Ansys 2020 R2 Release Highlights


Ansys 2020 R2 significantly upgrades Ansys’ next-generation engineering simulation software, HPC resources and platform solutions to power team-wide global collaboration and information sharing. The update brings enhanced solving and collaboration capabilities, key for enabling globally distributed teams to further organization-wide innovation. 

Ansys 2020 R2 helps engineering teams accelerate innovation in any environment and create cutting-edge designs by harnessing new workflows and dynamic capabilities across Ansys’ flagship suites. Updates in Ansys Cloud offerings, such as virtual desktop infrastructure support, unites Ansys’ flagship simulation solutions with highly scalable compute power delivered by cloud-based high-performance computing (HPC). Platform solutions enhanced with powerful workflows deliver a streamlined user experience with enhanced functionality for data and configuration management, dependencies visualization and decision support, as well as user-friendly workflows for process integration and design optimization and materials management. Ansys’ digital twin solutions enable remote monitoring of assets and are a critical component for predictive maintenance. 

Collectively, these resources will help users generate larger, more complex designs easier and faster than ever, increase productivity, spur development of high-quality products and expedite time to market. 


3D Design: Rapid Design Exploration for the Next Generation of Product Design

This release introduces Ansys Discovery, the first product design software to combine instant physics, proven high-fidelity simulation and interactive geometry modeling into a single, radically easy-to-use interface.

Users can now explore large design spaces and answer critical design questions early in the product design process, without waiting days or weeks for traditional simulation results. Discovery seamlessly combines direct human-driven interaction with generative algorithms to inspire new designs — and embeds multiphysics simulation to provide both rapid and accurate product insights.

Ansys SpaceClaim updates that support concept modeling and model prep for simulation include: block recording and bidirectional CAD interfaces to allow import of modified CAD geometry; constraint-based sketching that makes it easier to create complex sketches for 3D design; and autoskinning of topology optimization results from Ansys Mechanical for automated geometry reconstruction.


Additive Manufacturing

New features in the Ansys Additive Suite enable you to add user-defined materials and import EOS build files. Also, improvements have been made to the Print to Workbench workflows for simulating cutoff, heat treatment and other advanced scenarios.  

  • In Ansys Additive Science, you can now define your own material parameters. For example, penetration depth and absorptivity are required internal inputs that are generally unknown and vary based on other process parameters. With the user-defined material capability, you can examine trends and create new materials that account for these variations in absorptivity and penetration depth.
  • Ansys Additive Print includes directional cutoff using MAPDL as the solver.
  • EOS machine build files can now be imported into Additive Print.
  • Additions to Additive Prep include automatic collision checks for part-free areas, multiple supports on a single part region and the ability to export CLI files.

Electromagnetics

Ansys 2020 R2 has new capabilities leveraging streamlined electronics workflows, thermomechanical integration and advances in high-performance computing.

  • Ansys HFSS auto-computes the bio-compatibility of 5G equipment and includes an enhanced HPC 3D Component DDM solver for array antennas.
  • Ansys EMA3D Cable provides platform-level EMI/EMC cable harness analysis.
  • Ansys SIwave auto-reports signal integrity metrics and generates complex algorithmic models to confirm system performance for IC vendor selection.
  • Ansys Maxwell leverages electric motor cyclic repeatability by slice-only solving within repeated non-planar radial boundary conditions.
  • Ansys Icepak supports dynamic thermal management to auto-throttle active device characteristics based on system temperatures.
  • Ansys Lumerical introduces process-enabled custom design, improves statistical support, enhances its CML Compiler usability and provides an extended Photonic Verilog-A model library.

Embedded Software

Ansys SCADE enables safer embedded automotive software with an ISO 26262 ASIL D-certifiable, AUTOSAR RTE-compliant, code generation flow for software components. Ansys SCADE Vision improves deployment, scalability and performance of AI-based perception software testing through multi-GPU parallelization, and offers automated integration with Ansys medini analyze for the systematic identification of hazards, in compliance with SOTIF, etc.

For safer embedded avionics software, the release adds interactive ARINC 661 widgets to improve responsiveness with touch screen cockpit display systems, and supports a new qualified version of Ansys SCADE Display KCG 6.7.1 Code Generator.

A multicore-enabled formal proof engine in Ansys SCADE Suite Design Verifier improves the performance/verification of safety properties (60X). The new ALM Gateway connector to Siemens Polarion® is now integrated in all SCADE products, providing access to requirements and traceability throughout the project life cycle.


Fluids

Fluids products accelerate innovation with improved workflows, innovative features and new capabilities:

  • Workflow improvements in Ansys Fluent streamline battery simulations for CHT setup in a single panel. Fluent can also accept FMUs for ECMs, increasing electrical performance input flexibility.
  • Fluent’s new battery capacity fade model accurately predicts discharge time at high discharge rates. Battery capacity reduction can also be predicted due to calendar and cycle life from the new aging model.
  • Positive-displacement compressors can now be solved quickly and accurately in Ansys Forte with automated meshing and a refrigerant database with real-gas properties.
  • Fluent’s free shape optimization (adjoint) solver now uses the cutting edge GEKO turbulence model providing more accurate shape sensitivity.
  • A generalized two-phase (GENTOP) model significantly elevates Fluent’s multiphase regime transition offering.
  • GPU-based animations accelerate Ansys CFX transient blade row results.

