For our flagship Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, MSC Nastran, development never stands still. It’s used in every industry in many modes, providing robust and precise results for anything from composite and mixed material analyses (NAS113) to topology optimization (Sol 200). The innovation takes place in the continuous refinements, new features and core optimisations that our development team makes to address your priorities.
Feature Pack 1, released to customers on Friday, 29th September, 2019, includes GPU performance optimisations for Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) tests common in automotive applications, native support for the HASHIN failure criterion for composites and more accurate and efficient modal computations for structures filled with heavy fluids.
Faster NVH analyses with native GPU optimisation
Based on user feedback from multiple automotive OEMs around the world, we have implemented native support for GPU processing within the FASTFR (fast frequency response) and MPYAD (matrix operations) modules in MSC Nastran, offering users significantly improved NVH solution performance and scalability.
Andrzej Pietrzyk, Method Development Manager for NVH CAE at Volvo Car Corporation was a proponent for GPU acceleration. In testing this release he commented: “Leveraging the GPU’s for dynamic analysis using MSC Nastran 2019 Feature Pack 1 version at Volvo presents substantial savings in run time – up to 50% faster for the runs extending to high frequency. GPU support is a highly promising development path for MSC Nastran”.
Easier ways to account for heavy fluids
Creating an effective model to understand how the fluid within a structure behaves can be challenging. To understand how such a system behaves together requires a modal analysis involving both time domain and frequency domains.
Performance enhancements in this latest release introduce the capability to compute structures filled with heavy fluids, such as satellite launch vehicles with fuel tanks. MSC Nastran now offers a unique real coupled modes computation method, which makes it possible to account for the influence of heavy fluids in modal frequency and their transient response in an FEA model. Real coupled modes computation is faster than complex coupled modes computation and offers more accurate results than separate structure and fluid modes reduction methods.
Large Fluid tank filled with Fluid shown in grey: Real coupled modes computation makes it possible to perform more accurate analysis of the combined fluids and structure at a system level
Simulate aerospace composite failure with HASHIN failure theory
Continuing MSC Software’s focus on light-weighting using composites, MSC Nastran 2019 Feature Pack 1 now enables support for HASHIN, a damage assessment methodology based on the Hashin failure theory for fiber-reinforced plastics in linear solutions, that is widely used by aerospace engineers to study composite failure. The HASHIN failure criterion is useful because it distinguishes between fiber failure and matrix failure.
We constantly work with OEMs directly and enable them to incorporate their engineering workflows into our product, and that is why MSC Nastran remains the world’s leading finite element analyses software after 50 years. It doesn’t get old. With MSC Apex, our all-new CAE environment, engineers that have never used FEA before can also get started while specialists may choose to using the powerful and familar Patran pre-processor.
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