Elmer Integration (GSoC) - Activity Log

[JamesMarine]

Another question is regarding compiling Elmer on Windows Platform, do anyone has any experience of do that? The official Elmer team is working on Linux systems only and the Windows binaries are not update-to-date. So I am thinking to comply Elmer on Windows system. But it seems the compiling process is not quite straightforward.

[bernd]

to be honest the FEM packages i have seen none have the possebility to add constraints on meshes(Ansys, comsol, internal fem of ptc creo).

To be honest the FEM solver I have seen all add the constraints on the meshes (OOFEM, CalculiX, ElmerFEM, ...)

Whole live depends on point of view ... FreeCAD FEM is the only OpenSource software which makes it possible to add constraints to geometry (AFAIK)

[Jee-Bee]

I speaking from user point of view and not from solver point of view. All solvers have constraints on meshes but the user don't add them on meshes.

[bernd]

I speaking from user point of view and not from solver point of view. All solvers have constraints on meshes but the user don't add them on meshes.

99 % of CalculiX, Elmer, Z88, OOFEM users apply Constraints to the mesh and not to the geometry. We need to get them to FreeCAD FEM

Mostly what they mainly do is heavily use of mesh groups. Means a constraint is assigned to a mesh group. With this it is possible to change the mesh without changing the constraint definition.

[Jee-Bee]

I never understood the work flow without geometry... Still I see the power of the meshgroups. I think software like ansys use that for their integration into other CAD software...
https://www.ansys.com/products/structur ... cad-models

[JamesMarine]

How about FreeCAD, do we support mesh group at the moment or it is to be done?

99 % of CalculiX, Elmer, Z88, OOFEM users apply Constraints to the mesh and not to the geometry. We need to get them to FreeCAD FEM

Mostly what they mainly do is heavily use of mesh groups. Means a constraint is assigned to a mesh group. With this it is possible to change the mesh without changing the constraint definition.

[m42kus]

@m42kus Many thanks for the help! I am looking to do some FSI analysis using elmer solver and FreeCAD (such as flow through pipes), do you have any material for that purpose? By the way, if I want to use shell and beam/rod element in the structure analysis, can Elmer solve do the analysis as well?

Back in the day I did a simple flow simulation. I posted the results earlier in this topic: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 60#p188003. I can make a tutorial on how to setup this case if you are interested. Whats not possible in FreeCAD atm is to incooperate deformation of meshes in the simulation. I know elmer can do this somehow but I don't know how.

[JamesMarine]

@m42kus Many thanks for the help! I am looking to do some FSI analysis using elmer solver and FreeCAD (such as flow through pipes), do you have any material for that purpose? By the way, if I want to use shell and beam/rod element in the structure analysis, can Elmer solve do the analysis as well?

Back in the day I did a simple flow simulation. I posted the results earlier in this topic: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 60#p188003. I can make a tutorial on how to setup this case if you are interested. Whats not possible in FreeCAD atm is to incooperate deformation of meshes in the simulation. I know elmer can do this somehow but I don't know how.

Thanks for this, a tutorial would be wonderful. What do you mean that can not incooperate deformation of meshes? You mean just can not display or it can not calcualte deformation for the meshes? If it cannot calcualte deformation, this is not really an FSI, is that correct?

[m42kus]

Thanks for this, a tutorial would be wonderful. What do you mean that can not incooperate deformation of meshes? You mean just can not display or it can not calcualte deformation for the meshes? If it cannot calcualte deformation, this is not really an FSI, is that correct?

Yes you are correct, it cannot calculate it so it is not an FSI. Elmer is capable of doing it and it would be possible to add it to FreeCAD but it's of course quite a lot of work

[JamesMarine]

Thanks for this, a tutorial would be wonderful. What do you mean that can not incooperate deformation of meshes? You mean just can not display or it can not calcualte deformation for the meshes? If it cannot calcualte deformation, this is not really an FSI, is that correct?

Yes you are correct, it cannot calculate it so it is not an FSI. Elmer is capable of doing it and it would be possible to add it to FreeCAD but it's of course quite a lot of work

I assume the major workload is on the solver input file, is that correct? Do you expect any other major workload?

If multiphysic such as FSI is not included, what is the typical case that Elmer can do but Calculix can not do?

Sorry that I am a beginner and my question may not be quite professional.