Materials

Ansys 2020 R2 delivers materials information improvements to help you build better products using digitalized materials knowledge. New features include:

  • Materials data ready for simulation in more Ansys solvers: the extension of Materials Data for Simulation (MDS) to Ansys Discovery Live and Ansys Fluent comes with even more simulation-ready data for Ansys Mechanical and Ansys Electronics Desktop.
  • Materials data management integration with Creo design tools in Ansys GRANTA MI Pro, building on the existing cross-platform support for CAD and CAE with Siemens NX™ and Ansys Workbench.
  • Significantly enhanced usability in Ansys GRANTA MI Enterprise with a unified user-interface and enhanced integration to Ansys Minerva and other enterprise systems.
  • Updated versions of the latest materials datasets for restricted substances, MMPDS and ASME, together with improved integration between Ansys GRANTA Selector and GRANTA MI Pro.

These improvements will help you reach your goals of faster, more innovative digital product development through pervasive material intelligence.


Optical

Ansys 2020 R2 empowers Ansys SPEOS users to go further than ever before with enhancements that improve the handling of complex sensors, project preview and computation.

Enhancements include:

  • Highly accurate camera models drastically improve camera simulation experience
  • A new version of the SPEOS Live Preview increases accuracy, enables faster simulation times when using light sources and provides nearly real-time review
  • 4X faster simulation setup thanks to optimized GUI

Platform

Ansys Cloud has a full Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) so you can run a complete, cloud-based workflow. Ansys Mechanical, Ansys Fluent and Ansys Electronics Desktop can be run on workstation-class architecture from any computer using the VDI.

Additionally, Ansys Cloud now fully supports Ansys LS-DYNA, so you can seamlessly send your LS-DYNA solves to Ansys Cloud for additional compute power

Ansys Minerva has the following enhancements:

  • The interactive capability to visually drill and traverse the complex digital dependencies between projects and inputs/outputs
  • Ecosystem connectors
  • Connection with Ansys GRANTA MI for materials-to-CAE traceability
  • Fully automated Ansys Spaceclaim assembly handling
  • Support for Ansys optiSLang HPC jobs

Enhancements include a new connection between optiSLang and Ansys Electronics Desktop via a wizard-based setup.

The new Deep Learning Extension adds neural networks to MOP competition to analyze very large data sets.


Semiconductors

Ansys introduces RaptorH — an electromagnetic simulation and extraction tool that is optimized for semiconductor circuits and 3D-IC packaging. Now including the Ansys HFSS electromagnetic simulation engine, RaptorH provides verification and ease-of-use for chip designers, with access to encrypted foundry technology files.

Ansys PowerArtist features static power efficiency checks as early signoff criteria to qualify RTL IP without requiring vectors. It also accelerates time-to-power for emulator-generated long-activity scenarios.

Ansys RedHawk-SC’s novel no-propagation vectorless (NPV) dynamic analysis approach identifies power grid weakness and enables greater than 90% switching coverage.

Ansys Totem’s new adaptive meshing supports large PMIC designs with a 4X–5X runtime improvement and a 20%–40% memory footprint compared to traditional solutions.

The RedHawk-SC product family is certified for FinFET nodes down to 4nm/3nm and 2.5D/3D-IC packaging technologies for multiphysics signoff.


Structures

In Ansys 2020 R2, Ansys Mechanical includes significant enhancements in advanced, intelligent, nonlinear structural solvers, with a focus on automotive, reliable electronics and improved workflows to accelerate innovation:

  • For better fitting of test data to material models, a new parameter fitting capability improves matching of plasticity models used in applications such as thermomechanical fatigue.
  • The new Cycle-Jump feature reduces solve times for thermomechanical fatigue problems where plastic damage accumulates over load cycles, giving you the ability to “jump” across cycles.
  • Ansys LS-DYNA solver capabilities have been integrated into the Mechanical interface, such as smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) for analysis of high-speed impacts, blasts or explosions.
  • Ansys Sherlock now features trace reinforcements, enabling more accurate electronic models and meshes that consist almost entirely of hexahedral (brick) elements.
  • The Ansys GRANTA Materials Data for Simulation dataset increases the coverage of structural steels, and is now available within Mechanical.

Systems

Ansys Twin Builder makes it quicker and easier to deploy and validate your digital twins with the introduction of Ansys Twin Deployer. Twin Deployer significantly reduces deployment time and helps you easily deploy your twin using cloud, edge or offline computing resources.

Ansys VRXPERIENCE delivers key functionalities to develop and validate autonomous driving (AD) embedded software functions — from advanced lidar modeling in VRXPERIENCE Sensor, to a new sky model for enhanced daytime simulation that extends camera HiL use cases to daylight. In addition, VRXPERIENCE Driving Simulator powered by SCANeR™ provides a complete NCAP scenario kit for AD function development. 

Ansys medini analyze uniquely supports best practices from AIAG- and VDA-harmonized failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) methodology, so automotive suppliers can easily meet their FMEA requirements. This approach also provides action priorities (AP) as an alternative evaluation option and FMEA-MSR to access the system response to failures. Likewise, an FMEA extension for customizable FMEA risk parameters is now available to adapt risk matrices to your project’s requirements.


Multiphysics

For multiphysics simulations that use Ansys System Coupling, Ansys 2020 R2 brings important extensions:

  • Induction heating cases can now include transient excitation and motion.
  • After running an electrothermal simulation with Ansys Maxwell and Ansys Fluent, the volumetric temperature can be mapped from Fluent to Ansys Mechanical for stress analysis.
  • Fluid–structure interaction simulations with flow cutoff are more robust and benefit from significant numerics and stabilization improvements.
  • Stabilization is a lot easier to use and significantly improves convergence for a range of fluid–structure interaction and electrothermal cases.
  • Workflow improvements include instructive error messaging, filtering, charting and snapshots.