Hi Dirk,



Currently thermal expansion considerations can only be automatically controlled in Sequential Mode; you're right that the thermal pickup isn't available in NS mode. I think this is because there is much more generality required in regards to where the reference points for the expansion are. The best option would be to create some ZPL macro solves to handle the thermal expansion. Within a macro, you can retrieve the current temperature and fix the reference temperature (or retrieve it from the MCE) to find deltaT, and from here you can apply a scalar to the nominal parameter. These ZPL macro solves could be applied from within the MCE, similar to how the thermal pickup works. 



Thanks,

Zach

Hi Clarence,

On a CAD object, there is a Scale Factor parameter that can be used to model a uniform thermal expansion:

So that can work for each individual object.

Then you would need to think about the deformation of the whole structure and how each CAD object is positioned in that structure. The Ref Object parameter can be used for that.

As my colleague mentioned, you could also automate the calculation of the scale factor with a ZPLM, but I am not sure how well that would work as reading the TCE in non-sequential is not possible.

But here is an example. I have defined two configurations. I am going to work in the second configuration:

In the 2nd configuration, I am going to evaluate the change between temperatures on lines 2 and 4 of the multi-configuration editor.

So here is the ZPL solve macro called NSC_Thermal_Scale:

 

Then I can add this solve on the scale factor:

As you see, it is not really direct.

Let us know if we can help any further.

Thank you!

 

 

 

 

Hi Saudrine

Thanks for the help. Am I right to say that what you have shown is only limited to uniform expansion of the components and it considers the expansion based on the imported CAD material property? What then say of a thermal gradient across components and the whole assembly?

Hi, 

 

Trying to optimize an athermal Fresnel 1 design:

Thermal expansions are not handle in Non Sequential without a macro, so I did this optimization in Sequential but when I convert it to Non-Sequential mode the Fresnel lens is converted to a Fresnel 2 lens (which is supposed to be ideal).

I actually want to optimize the Fresnel lens in Non-Sequential using the NSDD operand to minimize a spot onto a detector. 

Otherwise, how can I trust the Fresnel 2 Design in Non Sequential?  How can I convert it to a Fresnel 1 making sure that all the thermal constant are right?

Thanks, 

Martin