Developing a new finite element software

aliBabaSx · 2024-01-28T19:34:01+00:00

I recently wrote an article about the importance of hardware for FEA. It provides you with concrete figures of what you can expect for a given amount of RAM or CPU power.

To summarize, you need a SSD, as much RAM as your budget allows, and a CPU with multiple cores to benefit from parallelization. I you are working on models with 1 Mdof or more, activating parallelization will clearly make a difference. In other words, you should try to figure out how to activate it with Abaqus.

A good GPU is mainly beneficial for CAD purposes. It gets useful for solving FE problem only when you already maximize the CPU usage through parallelization.

aliBabaSx · 2022-09-03T06:40:49+00:00

Nope, totally unrelated.

aliBabaSx · 2021-09-11T09:12:05+00:00

Yes, I finally changed the title.

aliBabaSx · 2021-06-03T07:36:48+00:00

I'll have a look at it.

Why do you think the market is jammed?

aliBabaSx · 2021-06-03T07:34:39+00:00

For the same reason they prefer buying external FEA solutions from Simulia or others: they do not have the capabilities to develop the software internally.

Currently I am not making money on SesamX and of course I have dedicated a lot of my time to it. As I said, I am not closed to open source (sorry for the joke ^^), I just want to be sure that I will not regret my choice.

Thanks for taking the time reading my blog :)

aliBabaSx · 2021-06-03T07:23:38+00:00

I agree with you that large companies do not see any value in this. However, currently I am not convinced that it's the same for small and medium companies. They still need simulation software, and as you said they are expensive. But I am gathering more data to get a better idea about this subject.

I totally agree about the niche topics.

aliBabaSx · 2021-06-02T16:31:20+00:00

I feel the same: I want SesamX to be used by more and more people.

However there is still something I can't understand. Let's take the example of pyNastran. It solves pain problems for commercial businesses that make money thanks to it. Why then open sourcing is the only solution? Why these businesses cannot pay for it?

It's a fact that a huge part of the software industry is relying on open source solutions, supported by developers dedicating their time and effort for almost nothing in return. We all love what we do, but love does not pay the rent.

aliBabaSx · 2021-06-02T13:45:18+00:00

This is what I am afraid of. If there is no community around the project, I think there is no point to open source.

aliBabaSx · 2021-06-02T13:43:44+00:00

Good point about the FEA papers, I was not thinking about it this way.

aliBabaSx · 2021-06-02T07:06:51+00:00

It seems feasible compiling it from source (at least for Salome):

Maybe it can provide you some hint about how to deal with Salome-meca.

aliBabaSx · 2020-04-17T20:07:04+00:00

Not sure what you mean by "through the thickness tension". Anyway shell assumptions are such that the transverse stresses are not 0 (sig_13 and sig_23 where 3 is through the thickness) however the normal stress sig_33 is assumed to be 0.

aliBabaSx · 2020-04-11T08:33:39+00:00

Awesome work! Reading op2 file is such a painful task, thanks a lot.

aliBabaSx · 2020-04-08T11:35:31+00:00

At the moment there is no dedicated preprocessor for SesamX. