Finite element software 5

[Damien]

I am a design engineer working in the water industry, developing products made from metals and plastics. Products vary from Push Fit joints to chambers for containing water meters.

I am looking at introducing Finite Element Analysis into the design process in order to optimise material conditions. Particulary in plastic injection moulded parts, where material is a significant cost in the product.

I would like some advise on various software packages, showing relative strengths and weaknesses. I have looked at Ansys, FEMsys and some MSC software, but have not enough experience to decide which package is appropitate. As a budget I am looking for something for less than £4K.

Please can you help me in my dilemma.

Damien

 

[dsi]

You may want to find a package that is compatible with your modeling software. For example, Cosmos/Works functions as an add-in to SolidWorks. This can seriously reduce modeling time. As far as cost, I only know $. Sorry!

 

[TowerEngineer]

Damien,

ANSYS seems to have the most widespread use amongst the structural/mechanical firms engaged in FEA as far as I can determine.

I know of at least one firm that uses ANSYS for the analysis of large (100+ TON) bolted flanges used in the nuclear power generation industry. Those flanged parts are extremely costly and must be precisely and accurately analyzed to prevent damage during torquing procedure.

 

[brad]

I would take exception to the statement that ANSYS seems to have the most widespread use. That is very much a function of where one resides, both geographically and from an industry standpoint. Although I do know of areas where ANSYS is a major player, it is a virtual unknown in other areas (North American Automotive, for instance).
Don't get me wrong, ANSYS is a decent code.
In deciding what code to utilize there are several factors:
1) what types of analysis are you doing:
In the FEA field, largely you get what you pay for. The lower-end codes are able to do less. Any applied mechanics grad student can make a limited-purpose FEA code, but this code, though inexpensive, may not have the capability of doing many things that you want it to do. There are three levels of complexity: material nonlinearity, geometric nonlinearity, and boundary (contact) nonlinearity. Different codes can do some of these. Some of the less expensive codes can't do any nonlinearity (although one may not need it). The more expensive, multi-purpose codes can do all of these, in many neat ways, but at a price (basically, you largely get what you pay for).
Your locked-in price of 4,000 pounds (@$6,000) will not buy you one of the better packages. Note: I am assuming that your price is on a yearly basis. A $6,000/year budget will buy you a decent FEA solver, but not one of the higher-end solvers.

2) What types of computers will you be running this on.
Some codes are not ported to some platforms. More importantly, some of the analysis you may want to do may require more computing horsepower than you are equipped with. Alternately, some of these codes are ported to Windows NT machines, which are generally somewhat cheaper (though less reliable) than equivalent UNIX boxes.

3) As dsi noted, what CAD/CAE programs do you already use.
Some FEA manufacturers are tightly integrated with particular CAD packages, so the existence of a particular cad package at you site may help you in going from cad to cae.

4) What level of experience do you and the other engineers have with FEA.
If you are all novice users, you may not be prepared to do some of the more elaborate analyses, so the additional cost may not be useful for you. On the other hand, if you have capable people with other FEA experience, you may quickly find that the higher-end packages allow you to do things which you had previously not even considered. A higher end package (10,000 pounds/$15,000) may end up allowing you to do analyses which save you more than the incremental cost.

5) Finally, some of the FEA solvers do not have their own pre/post processors, so there may be an additional cost in buying third-party software to build your models.

In short, there is not an easy answer to your question, but here are the additional questions that can help you in your decision.

I would recommend talking to various FEA software distributors, and throwing these types of questions to them. If you know somebody who has done FEA (a friend, former classmate), pick their brains for awhile, and then invite software distributors to give you their sales pitch. A final word of advice: Pay attention to the BS factor from the software distributors, and weight it heavily. Try to push them and see if they'll try and promise the world in terms of capabilities. It has been my experience that the better FEA software companies tend to give caveats, because they would rather slowly build a very strong and loyal group of users at a slow pace. They don't want to disappoint anybody by promising too much too soon (although they will certainly acknowledge that given experience many things can be done). The less reputable software companies give a pitch like "Any CAD operator can perform FEA with our code". This is bunk--no code is able to allow an unqualified person to generate reasonable results consistently. You still need trained engineers to run this software.
If you ignore everything else I have said, keep this last statement in mind.
Good luck and happy shopping.

 

Damien,
I have used most of the FEA packages available today and have settled on Ansys. It's a good all round FEA package with decent modelling capabilities. However for your budget you aren't going to be able to buy something outright. Ansys is £20 K + £3K year maintenance for Ansys Mechanical. Don't forget your going to have to pay someone around £27K year minimum to use it or invest heavily in training. Along with the hardware it represents a significant investment. Of course you can use a consultants to do all the work without the hassle. Email me on fea.services@virgin.net if interested.

 

[caliew]

From your saying of plastic injection mold making related applications. I think you should be looking at program such as MoldFlow instead of conventional FE code such as ANSYS, and ANSYS contact modeling is not as powerful as those offered by Abaqus and MARC, which is a proven products comes to highly nonlinear and contact problems. But, with your budget of 4k, I doubt you can find any decent commercial code at that price.

 

[npsingh]

My company is purchasing Cosmos/M after to much discussion with consultants, Users and sellers. This software is becoming very popular day by day.
Cost was main factor for our purchase and this is costing least compared to other high end FEA softwares.
We are using this software and our trainer has experience on COSMOS, ANSYS and NASTRAN. He tells that this software is most userfriendly among these.
Capability wise it is as powerfull as these two.
Support is also good.
Cost difference is to high so you should consider this.
Narendra
npnarendra@123india.com

 

[billyrayjimbob]

Try LUSAS -

http://www.lusas.com

or call Terry Cakebread on 02085411999
It will still probably exceed your budget but it will be far cheaper than that quoted for Ansys above.
They are willing to come and talk to you to discuss your particular needs and will go into great detail to demonstrate that their software will meet your needs.

 

[dsv]

I work at MSC.Software Latin America as a trainee in the commercial area, but that's just my personal opinion. Bradh's post is the best approach to your question. Choosing a fem software involves lots of variables. Don't take a short answer for that.
Users of fea softwares in most companys usually have a very strong resistance to migrate or even try other softwares, and will probably recommend what they are used to work- it's quite acceptable if you take in count the time spent to get used to software interfaces. Besides the fact that only a few were actually involved in the acquisition of them.
I recommend you to call those traditional companys every one is talking about, being aware of what you need and comparing what they are capable to offer to meet your needs. Representatives of ANSYS in Latin America for example, lose clients because they have almost no technical support to offer...

 

[vipulrk]

Damien,

I work for EMRC, developer of the NISA family of FEA programs. NISA offers you the capabilies you are looking for in terms of both geometric and material non-linear analysis. It also has a decent pre- and post-processor. The purchase price is very close to your budget. We have a distributor in England, who can provide you with a no-cost trial. Please visit our site at

http://www.emrc.com.

Please contact me at vipul@emrc.com and I can provide you with additional information.

Please do not purchase any program without first brining it to your own site and trying it out for yourself.

Good Luck