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Simulation or computer aided engineering (CAE) using finite element analysis (FEA) is a method of virtually proving a product or design. The design is modeled, often starting with CAD data, within a simulation product suite like Femap on a PC. The simulation model is then virtually tested, using an FEA solver like NX Nastran, to verify that the design will function as expected under defined operating conditions. The results from the simulation provide insight into the behavior of the design and help engineers make design changes and improvements.
The use of simulation in the design process can bring many benefits that will save both time, money and your company's or product's reputation, not to mention helping you to innovate faster and get your products to market sooner. Below are just some of the reasons to use Femap.
Good designs that are quicker to market - With an increasing requirement to produce designs in shorter cycles, reduced time-to-market has become the foremost business pressure that drives the adoption of simulation in design. Prototype manufacturing and testing can take up a significant amount of calendar time. However, because simulation allows designs to be tested virtually, the reduced reliance upon physical testing and prototyping and the consequent time saving means you can effectively bring your designs to market sooner.
Reduce physical testing and save money - Manufacturing costs money and testing can also be very expensive. Besides saving time, reducing the testing overhead by using simulation to verify your designs will also mean that you will be able to significantly reduce the expense of manufacturing and testing prototypes, which could amount to a considerable cost saving.
Innovate faster and beat your competition - Customer demand for new higher quality products and increasingly complex customer requirements are major business pressures that face manufacturers today. To satisfy the demand for designs of greater complexity, the ability to innovate quickly in the design cycle becomes vital. Through virtual design experimentation, faster innovation - creative product design and the process of making improvements through the introduction of new ideas - can become a reality with the help of simulation. Simulation can position you ahead of the competition by helping you to improving your current products, create high quality new products and so better serve your customers.
Keep material costs in check - A major concern these days is the rising price of materials. Use of simulation can minimize the amount of material used in a design by optimizing it to be as strong as it needs to be, and eliminating wasteful overdesign. More than that, it is also possible to evaluate the performance of other less expensive materials in the design, bringing further potential savings.
Fix designs before production - Product recalls and product failure in the field is not only very expensive, it also can cause immeasurable damage to the reputation of your company as well as the product itself. Simulating your product designs in the virtual world, where design flaws can be discovered and rectified in a timely manner before the design goes into production, can increase the quality of the design, eliminate costly recalls later, and increase the reputation of the company and product.
FEATURES
Geometry creation - Boolean and extrude/revolve solid modeling; mid-surface extraction; project curves onto surfaces; intersect surfaces to create curves; define regions by projecting curves on solid; create curves based on U-V space on surfaces; shell solids with constant thickness; rule, revolve, extrude and loft surfaces; stitch surfaces into solids; create points, lines, arcs, circles and splines;. break, trim, extend, join, fillet, offset and copy geometric entities.
Import or export - DXF and IGES points and curves, stereolithography (SLA) data, ACIS (.sat) Parasolid (.x_t) parts or assemblies. CATIA import model files, and Express files from CATEXP. (CATIA v4.1.x, v4.2, or v5) , VDA Import (up to v2.0), I-deas import (MS8), Pro/E import.(v16 to v20), Solid Edge import, Unigraphics NX import.( v11 through NX v4).
Meshing - Global and local controls with default sizing. Define element size or spacing with bias. Free surface meshing, quads or triangles only. Mapped meshing with quads or bricks. Direct generation of line, shell and solid elements. Extrude and revolve geometric curves or line elements into shell elements, shell elements can be extruded or revolved to form solid elements. Connected shell elements can be extruded normal to themselves to turn thin-shell models into solid ones. Mesh refinement and smoothing. Subdivision and semi-automatic meshing of solids, Automatic solid meshing with tetrahedral elements.
Materials - Isotropic, orthotropic and anisotropic. Nonlinear elastic, bi-linear and plastic. Hardening: isotropic or kinematic. Hyperelasticity, creep and composites. Temperature and strain rate dependence. User extensible library included.
Loads and constraints - Geometry or finite element based. Associativity between geometry and mesh. Load case definition and management. Fixed (non-zero) displacements and rotations. Multipoint constraint equations (MPCs). Nodal forces and moments. Distributed loads on line elements. Constant or variable pressure. Velocities and accelerations. Transient dynamic, frequency and random vibration. Temperatures, heat generation or flux. Convection and radiation.
User interface - Native Windows look and feel. Multiple graphics windows. Multiple model interface. Full, multi-level undo/redo. On-line help with hypertext links. Floating dockable toolbars to access frequently used commands. Toolbar entity editor. Model info tree and entity editor. Data manipulation through the data table. Cut and paste images into Windows applications. Dynamic highlight during selection operations. Box, circle, polygon, front, depth and query picking of geometric and FEA entities. Select entities by associativity (all elements connected to specified nodes, all elements of a specified property).
Element library - 1-D: rod, tube, bar, beam, spring, gap. Full support of arbitrary and standard cross-sections including all property calculations. 2-D planar solid. 3-D surface or solid. Planar and surface: quads and triangles. 3-D solid: tetra, wedge and brick. All 2- and 3-D elements: linear or parabolic. 2-D planar: plane strain or stress, axisymmetric. 3-D surface - shear panel or membrane. Mass and general stiffness matrices. Contact lines and surfaces, and slide lines. Spot weld elements.
Customization - Record, edit and playback user-defined macros. Full features, object oriented, OLE/COM-based programming API, can be directly accessed from fully integrated VB compatible BASIC Scripting development environment. Neutral file: fully documented ASCII file format.
Groups and Layers - With Femap you can easily subdivide your model for visualization or post-processing purposes,.. Automatically add new entities to active or user-specified group. Group by ID, associativity, material, property, and type. Automatic group creation based on properties, materials, and geometric constraints.
Results - Deformations, animations, and vector displays. Single- and multi-load set animations. Filled color contours and criteria displays. Isosurface and cutting planes, with dynamic control. Shear and bending moment diagrams. Error estimates. Results across composite laminates. Extensive result sorting capabilities. X-Y Plots with multiple curves. Text reports: standard and user-customized. Interactive data query with mouse. Freebody displays, including grid point force balance support for grouped entities. Import/export in comma separated tables. Internet publishing with VRML support. Save animations with AVI support.
Graphics - Dual Windows GDI (vector-based) and OpenGL graphics. 3-D dynamic pan, zoom and rotation. Hidden line and wireframe display. Free edge and free face display. Light source shading and transparency.
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