in m First refraction angle for nozzle influence factor in deg Second refraction angle for nozzle influence factor in deg Exponent for nozzle influence factor calculation

B.2. Basic model building guidelines

In most cases the oven is modelled as a simple box with four walls, with the car body suspended in the air. The sledge and supports of the car body are usually neglected. The floor of the oven tunnel is usually chosen to correspond with z=0, although other conventions may be used. The x-axis should point towards the rear of the vehicle. The plane y=0 is often a symmetry plane of car body and oven this can be used in the definition of the oven nozzles. See the following image for an illustration of the oven coordinate system:

84

The coordinate axes can by visualized in the GUI by activating the button. The coordinates of any node can be checked using the toolbar function Identify/Node. There are two different ways of modelling the oven walls: Specification as rectangular planar areas: specify X1,Y1,Z1,DX,DY,DZ as well as METHOD=SIMPLE in the OVENWALL keyword. Using shell elements: specify the group ID (GID) of the shell elements used as oven walls.

In many situations, the spatial position of model parts will require adjustment. This can be done comfortably by using the built-in GUI transformation functionality. All or part of the finite element car body model can be transformed using translation or rotation. A detailed step-by-step example of using this tool is given in Tutorial 1. The top and bottom oven walls are normally defined with an emissivity of 1, as if they were perfect blackbody surfaces. The side walls are often polished and therefore given a lower emissivity of 0.5, for example. Oven nozzles are not defined individually, but as rows parallel to the x-axis. The user must specify a spatial position Y and Z in the OVENNOZ keyword. If oven nozzles are defined as symmetric pairs (SYM=YES), the y coordinate should be less than zero. Oven nozzles can be positioned anywhere in space theoretically, but placing them on the walls is the sensible method. The direction is specified as an angle (PHI1 in OVENNOZ) in the yz-plane, see Section A.4.2. The other two angles PHI2 and PHI3 defining the nozzle jet spread could be set from measurement results or by using analytical expressions (e.g. similarity solutions for free jets) based on detailed knowledge of the nozzle geometry and jet mass flow. The alternative is to define them as fit variables. The same holds for the nozzle influence distance L. A real-life nozzle jet will cause hot air to flow around and behind obstacles. On 85

the other hand the convection algorithms of the Oven Module assume more or less that the air flows along straight lines or rays. There are several parameters that can be used to emulate the real behaviour of fluid flow around obstacles. If the default nozzle influence algorithm is chosen (NVF_MTH=OLD in OVEN) then three parameters are available to control the amount of ray refraction around obstacles: the nozzle influence factor refraction angles NVF_SIG1 and NVF_SIG2, and the influence factor exponent NVF_EXP. These are global settings in the OVEN keyword, and can be used for calibration. For a detailed mathematical description of how these settings influence the nozzle influence calculation, see Section A.4. A small refraction angle creates harder or faster rays and will cause fewer shell elements to feel the influence of a nozzle. The nozzle influence will be less smeared over the model and shadows of obstacles become more pronounced. The following figure illustrates the effect of refraction angle on the nozzle influence factor Fi,n.:

Nozzle n NVF_SIG1 = 30 (default)

NVF_SIG1 = 15

Fi,n=1 Fi,n=0
The refraction angle should not be chosen below 5, as this will lead to rather unphysical behaviour, with nozzle flow behaving too much like radiation. Reducing the influence factor exponent to values below 1 will increase the influence of the nozzle jet while retaining the same visibility conditions, as illustrated here:

86

NVF_SIG1 = 30

NVF_EXP = 1

Fi,n=1 Fi,n=0
NVF_SIG1 = 30
NVF_EXP = 0.2

It is generally recommended to adjust the exponent NVF_EXP instead of the angle NVF_SIG1 to increase nozzle influence within partially enclosed locations such as the car body interior.

B.3. Interpreting temperature measurements

Input data for Oven Module simulations is usually available in the form of temperature measurements of the surrounding air or of solid temperatures extracted at various points of the car body. When available, one should also use nozzle or wall temperatures. The most significant input for a simulation is the position of the nozzles and the temperature of the surrounding air. The latter is defined at the end of each sector and interpolated linearly for the duration of a sector. The heating of the air in a given oven sector is mainly due to the hot air emitted from nozzles. As a result the circulating air temperature reveals activation or deactivation of nozzles in a given sector approximate nozzle temperature in a given sector

Temperature sensors on the car body are generally used to either validate or calibrate the results of an Oven Module simulation. An example of temperature sensors used in the roof area of a BMW 5 series Touring is shown in the following figure:

87

In a simulation one normally uses named CONM2 mass points to represent temperature sensor locations. The definition of the measurement locations is labour intensive and should be done via careful comparison with detail photos. Ideally, the measurement locations are documented and precisely known. A temperature measurement point is usually classified either as influenced by nozzle flow or not influenced, see the following diagram.

