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Replaced mixer blades not rotating in HyperStudy-driven EDEM simulation

Hello everyone,

I am studying the Altair Community tutorial "Combining Machine Learning and Simulation for Bulk Solids Mixing Optimisation" and have encountered a problem while trying to reproduce the workflow.

My workflow is mostly set up successfully: HyperStudy generates a new geometry model for the mixer shaft (as an STL file) and automatically replaces the old 'dummy' model in the EDEM simulation template. The geometry replacement step is successful, and I can confirm before each run that the new mixer shaft is loaded correctly in the EDEM file.

However, when I view the animation of the EDEM simulation, I observe a strange behavior: only the central shaft of the mixer rotates, while all the blades remain static and do not rotate with the shaft.

To ensure the imported mixer shaft is treated as a single rigid body by EDEM, are there any special settings in HyperStudy or EDEM that I need to be aware of?

Is it necessary to add a step to the automation workflow, for example, using the EDEM command line or a script to forcibly merge all related geometry components into a single entity before the solver starts?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

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Garima_Singh

Hi @kyle66,

I am adding my comments from HyperStudy point of view to give an understanding of the process involved when HyperStudy is integrated with a solver.

HyperStudy will only execute EDEM (or any other solver) solver file as is & does not have default means/provisions to modify the solver file.

Hence, to merge the geometry components, it needs to be specified in the EDEM solver deck itself beforehand. However, I am not sure if it can be done in EDEM & hence, would like @Stephen Cole to comment on the same.

Many thanks.

Kind Regards

Garima Singh

Engineering Data Science

Stephen Cole

Hi, when we are optimising a geometry in EDEM-HyperStudy the process is that the modified geometry is written out, and then EDEM imports this. When EDEM imports the geometry it replaces an existing geometry, and any motion set to the geometry it replaces is transferred to the new CAD.

Shown at 4 min 30 s in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU9TMZklqy4

https://help.altair.com/edem/topics/appendix/replace_geometry_from_the_command_line_r.htm?hl=--rg

So there are a few things to consider:

Does the original geometry that we are replacing have assigned motion/rotation?
We can only replace one part with this method, so it has to be one solid part
Is it definitely not rotating, not just a visualisation issue? For example if we have a geometry with 4 evenly spaced blades rotating at 360 degrees per second and save data every 0.25 s it would look like the blades were not rotating, as each save data point the blades would be an exact position match

Regards

Stephen