Product Introduction
Altair SimSolid is a structural analysis software developed specifically for rapidly evolving design processes. It eliminates geometry simplification and meshing, the two most time-consuming and expertise-extensive tasks done in traditional FEA, enabling the analysis of fully-featured CAD assemblies in minutes without meshing.
Technology
- Absolutely arbitrary geometrical shapes can be used as “finite elements”
- Basis functions which approximate field of interest in the part volume can be of arbitrary class and are independent of the volume shape
SimSolid does not use the point-wise degrees of freedom (DOF) inherent in traditional FEA. SimSolid's DOF are functionals with geometrical support in the form of volumes, areas, line clouds, and point clouds. This provides the ability to handle geometrical imperfections, as well as assembly contact imperfections like gaps, penetrations and ragged contact areas.
SimSolid controls solution accuracy using multi-pass adaptive analysis. Adaptivity can be defined on a global or part local basis and adaptivity is always active The methodology is fast and efficient. It provides superior performance metrics for computational time and memory footprint that allow very large and/or complex assemblies to be solved quickly on desktop class PC’s.
More information on the technology used in SimSolid can be found in Theoretical Background.
Capabilities
- Analysis sequences - Modal, linear statics, nonlinear statics, frequency response, linear transient, random response, thermal, thermal-stress, inertia relief, linear superposition.
- Material models - isotropic, rigid, user extensible.
- Connections - Auto-connections, bonded, sliding, separation with friction, bolts, spot welds, seam welds, bushings, rivets, virtual connectors, adhesives, joints.
- Results evaluation - Contours and animations of displacements, stresses, strains, strain energy and safety factors. Frequencies and mode shapes. Modal participation factors. XY plots. Reaction and contact forces.
Benefits
- Analyze full assemblies - SimSolid has been developed from the ground up to be a large assembly solver. It is possible to analyze assemblies with 100’s to 1000’s of parts directly on a standard laptop or desktop computer.
- No geometry simplification or meshing - SimSolid eliminates geometry simplification and meshing, the two most time-consuming and expertise-extensive tasks done in traditional FEA. Full geometric details like small holes, fillets, bosses, etc. can be left in the model.
- Multiple-pass adaptive solver provides automated solution accuracy - SimSolid uses multiple solution passes, local and global error analysis and adaptive local enrichment to ensure solution accuracy.
- Results obtained in seconds to minutes - SimSolid is fast, real fast. Solution times are typically measured in seconds to minutes. With SimSolid, multiple design scenarios can be quickly analyzed and compared.
Product Verification
