ParaviewBezier- An API for post-processing IGA results

Latest version: v1.0(23 Spetember 2021)

Isogeometric analysis results are generally plotted on approximated linear FE-discretization, which causes loss in the visualization quality. Since ParaView supports splines in the form of Bézier cells, There is now a possibility to visualize geometrically exact results.

This API is designed to post-process the results (currently only displacement) from NURBS-based IGA simulations performed on LS-DYNA, using the Bézier cells of ParaView.

This API includes the following features:

• Post-processing NURBS meshes using Bézier elements in ParaView
• Compress VTU file(s) on demand
• Parallel processing the task(s) on demand
• Inbuild Open Geometry button to view/interact with geometry

How it Works

1. Excecute InterFace.py in python IDE or cmd

python InterFace.py

This results in following pop up GUI

2. a). Browse or enter the location of the keyword file
   b). Browse or enter the desired location of the resultant Visualization tool kit file
3. Check buttons
   a). Displacement check button exctracts the displacement vector field information from the binary plot
   b). Stress check button writes the stress vector field information
   c). Parallel processing check button executes the timestep data asynchronously
   d). Compressed VTK check button writes the Visualization tool kit file in binary format which otherwise is written in ASCII
   e). Enable ParaView Simple check button
4. After selecting the desired options click on Check to load the input files
   a). Progress bar shows the progress of the code
   b). Desired number of Time steps from the Total available time steps can be entered into entry box
   By default the results are written without the vector field information
   c). The computation and writting file on clicking Submit button
5. The necessary information(s) regarding thre model is written inside the text frame

What to expect

The results are written in .VTU format and one could visualize the result file in ParaView

Contact

For reporting bugs or suggesting new features, Contact divin.pulakudiyil@st.ovgu.de or resam.makvandi@ovgu.de

Version history

v1.0

Release date: 23 Spetember 2021

References

• M. J. Borden, M. A. Scott, J. A. Evans, and T. J. R. Hughes, "Isogeometric finite elementdata structures based on bezier extraction of NURBS,"International Journal for NumericalMethods in Engineering, vol. 87, 2011
• Makvandi, Resam, Venghaus, Henning, & Juhre, Daniel. (2020). NPVI add-on for FEAP (v1.4). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3945132
• Github, qd python library for CAE, 2019. https://github.com/qd-cae/qd-cae-python

Notes

The files are avaialable inside paraview folder on the destination. if the destination path is not given then the files are avaialble in working directory
Parallel processing is implimented using cuncurrent.futures module and is favourable if the number of time steps is more