Generative Design: Getting into the Flow

ROBERT SAVAGE: Hello, welcome everyone. This is the class on Generative Design, subtitled Getting Into the Flow. So what we're going to talk about with this class is using the generative design tools for doing a flow analysis on a part.

Now, when we talk about simulating a flow analysis, they are actually simulating the actual flow of the material not simulating the part. So it's a little different in the process.

So a little bit about myself. My name is Robert Savage. I am the CAD PDM administrator for the NNFD group inside of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We're a DOE facility. I've had many jobs over the years. I've been in the design industry for the manufacturing side for over 30 years now designing everything from small parts to assemblies to designing molds and castings.

Now, we do have four basic learning objectives for this course. The first one is to actually look at the file that we're going to start with because we want to start with a core. And then we're going to go through the setup process. Then we're going to define the part of the analysis. And then we're going to review the results of the analysis.

OK, so in section one here we're going to look at reviewing the file that we're going to start with. And I'm going to go back and forth between my presentation and my software.

So when we talk about the flow in here, we're talking about, they call it a fluid path, but you've really got two options in here. One is actually using a fluid, and the other one is using an air. So we can also calculate this with air flowing through this process. And what we're looking for is pressure drop.

Now, the file we're going to start with in here is going to be relatively straightforward. I've got an inlet at the top splitting out in two outlets one on each side.

Now, in here we're going to start this using, again, just a standard body. So we're using a fusion file. Once we have the file created that we want, or the body, or the base, which ever way you want to look at it, then we're going to go in and tell the system that we want to go and run a generative design.

Now, when we go into generative design now, we've got still two options. We have our structural components, and we have our fluid path. What we're going to focus on is the actual fluid path.

All right, so let's go over to the software for just a minute and take a look at this information. So in my software, as you can see here, I've got one component. So this is a single component in here, and in that component I've got multiple bodies inside of that.

Well, these bodies represent different things, but the main thing we're going to look at here is this initial kind of my base. I want to call it my base part or my main component in here. And as you can see, I've got two different segments in here. It's not anything overly complicated. I didn't want to go too complicated with this.

Now, once we have our initial information designed, then we're going to come in here and we're going to switch over to generative design. Now, if it's our first time going into the generative design side, it will come up with that screen that we looked at before.

So from here we're going to come in and we're going to create what's called a study. So let's look at that different information there now.

So in this section, we're going to go through the setup information. And the setup information has to do with how we're setting up the actual analysis.

So what we just went through was setting up the original information in here. Now, we're going to talk about these first two segments in here. One is called editing the model, right? And the other one is setting up the study. Then they come to the part in between is generating the results, and then exploring the results we'll talk about towards the end.

Now, once we get into a generative design table, we've got our information here. We've got an option here to create additional studies. We can create as many studies as we want and set varying information. So for example, if I want to take this part and analyze it with different pressures, I can.

Now, I also have my Edit Model area. Edit Model area is where I go in and make the modifications to that model that I want to make. But I'm going to talk about that from a little bit different of a perspective also. So I'm going to give you two different variations of that.

Then in the Design Space area is where we're designing our different segments of this. Then we have our fluid conditions, our criteria, our materials, and then our generate and explore areas.

So if we're creating a new study, so if we already have one study and we're just duplicating it, then we're going to come in and use the new study option. So let's go take a look at that portion of that.

So if we come in here and tell this that we want to do a new study in here, then it's simply coming in here and hitting the dropdown and telling it that we want to do a new study. That new study allows me to come in and say, again, I'm doing a fluid path, and then I've got my create study option.

I'm going to go back to study three here just so that we're looking at the same information here. Now, like I said, in here we also have our Edit Model information, which we'll go through that a little bit as we're going through the actual setup process.

All right, then we'll talk about designing the different spaces. Now, they only show the two different areas up here, but there's a couple of other areas in here that you need to think about in here as well.

And then our fluid conditions, and again, we don't have to necessarily be working with actual fluids. We can actually be working with air also.

Then we have our objectives for this, our material information, and then the generation of our actual information.

All right, so in the third section here we're going to talk about setting up in defining the parts of the analysis. So in here, we're going to focus on these different areas here, and I'm looking at this from the structure here.

All right, so we have our preserve geometry area, our obstacles area, our obstacle offsets, our starting shape, and our ability to use unassigned geometry, symmetry if we want to use it, our objectives, and then our different information in there.

Now, I want to talk about some of these different areas in this. So for example, the preserve geometry area, this is the area that we want to use to represent, really, the fluid volume. And it acts as a connection between the fluid path and the objects it will attach to. You'll see a little bit more of that when we get into the actual demonstrations side of it.

All right, so this should represent a minimum fluidization volume, which you need in the final shape.

