NEi Nastran determines the effects of static, dynamic, and thermal loads on structures at the design stage. New technology of interest to FE analysts in the offshore industry includes the following tools.

—Two new Automated Contact Generation tools that remove the tedium and cut the man-hours needed for modeling contact between discontinuous members in large complex shell like structures like ships and platforms.

—Automated Surface Contact Generation (ASCG(tm)) connects different parts without need for alignment or similar meshes.

—Automated Edge Contact Generation (AECG(tm)) makes welded connections regardless of offsets and gaps between edges and faces, a common need when midsurfacing thin shell models.

—Automated Impact Analysis (AIA(tm)) performs complex projectile and target collision simulations with basic starting input data. Contact and time duration between the two bodies is determined automatically and the modal frequencies and resultant accelerations calculated. 
  
—Linear Contact Analysis analyzes items with small deformation and movement like bolted connections and bearings. This feature provides accurate solutions for this class of contact that are two to ten times faster, easier to use, more robust in solution convergence, and significantly less in overall cost than conventional full nonlinear solvers.

—Design Optimization finds solutions for problems with opposing parameters, for example, structures that are both strong and light.

—Full material support covers items from concrete to composites and hyperelastic rubber.

Noran Engineering, Inc. (NEi)
www.neinastran.com

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