Hexa (HAZ)

Restriction: Available in LS-DYNA, OptiStruct, and Radioss.

Use the hexa (HAZ) realization to create seam lines between Overlap and L joint shell parts.

Contacts are defined between the shell components and the appropriate hexa nodes. A heat affected zone for the shells from ultra-high strength steel material is also created.

Define the heat affected zone dimensions using the parameters available in the Connector Entity Editor. The dimension and property of each heat affected zone (HAZ) can be separately defined.

The HAZ layers are only on the external size when the shape is closed.


Figure 1.

General Info

Table 1.
Parameter Action
Tolerance Specify a distance from the connector location. Only the entities within this tolerance can be taken into account for the final realization. The tolerance is used to verify whether adequate link candidates are available to be connected with respect to the number of layers.

Connectivity Info

Table 2.
Parameter Option
Connectivity
Note: By default, Connectivity is set to contact, but you can also choose imprint.
HAZ Create the quad weld elements and stitch them to both links by adjusting their mesh. Perform all required HAZ.
Enable Condition HAZ Control which parts need to receive heat affected zones during the realization.
Skip Imprint Create the quad weld elements, but do not change the meshes of the links.

Instead, create additional elements to represent the requested HAZ. These elements are organized in the ^conn_imprint component.

You can use these elements for a later manual imprint after they have been manipulated to your need. This can be helpful in more complex areas, where the standard imprint functionality fails, for example, when working with conflicting connectors.
Note: The quad weld elements are not attached to the links. The connection needs further attention.

Contact Info

Table 3.
Parameter Action
Contact Creation Option Choose a method for creating contacts.
one contact per link
Create one exclusive contact with two exclusive sets per each link.
Create the contact between the link and the hexa nugget nodes laying on this link. The nodes of one hexa nugget belong to two different contact definitions.
  • Groupname(s): hexa_nugget_contact_Linkname
  • Setname(s) Main: hexa_nugget_master_part_set_Linkname
  • Setname(s) Secondary: hexa_nugget_secondary_node_set_Linkname
one contact per link pairing
All hexa nugget connectors using the same links are sharing the same contact and sets.
  • Groupname(s): hexa_nugget_contact_Linkname1_Linknam e2_Linkname3(when 3 layer)
  • Setname(s) Main: hexa_nugget_main_part_set_Linkname1_ Linkname2_Linkname3
  • Setname(s) Secondary: hexa_nugget_secondary_node_set_Linkname1_L inkname2_Linkname3
single contact
Create one contact and two sets for this realization type in the model.
  • Groupname: hexa_nugget_singlecontact
  • Setname Main: hexa_nugget_single_main_part_set
  • Setname Secondary: hexa_nugget_single_secondary_node_set

HAZ Info

Table 4.
Parameter Option
HAZ Material Condition Enable the selection of UHSS material which controls which parts need to receive heat affected zones during the realization.
UHSS Material Option Choose a method for selecting UHSS material.
From current model
Select an existing material from current model.
In the Connector Entity Editor, the UHSS Material Entity ID’s field is populated with the number of the materials selected.
From search file (default)
Select material from a search file.
For Hexa Nugget Connector realizations the material search file name is materialsnippets.txt. HyperMesh searches for this file in the following locations and in the following order:
  1. Installation: [hm_scripts_dir]/ connectors/materialsnippets.txt
  2. User directory: [USER_HOME]/ materialsnippets.txt
  3. HyperMesh configuration path folder: [HW_CONFIG_PATH]/materialsnippets.txt
  4. Current working folder: [CURRENTWORKINGDIR]/materialsnippets.txt
In the Connector Entity Editor, the UHSS Material File field is populated with the name of the file that was found last.
The text file contains snippets from the material names, which need to receive heat affected zones during the realization.
From connector metadata
Once a connector is realized with the UHSS Material Option “From search file”, the folder name is written as metadata to the connector in a relative manner to allow the exact same rerealization in a different work environment as long as the same materialsnippets.txt files are saved in according folders.
HAZ Dimension Scheme Choose a setting for defining HAZ diameters.
HAZ Inner Diameter
values
Specify an absolute value for the HAZ Inner Diameter.
Note: This value must be greater than the value used for defining the nugget diameter.
scale factors
Calculated as a scale factor from the nugget diameter.
Note: This value must be greater than or equal to 1.0.
offsets
Specify a HAZ Inner Diameter which is offset from the nugget diameter.
HAZ Outer Diameter
values
Specify an absolute value for the width of the first layer around the HAZ Inner Diameter.
scale factors
Specify a width for the first layer around the HAZ Inner Diameter. Calculated as a scale factor from the nugget diameter.
offsets
Specify a width for the first layer around the HAZ Inner Diameter which is offset from the HAZ Inner Diameter.
Note: For values and scale factors, this value must be greater than the value used for defining the HAZ Inner Diameter.
HAZ Layer 2 Enables you to specify the HAZ Outer Diameter 2. By default, this checkbox is cleared and the HAZ Outer Diameter 2 cannot be defined.
HAZ Outer Diameter 2
values
Specify an absolute value for the width of the second layer around the HAZ Outer Diameter.
scale factors
Specify a width for the second layer around the HAZ Outer Diameter. Calculated as a scale factor from the nugget diameter.
offsets
Specify a width of the second layer around the HAZ Outer Diameter, which is offset from the HAZ Outer Diameter.
Note: For values and scale factors, this value must be greater than the value used for defining the HAZ Outer Diameter.

