Search methods for finding hotspots

Four search methods are available for finding critical areas of results using hotspot recipes.

Threshold

Finds all the result values above or below a threshold value. You set the threshold value and a range that is applied to the threshold. The entities included in the hotspot can be above or below the range and still be included in the hotspot. You also specify the minimum and maximum size (also referred to as span) of the hotspot and the maximum number of hotspots to find. Adjacent entities (also referred to as neighbors), are added to the hotspot depending on their values, their location to the threshold value, the type of threshold, and the minimum size of the hotspot.

The following shows the hotspots found when a threshold was set using a maximum offset range, a span of five, and a minimum number of hotspots of five.

The threshold range

You can define a range, either a factor or an offset, that defines the upper or lower bound for including entities in the hotspot. Entities inside the range are added to the hotspot if they are adjacent entities (also referred to as neighbors) of the entity that met the threshold (the critical or seed entity).

• A factor is either multiplied or divided by the threshold value.

• An offset (in MKS units) is subtracted from or added to the threshold value.

The following are examples of factors and offsets applied to different types of results.

Results	Factor or offset	Value
Damage	Factor	15
Stress	Factor	2

The software checks the following conditions to determine if an entity belongs to the hotspot, depending on whether it applies a factor or an offset:

• Maximum search on positive values (for example, damage in linear display)The entity belongs to the hotspot if:value(Entity) > threshold value – (absolute(threshold value) * offset)orvalue(Entity) > threshold value - offset

• Minimum search on negative values (for example, compressive stress):The entity belongs to the hotspot if:value(Entity) * factor < threshold valueorvalue(Entity) < threshold value + offset

• Minimum search on positive values (for example, fatigue life):The entity belongs to the hotspot if:value(Entity) / factor < threshold valueorvalue(Entity) - offset < threshold value

• Maximum search on negative values:The entity belongs to the hotspot if:value(Entity) / factor > threshold valueorvalue(Entity) + offset < threshold value

In addition, the following criteria must be met:

• 3D elements must have a common face.

• 2D elements must have a common edge.

• 1D elements must be connected by nodes.

Hotspot span

The hotspot span specifies the minimum and maximum number of neighboring entities belonging to the hotspot, starting by the threshold value. If the search does not find the minimum span criteria, the search fails and returns no hotspots.

The table shows the hotspot that results when entering a hotspot span of 1, 2, 3 or more.

The hotspot span value	Includes
1	The critical or seed entity that meets the threshold value criteria.
2	At least one entity that is a directly adjacent to the critical entity that meets the threshold value, its neighbor.
3 or more	All entities that are neighboring the group of entities of the last span that meet the search criteria. If no more entities can be added, the span is defined by the last span value. Entering higher values results in more entities. For example, the following shows a hotspot with its critical entity and a span of 5. It includes all the entities that lie within the range.

If a neighboring entity has a result value greater than the current node, the software excludes it from the search.

If the hotspot is a small region, where the value decreases rapidly in the neighborhood, entities that are geometrically very close to the hotspot center can have a value below or above the threshold. If the minimum size is too large, the software may not detect the hotspot.

Range

Finds entities below a maximum value or above a minimum value. Specifying a minimum value is useful for fatigue life results.

Minimum or Maximum Results

Finds only the specified minimum or maximum result values.

You also select a sorting range to include additional entities:

• By Value OffsetIncludes entities within an absolute offset (always in MKS units), which is subtracted from or added to the minimum or maximum values.

• By Percentage OffsetIncludes entities with result values equal to: (Min + Minpercentage)Or result values equal to:(Max - Maxpercentage)

• By Number of EntitiesIncludes only a specified number of entities with the maximum or minimum results values.

How do I

Create a hotspot recipe for a threshold

Create a hotspot recipe for a range of values

Create a hotspot recipe for minimum or maximum results

Generate hotspots from hotspot recipes

Manage hotspot recipes

Learn more

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Search methods for finding hotspots, Simcenter 3D 2021.1 Series

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