Altair has added MultiMech’s software suite of composite tools to the applications available through the HyperWorks Partner Alliance (HWPA).
The MultiMech Suite allows users to analyse and optimise materials using a two-way coupled multi-scale approach developed in response to the increasing use of advanced materials. This suite provides materials’ micro-structural design variables to overall structural performance, which helps solve problems related to mechanical failure and inefficient trial-and-error product development.
Dr Robert Yancey, Altair’s senior director for global aerospace, said: ‘MultiMech will broaden our offering for composite material analysis which is an important area for our aerospace business and an emerging area for other industry verticals such as automotive and consumer products.’
Composite materials have become an important structural material in industries including aerospace, wind energy, sporting goods, and marine and with a growing interest in the automotive industry also. The advantages of composites include low weight, high stiffness, and good fatigue performance
Leandro Castro, co-founder of MultiMech R&D, said: ‘Our software performs multi-scale and failure/fatigue analysis, as well as composites modelling. With a two-way coupled multi-scale FE solver and a sophisticated generator of complex microstructures, we also contribute unique features that, before now, were not available within the partner programme.’
MultiMech Suite is a set of software tools: MultiMech Core; MultiMech GUI; and MicroMech. MultiMech Core is a two-way coupled multi-scale finite element solver; MultiMech GUI is an intuitive graphical user interface that guides users through the process of creating multi-scale models; and MicroMech is a generator of intricate microstructures. MultiMech Suite enables users to perform failure analyses and design of complex materials, such as fibre reinforced composites and composites formed of tiny particles of one material embedded in another. Global and local scales of Representative Volume Elements (RVEs) are solved simultaneously and both are able to communicate with each other.
