How to get the full time vs temperature history of all nodes from a model?

[Anonymous]

I created a Transient Heat Simulation.

I would like to know is there is a way to get in a table format the complete time vs temperature history of all the model nodes.

What I have done until now is to manually select any point in the model in the the Results window, then right clic -->> Graph Value(s), then a graph window from the selected nodes with their time vs temperatures appear, then right clic on that window -->> Export Dialog... and from that point export the graph with the time vs temperature information from each node to an excel spread sheet is straightforward, however, when I select all the points to get their time vs temperature information the program crashes, in order to get the graph window and then create the spread sheet for the time vs temperature values of each node (I think this is obvious when the program try to graph almost half million points through 1000 time steps).

Other solution that I tried was using the "Nodal Results Translator". This tool is supposed to get the data I need, build a table with the time vs temperature history of every node from the model in an excel spread sheet. Actually it works, whenever the *.tto file is not to big in size (my *.tto file is 20 gb). When I try to use the "Nodal Resutl Translator" the program refuse to work with a file that is too big.

My model has almos 700000 nodes and has 1000 time steps.

Is there some way to ger the full time vs temperature history from each node?

What can I do?

Is there is no way to get the full time vs temperature history from each node I would like to know.

Thanks.

[AstroJohnPE]

That would be quite some table: 1000 x 700000!

You can get the results for all nodes at the current time step ("File > Export > scroll to the bottom to "All Results"), but as far as I know, there is no way to get all nodes at all time steps (other than the Nodal Results Translator which you already mentioned). So the only thought that comes to mind is to write out individual time steps one-by-one and merge them together, or write a program using a modern language that can handle large files. The format of the .tto file is straight forward, so a program to read the file and output the results to a text file would be relatively short. (It's the interface that always takes time to write.)

[AstroJohnPE]

I am learning vb.net 2015, so writing a program applicable to this thread is a good learning experience. The attached program (which includes the executable and the source code) has a crude interface where you can type (or more likely, paste) the path to the results file (.do for linear stress, .tto for transient heat transfer, etc. See "File Extensions" in the Help documentation.) The drop-down for the "Output Style" does nothing at this time. I'm not entirely sure that it will handle files over 2 GB because of how long it takes to generate one, but in theory vb.net can handle it. Whether other programs can handle large files so that you can do further analysis of the data may be a problem, too.

[Anonymous]

Hello.

Thanks to answer all my previous posts. All my previous posts were about the same model. I'll try to answer do all my comments about your answers in this thread.

One important detail that I forgot to mention is that 9 of 10 materials I used in my simulation have their thermal conductivity and specific heat values temperature dependant. I followed your instructions and tried to calculate the equilibrium temperature but the window shows this message. I copied and pasted the message exactly as it showed.

"Equilibrium temperature calcluation is currently not supported for parts with phase change" (There is a typo in the original message, "calcluation")

My materials are not phase change materials. Is there a way to calculate the equilibrium temperature of a material that has their thermal properties temperature dependent in the Autodesk Simulation Mechanical software?

Currently I'm working with MATLAB, is there a way to open the .tto files in MATLAB?

Until now I have found how to get the volume of every ELEMENT in my model, I have found how to obtain every single temperature for every single NODE for just 1 time step, I have found which NODES forms every ELEMENT and from there I have calculeted the mean temperature of every single ELEMENT for 1 time step. With the aforementioned information I have calculated (using the density and the specific heat mathematical models of all the materials that forms my model), the amount of energy stored for every ELEMENT using the room temperature as reference. Then it just only matter of sum every element of each part and compare their amount of energies between two times steps to find out the energy stored of released.

You wrote in your answer that you sent a program made in vb.net 2015, is this correct? If it is, I could not find any attachment in your answer.

Thanks for you help. I have learned more tools of the Autodesk Simulation Mechanical and you pointed the direction in which I have to move.

Ramon

[AstroJohnPE · Accepted solution]

The attachment did not attach for some reason. Here it is this time.