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Measurement shows nozzle influence

Measurement without nozzle influence

heating zone

holding zone

heating zone

t Simulation with nozzle Measurement

holding zone

Simulation without nozzle

When convective heating dominates radiation and conduction on an element, the heat transfer equations may be simplified to an ordinary differential equation governing the element temperature:
=

( B.1 )

Here m and cp represent mass and specific heat capacity of the element, respectively. Ai is the element area exposed to convection. If the surrounding fluid temperature TF,i and heat transfer coefficient hi remain constant over time then TF,i will converge exponentially towards the fluid temperature, as seen in the following diagram:

89

Sector 1 holding zone

no nozzles active

Sector 2 heating zone nozzles active!

t
circulating air temperature: T CIRC (pw. linear) nozzle temperature: T F individual solid temperatures

Some factors that will accelerate the local heating are thin metal sheets (low mass and heat capacity) high local air velocity (high heat transfer coefficient) element is hit by nozzle element is irradiated by oven wall element is heated through contact with hot parts

B.4. Details on error calculations

The THESEUS-FE Oven Module supports the calculation of two error quantities: difference between simulation results (sim) and given reference solution (ref1) difference between first reference solution ref1 and a second given reference solution ref2

The second feature is useful for comparing the effect of changing certain parameters and rerunning a simulation. For example, the old simulation results can be assigned to ref2, the current simulation results to sim. The keyword POSTDAT is used to define these settings. The user must decide which quantity or quantities to compare. The Oven Module supports the following options, as defined in the OBJECT argument of the keyword: temperature T at a given shell element temperature T at a CONM2 point mass temperature T at a grid point

Further options are available, although they are not likely to be used in the context of an Oven Module simulation where temperature measurements at single points are often the only source of input data.

90

The arguments REF1 and REF2 are used to determine the reference solutions ref1 and ref2. Typically, one will use time-dependent data tables TABTIME here. The current simulation always serves as sim. One must also decide when to compare these quantities. The Oven Module performs the error calculations during each post-processing call, to be determined using the keyword POSTFRQ. See Section 1.4.7 and the Keyword Manual for details. The sensible setting is usually to perform the comparison after every time step. Every POSTDAT object defines an error object or location i. Let j stand for the error measurement time. The solver will accumulate and output the local errors over all times as follows:
= 1 ( )

= =

( B.2 )

Every measurement location i can be individually weighted to fix its relative importance. The arguments WGHT1 and WGHT2 of POSTDAT are used for this purpose. Denote w1,i and w2,i as the weights of each measurement location i. At the end of the simulation the solver calculates and outputs the following global error quantities:
= = = 1 1

( B.3 )

If ref2 refers to an old calculation, then the local or global -quantities can be used to check if the effect of changing certain parameters was beneficial or detrimental: a negative means that the corresponding error has decreased from the old to the new simulation, and vice-versa.

B.5. Common problems and fixes

In some cases not all the information about the layout of a paint oven is available. For example, some of the nozzle rows may have been covered in a certain sector to cut off the air flow there. This might only be evident from the experimental results for temperature on the car body. Since nozzle activation is defined per sector, such cases are easily treated by removing the corresponding NOZn nozzle row in the OVENSEC keyword. In other rare cases, users have used virtual nozzle rows below the car body to artificially increase nozzle influence at difficult locations such as below the car body. Remember that the convection modelling in the Oven Module is largely heuristic, thus certain hacks such as this do have their justification. See the following diagram for an illustration:

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real nozzles

virtual nozzle
Another issue related to the simplified modelling of convection is that the influence of nozzles is additive in a simulation, see Section A.4. When the influence regions of nozzles overlap, it can become difficult to properly define individual nozzle parameters manually. It may become necessary to use the automatic model calibration for such locations. Finally, there is the problem of the time lag in the response of temperature sensors on the front and back of the car body. The reason for this is that the real-life car body is moved through the oven sector, with a different sensors coming into range of nozzles at different times, see the following diagram:

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vx
sensor 2
200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 500

sensor 1

mess:krull2 mess:krull7

Experiment: sensor 1 sensor 2

1000

1500

2000

The Oven Module, however, does not take this time lag into account. The modelling of a nozzle is constant in X-direction, thus all locations in X-direction feel the effect of a nozzle row simultaneously. This problem may be resolved in future versions of the software.

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