FEMtools 3.3 Release Information

FEMtools 3.3 is a major revision of the FEMtools suite that adds new functionality and improves existing modules.

The highlights of FEMtools 3.3 are:

Installation and Licensing

The FEMtools installation directory structure has been modified so that supporting files (examples, scripts, images, xml, documentation) can be shared between installations for different operating systems. For example, the versions for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit can both be installed on the same PC (if the Windows operating system is 64-bit). The supporting files are shared between both versions, only the bin directory is different.

The startup parameter –u is now available to select a user settings file. By default the settings file that is located in the user home directory will be used.

FEMtools 3.3 uses RLM 4.0 BL3 for license management. This release solves some issues with roaming and failover licenses that existed with previous release.

Upgraded FE Data Interfaces

The data interfaces with ANSYS, NASTRAN, ABAQUS, and I-DEAS have been extended and updated to support the latest versions of these programs.

Furthermore, there have been numerous minor improvements in the background and changes to graphics, commands and dialog box following customer requests.

Faster Solvers

On the Windows 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, the FEMtools solvers for linear static analysis and normal modes analysis now use the Pardiso sparse solvers from the Intel Math Kernel Library 10.0. Using this library, speed improvements up to factor 2 have been encountered compared to the previous version.

Improved Modal Pretest Analysis

The scripts for sensor placement and elimination have been rewritten resulting in significant speed improvements, better control using systematic use of progress bars, and several minor fixes.

Importing and Exporting Monte Carlo Simulation Results

For every step in Monte Carlo Simulation it is now possible to export the generated matrices (samples matrix, response matrix, results matrix and statistical data matrix) or to import previously exported matrices

Creating Scatter Plots

It is now possible to create scatter plots of an arbitrary combination of experimental frequencies, numerical frequencies, or model parameters. It is possible to superimpose a number of scatter plots for comparing variability and more realistic correlation.

Probabilistic Correlation and Model Updating with Uncertain Test Data

It is now possible to collect multiple sets of test data, resulting from repeated testing, and to graphically and statistically postprocess the data. From the statistical scatter and the sensitivity of the updating parameters, scatter estimates can be obtained for the updating parameters. These scatter estimates are used by FEMtools Monte Carlo simulation to obtain analytical scatter plots that can be overlaid with the reference scatter data.

These new tools enable probabilistic correlation and a two-step probabilistic model updating process. This process is demonstrated in the documentation using an example of beam property identification. The resulting updated properties are obtained with an estimate of uncertainty that is function of the variability on the test data.

FE Model Reduction using Design of Experiments (NEW)

FEMtools Model Updating now includes tools for Design of Experiments (DOE).

Design of experiment (DOE) offers a number of techniques to sample the design space of a problem in an efficient way.

In model updating, DOE techniques can be used to find a set of starting values that result in a better correlation with the reference data as the current starting values. DOE is particularly interesting if the correlation between the initial FE-model and the reference data is too poor to perform a sensitivity-based updating.

New FEMtools Optimization Module (NEW)

A major novelty in FEMtools 3.3 is the availability of a new analysis module for design optimization. FEMtools Optimization is a module for general purpose and structural design optimization analysis that extends the FEMtools Framework and FEMtools Dynamics.

The FEMtools function library has been extended with new functions for constrained nonlinear optimization with very large number of parameters and user-programmed analytical function evaluations. The optimization module provides tools to solve the following types of optimization problems:

General non-linear optimization – solving arbitrary non-linear optimization problems.
Multi-objective optimization – solving optimization problems that involve multiple, mutually competing, objectives.
Size optimization – optimizing component parameters like plate thickness, or beam cross-sectional area.
Shape optimization – optimizing the shape of existing components.
Topology optimization – creating new designs with a layout optimized for a given load.
Topometry optimization – optimizing component parameters on an element-by-element basis.

For information on the FEMtools Optimization product, click here.

Extended Scripting Functionality

There are 21 new commands to support command scripting. Programmers will benefit from 6 new FEMtools Script functions and 38 new FEMtools API functions.

The table and graphics explorer is now entirely programmable and can customized to include user-defined matrices. Other improvements include customizable keyword color-coding in the editor window and user-defined environment variables to be used in program scripts.

For the complete list of changes, see the FEMtools 3.3 Release Notes.

Minimum System Requirements

The following are the minimum OS levels required to run FEMtools:

Windows 2000 and XP, Windows Vista
Window XP Pro 64-bit and Windows Vista 64-bit
HP - UX 11.00+
Solaris 2.8+
IBM AIX 5.1+
Linux 32-bit
Linux 64-bit