For nonlinear acoustics, a harmonic solver model based on the pressure-based Westervelt equation is now available for 2D, axisymmetric, and 3D acoustics elements, including FLUID243, FLUID244, FLUID30, FLUID220, and FLUID221. For details, see Nonlinear Acoustics Governed by the Westervelt Equation for Full Harmonic Analysis in the Acoustic Analysis Guide and The Finite Element Model for Harmonic Analysis in the Theory Reference.

For the acoustic signal at the difference frequency produced by the nonlinear interaction of two primary ultrasound waves, a harmonic solver model based on the pressure-based Westervelt equation is now available for 2D, axisymmetric, and 3D acoustics elements, including FLUID243, FLUID244, FLUID30, FLUID220, and FLUID221. For details, see Difference-Frequency Generation in Nonlinear Acoustic Waves Governed by the Westervelt Equation in the Acoustic Analysis Guide and Difference-Frequency Generation in Nonlinear Acoustic Waves in the Theory Reference.

A new thermal layered shell element is available for 3D steady-state or transient thermal analyses. SHELL294 has in-plane and through-thickness thermal conduction capabilities. It generates temperatures that can be passed to structural shell elements to model thermal bending. The element has four nodes with no limitation on the number of interpolation layers (defined by through-thickness DOFs) whereas the corresponding legacy element, SHELL131, is limited to 31 layers. In addition, the new element is geometrically more accurate than its legacy counterpart. It distinguishes between the bottom and top faces in terms of their area and spatial location when applying surface loads, computing view factors, and handling contact. It also considers geometry when binding adjacent elements with different layering, such as at a joint or at the runout of a tapered layer. Furthermore, it can have several material layers per interpolation layer for a better balance between accuracy and computational load. Lastly, it is more robust as it can be combined with other element types with different sets of DOFs in the same model. For verification examples, see VM97 and VM271 in the Ansys Mechanical APDL Verification Manual.

You can now enable the enhanced strain or the simplified enhanced formulation in a structural-electric-diffusion analysis (KEYOPT(1) = 100101) by setting KEYOPT(6) = 2 or 3, respectively, on PLANE222 and SOLID225 coupled-field elements. The enhanced strain formulation improves solution accuracy in bending-dominated and nearly incompressible problems by preventing shear and volumetric locking, respectively.

Coupled-diffusion analyses using PLANE222, PLANE223, SOLID225, SOLID226, and SOLID227 now output flux density vectors corresponding to pure diffusion, stress migration, thermomigration, and electromigration. The components and magnitude of the flux density vectors are output as SMISC items 2 through 17. The new output quantities can be used to determine the contribution of each individual migration mechanism (concentration gradient, hydrostatic stress gradient, thermal gradient, electric field) to the total diffusion flux.

The resistance (R), capacitance (C), and inductance (L) real constants with CIRCU94 and CIRCU124 elements can now be defined using tabular input as functions of time or frequency in a transient or harmonic analysis, respectively. The ability to update time- or frequency-varying circuit parameters within the solution improves efficiency.