5 ms·

FEA Solver that doesn't need defeaturing

69 points by eks391 4y ago

eks391 4y ago
I don't work at this company, but know some of the people involved and I think it is really cool. For those not in the know, most FEA programs require the model to be simplified and a custom meshing put on it. They also have difficulty solving traction between two objects. Coreform's IGA can create a mesh on any shaped volume and solve traction between two surfaces easily.
- vt240 4y ago
  It is amazing the number of hours sunk, even in our little business, into defeaturing or really just remodeling, into a more experimentally conductive fashion, any of our prototypes which involve complex lofted multi-body assemblies. This just adds another layer into the design-data stack between the design phase and cam phase, which all needs to be maintained. I'll be quite interested to see their software evolves.
- moralestapia 4y ago
  Meshing is truly a PITA, if this does away with it I'm sold.
RantyDave 4y ago
If I get this, which I may not, it's fea using splines instead of straight edges. Very clever stuff, and some properly hard math. Impressed!
- contravariant 4y ago
  Going by the name 'isogeometric analysis' is is probably analysis on level-sets, not sure if splines are the easiest to translate to level sets but the effect is probably very similar.
  - brutusborn 4y ago
    I wasn’t sure what this meant so I found this paper that seems to give a good overview of what isogeometric analysis means. https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0045782505005451?token=75BF66B2E21066B2F276C7430E013B418DB26D0BA791AF0ADFA13CDA58FF8A016CAD1B5AC4F71914229475B80F7C882A&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20221228014227 https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0045782505005451?...
- mkoubaa 4y ago
  Nurbs, or non-uniform rational b-splines, to be specific
  - bgoated01 4y ago
    It's a generalization of B-splines, called U-splines (splines over Unstructured meshes). If anyone is interested in the math behind it on the level of a journal article, the last two links here go into the technology in detail: https://docs.coreform.com/latest/html/coreform-public/index.html https://docs.coreform.com/latest/html/coreform-public/index.... (Disclaimer: I work for Coreform, developing U-splines)
nullc 4y ago
Existing FEA codes, including popular commercial ones are based on huge bodies of academic fortran code. Does this system replace all that (well maybe expect for stuff like matrix math and linear solvers) with a novel framework? What kind of work goes in to validating correctness of these sorts a systems? A serious flaw in a FEA system could result in a substantial loss of life.
- eternityforest 4y ago
  Are life safety applications allowed to rely on FEA alone?
  - wtfmcgrill 4y ago
    If it's life safety chances are there's an acceptance/certification test that needs to be done to demonstrate safety. I think some applications that are life safety can use FEA for acceptance test but the criteria are strict and the FEA model needs to be well understood. FEA is mostly to aid in the design phase.
  - youainti 4y ago
    Kind of. My father is an engineer who uses FEA extensively in his small niche of pressure tanks. They use FEA to design the tanks and then stress test manufactured versions to ensure the manufacturing process matches what the FEA model predicts.
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    Absolutely. Models are usually validated against the set number of conditions when possible, but it is impossible to validate all of the outputs across the operating range
  - nraynaud 4y ago
    I Hope not, since bugs have been found in the reference model of some rocket engine 20 years after they had gone gold. In other new comparison operators eat NaN for lunch and carry on with the computation like they had a sensible answer.
  - 4y ago
RHab 4y ago
No plastic material, only basic contact, no advanced connectors... This is my problem with all these fancy FEA codes, nice in theory, not fit for industrial models.
- franckl 4y ago
  if you are interested in mechanical contact, we developed a symmetrical algorithm (no master/slave) and can make it available for you on https://tanatloc.com https://tanatloc.com

69 points by eks391 4y ago

I don't work at this company, but know some of the people involved and I think it is really cool. For those not in the know, most FEA programs require the model to be simplified and a custom meshing put on it. They also have difficulty solving traction between two objects. Coreform's IGA can create a mesh on any shaped volume and solve traction between two surfaces easily.

vt240 4y ago
It is amazing the number of hours sunk, even in our little business, into defeaturing or really just remodeling, into a more experimentally conductive fashion, any of our prototypes which involve complex lofted multi-body assemblies. This just adds another layer into the design-data stack between the design phase and cam phase, which all needs to be maintained. I'll be quite interested to see their software evolves.
moralestapia 4y ago
Meshing is truly a PITA, if this does away with it I'm sold.

RantyDave 4y ago

If I get this, which I may not, it's fea using splines instead of straight edges. Very clever stuff, and some properly hard math. Impressed!

contravariant 4y ago
Going by the name 'isogeometric analysis' is is probably analysis on level-sets, not sure if splines are the easiest to translate to level sets but the effect is probably very similar.
- brutusborn 4y ago
  I wasn’t sure what this meant so I found this paper that seems to give a good overview of what isogeometric analysis means. https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0045782505005451?token=75BF66B2E21066B2F276C7430E013B418DB26D0BA791AF0ADFA13CDA58FF8A016CAD1B5AC4F71914229475B80F7C882A&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20221228014227 https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0045782505005451?...
mkoubaa 4y ago
Nurbs, or non-uniform rational b-splines, to be specific
- bgoated01 4y ago
  It's a generalization of B-splines, called U-splines (splines over Unstructured meshes). If anyone is interested in the math behind it on the level of a journal article, the last two links here go into the technology in detail: https://docs.coreform.com/latest/html/coreform-public/index.html https://docs.coreform.com/latest/html/coreform-public/index.... (Disclaimer: I work for Coreform, developing U-splines)

nullc 4y ago

Existing FEA codes, including popular commercial ones are based on huge bodies of academic fortran code. Does this system replace all that (well maybe expect for stuff like matrix math and linear solvers) with a novel framework? What kind of work goes in to validating correctness of these sorts a systems? A serious flaw in a FEA system could result in a substantial loss of life.

eternityforest 4y ago
Are life safety applications allowed to rely on FEA alone?
- wtfmcgrill 4y ago
  If it's life safety chances are there's an acceptance/certification test that needs to be done to demonstrate safety. I think some applications that are life safety can use FEA for acceptance test but the criteria are strict and the FEA model needs to be well understood. FEA is mostly to aid in the design phase.
- youainti 4y ago
  Kind of. My father is an engineer who uses FEA extensively in his small niche of pressure tanks. They use FEA to design the tanks and then stress test manufactured versions to ensure the manufacturing process matches what the FEA model predicts.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  Absolutely. Models are usually validated against the set number of conditions when possible, but it is impossible to validate all of the outputs across the operating range
- nraynaud 4y ago
  I Hope not, since bugs have been found in the reference model of some rocket engine 20 years after they had gone gold. In other new comparison operators eat NaN for lunch and carry on with the computation like they had a sensible answer.
- 4y ago

RHab 4y ago

No plastic material, only basic contact, no advanced connectors... This is my problem with all these fancy FEA codes, nice in theory, not fit for industrial models.

franckl 4y ago
if you are interested in mechanical contact, we developed a symmetrical algorithm (no master/slave) and can make it available for you on https://tanatloc.com https://tanatloc.com