Details for version 7.3

Version 7.3 expands the many new capabilities introduced in version 7.2. In particular there are extensions to the post-processing capabilities and the Ansys interface.

Enhancements include:

• A new utility program "process" replaces the previous utility "growth". This utility:
• generates a comma separated variable file (.csv) ready for import into a spreadsheet
• includes options to process single or multiple crack front nodes
• generates a file containing all data relevant to the node(s), e.g. displacement and energy based K and G results, growth magnitudes, cycles, opening displacements, raw contour integral values (Abaqus only)
• generates data for use in preparing failure assessment diagrams
• allows plotting of many curves including:
• K vs a in a growth analysis
• a vs N (and/or t) in a growth analysis
• %error in G term vs f.e. analysis number in a growth analysis
• K along crack front
• K vs fe step for multi-increment fe analysis of a single crack position
• has a MS Excel template spreadsheet included to allow results to be plotted immediately by pasting the csv output into the spreadsheet.
• Utility program "3dmesh" is updated as follows:
• an Ansys output option is now available
• an output filename can be given by the user
• the option to use 2 or 3 noded elements along the crack front is now available for Abaqus, Ansys and Marc output
• the generated meshes contain element sets for Abaqus, Ansys and Marc output
• the use of offset node and element numbers in the generated mesh is improved making it easier to combine results from different runs into one file.
• Abaqus interface
• the Abaqus keyword file keyabq.dat is updated for versions up to Abaqus 6.4-1.
• Abaqus user subroutine zcr-ctint is provided (a urdfil routine) to allow extraction of Ct-integral values from the .fil file in addition to the existing option of extracting the values from the .dat file.
• Ansys interface
• the Ansys keyword file keyans.dat is updated for versions up to Ansys 8.0
• temperature interpolation is now possible into the crack-blocks for a temperature distribution defined at all nodes in the uncracked mesh
• if there are temperatures in the f.e. analysis then the temperatures at crack front nodes can be extracted for use in processing the results
• transition elements can be defined when using surface based tying to incorporate crack-blocks into a model
• Ansys solid model options can be used in the uncracked mesh batch file. In this case, the "-a solidmodel" command line should be used (otherwise the default is "-a normal")
• spring elements can now be included in the uncracked mesh.
• a significantly reduced memory requirement for all Zencrack jobs
• the overwrite option to delete existing job files is improved
• a large number of error and warning messages have been updated and improved
• the setup program for Windows is updated to allow specification of an Abaqus pre-release version and to include an Ansys "-p" run-time option for a non-default Ansys product
• the fracture mechanics Unit conversion utility has been made more robust.

And finally, of course, a number of documentation and programs bugs have been fixed.