Commentary: May 2006

By Bob Williams, ALGOR, Inc.

Is your company taking full advantage of the software and hardware developments that are combining to bring FEA (finite element analysis) closer to virtual prototyping every day?

Engineers have always sought to make their computer simulations come as close to real structures and events as possible, but the software and hardware capabilities were simply not available. While 20 to 30 years ago, Unix provided engineers with powerful solving capabilities, Unix didn’t give engineers the kind of user-friendly interfaces that they have since come to expect with the Windows platform. Until recently, however,  standard PCs just haven’t had the number-crunching ability to handle the large models and simulations necessary for virtual prototyping. Today,  with the 64-bit capabilities and distributed processing available to FEA users, all of that has changed.

As the capabilities of FEA software programs have evolved to allow for mechanical event simulation, fluid flow analysis, and other complex analysis types, the processing of large models that these require is improving with the new compatibility of analysis programs for 64-bit Unix, Linux, and Windows computers. With remote submission, the processing of large, complex models can also be broken down and accomplished by a cluster of computers. FEA software running on combinations of Unix, Linux, and Windows machines is now giving engineers the software and hardware combination that they have needed to solve more realistic models in a practical amount of time.

The multiplatform, distributed capability of FEA software such as ALGOR in connection with the new hardware compatibilities are combining to make FEA analyses more like virtual reality by the day.

Yet, there’s a continuing need among design and engineering companies to create and share designs that are drawn, reviewed, and revised by various users on different computers. And users have become accustomed to doing pre- and postprocessing on highly graphical, user-friendly Windows machines. Does this make adopting a 64-bit computer for FEA impractical or uncomfortable for most engineering firms? The answer is no. With distributed computing and remote submission, not every member of your engineering team needs to be running a 64-bit Unix, Linux, or Windows computer to take advantage of the improved speed and large-model support.

Engineers can build a finite element model on a standard PC, send the model to a high-performance 64-bit computer or cluster of computers for computationally intensive analysis, and then examine the analysis results on the standard PC. This means that you can take advantage of 64-bit computing while your colleagues, clients, and other associates can still realize the graphical benefits and ease-of-use associated with a desktop computer. Using a high-performance, 64-bit computing platform for analysis along with familiar, user- friendly Windows computers for pre-  and postprocessing makes computer-aided engineering more efficient and cost-effective. 

Bob Williams is product manager for ALGOR,  Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA). Send your comments about this article through e-mail by clicking here. Please reference “Multiplatform Computing, May 2006” in your message.