Property and Material Info

Use the Property and Material Info parameters to define the properties and materials of the welds and the heat affected zones (HAZ).
Table 5.
Parameter Option
HAZ Material Option Choose a method for assigning material for the HAZ.
Use original material
Assign a new HAZ component with the same material that was assigned to the original components.
Use copy of original material
Duplicate the original materials and assign them to new components.
The original material is duplicated.
The new material name will be the same as the original material with _HAZ_mat as a postfix.
Select a material
Select a material from the current model via the select material for HAZ option. HAZ components are created with the same name as the selected material with property ID as a postfix.
When set to <unspecified>, a default material is taken from the [hm_scripts_dir]/connectors/hexa_nugget/dyna/hexa_nugget_HAZ_material_default.ini file. HAZ components are created with name hexa_nugget_HAZ_mat_default_ and with the property ID as a postfix.
HAZ Property Option Choose a method for assigning a property to HAZ.
Use original property
Assign a new HAZ component with the same property that was assigned to the original components.
Use copy of original material
Duplicate the original properties and assign them to new components.
The original property is duplicated.
The new property name will be the same as the original property with _HAZ_prop as a postfix.
Scale original thickness
Create a new property and component for each link that has a HAZ imprinted.
The property is a copy of the original. Properties are named as <originalname>_<HAZ_prop>_<scaled thickness>, and components are named as <matname>_<scaled property name>.
Input thickness
Create a new property and component for each link that has a HAZ imprinted.
The property is a copy of the original. Property is named as <hexa_nugget_HAZ_prop>_<thickness_value>, and components are named as <matname>_<Input thichness prop name>.
Select a property
Select a property from the current model via the select property for HAZ option.
HAZ components are created and named using the UHSS material with the property ID as a postfix. For example, <UHSS matname>_<prop ID>.
Nugget Material Option Choose a method for creating and assigning material to nuggets.
Create one material per each link combination
Create one material for each link combination.
The weld material is named <hexa_nugget_weld_mat>_<link 1 ID/name>_<Link 2 ID/name>.
If the link with ID 1 and the link with ID 2 are connected, than the weld material which gets created will be named hexa_nugget_weld_mat_1_2.
Create one material per each number of layer
Create one material based on the number of layers the weld is connecting to.
The weld material is named <hexa_nugget_weld_mat>_<link 1 ID/ name>_<No. of layers>.
If it is a 2T weld, than the mat name will be hexa_nugget_weld_mat_2L.
If it is a 3T weld, than it will be named hexa_nugget_weld_mat_3L.
Use one single weld material
Select a weld material from the current model using Select Nugget Material Option. The selected material will be assigned to all weld elements.
Itemize Multilayer Connections Itemize a multilayer connection. For example, in the case of a three layer connection, the two hexa clusters will be handled separately and will be assigned two different materials. At the same time, a two layer connection between the same two links will be assigned another material.
Names are created as following:
hexa_nugget_weld_material_link1_link2_(link3)
Ideally the links are ordered as <outer involved link>_<inner involved link>_(<uninvolved comp>), so that the two links involved come first, and the link(s) that are not involved are written in brackets.
hexa_nugget_weld_material_link3_link2_(link1)
Ideally the links are ordered as <outer involved link>_<inner involved link>_(<uninvolved comp>), so that the two links involved come first, and the link(s) not involved are written in brackets.
hexa_nugget_weld_material_link1_link2, hexa_nugget_weld_material_link2_link3
All materials are derivatives from [hm_scripts_dir]/connectors/hexa_nugget/radioss/hexa_nugget_weld_material_default.ini
Note: Only available when Nugget Material Option is set to Create one material per each link combination.
Select Nugget Property Select a property from the current model.