NEi Nastran Engine

User Interface

• Native Windows look and feel
• Multiple graphics windows
• Full, multi-level undo/redo
• On-line help with hypertext links
• Toolbars and custom tools toolbars to access frequently used commands
• 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)
• Extensive material properties library with over 6000 different materials and alloys

Modeling Capabilities

• Basic geometry creation
• Point, line, circle, spline, surface, volume
• Boolean and extrude/revolve solid modeling
• Mid-surface extraction
• Project curves onto surfaces
• Project nodes onto a plane or to a vector
• Intersect surfaces to create curves
• Define regions by projecting curves onto solids
• Create curves based on U-V space on surfaces
• Shell solids with constant thickness
• Rule, revolve, extrude and loft surfaces
• Stitch surfaces into solids
• Break, trim, extend, join and fillet, offset and copy geometric entities
• Group operation Booleans
• Parametric design language to define model in terms of variables and equations
• Import or export DXF and IGES points and curves, Stereolithography (SLA) data, ACIS (.sat) and Parasolid (.x_t) parts or assemblies
• CATIA import model files and Express files from CATEXP (CATIA v4.1.x or v4.2), VDA import (up to v2.0), IDEAS import (MS8), Pro/E import (v16 to v20), Solid Edge import, Unigraphics NX import (v11 through NX v1)
• Import model files from all popular commercial FEA codes
• Line, plate, and solid element types
• Mass and general stiffness matrices
• Contact lines and surfaces, and slide lines
• Generate plates from lines and solids from plates
• Quad-dominant automatic surface meshing, including multiple internal boundaries such as holes
• Automatic and mapped meshing, including biasing
• Tetrahedral and hexahedral mesher
• Mesh refinement and smoothing
• Geometry or finite element based loads and boundary conditions
• Unlimited number of grid points
• Composites layup dialogs
• Data surfaces to define complex load definitions
• Geometry thicken to add thickness to surfaces

Groups and Layers

• Easily subdivide your model for visualization or post-processing purposes, group by; Coordinate Clipping
• 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 Processing

• 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
• Global ply through PCOMPG

Graphics

• Dual Windows GDI (Vector-Based) and OpenGL graphics
• 3D dynamic pan, zoom and rotation
• Hidden line and wireframe display
• Free edge and free face display
• Light source shading and transparency
• Complete beam and plate displays, including orientation, axes, offsets, etc.

Customization

• Record, edit and playback macros
• BASIC Scripting Language
• Neutral file: fully documented binary and ASCII file formats

Element Library

• Tapered beam
• Rod and bar
• Tube
• Pipe
• Quadrilateral and triangular membranes, plates, and shells (five and six DOF/node up to eight nodes)
• Solids (four, five, and six-sided up to 20 nodes)
• Shear panels
• Plane stress, plane strain
• Axisymmetric (CTRIAX6)
• Spring, mass, and damper
• Coupled spring and damper
• Cable element
  • Initial slack or tension
  • Failure (snap)
• Contact elements (gap, slide line, surface-to-surface)
• Surface-to-surface and edge-to-surface weld option for contact surfaces
• Offset weld for contact surfaces with significant separation
• Spot weld (CWELD)
• Rigid general form, rigid rod, rigid bar, and rigid plate
• Large displacement/rotation rigid element (RBE2)
• Interpolation
• Conduction
• Capacitance
• Boundary surface
• Laminated solid elements (CHEXA, CPENTA)
• Virtual fluid mass boundary (MFLUID)
• General elements