Next, is the obstacle geometry, and the obstacle geometry is the geometry that sets our boundaries. So as our material comes in on one side, we need a boundary to define what size that shape needs to be. And as the material passes through the other side, we need a boundary to define that shape also. This is what prevents it from actually going outside of the actual path that we were defining.

Now, the starting shape represents the initial or the starting fluid path. So it enables you to influence the path volume for the fluid. Now, this also must make contact with all preserved geometries. And I'll show you a little bit about how I created mine when we get into that.

Now, the fluid inlet and outlet command enables you to specify the expectations towards the fluid. I'm sorry, the fluid behavior within the flow, all right. So it is a critical part of the design requirements, right?

Now, so let's talk about the different portions of that real quick. First of all, we have three different areas that we're going to look at in this. One is called flow rate, right? A flow rate is a fluid volume which passes through a cross section of a fluid path per unit time.

We also have flow velocity. That is a distance that a fluid passes through per time. And then we have pressure, which is a force acting perpendicular to the opening area.

Now, when we get into this, we will also be setting zero gauge pressure at the opening, which enables you to exclude atmospheric pressure from the analysis. You're looking for a clear drop in pressure. So that is our objectives on this, right?

Now, these objectives, they enable you to define and optimize the limits of the fluid path.

Now, also in here we have the material, and the material is how we're defining what the actual material that is going through our part is. In here we have an option for water, air, and we have the ability to create our own. But if you're going to do that, it's going to look for the density and the viscosity values of that material. So you can do a custom here.

Always remember, the output of this information is only as good as the input. So if you don't put in good information here, then you don't get good results.

All right, so let's go over and take a look at some of those different things in here. All right, so to begin with, and I've already defined these in here. I want to go in and talk about the different bodies that I have created in here.

So first of all, I want to talk about those bodies. So I'm going to turn on, first of all, this fluid preserve geometry, OK? So if I come in here and I turn off this main segment here, what these represent is basically the main areas where I'm stopping the actual movement of information.

I've got these named as The Caps because that's the way I look at them is they're the caps. They're what stops the movement. Even though the caps go down into the cavity, I've picked the outside face of that as my caps on here.

Now, I also have obstacle geometry. Now, obstacle geometry, like I said, represents the boundaries of my geometry. So it represents where I've got to stop the flow coming out of the information.

Now, the important thing to remember about these pieces here are they can be created inside of the Edit Model, or if we go back to the design side, I can actually create these out here as bodies before I ever get into the generative design side of things.

So I tend to create them out here. That way I have control over how I look at them. But you're going to have the option of creating it how you want.

Now, one of the things I did here was I created an additional body that represents the cavity, OK? So in order to represent the cavity, what I did was I came in and, actually, I think I did use the Edit for that because what I could do is pick faces, OK? And so I picked faces and generated a solid based off of those faces rather than actually creating more extrusions. You can do it however works best for you.

All right, so let's go back over here to the generative design side again. Don't want to do it too many times. OK, so let's go in here now, and let's go and turn on that fluid shape.

So in here I'm showing my three different segments of this. I've got my fluid preserve geometry, my solid obstacles, and my fluid starting shape. The original shape is only needed to generate this information because this is actually what it's going to use in the analysis.

Once I have those pieces of information, that's when I come in and start setting my objectives and my load cases. So my objectives in here, if I look at this, I've come in here and I've set a pressure drop of 10%, OK? So I want to know if I can drop that pressure by a certain amount or how much pressure drop I'm going to use over that volume.

Now, my loads on here, which are set here, show up down here. One is a flow rate. So if I go into the flow rate and I look at this, the flow rate represents my inlet and the flow of the information on the inlet. I can use different sets of units here.

Now, my pressure here is the other side's where it's coming out. And this is where I set zero pressure. So I use these outside faces of these caps here to define the zero pressure or where I want the pressure to drop.

Now, the last part of this is the material. So like I said, in the material side of things, right now I'm set to water. I can also do air, and I can do a custom. Again, if I do a custom, then I have to come in and set my density and my viscosity of that material.

And I know I've said it before, but I'll say it one more time. If I'm doing this study and I'm doing a custom, make sure you have good information to put in there.

So let's talk about the last section of this, which is reviewing the results of the analysis. Once you've run your analysis-- and I didn't show the process of running the analysis because the analysis is typically going to take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour plus depending on how intensive your information is, OK?

Now, when we get into the analysis, we've got a couple of different areas here. One is the display. Now, one thing to point out about a flow analysis in generative design is it's really only going to create one result.

So your display here is mainly used if I do multiple tests. So you remember I said you could do multiple studies? Well, I can actually run multiple studies at the same time. That's where I get the multiple results in here. And then I can go in and compare those results. I can also export those results and even go through and actually extract those results.

