Execution of FDS2FTMI Utility

[Adam Jakubowski]

I'm an undergraduate student studying FPE at the University of New Haven (CT). I'm currently working with the Dept. of Civil Engineering on a small research project analyzing he structural response of a bridge under exposure to fire. I am new to FDS but I have created several models in the past. This research project requires a transfer of FDS outputs to ANSYS for the analysis of the structural interaction. I am looking for help (i.e., somewhat explicit instructions) on how to execute the FDS2FTMI utility. I have the user's guide for this utility but I am still quite confused.

Can anyone direct me to more concrete instructions on this?

[Kevin]

Can you narrow down your question to something specific? For example, what part of the user's guide is giving you trouble?

[Salah Benkorichi]

Up to my knowledge so far, I can guide you through Linux environment to run the examples prepared by Julio, however, I didn't dig deeper to run my own cases. The reason for this was that I needed to write scripts in Ansys format, rather than using the GUI. Julio developped one way and two ways coupling, from your question it's clear you're looking for one way coupling. Even without that, you might check how to use the AST and insert it in ANSYS without using the fds2ftmi excutable. 

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[Adam Jakubowski]

Thanks for the responses. I may have posed this question prematurely. I need to conduct a little more research and come back with specific questions.  

Sorry to waste anyone's time.

On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 2:10:13 PM UTC-4, Adam Jakubowski wrote:

[Julio Cesar Silva]

Hi Adam,

 

I am glad to hear about your interest in fds2ftmi.

Please read the fds2ftmi User's Guide, it will not close all your doubts, but I will help you to know what your questions are.

 

Trying to make a brief description of the process:

In Ansys (or any other FEM model) you have a collection of nodes and elements (at the moment, fds2ftmi works with shell and solid elements).

The main tasks are:

1) Define the nodes at the boundary, i.e., the surface nodes exposed to fire condition;

2) Create a file with boundary nodes and new elements (surface effect elements) information;

3) Collect this information from FDS output; and

4) Apply this boundary condition in FEM model.

 

How to follow this steps:

To complete 1 – In order to build your model, you have AREAS, or VOLUMES where you created your MESH (this is the same in all FEM models). Please isolate the AREAS where you intend to create the boundary condition.

To complete 2 - At “fds-smv\fds\Utilities\Structural_Interaction\fds2ftmi\scripts” you have 2 scripts  that can help you to convert your boundary into fds2ftmi format (ansys2ftmi.gem if you are using solid elements and ansys2ftmi_shell.geom if you are using shell elements). These script are written in ansys format, to execute you need to go to File>Read Input from.

To complete 3 – Run fds2ftmi to collect info from FDS, the files elements.dat and nodes.dat were created at step 2.

To complete 4 – In ansys, Read the file generated after run fds2ftmi (Go to File>Read input from)

 

In time: Steps 1 and 2 can be done without the ansys script, in User’s Guide you have information about the format of the files fds2ftmi need to run.

 

After this, your FEM model will have all the boundary condition calculated from FDS simulation and it will be ready to Thermal and Structural analysis or Thermo-Structural analysis depending of your FEM application or elements.

 

Twowaycode is not working with the latest versions of FDS because IBM is under development and had a major changing recently.

 

I am open to any questions,

I hope you enjoy fds2ftmi,

 

Best Regards,

 

Julio Cesar Silva

[Salah Benkorichi]

Hi Julio,

I'm glad you are around. These steps are much clear now and very helpful. Thanks for sharing it. I believe we should update the user guide.

I've tried to make a small test. All steps looks working fine, except with reading the generated file, when I try to read it, it throw an error saying "0 is no a valid type ID number. Type ID number must be a positive integer. The KEYOPT command is ignored.

I've attached the file, if you can take a quick look to it. 

This test is quite similar to the simple panel hot you've set.

I'm not sure why the X's of the KEYOPT are set to 0.

If you have any suggestions please let me know.

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[Adam Jakubowski]

Julio,

Thank you very much for the reply. I have reviewed the User's Guide a few times and I was still a little confused. The directions you provided seem to fill in some of the gaps. I have some unrelated ANSYS issues currently and once I repair these, I will attempt to follow these directions. I will surely come back with any troubles/specific questions. 

Thanks again, you've been a huge help.

Adam

[Julio Cesar Silva]

Hi Salah,

 

Yes, I am around. Unfortunately, I do not have access to forum in my working hours. I will do my best to reduce delay time for answers.

 

When you read the file generated by fsd2ftmi, are you resuming your model first? I mean, File>Resume Jobname.db or any other similar command.

 

Without your model, it is hard to check the problems.

Keyopt command intends to set parameters to surface effect elements created.

Your file has two parts, in the second part; it is trying to create as element type numbered as zero, which is not allowed.

I think the problem is in previous steps.

 

Why not use the examples in the fds2ftmi folder?

Have you tried to run these examples without the automated script and using ansys GUI?

