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Noran Engineering, Inc. in the Media
NEiFusion
Receives Award from Design News Magazine
Design
News magazine awarded Noran Engineering its 2007 Golden Mousetrap
Award for Best Product in the Category of Analysis & Calculation
Software for NEiFusion
v1.2. The award was presented at the National Design Engineering
Show in Rosemont, IL in October. Pictured above is Dalis Ramonas,
NEi Central U.S. Account Manager, accepting the award at the show.
The award was particularly satisfying for NEi because Design News
magazine is read by 170,000 subscribers involved in mechanical
and electromechanical design and product development. Plus, NEiFusion
was selected above many established brand names because of the
many new features that make it an effective tool at the CAD design
stage for virtual test and design validation.
Some excerpts
from Design News’ assessment and selection process
follow:
“Looking
for finite element analysis (FEA) capabilities, but aren't an
FEA simulation specialist? Look no further than NEiFusion,
Noran Engineering Inc.'s new approach to engineering analysis
and simulation software. The FEA program is designed specifically
for engineers doing design and product development”.
“NEiFusion
takes a 3D, feature-based, paramatic CAD approach, making it feel
more familiar and friendly to most within a product development
team.”
“For
engineers, more accessible and affordable FEA software opens the
door to doing virtual testing earlier and more often in the design
process. NEiFusion
presents design engineers with an easy-to-use tool to assess the
performance of their parts before prototypes are built, which
aids in reducing design cycle times and boosting quality improvements.”
“The
software's Pre-Processor module incorporates a comprehensive element
library, meshing capabilities and an extensive materials liberty
to insure real world fidelity. Its Post-Processor component provides
a wide variety of images and graphs to view simulation results
and is equipped with file sharing and import/export capabilities
for easily sharing FEA models. NEiFusion
also employs the same NEiNastran
Solvers found in Noran Engineering’s other analysis
products.”
To read more
about the award and go to Design
News online coverage.
Noran
Engineering Product Release Information
NEiNastran
v9.1 Released
NEi
Nastran V9.1 is a major upgrade with over 80 customer
driven enhancements. Major features include support for automated
impact analysis, enhanced nonlinear and dynamic solutions, improved
solver and overall performance, and new aerospace, maritime, and
automotive productivity tools. The NEiEditor GUI has been modified
to enhance the user interface usability. Also, several other NEiEditor
enhancements have been included such as grid point stress and
grid point strain display, capability to move through the same
composite result measure ply by ply, and the ability to restore
default settings in the Setup property page.
For more information
please visit http://www.nenastran.com/announcingV91.
Check
the Special Year End Promotion in the left hand column.
Save up to 20% OFF. Please note the
special offer ends December 15.
Events
and Trade Shows
Noran
Engineering, Inc. participates in a wide range of trade shows.
A list of upcoming events is provided in the left column.
National
Manufacturing Week Expo at Donald E.
Stephens
Convention Center in Rosemount, Illinois.
Dallas
Ramons (left), Gabe Dambaugh (right), are pictured above at Noran
Engineering's booth at the National Manufacturing Week Expo. The
trade show provided a great opportunity for vistors to get a first
hand look at new software features like and a chance to get attention
for specific analysis and simulation questions.
Tech
Tips
Using
the Stress Error Quantification in NEi Nastran
A recently added feature of NEiNastran is a value which
quantifies the stress error for shell and solid elements, addressing
the issue associated with mesh density.
When using shell and solid elements for stress contours, it is
difficult to know when you have enough elements to capture the
stress adequately. To provide a guideline for using both the Shell
Element Stress Error and Solid Element Stress Error to determine
when enough elements have been used, we created test cases where
we incrementally increased the mesh size for various models to
determine the Stress Error value corresponding to a 2% stress
convergence. The max von Mises stress was used to quantify the
Shell Element stress error, whereas the max Normal Stress was
used to quantify the Solid Element Stress Error.
For a von Mises stress convergence within 2%, a Stress Error of
approximately 0.015 or less is needed for shell elements. To achieve
a Normal Stress convergence of 2%, a Stress Error of approximately
0.03 or less is needed from solid elements.
