What's new in Feko 2021

BrianWoods
BrianWoods
Altair Employee
edited February 2021 in Altair HyperWorks

Let’s have a look at the key features of Feko 2021!

 

New Antennas Added to the CADFEKO Component Library

A number of new antenna types have been added to the Component Library in CADFEKO. 

imageA list of the antennas added to the Component Library with the Feko 2021 release 

 

 

Plotting radar results as a heat map in WinProp.

Plot radar results in ProMan as a heat map, with range and relative velocity along the axes and the signal strengths as colours is now supported.

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Viewing Doppler analysis results as a heatmap in WinProp

 

 

 

The newFASANT User Guide is included in the Feko Launcher

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Help and documentation for newFASANT are now available directly from the feko Launcher

 

CADFEKO & POSTFEKO application macro library extended

Application macros - some of which we previously available to users on Altair Connect or through the Altair Community - are now bundled into the relevant GUI components. These scripts assist with various tasks, including, Model construction, Import / Export and processing of data, Radar cross-section analysis, advanced plotting and many more. For more details on the Application macros shipped with Feko 2021 read this article.

 

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The extended application macros in POSTFEKO


Enhanced surface modelling options for Feko solvers

Feko offers a wide range of different modelling approaches to solve problems as efficiently and accurately as possible for a wide range of applications. In the Feko 2021 release, we have added 3 new surface modelling approaches that can be used.

 

1. A dielectric surface impedance approximation (DSIA) provides faster SAR calculation: 
Specific absorption rate (SAR) calculations using computational methods such as FEM, SEP or VEP can be extremely time and memory consuming. By using a dielectric surface impedance approximation (DSIA), a faster solution for SAR inside the homogeneous dielectric regions in free space can be achieved.

2. Thick coatings are supported for the MLFMM: 
A new option when modelling electrically thick and lossy coatings (such as RAM materials) is now available using the MLFMM with a thick coating approximation. This approach provides fast and accurate results and enables the simulation of extremely large problems with much lower time and memory requirements than other approaches.

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Comparison of results, runtime and memory usage for MoM vs MLFMM when calculating the RCS of a RAM-coated S-bend cavity (2703 plane-wave directions at 3 frequencies). For this example, the new MLFMM approach requires 75 times less memory.

 

3. The effect of surface roughness of metals can be included: 
When specifying metallic media, it is now possible to add a surface roughness. This can be used to model the effect of manufacturing processes (such as etching) on the conductivity of thin metal layers.

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The impact of surface roughness on the reflection coefficient of a suspended stripline line

 

 

A new solution coefficient source and radiated emissions workflows (with PollEx)

A new request and a new source have been added, allowing the SEP solution coefficients on a closed surface or boundary in one simulation (source model) to be impressed as a source or excitation in other simulations (target model/s). The request and source employ a new file format (*.sol) to describe the solution coefficients. Interpolation approaches are used so that the source and target model do not need to use the same frequencies for calculation.

This capability enables many model-decomposition workflows where the one-way coupling is sufficient. The solution coefficient workflow is also used to provide an accurate approach to using data from PollEx for radiated emissions calculations. More details on this workflow are available in this article.

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The radiated emissions workflow using PollEx and Feko caters for accurate radiated emissions analysis

Accelerated Geometry Processing for FEM Models

Geometry construction and checking for FEM models which include many metallic faces has been improved.
Speed-up factors of more than 5x are achievable (depending on the number of tetrahedra in the model).

imageAn example illustrating improvements in performance in the geometry construction phases when using the FEM

 

Network planning time-variant scenarios supported in WinProp

WinProp now supports calculation of data rates in and around moving vehicles.

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Visualisation of data rates (max throughput) around a moving vehicle

 

Other notable changes

  • The Dominant path model (DPM) has been improved in WinProp.
  • Cartesian and surface graphs in POSTFEKO now support reversing the directions of the graph axes.
  • in CADFEKO, near field requests can now be specified flexibly by entering request location point-by-point or by importing from a file.
  • S-parameter results for cable ports can now be requested in CADFEKO.
  • Combined MoM/MTL cable paths can now be connected in the same harness and unshielded cable cross-sections are supported.
  • Newer CAD formats can be imported into CADFEKO (ACIS, AutoCAD DXF, CATIA V5, Parasolid, Creo, NX)
  • Importing of CATIA V5 files is now supported on Linux systems in CADFEKO
  • Better efficiency in fourier coefficients storage for MLFMM, reducing memory footprint by up to 40%.
  • Reduced pre-processing time for the Characteristic Basis Function Method (newFASANT MONCROS) by up to 25%.
  • PBS is now available in the newFASANT MONCROS Solver Module as an HPC option.
  • Significant speed improvements were made to the MONCROS solver by improving interpolation approaches.

 

View the full Release Notes and download Feko 2021 from Altair One.

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