PoligonSoft 2024.1: Updates and Improvements in Casting Simulation

What's New in PoligonSoft 2024.1

PoligonSoft 2024.1 introduces a series of significant improvements and new features designed to optimize casting simulation processes.

General

• Starting with version 2024.0, PoligonSoft has the new Guardant licensing system, which supports hardware and software license keys. The previous CodeMeter licensing system will be supported, but new license keys will not be issued.

• PoligonSoft documentation has been revised and added with new sections.

Mesh Generator

• Assembly based on the SALOME 9.12 platform.

• New mesh Gmsh generator is added.

• 2D mesh correction algorithms have been refined and improved.

Master Preprocessor

• The ability to specify heat fluxes at the outer boundaries of the computational domain has been added to the Heat Transfer editor (see figure below). The outdated Heat Flux editor of the Alloy module is no longer used. The Heat Flux File line has been removed from the Solidification tab in the Start Simulation and Parameters window. Old format files with the qgr extension can be imported into the Heat Transfer editor.

Heat Transfer editor with the ability to set heat flux

• A new Translation editor has been added for the ability to specify the movement of bodies in the computational domain (see the figure below). The legacy Movement Mods editor of the Alloy module is no longer used. The new editor is used in conjunction with the new Translations Tree that has been added to the Project Overview panel. Support for legacy movement files with the mve extension has been retained (data import only).

Translation editor

• A new Hardenability & CCT tab has been added to the Material Properties editor (see the figure below). This tab is used to model heat treatment processes in the updated Heat Treatment solver.

Hardenability & CCT tab in Material Properties editor

• A new Surface Nucleation editor (see the figure below) and a tree of the same name on the Project Overview tab have been added for creating and editing parameters for the nucleation of different types of structures on casting-mold surfaces. The editor data is used in the updated Macrostructure solver.

Surface Nucleation editor

• A new Structure Inheritance editor (see the figure below) and a tree of the same name on the Project Overview tab have been added for creating and editing parameters for the inheritance of different types of structures on surfaces of the computational domain. The editor data is used in the updated Macrostructure solver.

Structure Inheritance editor

• The ribbon interface is selected as the default interface when installing PoligonSoft. The classic interface based on the menu bar and toolbars is still available. The ability to select the toolbar buttons size has been added for the classic interface.

• Added new display modes Casting Transparency and Mold Transparency

• The design and functionality of the Model Tree has been redesigned and significantly improved.

• The Detuch Index option has been significantly improved and added to the Model Tree. The option is used to set heat transfer at casting-casting or mold-mold boundaries. Previously, this required additional use of the Sliding Boundaries editor. Now, when using coincident meshes, this is not necessary.

• The Empty for Stress option control has been added to the Model Tree. The option is used to exclude some areas of the mold from the stress calculation.

• The Volume Parameters dialog have been redesigned and improved.

• Functionality of the Measure tool has been improved. Added a button to reset measurement points.

• The Grain Growth model parameters input in the Material Properties editor has been improved.

• The Continue Simulation option on the Continuous Casting tab in the Start Simulation and Parameters window has been removed because it is no longer needed.

• An option that automatically selects a color for the Section Plane depending on the selected background color has been added.

• The Structure tab in the Start Simulation and Parameters window has been redesigned to work with new Macrostructure solver models.

Structure tab

• The functionality of the Stress tab in the Start Simulation and Parameters window has been improved. In particular, the calculation launch is handled more correctly if the geometry does not contain a mold.

• Several bugs have been fixed, including:

  • The error that caused the casting material to be replaced when assigning volumes of the Empty type has been fixed.

  • A bug that caused the list of temperature modes to be displayed incorrectly has been fixed.

  • A bug that made it impossible to set negative values (for example, “-1”) for the Mold Removal Temperature and Gating System Removal Temperature parameters has been fixed. Negative values for these parameters indicate that the temperature field calculated in the last step of the thermal calculation should be used.

  • A bug that could cause the program to crash when deleting a volume has been fixed.

  • A bug that caused the program to crash when selecting boundaries using the Use Section filter has been fixed.

  • A bug that caused a crash when dragging a g3d file from Windows Explorer into the program has been fixed.

  • A bug that caused data loss when exporting heat transfer parameters has been fixed.

  • A bug that caused a solidification calculation error when there was no mold has been fixed.

• Other numerous improvements.

Databases

• The outdated editors of the Alloy module are replaced by new editors of properties and boundary conditions. The development of the module has been discontinued, in future versions it may be excluded from PoligonSoft.

• The outdated Heat Flux editor of the Alloy module is no longer used.

• The legacy Movement Mods editor of the Alloy module is no longer used.

• The materials database has been supplemented with the new material properties.

• The steel properties database has been supplemented with data on hardenability and CCT diagrams of austenite decomposition.

Module "Radiation"

• Support for movement files of the old format with the mve extension has been discontinued. Reading information about object translations is performed from a project file with the jnl extension.

• Bug fixes and other improvements.