Using
the Extended Results Labels in NEi Nastran
There is now added support for extended results titles
and labels in the FEMAP Binary results File (FNO). The new labels
are now up to 80 characters long and provide a better description
of the associated results measure.
The parameter
RSLTFILEDBLERPRCS under Output Control Directives allows you to
turn ON/OFF the double precision option for the FEMAP FNO. When
set to OFF, it will use single precision data storage with extended
length titles and labels. When set to ON, it will use double precision
data storage with standard length titles and labels. The OFF option
is only compatible with FEMAP versions 9.3 and higher an will
provide better performance and more informative results labels.
In the two
screenshots bellow you can see the difference in the results titles
from when the RSLTFILEDBLERPRCS parameter is set to ON and when
it is OFF. For example the shell element bottom side principle
stress reads “SHELL MINOR-PRINCIPAL-1” when set to
ON and “SHELL MINOR-PRINCIPAL-BOTTOM” when set to
OFF.
Standard Length
Titles and Labels, RSLTFILEDBLERPRCS = ON
Extended Length
Titles and Labels, RSLTFILEDBLERPRCS = OFF
If you do not know what some of the result vectors
are, you can look up descriptions in Appendix A of the NEiNastran
Reference Manual. Simply go to Start>All Programs>NEiNastran>
Documentation and open the NEiNastran Reference Manual PDF file.
In Appendix A, results descriptions are separated into three types
of results, Element, Grid Point, and Vector, and within each of
these types they are separated by element type.
Noran
Engineering Featured Application
NEi
Nastran Helps Meet the Challenges of Composite Design for Around-the-World
Ocean Racing
Farr
Yacht Design (FYD) of Annapolis, MD has compiled an exceptional
record of wins over the last 25 years in some of the world’s
most prestigious yachting events. Successes include the Whitbread
Round the World Race, now the Volvo Ocean Race, America's Cup,
Admiral's Cup, Commodores' Cup, Kenwood Cup, Sardinia Cup, and
Southern Cross.
When
Dave Fornaro, FYD Design Engineer, was looking to enhance his
composite structural analysis and simulation capabilities he looked
to Noran Engineering. He put his thoughts on his expectations
of FEA software this way, “Structural analysis is an increasingly
important component of successful racing yacht design. We have
been utilizing FEA for several years to validate and improve our
designs and desired to enhance our suite of analysis tools with
more advanced capabilities in several areas including laminated
composites, non-linear surface contact with friction, and bolted
joints with pre-load. After an exhaustive review, NEi Nastran
stood out as the best choice based on its advanced capabilities,
cost-effectiveness, and quality technical support. FYD’s
first application of NEi Nastran is for it’s next-generation
of designs for the Volvo Ocean Race, a grueling round-the-world
race sailed in fully crewed, 70-foot carbon fiber yachts capable
of speeds in excess of 40 knots. These designs are forging new
frontiers in ocean racing. They operate in harsh and brutal conditions,
and require a rigorous level of structural design and analysis
to ensure peak performance and safety. We are confident that NEi
Nastran will be an excellent tool for the job and we have been
extremely satisfied with the support from Noran Engineering.”
Tony Abbey, NEi Technical Manager, noted the collaborative potential
and the connection with other composite projects, “NEi Nastran
provides benefits to a highly sophisticated user base ranging
from aerospace vehicles and Formula 1 cars to America’s
Cup and Tour de France bicycles. So we are excited to include
FYD in our community of composite analysts.”
Left:
Farr Yacht Design (www.farrdesign.com) has provided the design
and engineering for many winning Volvo Ocean Race contenders over
the past 25 years. The Disney-backed "Pirates of the Caribbean"
shown placed second in the 2005-2006 edition of the race. The
grueling 9-month, round the world event covers some of the most
extreme and inhospitable sailing conditions on earth, including
winds up to 60 knots and ocean swells up to 30 feet high, with
the boats capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots. Right:
NEi Nastran Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software from Noran
Engineering (www.NEiNastran.com) is used to simulate the performance
of the entire yacht made from carbon fiber composites. Images
shown are displacement contour plots for an extreme condition
of impact with a submerged object.
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