In the scripts, I am running everything on the background. That is the idea of scripts, right?

 

Let’s start using simple_panel_hot:  

1) open ansys, read

fds-smv\fds\Utilities\Structural_Interaction\fds2ftmi\examples\simple_panel_hot\ read_geometry_hot.ans

You will be able to see the model generated.

Last task of this file is to use the script ansys2ftmi.geom to generate elements.dat and nodes.dat

2) run fds2ftmi with this files. Command is

fds2ftmi_win_64 simple_panel_hot 0.05 2 0 600 2 0 0 1 simple_panel_hot_to_ansys

3) then you can run ansys thermal analysis with the results from fds2ftmi. Take a look at “run_simple_panel_hot.ans”

Basically, it resumes the model, read the file simple_panel_hot_to_ansys generated in step 2, then run the ansys solver.

All the instructions that come after the solver are intended to generate images for User’s Guide.

 

Gold Hint: You can copy lines from the script and paste into ansys GUI command prompt, and watch all the magic happens.

 

Adam, maybe you should follow the same path.

 

Regards, Julio

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[Salah Benkorichi]

Julio,

Truly many thanks. Now I get your example working with the GUI. With the background, I didn't have issue with it after I set up the environment properly. I tried this way before, but it couldn't read the script of the ansys2ftmi_geom, the reason, I was launching the ansys through the workbench, which caused this one. Now, after running it separately  from the terminal, I didn't have issues with it. I took quite some time to go through the scripts how they're functioning, I had a good idea, the biggest hurdle was that I was not sure if this was designed to be through the GUI. I thought, I had to create my own scripts for each model, like use the /prep 7 and go on LOL. 

I will run a simple file test and let you know, I'm pretty sure it will go fine. 

When I get some time, I will try to make a commit to add some more details to the user guide ( I will notify when I make the pull request), this will help users to simplify the task.

Kind regards,

Salah

[Ilias Zilakos]

I am also a new user of FDS and I have been trying to get the FDS2FTMI utility working on a windows 7 (64-bit) system. Although I have been through the user's guide, I have not managed to get it working. The APDL scripts that generate the nodes.dat and elements.dat files (for ANSYS coupling) seem to work fine. However the coupling process as described in subchapter 2.3 is not clear to me and particularly the practical implementation. Since there is not an .exe file available, is the user supposed to build one through the source codes? Is a FORTRAN compiler a prerequisite for realizing the FDS-ANSYS coupling?

I have also read the steps that Julio mentioned in his previous post, explaining how the coupling process is realized but I think I am missing smth when it comes to "...run fds2ftmi step". Probably it needs some kind of previous system/environment setup that I haven't figure out.

Any hint or tip will be much appreciated...

[Salah Benkorichi]

Yes, you need to compile it.

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[Ilias Zilakos]

Hi Salah,

appreciate your prompt reply.

Since I don't have access to a FORTRAN compiler, I would appreciate if anyone could upload the executable or suggest a free FORTRAN compiler that could the job?
Regards,

Ilias

Τη Πέμπτη, 18 Ιανουαρίου 2018 - 9:22:35 μ.μ. UTC+1, ο χρήστης Salah Benkorichi έγραψε:

Yes, you need to compile it.

On 18 January 2018 at 12:56, Ilias Zilakos <izil...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am also a new user of FDS and I have been trying to get the FDS2FTMI utility working on a windows 7 (64-bit) system. Although I have been through the user's guide, I have not managed to get it working. The APDL scripts that generate the nodes.dat and elements.dat files (for ANSYS coupling) seem to work fine. However the coupling process as described in subchapter 2.3 is not clear to me and particularly the practical implementation. Since there is not an .exe file available, is the user supposed to build one through the source codes? Is a FORTRAN compiler a prerequisite for realizing the FDS-ANSYS coupling?

I have also read the steps that Julio mentioned in his previous post, explaining how the coupling process is realized but I think I am missing smth when it comes to "...run fds2ftmi step". Probably it needs some kind of previous system/environment setup that I haven't figure out.

Any hint or tip will be much appreciated...

Τη Τρίτη, 9 Μαΐου 2017 - 8:10:13 μ.μ. UTC+2, ο χρήστης Adam Jakubowski έγραψε:

I'm an undergraduate student studying FPE at the University of New Haven (CT). I'm currently working with the Dept. of Civil Engineering on a small research project analyzing he structural response of a bridge under exposure to fire. I am new to FDS but I have created several models in the past. This research project requires a transfer of FDS outputs to ANSYS for the analysis of the structural interaction. I am looking for help (i.e., somewhat explicit instructions) on how to execute the FDS2FTMI utility. I have the user's guide for this utility but I am still quite confused.

Can anyone direct me to more concrete instructions on this?

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[Salah Benkorichi]

Yes, there is a free open source.

Try with Gnu compiler.

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[Ilias Zilakos]

Thanks again Salah.

Regards,

Ilias

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