For a better prediction of product behavior, engineers go beyond the linear domain by performing nonlinear analysis. Nonlinear analysis is significantly more complex that linear analysis and usually not available in other FEA solvers. MSC Nastran includes nonlinear capabilities that enable engineers to:

To continuously reduce the weight of structural designs, MSC Nastran offers numerous capabilities that provide a wealth of insight into the complex behavior of composite structures. With MSC Nastran, engineers can:

• Simulate across static and dynamic analysis domains for preliminary or detailed designs.
• Perform high-fidelity modeling with a collection of efficient finite elements specially tuned for advanced composites.
• Reduce subcomponent testing by predicting damage trajectories within composite laminates with MSC Nastran’s delamination capabilities.
• Improve the damage-tolerance characteristics of your composite structures by going beyond first ply failure and performing progressive ply failure analyses.
• Reduce weight while improving structural performance with built in optimization tools that enable you to optimize across multiple designs and analysis disciplines simultaneously.
• Study the complex behavior of composite designs subjected to rapid loading. 

• Select from wide selection of eigenvalue extractors and efficiently determine the normal modes of undamped and damped structures.
• Review structural responses caused by frequency and transient based loadings.
• Monitor the load paths or energy flows through a structure with Transfer Path Analysis (TPA). 
• Utilize Automated Component Mode Synthesis to quickly solve large-scale dynamic and acoustic problems.
• Understand out of balance systems, determine system stability, detect imminent product failure, and calculate safe operating ranges for structures with the dynamics of rotating components.
• Conveniently share design models and preserve proprietary information by utilizing external superelements.
• Perform interior and exterior acoustic analysis with capabilities such as participation factor analysis, trimmed material analysis, element sensitivities, weakly coupled acoustics, and more.

MSC Nastran is rapidly moving forward and taking advantage of the latest HPC advancements and hardware. With MSC Nastran:

• Quickly obtain results for large modal based analyses and NVH studies with Automated Component Modal Synthesis.
• Accelerate simulations by including GPU hardware as part of your HPC resources.
• Take advantage of the latest parallelization techniques for multi processor systems in small to large clusters.
• Efficiently analyze key structure sections with Automated Superelements.

Developing the best performing products is a common objective held by every engineer, but achieving this objective is not simple when multiple design variables, constraints, and objectives must be considered. MSC Nastran helps achieve this objective by offering numerous optimization capabilities that actively search for the best design given a design space. Use MSC Nastran to:

• Simultaneously optimize multiple designs across multiple analysis domains with Multi Model Optimization.
• Determine efficient material distributions for critical load paths, without compromising strength and stiffness, with MSC Nastran’s Shape and Topology Optimization.
• Enhance the performance of beaded flat sheets with topography Optimization.
• Find the best thicknesses distribution for thin structural designs with MSC Nastran’ Topometry/free-size Optimization..
• Combine MSC Nastran’s optimization capabilities and effectively reduce the weight of composite laminates.

Rarely does a structure have to conform to design criteria from a single discipline. To obtain an effective design, multiple factors and often multiple disciplines need to be accounted for. The multiple disciplines could be as simple as a linear static analysis, a frequency response study, or as complex as accounting for loads from a multibody dynamic analysis for a automobile safety study. A multiple discipline analysis can also be an implicit nonlinear analysis on a pre-stressed structure followed by an impact study using explicit analysis which may still be followed by implicit analysis for any residual stresses.

Analysts often have to use multiple, incompatible tools to solve these various aspects of the design. MSC Nastran provides all of these disciplines in one environment and tightly integrates them, enabling engineers to accurately represent the behavior of their structures.

Product development teams need to verify and optimize designs subjected to diverse events,  such as thermal or fluid loadings. An understanding of how thermal history or thermal state affects structural behavior, how vehicle trims influence cabin acoustistics, or how flow induced stresses or deformation affect a system’s behavior.

MSC Nastran supports a chained, uncoupled or coupled approach, giving flexibility to include the influence of multiple physical phenomena of your designs. Scalability of MSC Nastran also enables you to conduct entire structure studies without sacrificing accuracy. Typical examples of multiphysics scenarios include:

• Brake squeal analysis
• Fluid filled bottles
• Hydroplanning
• Brake heating
• Plastic heat generation during forming