fe-safe/Composites™ capabilities
FEA Models
- Inputs are usually elastic stresses, so that the results can be scaled and superimposed to produce service stress time histories
- Analysis of solid and shell elements which can be mixed in the same model. No effective in-built limit to the number of elements in the model or the file size. 64-bit file readers allow large files to be analysed
- FEA results from several files can be concatenated
- Interfaces to ABAQUS (.fil & .odb), ANSYS (.rst), MSC.Nastran (.op2 & .f06), NX Nastran (.op2 & .f06), NEiNastran (.op2 & .f06), Pro/Mechanica (ASCII & binary), I-deas (.unv), ADAMS, .dac, MTS RPCIII (.rsp), BEASY, FEMSYS, CADFIX, MSC.Patran, Altair HyperMesh & Optistruct. All interfaces included as standard
- The whole model file need not be read into fe-safe™. Intelligent pre-scanning and load case selection
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Inputs
- Standard material properties for the composite lamina
- Elastic constants (E11, E22, v12, v23, G12)
- Strengths (±S22, S12)
- Fibre volume fraction
- Two lamina S-N curves: one off-axis, one on-axis
These load conditions can be combined and superimposed with great flexibility. PSD’s, dynamics, rainflow matrices and other capabilities are included.
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Component Loading
fe-safe™ can analyse very complex load conditions.
- A time history of component loading can be applied to the results of a 'unit load', linear elastic FEA analysis
- Time histories of multiaxial loading can be superimposed to produce a time history of the stress tensor at each location on the model (fe-safe™ supports over 4000 load histories of unlimited length)
- A sequence of FEA stresses can be analysed. For example: the results of a transient analysis; the analysis of several rotations of an engine crankshaft; or models of several discrete loading conditions
- Mode shapes from steady state dynamics can be superimposed to calculate fatigue life
- Block loading programs, consisting of blocks of cycles, can be produced and analysed
- Complex test programs and 'proving ground' sequences can be produced easily
- High and low frequency loading can be superimposed with automatic sample rate matching by interpolation. An example is a thermal cycle with superimposed high frequency loading
- Supported file formats include .DAC, single and multi-channel ASCII, Safe technology .amc file, RPCIII, Servotest, Snap-master and other files. All file formats are read directly, without file converters
These load conditions can be combined and superimposed with great flexibility. PSD’s, dynamics, rainflow matrices and other capabilities are included.
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Calculated cycles to failure
- Calculated for each individual cycle
- Calculated using the kinetic theory of fracture to determine failure in the matrix constituent
- Predicted for two failure modes:
- Matrix damage parallel to fibres (transverse)
- Matrix damage perpendicular to fibres that leads to fibre failure (longitudinal)
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Materials Data
- Helius Material Manager is a stand alone tool that is included with fe-safe/Composites™
- Helius Material Manager can be used to calculate a set of composite and constituent material properties for use in fe-safe/Composites™
- A comprehensive data base of materials properties is provided
- The material properties in fe-safe™ can be extended and modified by the user
- Isothermal data for any temperature can be used
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Advanced Features
- High temperature fatigue included as standard – the user can define a material characterized at a selected temperature
- Comprehensive management of element and node groups is supported
- The fatigue analysis can be applied to the complete model, or to named element groups – this means the user can combine the analysis of composites by fe-safe/Composites™ and the analysis of metals using the algorithms in fe-safe™ standard, in 1 single analysis
- Different properties can be used for each element or node group
- The user can easily change any of the inputs and re-run the analysis, ideal for parametric studies
- Standard analyses can be set up and re-run easily, ideal for parametric studies
- Powerful batch processing, with parameter modification for sensitivity studies
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Output
All contour plots can be generated in a single analysis run
- Cycles to failure and failure mode at each node or element, shown as a contour plot of the structure in the FEA viewer
- Fatigue lives at each node or element (3D contour plot) in user-defined units, e.g. miles, flights, hours
- A text file of user inputs, analysis type and a results summary is produced for QA trace-back
- Additional groups of elements can be defined in fe-safe™ as the hot-spots are identified
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Signal Processing and Analysis
fe-safe/Composites™ includes all the safe4fatigue features for signal processing and fatigue analysis from measured data
- Digital filters, spike removal and noise shaping
- Interactive multi-channel editing with immediate graphics display
- Single and multi-channel peak/valley time-slicing with cycle omission
- Manipulation and powerful re-scale/combine functions for signals, cycle matrices and load spectra
- Full suite of amplitude and frequency analysis, including rainflow cycle counting, PSD’s, transfer functions
- Comprehensive fatigue analysis from strain gauges, including a new multiaxial fatigue analysis suite
- Fully featured graphics display and hard copy
- Print graphics to disk, copy and paste graphics to other MS Windows programs
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Additional Features
- Comprehensive online help
- Common user interface across all supported platforms
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Licensing
- fe-safe™ is supported on Windows, Linux and UNIX
- fe-safe/Composites™ is currently supported on Windows only
- Networked licence manager/controller
- Distributed processing - rapid analysis using multiple licences for distributed processing across a network
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This is not a complete list of the features in fe-safe™ and fe-safe/Composites™. To discuss your particular requirements please contact Safe Technology or your local distributor.
overview