Problems in "Read Results" of Marc in MSC AFEA (Patran + Marc) 1

[RafaelCAE]

Hello everyone!

I have a question and need a help on the MSC package called AFEA (junction of pre-post Patran with Marc solver)

I'm doing the structural analysis by CAE of a set of pieces a little complex in solid tetrahedral parabolic elements (tet10) in MSC AFEA involving nonlinear analysis of contact friction between solid meshes, bolt preload tightening the parts and analysis material with plasticity in bilinear diagram of ductile material, all at the same time. The model was with ~ 350,000 elements

It turns out that after a lot of work to model all the elements and the contact regions, screw elements with pre-load, etc. and then to set the parameters for analysis, I put the calculation to run the the analysis in Marc solver

Following the analysis (which lasted about 15h on a powerful computer dedicated to calculation for FEA) has been verified that the model found convergence and ended up with a successful exit (exit 3004 - success), ie the calculation was done. I searched and found no fatal error or warning

But while trying to attach the results in Patran by the command "Read Results" / "Result Files" / "Attach" (default procedure to read the output file with results) the Patran processed, processed ... and after a while stopped and when I checked the results tab was empty!!!

Obs .: The size of the output file had 38Gb (ie probably have results contained in it) ... and yet the PATRAN not opened ...

Does the post-processor of Patran has read limitation to size of very large output files? Since I did other analyzes of tests involving the same phenomena but with simple geometries and the output files were normally read (files with an average size of 1 GB) ...

Plaase if you know something about it, I ask for help, cause I already tried to find solution everywhere and have found nothing!

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[nlgyro]

Patran earlier had a 2Gb limit on op2 files. (not sure if MSC has got around that)

But from your post it's clear that since you are trying to attach a file, no such limitation exists, as the results are not read into patran.

So what kind of a file are you attaching? xdb or t16?

 

[RafaelCAE]

Hi nlgyro, first of all thanks to answer my post!

My output file that I'm trying to read is .t16 format. If this information could be useful I'm using a 2010 version of MSC AFEA.

Could be the file size the source of the problem reading the results?

Thanks for the attention
Best regards

 

[nlgyro]

IMO, it looks like the information stored in the t16 file is just your model data. To confirm this can you post your case control deck of the input file? The section which carries the output requests.

 

[RafaelCAE]

IMO, it looks like the information stored in the t16 file is just your model data. To confirm this can you post your case control deck of the input file? The section which carries the output requests.

I apologize if I'm posting the wrong part of the deck which you're asking for, because I'm a beginner using the MSC Software and manipulating the deck data (previously in my old work I used to make the calculations with Femap with NX Nastran, which is much more "friendly" in operating than MSC software and needs almost none editions in the deck itself)

Here is the part of the input deck data for evaluation (.dat file):