Now, when I'm actually viewing the results of one of the analysis, then I've got my information for how I want to display this. If I want to display it as a solid, a clear. Do I actually want to see the flow lines in this? Do I want to show the different segments of this? Do I want to compare this with other analysis? Do I want to do tags? And again, I've got my creation tool here.

So when we look at the outcome information on this, so when I go into a study, I can actually look at the way or the process that the information uses to flow through there. And as you can see, I've got a pretty steady flow here. I set a pretty low volume on this the first time. And so therefore, we've got a pretty mild flow on this.

So let's go take a look at those results. So I'm going to use my explore tool to go in and actually look at those results that I have. Now, I did have a pinning analysis that it was actually looking at there.

So here, these are converged options here. These are actually for the same piece of information here. If I had done multiple studies, they would show up across here, especially if I'd have done them at the same time. So if you're going to do multiple studies, I recommend you set them all up at once and even clone that information.

So for example, if I come back here and I decide I want to run this study again but with a changed piece of information in there, I can actually right click on this and clone that study, change the one setting, and then go through and run the analysis and run multiple analysis at one time.

Again, we are talking a little bit of time there in order for that to happen. Says I've changed something in here. So let's go back into this here.

So again, here's my display. I'm showing it from a thumbnail preview. I can also do a properties preview, which is very handy because it gives me the properties of this, the volume, the minimum pressure drop, the velocity of the information. I can even review this information as a grid display, which doesn't show much right now because it's actually just seeing the one.

I can also adjust how I'm looking at this. Right now I'm looking at volume. So if I want, I can look at pressure drop. I can also look at minimum and maximum pressure and velocity.

Now, when we talk about some of the different options in here-- let's go back to this here. So I'm going to select on that so that I'm getting a full preview of that. Now, we do have iterations here. I said it doesn't create multiple models. It doesn't necessarily create multiple models, but it does create multiple iterations of this model.

So we can go through and look at the different iterations and review how the iteration works for us. Now, there's not going to be a whole lot of variation in the iteration on this one. Mostly, what you're going to see is a different volume shape. On these iterations, it's going to go from the larger shape down to see what the smallest shape it can do and still manage the volume that we're talking about here.

Again, I've got a solid view, a transparent view. I even have a pressure view where I can see my minimum and maximum pressures. I have my flow, which is showing the flow of the material through this. And I have my design preview, which is really just my output preview.

Now, the show over here allows me to basically show things like my preserve geometry and my boundaries and even my initial shape. So as you can see, basically, the results I'm getting out of this say that I can actually cut the size of that opening down quite a bit and still maintain the information that I want, OK?

Now, again, I do have an option here to output this. So if I want to print that for some analysis, I can. So this is actually going to output it as a 3D solid. This one here is going to output it as a mesh, all right? The mesh is sometimes easier to use if you're going to do something like a 3D printing. Just depends on your system.

Now, I can come back here. Again, I can make additional changes to this. Now, if I've got multiple studies in here, I can review that information in here. I can also compare information.

So let's go ahead and say Finish this explore and come back here, and we'll take another quick look at some of this information, so if I look back at this finished piece of information here. And again, what I have is I have my main part. And basically, that is set to create my boundaries. That is there so that, again, I can create those boundaries in there.

I have my area one, two, and three here, which those are actually my obstacles. And you can name them however you want. And the caps are actually my preserve region, OK?

Now, again, just like with any other generative design, this information stays as part of the model. So if I want to come back to the model here-- and again, remember I've got my pieces in here and I can change the color of those and the way they look and everything else.

But I can also adjust information here and still maintain that generative design information. But remember, if I adjust anything that has to do with-- so if I change the size of this opening, then I'm going to have to rerun the analysis.

So be aware of your setup. Make sure that you've documented your setup, and make sure that you've got a good set of information on that before you go in and start running your generative design because, once you run your generative design, that information has been run.

Now, we can actually go in here and look at a different study analysis because what I did was I actually ran these separately. And I did some different volumes.

Now, one problem with that is, instead of running, I guess, the easiest way to think about it is, instead of running one analysis, I've run three separate ones. But again, I'm getting similar type information here, so it's not really changing my outcome on this. So whatever works for you.

Now, one other thing that I want to look at in this because, remember we talked about pressure drop here being one of my objectives here.

All right, if I come in right now, the way the system's set up, pressure drop is really the only thing we're testing for. Remember, this is still a beta. And that being said, since it is a beta, this is the limitation of the test that we have. There is more to come, from my understanding. And again, I don't work for Autodesk. But my understanding is there is more to come on this. So like I said, this is, again, the first release on this.

So that covers the review of our analysis results, and that allows me to open it up to Q&A. Also want to say thanks to everybody for viewing this. And I want to make sure everybody has a good time, and enjoy yourself, and have a great day. Thank you for attending the class.