7.1. Post-Processing System Coupling Solutions – Spatially Resolved Solutions

Viewing Mechanical's spatially resolved solutions is useful when diagnosing problems, especially when Mechanical's solutions cannot converge.

There are two ways to view the results:

  1. You can view Mechanical's results in Mechanical's working folder ("mapdl"). Usually, the solution files (*.rst - Restructured Text Source) are written in the distributed way and split into different files (such as file0.rst, file1.rst...) depending on the number of cores Mechanical is run with. You can set up the Mechanical project to combine the distributed result files. To do so, activate the Beta option in the Ansys Workbench project hosting the Mechanical model (Tools > Options > Appearance > Beta Options). Then, in Mechanical, go to Transient > Analysis Settings, change Combine Distributed Result Files to Yes.

    You will see combined results in a file named file.rst.

    To visualize those results, launch the Workbench project from which you will launch the Mechanical project. Then, from the worktree click on Transient > Solution, and expand the dropdown menu Read Result Files from the upper ribbon. Select By Reference and load file.rst. You can now explore the spatially distributed results of the Mechanical simulation and check the convergence graphs.

  2. You can view Mechanical's results on the coupled surfaces under the "SyC/Results" folder in the system coupling working directory using Ansys EnSight. In this folder, you will see multiple case files named "Results_XX.case". Each case file is written out with the frequency specified by the OutputControl.Option of the system coupling setup and reports the solution after the variables are transferred from one solver to the other. In EnSight, navigate to File > Open..., select the Multiple file interface option to add these case files to the list, and click Load all parts. Use the Time panel to navigate the solutions of different snapshots. Here, you can view the results on the coupling interfaces from both Forte and Mechanical's points of view.