/DT/NODA/Keyword3/Iflag

Engine Keyword Activates the nodal time step control method with the option to apply mass scaling to increase a model’s time step.

Format

/DT/NODA/Keyword3/Iflag

$Δ T_{s c a}$	$Δ T_{\min}$	`initial_mass_ratio`

If Iflag=1, insert the next line

grnd_ID

Definition

Field	Contents	SI Unit Example
`Keyword3`	Time step control type. 1 `CST` Use default constant time step method. 5 6 `SET` Reduce the equivalent nodal stiffness to maintain the constant time step, $Δ T_{\min}$ `STOP` At the start of the simulation, the initial nodal mass is increased using `initial_mass_ratio` to determine an initial time step. No additional mass is added during the simulation. If the time step reaches $Δ T_{\min}$ , the simulation stops, and a restart file will be written. If `Keyword3` is not specified, as in /DT/NODA/`Iflag`, then the computation will use the nodal time step and $Δ T_{\min}$ is not used.
`Iflag`	Node group flag. =0 or blank All nodes use the nodal time step method. =1 The nodal time step method is only applied to the nodes in node group `grnd_ID`.
$Δ T_{s c a}$	Scale factor on critical nodal time step. Default = 0.9
$Δ T_{\min}$	Minimum time step.
`initial_mass_ratio`	Mass ratio increases at the beginning of the computation is used to increase the minimum time step. This value is entered as a ratio, so a 5% increase in mass is entered as `0.05`. Default = blank or 0
`grnd_ID`	The nodal time step method is only applied to the nodes in this node group, read only if `Iflag`=1.

Comments

For all Keyword3 options, the time step control will be activated when the time step of the node controlling the time step of the simulation becomes less than the defined timestep divided by $Δ T_{s c a}$ .
Only one /DT/NODA/Keyword3 option can be used in a simulation.
When using Nodal time step, the computation of each cycle is slightly more expensive but the time step can be higher especially for low quality meshes.
When /DT/NODA/Iflag is used (without Keyword3), the computation will use the nodal time step method, and $Δ T_{\min}$ and initial_mass_ratio are not used.

For constant nodal time step options, (Keyword3=CST), the time step used at the beginning of the simulation is the maximum of

Δ T_{\min}

or, time step calculated with mass added by initial_mass_ratio. The initial time step will then be maintained during the simulation by adding additional mass, if needed.

/DT/NODA/CST 0 $Δ T_{\min}$	The computation is done with minimum nodal time step of $Δ T_{\min}$ value. Mass will be added to maintain this timestep.
/DT/NODA/CST 0 $Δ T_{\min}$ 0
/DT/NODA/CST 0 $Δ T_{\min}$ 0.05	Radioss calculates a nodal time step to give 0% of initial mass increase and uses the maximum value of this calculated time step and defined $Δ T_{\min}$ as new $Δ T_{\min}$ .

The estimated time steps for different percentage of mass increase are printed as a table and a graph in the Starter output file.
/DT/NODA/Keyword3 is compatible with all options of /DT/Eltyp/Keyword3.
/DT/NODA and /DT/NODA/CST* are compatible with /DT/INTER/AMS from version 2017.2.3.
/DT/NODA/CST* is compatible with advanced mass scaling, /DT/AMS. If used with /DT/AMS, AMS will be applied to the part group defined in Starter /AMS card and /DT/NODA/CST* applied to nodes not belonging to the AMS part group.
For example:
- /DT/AMS/1
- $Δ T_{s c a 1}$ $Δ T_{\min 1}$
- Tol_AMS
- /DT/NODA/CST
- $Δ T_{s c a 1}$ $Δ T_{\min 1}$
This is even advised in order to minimize computing time in models where AMS only applies to selected parts.
Note: It is pointless to use a higher time step in AMS than the one used in classic mass scaling since the smaller time step limits the performance.