Euler Flow Solver

• The computing speed has increased by up to 30% compared to the previous version due to optimization of computing procedures.

• The ability to continue calculations with changes in the inlets and outlets operation has been added.

• Hydrostatic pressure (in atmospheres) output added to universal format file with u3d extension.

• The temperature field interpolation procedure has been redesigned to obtain a more stable and accurate result.

• The recording of the dump status file is synchronized with the recording of the result files.

• A bug that made it impossible to calculate HPDC process if the flow velocity was not in the X or Z direction has been fixed.

• A bug with incorrect initialization of the temperature mode for internal (meltable) chills has been fixed.

• The error that made it impossible to start a calculation in the absence of a boundary with index 17 has been fixed.

• A bug that in some cases caused the melt temperature at the inlet to increase has been fixed.

• Other numerous changes and fixes.

Fourier Temperature and Porosity Solver

• Operations with heat flux specified at external boundaries have been improved. Now information about heat flux is read from the jnl project file. The old file format with the qgr extension is no longer supported.

• Algorithms for working with translations have been redesigned. Now information is read from the jnl project file. The old file format with the mve extension is no longer supported.

• Procedures related to the processing of moving objects during radiation heat transfer have been improved and redesigned.

• Algorithms for the "cast-to-cast" and "mold-to-mold" interface types processing have been redesigned. Now, to define heat transfer between coincident meshes of the same type, you no longer need to use a .knt Sliding Faces file.

• The algorithms of the continuous casting model have been significantly revised and improved. This has increased the accuracy of calculating the temperature fields in the mold and the moving slab. The procedure for selecting the calculation step and the saving step has been changed. The calculation step can now be set by the user. The saving step set by the user is taken into account when calculating the pause before the start of the slab movement. Restoring the calculation of continuous casting now follows the general rules for all thermal calculations.

• A bug that could cause calculations to stop when too many thermal nodes were generated has been fixed.

• Other numerous changes and fixes.

Hooke Stress Solver

• The displacement field in the .nds file is now recorded in millimeters.

• Creating the files *_gap.u3d and *_gap_mm.u3d (the gap size between the casting and the mold) is blocked when calculating stresses after removing the mold and elements of the gating-feeding system.

Macrostructure Solver

• A new version of the solver for calculating the macrostructure has been added to PoligonSoft, it replaces the previous version Structure-2D.

• The solver can calculate the structure both in a given section (2D problem) and in a given three-dimensional region (3D problem) (see the figure below).

Example of modeling the nucleation and growth of a directed structure (3D problem)

• The ability to specify different parameters for the structure nucleation at casting-mold type boundaries using different boundary indices has been added.

• When assigning the nucleation parameters, you can select the structure type (equiaxed, texture, or single crystal) and set its orientation ranges. This allows you to simulate contact with the seed.

• The ability to set parameters for inheriting the structure at the boundaries of the calculation area where there are no boundaries of the casting-mold type has been added.

• Numerous other improvements.

Heat Treatment Solver

• The Heat Treatment solver is integrated into the Fourier solver and works in coupling mode with it.

• The number of models for heat treatment processes analysis for steels with austenitic transformation has been expanded, and new models have been added:
  

  • model using data of the steel hardenability;

  • a generalized model based on the Scheil-Can additivity rule, Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK), Kostinen-Marburger, and Zener-Hillert equations.

• The number of models for analyzing steel tempering processes has been expanded for use in combination with all available austenite decomposition models.

  • Just model.

  • Spies model.

• An algorithm for automatically controlling the calculation step has been added. In this case, the value of the Calculation Timestep parameter determines the maximum calculation timestep, which can be automatically changed as the calculation is performed to ensure that the result is obtained with sufficient accuracy.

• Numerous improvements to the stability of the models have been introduced, algorithms have been improved, and the limits of the content of elements of permissible chemical compositions of steels have been expanded.

• Correction of non-critical errors in the Creusot-Loire model.

Viewing Results

• The first prototype of a postprocessor integrated into the Master preprocessor is presented. This is the first step towards creating a single graphical platform for working with the project and simulation results (see the figure below).

Viewer on the platform of the Master module

• Launch the postprocessor using the Open Legacy Results command on the Main tab of the ribbon menu or from the File menu.
  ‍The postprocessor works in test mode and does not represent a complete solution. It can be used for informational purposes only.

• Loads CST+MLD files and visualizes temperature fields and liquid phase fractions separately.

• All main visualization modes for casting and mold bodies are available: surfaces, sections, isosurfaces, etc.

• Extended and customizable palette containing up to 15 colors. Separate customizable scales for each field.

• Setting markers to control the value of fields at any point in the geometry.

• The Measure tool for measuring distances and dimensions.

Postprocessor Mirage

• The development of the obsolete module has been discontinued, it will be replaced with a new solution. In future versions, Mirage may be excluded from PoligonSoft.

• Bug fixes, improvements and changes related to supporting the current version of PoligonSoft.
  

All active users can download the new version of PoligonSoft 2024.0 from their user page. To check the cost of upgrading from previous versions, you can use the price calculator.