Aerodynamic sources defined in terms of the divergence of Lighthill’s tensor are now supported for 3D acoustic fluid elements (FLUID30, FLUID220, and FLUID221) and 2D acoustic fluid elements (FLUID243 and FLUID244) in harmonic acoustic analyses. With this new feature, you can use flow sources obtained from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations to compute broadband noise generated by turbulent flows. For details, see Lighthill’s Analogy for a Co-rotating Vortex Pair and Aerodynamic Source (Divergence of Lighthill’s Tensor) in the Acoustic Analysis Guide.

The 2D acoustic fluid elements, FLUID243 and FLUID244, now support the axisymmetric PML option for transient acoustic simulations.

A new logarithmic absorption function option is available for acoustic PML and IPML elements. This option enhances wave attenuation and minimizes reflections, particularly when the available radiation space is limited. Compared to conventional polynomial absorption profiles, the logarithmic function provides smoother impedance matching and improved accuracy in harmonic acoustic analyses. For details, see the PMLOPT command description and Absorption function for IPML and PML in the Theory Reference.

New element NMISC quantities have been added to the current technology thermal elements (PLANE292, PLANE293, SOLID278, SOLID279, SOLID291, and SHELL294). Use them to easily perform an energy balance in postprocessing of a transient or steady-state thermal analysis. See element descriptions for details.

When using the radiosity solver for thermal radiation problems, the view factor sum for each surface facet (SURF251 or SURF252) is now available (NMISC,11) to help you identify which radiation surfaces are dominant and how they affect others. See the element descriptions for details.

Newly supported analyses: User-programmable features (UPFs) for coupled-field elements (PLANE222, PLANE223, SOLID225, SOLID226, and SOLID227) support more analyses, including structural-thermal, thermal-electric, structural-thermal-electric, and piezoelectric. You can now customize material models, loads, constitutive equations, element matrices, and element results in the above analyses.

New Customizable Quantities: The scope of customizable quantities has been extended to include diffusion strain, dielectric permittivity, electric flux density, complex stiffness and mass matrices, complex load vector, and state variables shared with UserMat and UserMatTh subroutines.

Additional utility functions: New utility functions have been added to conveniently access nodal and element results during element customization. Examples include velocities, accelerations, complex displacements, element principal and equivalent strains and stresses, as well as strain and stress intensity.

SHELL229 is a current-technology shell element with coupled-field capabilities that previously supported thermo-electric analysis. It now supports structural-thermal and structural-thermoelectric analyses as well. The element has up to 8 degrees of freedom at each node, including temperature and voltage in membrane format, as well as 3D translation and rotation for structural analysis. See VM174 and VM223 in the Ansys Mechanical APDL Verification Manual.

Nonlocal damage formulation is now enabled for PLANE223 for structural–thermal, structural–diffusion, and structural–thermal–diffusion analyses. SOLID226 and SOLID227 elements have been updated to support nonlocal damage when using the mixed u-P formulation (KEYOPT(11) = 1). These enhancements enable use of generalized fatigue damage (implicit gradient regularization) to better capture the distributed nature of damage in real materials by averaging variables over a finite neighborhood using a characteristic length scale. This leads to more objective and reliable simulation results and improved convergence stability. Also, results no longer spuriously depend on mesh size, especially when material softening or strain localization occurs.