MSC.Software Partners with AlphaSTAR to Bring Leading Composite Failure Analysis

MSC.Software today announced that it has expanded its partnership with AlphaSTAR Corporation (ASC) a leading provider of advanced engineering analysis services and of specialized software for the analysis of complex engineering material systems.

Through this agreement, MSC.Software will enable select capabilities from ASC’s flagship product, GENOA, to work as an optional module in the next release of MSC.Software’s leading multidiscipline simulation software—MD Nastran. Manufacturers in the aerospace and automotive industries will now have access to a single, integrated solution that can improve the accuracy of mission critical progressive failure analysis, thereby enhancing quality and safety of next generation products.

“Gaining optimal performance of composite materials allows our customers to lead the way in breakthrough products, especially in aerospace and automotive applications,” said Bill Weyand, chief executive officer, MSC.Software. “MSC.Software continues to utilize leading technologies to provide our customers with a best-in-class simulation software that can enable them to speed simulation efforts while simultaneously enhancing overall analysis capabilities. The combination of ASC’s GENOA and MD Nastran, enables unmatched composite analysis capabilities to deliver industry verified, accurate, reliable and speedy failure and life prediction software.”

Composites are man-made materials that tend to be very lightweight and strong, making them a desirable material for high-performance products in aerospace, automotive and other industries. The complex nature of composite materials requires specialized composite analysis tools that can predict composite part performance and failure. ASC’s micro mechanical composite failure analysis technology coupled with MD Nastran’s finite element analysis enables simulations to track damage and crack growth progressively—Progressive Failure Analysis (PFA)—in polymeric composites, ceramics, metals, and sandwich structures.

“Composite materials are driving exciting design innovations; however, progressive failure analysis to identify the propagation of a crack or fatigue analysis for new materials is critical to ensuring product success into market,” said Kay Matin, President for AlphaSTAR. “By working with MSC.Software, we are able to drive best-practices in composite analysis through our GENOA software and conduct composite modeling and simulation in a truly multidiscipline environment to deliver optimal performance and analytical capabilities to engineers globally.”

GENOA was developed in collaboration with NASA and extensively verified by aerospace, automobile, and infrastructure industries. It is a comprehensive durability and damage tolerance (D&DT), and life prediction software for assessing performance of composite materials and structures. GENOA’s advanced material modeling capability makes it possible to evaluate failure at the micro-scale of the material. The software computes structural damage resulting from application of static and dynamic loads, fatigue loads, and high and low velocity impact. Through this optional module, tight integrated with MD Nastran, engineers will be able to conduct failure analysis at a faster speed and with more accuracy.

MD Nastran is the only multidiscipline simulation software that enables different mathematical analysis models to interact so that the effects of one environment can be seamlessly applied to another. By utilizing industry leading analysis solutions such as ASC’s GENOA, the company offers its customers a single software solution to create accurate simulations for new product designs.

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