Mechanical and manufacturing simulation

While both are world-class finite element solvers, Simcenter Nastran and Simcenter Optistruct offer distinct strengths for specific workflows. Simcenter Nastran serves as the gold standard for aerospace and defense structural analysis, providing deep support for aeroelasticity and rotor dynamics. Simcenter Optistruct features an architecture built for optimization, making it the preferred choice for lightweight design and topology exploration. Engineers often deploy both solvers within Simcenter Hypermesh to maintain a consistent pre- and post-processing environment.

Traditional FEA requires significant time for geometry cleanup and mesh generation. Simcenter Simsolid eliminates this bottleneck with meshless technology that works directly on fully featured CAD geometry, including large assemblies. While traditional solvers like Simcenter Nastran are used for final validation, Simcenter Simsolid is most powerful early in the design cycle. It allows engineers to run structural assessments in minutes, identify load paths, and refine designs before moving to detailed analysis, significantly compressing overall simulation timelines.

Simcenter Radioss and Simcenter Madymo provide a comprehensive toolchain for crash and safety simulation. Simcenter Radioss excels at modeling the structural response of the vehicle, including deformation and energy absorption during high-speed impacts. Simcenter Madymo specializes in the biomechanical response of occupants and pedestrians, simulating dummies and restraint systems. By coupling these results, engineers can assess injury metrics like HIC and chest deflection in one workflow, ensuring faster compliance with global safety regulations like Euro NCAP and FMVSS.

Simcenter Motionsolve captures the dynamic interplay between structural flexibility, active control logic and operating loads. By supporting flexible body integration through Craig-Bampton component mode synthesis, the software allows structural deformation to influence system-level behavior. You can couple mechanical models with control systems modeled in tools like Simcenter Simulink or use Simcenter Tire models to feed in realistic road loads. Connections to Simcenter Nastran or Simcenter 3D enable stress recovery on flexible components directly from MBD results, creating an end-to-end loads and durability workflow.

Simcenter Optistruct and Simcenter Inspire offer powerful optimization for different stages of development. Simcenter Optistruct provides deep optimization mathematics, including topology and lattice optimization, for simulation specialists who need fine-grained control. Simcenter Inspire features a geometry-centric interface that makes generative design accessible to designers without deep FEA backgrounds. Together, they allow you to rapidly generate optimized concepts early in development and then refine them to production-ready standards later in the process.

A part that performs well in simulation but distorts during manufacturing can fail in service. Simcenter links manufacturing simulation with structural analysis to predict phenomena like springback and residual stresses. These as-manufactured results can be mapped directly into Simcenter Nastran or Simcenter Optistruct analyses. This allows engineers to assess how real-world geometry deviations affect fatigue life and structural integrity, enabling first-time-right development by moving beyond ideal CAD geometry to realistic performance.