MSC Nastran

Description

MSC Nastran is a professional finite element analysis (FEA) application used to analyze structures. It was originally developed for NASA in the 1960s but has since evolved and been made available through MSC Software. It is available for Windows as well as Linux.

Nastran offers a variety tools to design, test and fix structural designs. You can virtually prototype instead of physically prototype to save money, optimize the performance of existing designs, and fix structural issues during a product's service to reduce downtime. The application also enables you to perform fatigue analysis by using its embedded fatigue technologies that help prevent buckling, excess stresses, and detrimental deformations.

Nastran provides optimization algorithms that automate the structural optimization process. These algorithms can enhance the shape or profile of structural members, determine optimal bead or stamp patterns for sheet metal parts, find optimal composite laminate ply thickness, and optimize multiple models simultaneously.

Nastran is mainly used by aerospace and automotive engineers to optimize the structural integrity of systems, such as, landing gear, airbags, and fan blades. You can perform many functions with relative ease because it has multi-core and multiple-node clusters that use parallelization technologies to quickly solve large problems. MSC Nastran is an excellent choice for engineers who want to perform system structure analysis.

▶ Other extension used by MSC Nastran 2014