Ricardo launches 'FEARCE' Software

The British engineering consultancy Ricardo plc has announced the release of its new FEARCE 7.0 software from its Michigan offices. It brings together many analysis activities by using a common data exchange protocol and a library of interfaces to third- party finite element packages and other computer-aided engineering applications, such as performance simulation and computational fluid dynamics. Key features of FEARCE 7.0 include:

- Analysis management - By providing a hub to integrate and automate the many required tasks in FE analysis, FEARCE facilitates repeatable and reliable analysis, ensuring that each task is fully documented, traceable and quality assured.

- Model generation - Pre-processing tools are provided to simplify the assembly, joining and loading of component models from separate sources. These include the automatic joining of dissimilar meshes, bolt generation, the application of complicated distributed loads, mapping of CFD results and interpolation of data from other models.

- Solution - With its suite of translators, FEARCE can automatically generate input decks for all of the major finite element solvers, or alternatively its own internal solver can be used to perform a range of solutions.

- Post-processing - FEARCE has post-processing features which include bore, bearing and valve distortion analysis and fatigue analysis, and comes with an integrated three-dimensional interface, FEVIEWER, to allow results to be plotted and animated.

www.ricardo.com