Summary Postprocessing |
 
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Summary Postprocessing |
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Flexcom provides a powerful facility for generating a Summary Output File. Here the maximum value, the minimum value, the range of values and the standard deviation of values is tabulated for a group of parameters you specify. The output is in a succinct format and is suitable for inserting directly into a study report. The response statistics are calculated by default over the full simulation length, but options are provided to specify start and end times for the computations.
If you are performing a series of analyses (for example to examine a large number of different load cases), the Summary Postprocessing Collation facility provides a useful means of assembling all the pertinent summary data across a range of load cases into a single Summary Collation Spreadsheet. Enhanced data visualisation is also provided by the ability to produce 3-dimensional Summary Collation Plots.
The parameters for inclusion in the summary output file can be specified after an analysis completes, and the summary output file itself subsequently generated. More importantly, the parameters for the summary file can be specified before an analysis begins, at the same time perhaps as the analysis data is input. In this latter case the summary postprocessing runs automatically after the analysis completes, without further user intervention. In this way report-ready information is immediately available, without the need for further postprocessing. This offers the facility for increased automation of riser design, for example in a situation where a large number of load cases needs to be run but only a small number of outputs must actually be checked in each.
In addition to the tabular summary file, you can optionally request that Flexcom generate a timetrace plot file for some or all of the parameters you nominate for inclusion in the summary output. In this way all of the tabular and plot data required for inclusion in a report can be generated at the same time.
Note that the capability to generate a summary output file is not available for frequency domain analyses. This is mainly because the effort involved in performing and postprocessing analyses in the frequency domain is less onerous than in the time domain. For example, the multiple regular wave facility allows you to run a series of regular wave analyses over a range of periods, and response RAOs may be readily produced via Database Postprocessing. So all of the options pertaining to summary postprocessing, and consequently the remainder of this section, relate specifically to time domain analysis.
Further information on this topic is contained in the following sections:
The section on Summary Postprocessing Collation is highly relevant also.
•Numerous keywords are contained in the $SUMMARY POSTPROCESSING section, allowing you to extract pertinent results (e.g. maximum/minimum values) from time domain analyses in succinct tabular format. For example, you could use the *PARA FORCE ENVELOPE keyword to request summary output of statistics of element restoring forces. Or you could use the *STANDARD OUTPUT keyword to quickly request a selection of commonly used outputs.
If you would like to see an example of how these keywords are used in practice, refer to J03 - Summary Collation.