NEWPORT BEACH, CA, Aug 21, 2018 – MSC Software Corp., a global leader in simulation software and services, announced the new release of MSC Nastran 2018.2. Originally developed for NASA engineers, MSC Nastran is the most trusted FEA solver for design and analysis of aerospace and automotive structures. To build upon the same practice, MSC Nastran 2018.2 provides streamlined workflows for powertrain simulations, improved verification options for contact models and enhanced HPC methods for simulation of large scaled problems.
Structural Assembly Modeling – Connectors – Body In White (image source: MSC Software website)
The new release allows engineers to cover a wider range of design possibilities and examine the NVH characteristics of transmissions, car engines, and powertrain systems through a direct integration between MSC Nastran and AVL Excite.
As the world’s widely used MBD software for simulation of rigid and flexible powertrains, AVL Excite can now be used with MSC Nastran to increase the accuracy of Multi Body simulations by providing a better representation of the flexible components. Similarly, the FEA engineers can benefit from this integration to examine each component with realistic boundary conditions and dynamic loads. Direct export of AVL Excite input (.EXB) files from MSC Nastran makes data transfer much easier and faster, eliminating the need for creating and translating large intermediate files.
The streamlined workflow allows engineers to obtain a full characterization of structural response by leveraging the nonlinear solution of MSC Nastran (SOL 400) to include contact nonlinearities as well as preloaded conditions in their powertrain simulations. Additionally, MSC Nastran can read back output results from AVL Excite for further dynamic and acoustic analysis of sound radiations generated from Internal Combustion Engines and other components. This technology is also beneficial for vehicle durability simulations, taking advantage of the award-winning embedded fatigue capabilities of MSC Nastran to obtain fatigue life and damage responses of components.
The direct, efficient and convenient method to exchange data between the two solvers enables significant time savings, resulting in up to 3x performance gain for analysis of powertrains and engine systems.
Designed to further improve user productivity, the 2018.2 release of MSC Nastran delivers valuable contact verification methods that allow engineers to verify the contact model in early design stages thus reducing the number of design iterations. From the modeling perspective, dealing with multilevel assemblies that consist of hundreds or thousands of components is a common challenge among FEA engineers. Integration of these contact bodies in a detailed model is a time consuming and error prone task. As such it is important to perform a model check to review the initial contacting conditions before running the analysis, especially for contact models that involve curved geometry surfaces or unintentional gaps & overlaps. MSC Nastran has dedicated techniques that move and adjust the position of contacting surfaces at initial steps to capture and correct these issues. These initial geometry adjustments are usually performed internally and cannot be seen in the input files. MSC Nastran 2018.2 provides contact verification methods that allow users to examine and review initial geometry adjustments and make changes if necessary. The new contact checks provide important information about the contact bodies, their initial status, and geometry conditions in various output files.
MSC Nastran 2018.2 extends modeling capabilities beyond accuracy by taking advantage of improved HPC methods, providing a better and more efficient solver technology to address problems for a wider range of industry applications.
About MSC Software
MSC Software is one of the ten original software companies and a global leader in helping product manufacturers to advance their engineering methods with simulation software and services. As a trusted partner, MSC Software helps companies improve quality, save time, and reduce costs associated with design and test of manufactured products. Academic institutions, researchers, and students employ MSC’s technology to expand individual knowledge as well as expand the horizon of simulation. MSC Software employs 1,300 professionals in 20 countries. For more information about MSC Software’s products and services, please visit: www.mscsoftware.com
MSC Software is part of Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B; hexagon.com), a leading global provider of information technology solutions that drive productivity and quality across geospatial and industrial landscapes.