$ -- HISTORY DEFINITION
$ -- BEGIN STEP "Motor_Console_Bolt_PreLoad"
TITLE     Motor_Console_Bolt_PreLoad
SOLVER
    8,    0,    0,     ,     ,     ,     ,    0,
LOADCASE  ,Bolt_PreLoad
   18,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_a       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_b       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_c       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_d       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_e       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_f       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M8_disp          ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_a      ,       1,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_b      ,       1,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_c      ,       1,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_d      ,       1,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_e      ,       1,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_f      ,       1,
2_Bolt_Preload_M8_force         ,       1,
Fix_Preload                     ,       0,
Fixation                        ,       0,
1|Fixation                      ,       0,
2|Fixation                      ,       0,
CONTROL
     ,   20,    0,    0,    0,    1,     ,     ,    1,    0,    1,
  0.100000,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,
CONTACT TABLE
    4,
    1,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,    0,    0,    0,
    0,    0,    0,
        0.,        0.,        0.,1.0000E+20,        0.,        0.,        0.,
    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,
    6,
    2,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,    0,    0,    0,
    0,    0,    0,
        0.,        0.,        0.,1.0000E+20,        0.,        0.,        0.,
    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,
    3,
    2,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,    0,    0,    0,
    0,    0,    0,
        0.,        0.,        0.,1.0000E+20,        0.,        0.,        0.,
    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,
    4,
    2,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,    0,    0,    0,
    0,    0,    0,
        0.,        0.,        0.,1.0000E+20,        0.,        0.,        0.,
    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,
    5,
AUTO STEP
  0.010000,   1.00000,  0.100000,   10.0000, 1.0000E-5,  0.500000,    0,    5,    1,    0,
    0,   10,    0,     ,          ,   1.20000,    1,     ,          ,    0,    0,    2,    1,
CONTINUE
$ -- BEGIN STEP "Motor_Console_Combination_A"
TITLE     Motor_Console_Combination_A
LOADCASE  ,2_Combination_A
   17,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_a       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_b       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_c       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_d       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_e       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_disp_f       ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M8_disp          ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_a      ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_b      ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_c      ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_d      ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_e      ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M10_force_f      ,       0,
2_Bolt_Preload_M8_force         ,       0,
Fixation                        ,       0,
1|Fixation                      ,       0,
2|Fixation                      ,       0,
NO PRINT
CONTROL
     ,   20,    0,    0,    0,    1,     ,     ,    1,    0,    1,
  0.100000,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,
CONTACT TABLE
    4,
    1,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,    0,    0,    0,
    0,    0,    0,
        0.,        0.,        0.,1.0000E+20,        0.,        0.,        0.,
    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,
    6,
    2,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,    0,    0,    0,
    0,    0,    0,
        0.,        0.,        0.,1.0000E+20,        0.,        0.,        0.,
    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,
    3,
    2,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,    0,    0,    0,
    0,    0,    0,
        0.,        0.,        0.,1.0000E+20,        0.,        0.,        0.,
    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,
    4,
    2,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,        0.,    0,    0,    0,
    0,    0,    0,
        0.,        0.,        0.,1.0000E+20,        0.,        0.,        0.,
    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,    0,
    5,
AUTO STEP
  0.010000,   1.00000,  0.100000,   10.0000, 1.0000E-5,  0.500000,    0,    5,    1,    0,
    0,   10,    0,     ,          ,   1.20000,    1,     ,          ,    0,    0,    2,    1,
CONTINUE
$ e97ef786

If this part of the code doesn`t help, I`m attaching a printscreen of the "Ouput Request" configuration in the Patran that I configured.

 

[nlgyro]

Thanks for the info.

I would suggest you to search for the POST keyword in your input (*.dat) file to make sure that the O/P requests for a particular load-case selected through Patran are properly translated.

 

[RafaelCAE]

nlgyro, I made what you suggested and I searched for the "POST" keyword. For my relief it was there in the .dat deck and below of this word was possible to see all the output requests codes as same as found in the output request configuration screen in patran (the screenshot .jpg attached previously). In other words, the output request was written correctly in the deck and possibly is contained in the .t16 output file. The question is: why the MSC Patran refuses to post-process this?

For information this is the part of the code of the .dat deck with the output requests:

POST
   25,   16,   17,    0,    0,   19,   20,    0,    3,    0,   12,    0,    2,    0,    0,    0,
   17,    1,
   17,    2,
   17,    3,
   17,    4,
   17,    5,
  301,    1,
  301,    2,
  301,    3,
  301,    4,
  301,    5,
  311,    1,
  311,    2,
  311,    3,
  311,    4,
  311,    5,
  391,    1,
  391,    2,
  391,    3,
  391,    4,
  391,    5,
  411,    1,
  411,    2,
  411,    3,
  411,    4,
  411,    5,
NODAL     ,    1,
NODAL     ,   38,

It can be compared with the screenshot that I posted in the post above

Thanks for the help!

 

[nlgyro]

You probably have bit a bug somewhere in Patran or Marc, with regards to the size of the o/p file.

I suggest your contact your local MSC tech. rep. and apprise him of the situation you are facing.

A few things you might consider before doing this would be to try to reduce the size of the o/p file, maybe by reducing the no. of increments at which the o/p is requested.

 

[RafaelCAE]

nlgyro

Thanks for all the help and the attention that you gave trying to solve the problem. In the corporation that I currently work we have also the siemens CAE software (Femap with NX Nastran) which I have a lot of experience and never had trouble in make any type of analysis. Due to the short time to give the output that the internal customer need, I decided to do the analysis in the Femap (using ADINA solver SOL 601 - Advanced Nonlinear), and in this software everything went right without problemas.

Thanks again for the help! =)