What's New in Zencrack?

Zencrack 8.2-2

Zencrack version 8.2-2 was finalised on 11 December 2017

Version 8.2-2 is a minor upgrade with a small number of changes and bug fixes compared to version 8.2-1.

Zencrack GUI

The ** marker used to indicate the active mesh viewport when multiple mesh viewports are available is moved from the title bar of the viewport to the upper left corner of the viewport window. This addresses a limitation in the original method that prevented the marker being removed for floated viewports.

Active viewport marker in title bar prior to version 8.2-2
Active viewport marker in title bar prior to version 8.2-2

Active viewport marker in viewport in version 8.2-2
Active viewport marker in viewport in version 8.2-2

General

A new element set is generated for each crack front containing all the elements in the rings around the crack front.

For Abaqus and Ansys the set/component name is CRACKxxxrings where xxx is the crack front number e.g. CRACK001rings.

For NX Nastran the numbered set is 9090xxx.

Example of element set for rings at the crack front
Example of element set for rings at the crack front

NX Nastran interface

In the NX Nastran interface a limitation existed when gluing some large crack-blocks to the surrounding mesh because NX Nastran 10 and 11 do not allow the use of collapsed hex element faces on a surface definition. NX Nastran 12 has an enhancement in the surface definitions to resolve this limitation.

Zencrack 8.2-2 has a modification to allow the full surface to be defined, including the collapsed faces, when NX Nastran 12 is used. A warning is issued if collapsed elements are required on a surface definition when using NX Nastran 10 or 11.

Example in NX Nastran 10 and 11
Example of crack-block s03_q112x4 used in NX Nastran 11.0. Gap opens up because collapsed faces are not included in the glued surface definition in NX Nastran 10/11.

Example in NX Nastran 12
Example of crack-block s03_q112x4 used in NX Nastran 12.0. Correct behaviour due to enhanced support for surface definition in NX Nastran 12.