SOLVERS: Time Steps

Description

Defines the size and number of time steps for time-based simulation in the Quasi-static, Linear Transient Dynamic, Nonlinear Transient Dynamic and Transient Heat solvers.

The time step editor allows for the input of any number of time rows. Each row in the grid contains three user-defined parameters and two information values.

Total Steps

Defines the number of time steps for the row.

This number, multiplied by the time step, determines the elapsed time for this row (i.e., the Time Delta).

Time Step

Defines the time increment for one step in the time unit specified.

The choice of time step is important. If the time step is too large, solution details may be missed, while if it's too small, the solver runtime will be unnecessarily long. Some experimentation is sometimes required to get the optimum time step for a particular problem. For example, as the frequency of the structure and/or the loading increase, the time step should be reduced to avoid missing parts of the response.

Save every…

Specifies how often the results are to be saved.

Sometimes the time step for a stable solution needs to be very small, however the results can be adequately represented using a larger time interval. In this case, the results can be saved at regular intervals rather than at every step. This also reduces the amount of storage required for the solution file.

Time Delta

Shows the total time increment in each row of the time steps table. This is shown for information and is not editable.

Time Sum

Shows the total time up to and including a specific row of the time steps table. This is shown for information and is not editable.

Toolbar Functions

Insert time step row

Inserts a new row of time steps before the highlighted cell.

Add time step row

Adds a new row of time steps to the end of the list.

Delete selected time step rows

Deletes the highlighted rows.

Time unit

The unit of time. The available units are: milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours and days.

Save table-inserted steps

If set, additional result steps may be saved to the result file based on the Factor vs Time tables and the Add Time Steps setting of the SOLVERS: Load (Quasi-static), SOLVERS: Load (Linear Transient Dynamic) and SOLVERS: Load (Nonlinear Transient Dynamic). The number of extra steps saved is according to the Save every… setting.

If not set, the additional time steps, if any, are used in the analysis but are not saved to the result file.