Solution Capabilities

• Linear Static Analysis
• Inertial Relief
• Thermal Stress and Deflection Analysis
• Nonlinear Static Analysis
  • Geometric nonlinear
    • Large displacement/rotation (updated Lagrangian)
    • Follower forces
    • Snap-through analysis
    • Displacement control
  • Material nonlinear
    • Elastic
    • Elastic-plastic
    • Perfectly plastic
    • Nonlinear elastic
    • Thermo-elastic
    • Thermo-elastic
    • Creep
    • Concrete
  • Tension-only cables and shell elements with multiple loading condition
  • Gap, slide line, and surface-to-surface contact with friction
  • Temperature dependent materials in all solutions
  • Plain strain elements in material nonlinear solutions
• Linear and Nonlinear Buckling Analysis
• Natural Frequencies and Mode Shapes
  • Constrained, unconstrained, and rigid body
  • Modal participation factors
  • Modal reaction forces
  • Effective mass and percent effective mass
  • Extremely fast blocked Lanzcos and subspace methods
• Linear and Nonlinear Direct Transient Response Analysis with adaptive time stepping
• Linear Surface Contact Analysis
• Direct Frequency Response
• Modal Transient and Frequency Response
• Modal Response and Shock Spectrum Generation
• Dynamic Design Analysis Method, DDAM
• Single and multi-phase DDAM operation capability
• Modal Summation (NRL, SRSS, ABS, and CQC methods)
• Random Vibration
  • Correlated and uncorrelated input
  • Power spectral density
  • RMS
  • Autocorrelation input
  • Force, reaction, displacement, velocity, and acceleration output
  • Optional maximum and minimum principal stress/strain and von Mises results
  • Results output for bush elements
  • Multipoint constraint force output
• Vibration Fatigue Analysis*
  • Life and damage results measures and biaxiality ration from vibration fatigue analysis
  • Strain-life and stress-life
• Response Spectra Generation
• Complex Eigenvalue Analysis
• Enforced Motion
• Damping supported in all dynamic solutions
  • Modal damping
    • Equivalent viscous
    • Fraction of critical
    • Quality factor
  • Structural damping
  • Material damping
  • Discrete viscous damping elements: CBUSH, CVISC, CDAMP
  • Raleigh and proportional damping
  • Nonlinear and frequency dependent damping
  • Option to force modal damping to be treated as structural damping
  • Nonlinear shock and vibration mount
• Linear and Nonlinear Prestress
  • Dynamic solutions
  • Static analysis
  • Buckling analysis
  • Modal analysis
  • Transient and frequency response analysis
  • Random vibration
  • Response/shock spectrum generation
  • Modal summation
• Linear and Nonlinear Steady State Heat Transfer
• Linear and Nonlinear Transient Heat Transfer
• Composite laminate materials supported in all solutions
• Mass Properties Analysis
• Direct Matrix Import and Export (DMIG) for all solutions
• Craig-Bampton and Guyan Reduction
• Static condensation
• Automated Surface Contact Generation (ASCG)
• Automated Impact Analysis (AIA)
• Progressive Ply Failure Analysis for Nonlinear Static and Transient solutions (PPFA)*
• Temperature dependent composites material properties
• Helius:MCT Ply Failure integration*
• Automated Inertial Relief (AIR)
• Adaptive Nonlinear Static and Transient Analysis
• Multiaxial Fatigue Analysis*
  • Life and damage results measures
  • Strain-life and stress-life

Element Features

• Material properties include: temperature and stress dependent isotropic, orthotropic, anisotropic, and laminated composite material models
• Robust shell and solid elements give accurate results even with high skew angles, large aspect ratios, and when used in a coarse mesh
• Both element and grid point stresses can be output in any coordinate system with one simple command
• Automatic mid-side edge node option for solid elements
• Automatic vertex drill degree of freedom for shell elements
• Automatic correction for improperly defined rigid and interpolation elements
• Automatic correction of improperly defined parabolic solid elements
• Extensive checkout procedures
• Automated internal superelement generation
• Automated surface contact and surface weld generation
• Thermal expansion support for RBE2

Solution Features

• Model size limited by available disk space only
• Extremely fast sparse direct and iterative (PCGLSS) equation solvers reduces solution times from hours to seconds
• Automatic mass and stiffness singularity detection and correction
• Decomposition mechanism detection and correction
• Solution error measure for static solutions, orthogonality loss and error norms for eigenvalue solutions
• User definable restart capability for nonlinear static analysis and nonlinear transient response solution

Material Properties

• Isotropic
• 2D and 3D Orthotropic
• 2D and 3D Anisotropic
• Temperature-dependent
• Stress-dependent
• Creep
• Large strain hyperelastic
  • Neo-Hookean
  • Mooney-Rivlin
  • Yeoh
  • Ogden
  • Generalized Polynomial
• Large strain isotropic
• 2D and 3D composite laminate
• Isotropic and orthotropic plane strain
• Brittle materials – concrete
• Shape memory material (Nitinol)

Performance and Control Features

• Uses the most current advances in finite element technology
• Written in fast, optimized 32-bit Visual Fortran 95 and C/C++
• Complete program control is provided allowing user definable program execution sequence
• Multiple model initialization files can be created, each customized for a particular job
• Extensive error checking at all stages of execution
• Program execution can be tailored to system resources for optimum performance
• Support for model input files over 10 million lines in size

