2.1. Version 5.30 (latest - 2026/05/20)

New Features

  • Improved support for mass balance tied pressure contact model so that it now works with decomposing ablation models.

  • The new PENALIZED_NORMAL_DISPLACEMENT mesh flux boundary condition was added, providing an alternate approach to the rotated kinematic BC with no displacement that uses a penalized approach instead of rotation. Similarly, the new SPECIFIED_NORMAL_VELOCITY mesh flux boundary condition was added as an option for specifying mesh normal velocity without a rotated BC.

  • Add a new automatic enclosure shell skinning capability to allow enclosure meshes to be decoupled from the surrounding mesh, enabling adaptivity on the volume mesh without requiring viewfactors to be recalculated.

  • The CHARGE_DENSITY equation is now no longer a beta feature, and has testing and some flexibility for diffusive flux models.

  • Enabled toggling for all flux boundary condition types, not just energy.

  • The Sierra transfer now includes an optional coordinate transformation that allows transfer between 2D and 3D meshes.

  • Improved the Neohookean mesh stress model to better handle element collapse numerically

  • Added a new REMOVE_OLD_MESH_STRESS model for use in material-removal mesh deformation problems where maintaining a stress-free state is important. This can only be used along with the Neohookean model currently.

Deprecations

  • The CURRENT_EXCHANGE_DENSITY model is deprecated, use EXCHANGE_CURRENT_DENSITY

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed parser bug where nonlinear settings specified at the region scope would be ignored depending on the region ordering + equation system usage in the input deck. Region scope nonlinear settings are now respected irrespective of input deck ordering.

  • Fixed data probe bug wherein nodal probes could pick up block restrictions from location probes leading to incorrect results.

  • Fixed the behavior of surface-driven mesh adaptivity to allow mesh refinement of contact interfaces.

  • Fixed a bug when using a rotated kinematic boundary condition along with the line search option that would result in non-convergence.

  • Fixed a bug when using scalar string functions in universal expressions that would result in a substantial increase in memory use.

  • Fixed a numerical stability issue in the Butler Volmer limiter terms, improving nonlinear convergence behavior in the limited flux regime.