Creating History Sensors

History sensors enable you to create parameters from specific regions of interest, quantities, steps, frames, or load cases and determine the minimum, maximum, and maximum absolute values for individual result values from a simulation. History sensors track values from history output requests (results at specific points in the model or results that relate to the entire model or to model regions as a whole such as energy).

Before you begin: The simulation must be complete.
  1. From the Visualization section of the action bar, click Create Sensor .
    The Create Sensor dialog box appears.
    Note: Frequency and buckling steps sensors cannot be selected for the definition of output sensors.
  2. Click History for the Type.
  3. Optional: Enter a Name for the sensor.
    If a contour plot or symbol plot was displayed, the default sensor name includes the variable name.
  4. Specify the history output Variable that the selected sensor will track.
    If a contour plot or symbol plot is displayed, the variable selected in that plot is used as the default selection for the sensor.
  5. For multispecies CFD or CEL analyses, select the desired material in the Species field.
  6. Select the specific Quantity that you want to monitor, which can include the overall magnitude of the variable or one of its invariants or components.
  7. Select a Support type, either Whole Model, all regions, or a sub-region.

    The available selections depend on the history output requested for the variable. For all regions or a sub-region, click ... to further refine your criteria.

  8. Select the individual Step or All time based steps to measure the history output results.
    If a selected step has a load case, the Loadcase option appears.
  9. Select an individual Load case or (All).
    If (All) is selected, the Frames option appears.
  10. In the Frames option, select an individual frame to measure history output results.
  11. In the Parameters options, select any of the extrema you want to track as part of this sensor.

    You can select Minimum, Maximum, Absolute Maximum, and Last. The Last option is available only for history sensors applied on the whole model, or on a single region or sub-region. The Last option returns the last converged value for a selected node or element.

  12. Click OK.
    The new sensor is created.
  13. To modify a sensor, display the list of sensors in the Results tabbed page of the Feature Manager, then either double-click its row or right-click its row and select Edit.
    When you edit a history sensor, only the options related to the history sensor appear in the dialog box. You cannot create a field sensor by editing a history sensor.