SimScale brings advanced structural analysis directly into product design by making high-fidelity simulation truly accessible for all engineers. We enable engineers to test, validate, and optimize designs through Finite Element Analysis (FEA) via a standard web browser.
SimScale’s industry-leading and powerful solvers provide robust CAD interoperability meaning that more time is spent on design analysis through simulation rather than on CAD cleanup. Simulation provides detailed insights into performance, allowing engineers to identify design strengths and weaknesses in a virtual prototype, avoiding costly re-engineering later in the design stage. The resultant time & cost savings from simulating early and often allows engineers to explore more of their ideas, using the parametric capabilities in SimScale and integrations with third-party CAD and analysis packages.
The FEA software component of SimScale enables engineers to perform simulations on structures and components, including linear static and nonlinear quasi-static analyses. In a linear case with applied static loads, the structural response can be determined in a single step.
Engineers can analyze the dynamic response of structures and components subjected to time-dependent loads and displacements. Time-dependent calculation of displacements, as well as stresses and strains in one or multiple solid bodies, is possible and in contrast to static analysis, inertial effects can be accounted for. In the post-processor, it is possible to analyze single-time steps as well as the dynamic performance over time. Engineers can evaluate deformations or critical stresses and modify designs based on these insights.
The results from a frequency analysis enable users to evaluate the overall rigidity of a structure. The lower frequencies of oscillation can be used as inputs for seismic or wind load assessments for larger structures. Also, in parts and structures subjected to variable frequency loads, the fundamental frequencies are used to avoid resonance between the natural oscillation modes and the applied load. Frequency or modal analysis can help determine the eigenfrequencies (eigenvalues) and eigenmodes (mode shapes) of a structure due to vibration. The results are important parameters to understand and model structures that are subject to dynamic loading conditions.
Thermomechanical analysis is loosely coupled but integrated thermal and mechanical features that allow engineers to investigate the structural and thermal behavior of a model by accounting for the thermal influences on the structural load state on a body. The thermal and structural fields are solved sequentially, in an iterative process, where the results of each thermal step serve as inputs for the corresponding structural step. The stress state of the structure depends on the structural constraints and loads, as well as on the thermal expansion under thermal loads, therefore offering an accurate reflection of the physics in the system.
Customer Success
ITW, a global design & engineering firm, uses nonlinear static simulation and analysis to accelerate the development of plastic automotive fastening components. With SimScale, they reduced 10% of their R&D costs and 85% of insertion force.
Check out other success stories from customers using structural analysis with SimScale.
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Code_Aster is a state-of-the-art and intensively validated open-source FEA solver developed by EDF in France. It is used extensively in academia and industry, being recognized for producing accurate results across a wide range of physics. The versatility and performance of Code_Aster around nonlinear, vibration, and implicit dynamic FEA make it a match made in heaven for SimScale. These advanced simulations can be both time and resource intensive, meaning that only with SimScale’s accessibility and cloud computing power can companies truly incorporate advanced FEA at scale within their product design and engineering processes.
Download our datasheet and learn how engineers designing and testing mechanical components and devices can leverage powerful features in SimScale to solve realistic structural mechanics problems dealing with static, dynamic, and thermal loading conditions.
Discover a truly accessible industry standard simulation solution directly in your web browser. With a broad range of physics, from linear statics all the way through to nonlinear thermomechanics and dynamic response, coupled with intuitive workflows and live support, SimScale allows you to drive your designs with accurate simulation insights. Request a demo and see for yourself.
SimScale use finite element analysis (FEA) as the numerical method and an implementation of the Code_Aster solver is integrated into SimScale.
Code_Aster is an acclaimed third-party solver that has been tightly integrated into SimScale for structural analysis. It has been used extensively in industry and academia and is well validated and peer-reviewed.
Yes, you can simulate the non-linear behavior of your CAD geometry and non-linear material properties.
You can see various types of stress (Cauchy, von Mises), forces, pressure and temperature on bodies, faces and joints.
You cannot import material libraries but can copy and edit existing materials to suit your needs that are then added to the SimScale materials library.
Yes, you can convert your engineering stress-strain data into the format SimScale requires and upload using a CSV file.
No. This is a feature that is currently in development.
You can use the SimScale application programming interface (API) to connect to third-party CAD or other analysis software. An example might be to use a CAD tool for parametric geometric modeling while using SimScale for the simulation.
Yes, you can download your results at any time in multiple formats that open in common third party tools.
You can find template projects for structural/thermal simulations in the projects library.
Yes, you can manually refine the mesh as needed.
Yes, using the SimScale API.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is the simulation of any given physical phenomenon using the numerical technique called Finite Element Method (FEM). The results of a simulation-based on the FEA method are usually depicted via a color scale that shows, for example, the pressure distribution over the object.
Yes! SimScale has several analysis types that engineers can use to perform structural analysis including: Static, Dynamic and Modal (vibration).
Structural mechanics, also referred to as solid mechanics, is a field of applied mechanics where stresses, strains and deformations are calculated in solid materials. This helps engineers understand the strength of a material, or structure to ensure fit for purpose & that adequate safety factors are in place.
Yes! Structural analysis is the same as structural mechanics.
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