Simcenter Femap 2021 Adds New Features to the FEA Simulation Tool

2021 Update focuses on mesh and visualization improvements.

When Research and Markets published its recent study on the global simulation software market, the future looked bright. According to the study, global market size is expected to grow from $12.7 billion in 2020 to $26.9 billion by 2026. The site noted that reduced training costs and production expenses would be the main drivers for growth in the industry. Consulting services, training, installation and support are all pieces of the industry that are expected to grow over the next five years. The report also noted that some of the biggest challenges to this industry’s boom will be difficulty integrating new software into existing infrastructure and the increasing security risks that are felt by every online database.

Simcenter helps to predict 3D geometry performance. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Transparency Market Research also published a Finite Element Analysis Software Market report that looked back over the last decade and provided a forecast for the future. The need for complex equations and methods has grown to areas beyond the traditional stress and strain analyses. The report cites wave propagation, biological cell growth, and health care use simulations as new areas where analysis software is expected to move and grow. Special consideration is given to the use of simulation software during the COVID-19 pandemic, with attempts to model and predict the growth trajectory and reduce the possible impacts on the worldwide health care system. This report says the “global finite element software market” could reach $11 billion by 2030, with an eye on growth in India and China. Trends noted here are the rapid shift to cloud-based computing to ease customer access while giving suppliers easier methods to distribute their products. Aerospace and defense are the industries singled out here for growth in the next year, as the ability to make fewer physical prototypes continues to save costs, timing and resources.

Both reports list Siemens as one of the global leaders in finite element analysis (FEA) and simulation with Simcenter being one of its primary tools for predictive simulation and test applications. Simcenter has a goal of “accelerating innovation over the whole life cycle” and works to do that with a combination of simulation, workflow automation and data management. The company website is full of case studies (where they’re called customer success stories, because why not?) and my favorite involves the use of Femap in high-end airline interiors.

Design Space helps to accelerate product optimization. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Femap is used for building, testing and managing finite element models in the design process. Nastran is built into Femap and lets users visualize and communicate results easily. Focus areas for Femap include computational fluid dynamics (CFD), thermal simulation, structural analysis, optimization, pre- and post-processing and simulation automation and scalability.

Recently, Simcenter Femap 2021 was previewed with a look at the new features added to the software. Mark Sherman, director of software development – Simcenter Femap; Andy Haines, applications engineering manager – Simcenter Femap; and Jim Jeans, senior structural analyst & owner at SDA Inc., participated in showcasing the update.

Introducing Simcenter Femap 2021. (Video courtesy of Siemens.)

The group discussed this new age of product complexity, which has been fueled by the need for personalized products and services that reduce material and energy use while optimizing performance. While staying within the parameters of time, scope, quality and cost, engineers are expected to do more at all times. Femap uses a mesh-centric finite element method with a focus on geometry preparation for better post-processing visualization. Nastran, Ansys, Abaqus and LS-DYNA all work with the Femap software to power the analysis framework.

Some notable customer applications were highlighted at the beginning of the video, and the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) was called out as one of the software’s longest customers. The first use of Femap at the JPL was an effort to unstick an antenna on the Galileo space probe. The design cycle of the Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers both used Femap as well.

Jim Jeans explained how his small consulting firm in Virginia uses Femap to develop composite aircraft and spacecraft. Falcon is a small general aviation aircraft that seats six passengers, and the company is using Femap to build subassemblies and analyze the structure of the craft. The NASA Roman Space Telescope is another of SDA’s projects, where a team of four engineers builds both large assemblies and single component analyses. Composite materials are undergoing coefficient of thermal expansion studies to confirm that the components will stand up to the space environment. The Turbine Legend is a fast and agile two-seater aircraft built completely from composite materials. Jeans says that the mesh-on-mesh capability in Femap 2021 is the feature he’s the most excited to use.

Andy Haines talked about the meshing upgrades included in the new software release. Mesh sizing propagation is the tool that Haines says will reduce the time spent on geometry cleanup and build a higher quality mesh. An example shown during the presentation demonstrates how the Mesh Control Explorer tool lets users see the edges of different surfaces and choose the best way to marry the surfaces together. 

Free edges and edges of different sizes can be connected into a full mesh by using the meshing toolbox and imprinting points. Previously, users would have to go in and pull all the surfaces together manually or completely rebuild the non-manifold surface. However, the 2021.1 release does that work now based on edge proximity. Mesh sizing propagation lets users easily update a hex mesh. Mesh sizing can increase or decrease mesh sizes and now can set custom sizes for mesh elements. The mapped mesh feature lets users set a mesh size and pick single surfaces to build meshes specifically mapped to a surface, instead of having a resultant set of meshes that might be influenced by two or three different directions or features.

Siemens found that an increasing number of models it received to work on were facet-based representations rather than boundary representations. This led to the development of the Mesh Bodies command. The example shown in the video goes from a faceted unusable mesh on a complex part to a tetrahedral mesh in about 15 seconds.

Femap 2021.1 has added support for Nastran’s Solution 400, the nonlinear analysis component of the software that works with contact models, multiphysics, plasticity or advanced composites. Functions are added for contact conditions, property extensions and more analysis parameters. Specific materials that are already synced with Solution 400 were added to the material database for easier and more consistent processing. A new icon was added for Property Extensions so the Large Strains option can be turned on while Integration Type and Behavior Types are specified.

JT Visualization gets its own set of improvements with this release, so users can communicate their data without the receiver having an instance of Femap open. JT files can show the visual results while sending along the load sets and multiple options for outputs. In the demonstration, Teamcenter Visualization Professional is used to input that JT file and Andy Haines shows several different visualization tricks. Anything that the analyst sends as a data set or geometry/load/case option can be sent to a stakeholder without them requiring the use of Femap.

This new version of Femap includes many changes that should greatly improve the performance of the software for analysts who use the software all day. The amount of detail shown in this demonstration is not for beginning users, and the demonstrations have the feel of upgrades made in response to the software’s most hardcore users. Several times during the demonstration, Haines goes five or six option screens deep to show the new functions added for a given task. This is a level of detail I don’t usually see in product demonstrations and it’s a nice touch to have a user with such deep skills showing what the software can do.

The highlight reel of different customer applications that opens the video effectively shows the breadth of where the software can be used— from aerospace and defense applications to tennis shoe analysis. I was also impressed that Siemens brought in one of its customers to show how the software is being used for development and analysis in their own company.