Output Features

• Direct support for Femap results import using either ASCII or Binary Femap neutral file interface
• Results import support for other FEA and CAD applications using the Nastran Output 2 or Patran 2.5 neutral file interface
• Support for Nastran XDB results neutral files
• A detailed tabular model data/results file eliminates the cryptic nature of standard Nastran output files by explaining all entities in the model database
• Results measures include:
  • Energy
  • Stresses
  • Strains
  • Forces
  • Reactions
  • Displacements
  • Velocities
  • Accelerations
  • Heat fluxes
  • Thermal gradients
  • Temperatures
  • Enthalpies
  • Grid point force balance
  • Global stiffness matrix
  • Global conductivity matrixes
  • Mass and damping matrixes
  • Solution and mesh error estimates
  • Element and grid point results
• Nonlinear results include
  • Equivalent stress
  • Effective plastic, nonlinear elastic, and creep strain
  • Gap, slide line, and contact surface displacement
  • Contact forces and stresses
• Contact force and stress output to linear contact analysis
• Automatic and user definable measure sorting for handling multiple load case results
• Powerful grid and element set generator for generating sets that can be used to control output, define measure coordinate systems, generate grid point temperatures, and define measure sort commands
• Shell and solid element corner stress and strain output
• Grid point weight generator with complete mass properties
• Stress discontinuity/convergence error calculation
• Element and grid point stress, strain, heat flux, and thermal gradients can be output in any coordinate system including: material, grid point, basic, and global
• Intermediate bar and beam element output
• von Mises stress output for bar, beam, shell, and solid elements
• Composite failure index and strength ratio output
• Composite sandwich material stability index
• Strain energy output for composite shell elements
• Von Mises strain output for linear solutions
• Eigenvalue rigid body strain energy output
• Automatic generation of structural temperatures for direct modeler import or structural analysis
• Element and grid point thermal gradients and heat flux
• Heat flow into heat boundary elements
• All directional results measures can be output in a user definable coordinate system either before or after an analysis is run
• PUNCH file support for real element results data
• Support for strain curvature output
• Bush element linear strain output
• Normalized mesh convergence error measures
• Real-time grid point and element results x-y plotting and MS Excel Comma Separated Variable (.CSV) file generation
• Inertia relief rigid body acceleration vector output
• Thermal, mechanical and total strain output
• Scaled mode shape output for DDAM analysis

Loads and Boundary Conditions

• Nodal forces and moments
• Pressure loads
• Gravity and centrifugal
• Rotational acceleration and velocity
• Single and multipoint constraints
• Symmetric, antisymmetric, axisymmetric, cyclic symmetric boundary conditions
• Multiple loading and boundary condition subcases
• Thermal loading and stress recovery
• Temperature dependent conductivity
• Isotropic and anisotropic thermal conductivity
• Temperature dependant internal heat generation
• Temperature dependent heat transfer coefficient
• Temperature gradient dependent heat transfer coefficient
• Radiation and convection loads
• Nonlinear functional forms
• Surface normal heat flux
• Grid point nodal power
• 2D or 3D interpolation of input, temperature, displacements, forces, moments and pressure loads
• Specified constant temperatures for steady state analysis
• Specified time-dependent temperatures for transient analysis
• Initial starting temperatures for nonlinear steady state analysis
• Initial starting temperatures for all transient analyses
• Inertial relief loading
• Bolt preload for static, prestress, buckling and direct transient solutions

Editor

• Fully integrated and customizable Nastran Editor controls program operation and provides results summary data through an easy to use GUI

• Full post-processing and results query
• Tabled windows to give immediate access to all input and output files
• Field markers make manual editing simple and increase productivity dramatically
• Complete online documentation and context sensitive help
• Integrated NEi Explicit job execution
• Permits batch queuing of jobs for sensitivity and configuration trade studies
• Special real time controls allow changing solution parameters while running
• Real time 2D x-y plotting and 3D deformed shape and contour plotting with optional MS Excel Comma Separated Variable (.CSV) file output
• Fully automated report generator (linear static, normal modes, and buckling solutions
• Shear flow plots

• Custom x-y plotting of results
• Automatically generated dynamic plots during nonlinear analysis
• Secure DDAM data input form
• Miscellaneous results display:
• Surface contact results
• Rod, bar, beam, shell, and solid element results
• Grid point stress and strain
• Polar and rectangular complex data results
• Nodal force balance
• Rigid body elements results
• “TOTAL" calculated results, for all Tensor6 x, y and z components in Model tree
• Optimization*:
• Mapped input file for easy right-click definition of optimization variables
• Optimization control dialog for editing, defining, and deleting objectives, constraints and variables
• Integrated optimization result launcher for access to optimization evaluations

Accurate and Proven Answers with NEi Nastran

• Over 20 years of use by industry
• Comprehensive verification program and documentation set
• Over 3000 test problems verified for each release
• Extensive built-in diagnostics verify accuracy of each analysis

Unparalleled Support

• Leader in outstanding customer support
• Onsite and offsite training courses taught by experienced professional engineers
• Phone and email support staffed by a team of FEA specialists
• Optional consulting services available