MSC Ships Nastran 2013

The new release integrates fatigue analysis capabilities. Engineers can now calculate fatigue damage and life using the MSC Nastran solver without the need to export results to a separate fatigue solution. What was once a post-processing exercise is now an integral part of the analysis process, allowing users to perform weight optimization while constraining fatigue life.

Time savings are achieved by avoiding sequential process steps in the durability calculations. This reduces both computational time (in one scenario, a fatigue analysis that traditionally took eight hours, took just 38 minutes) and improves ease of use (200 files to process is reduced to two), according to the company.

Trim components are used extensively in automobiles and aircrafts to dampen the vibrations and improve the cabin comfort for the occupants. The new version supports the poroelastic behavior of these trim components to analyze the vibroacoustic performance of the vehicle by modeling the complex multi-physics of the fluid-solid interaction, resulting in improved simulation accuracy.

The user-defined material subroutine has been improved, enabling engineers to define new state variables, with ability to pass additional internal variables. MNF files that are used by Adams to simulate deformation in flexible bodies can now be exported at a deformed configuration as well.

The release also includes new 1D to 3D and 2D to 3D axisymmetric mapping for blast loads in Eulerian solver. With this capability, users can improve the computational speed of these analyses by performing one- or two-dimensional analyses and mapping the results to a three-dimensional mesh when needed to account for effect of the wave on a structure.

There are also new LS-Dyna libraries based on LS-Dyna version MPP 971s R6.0.0.

For more information, visit MSC Software.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.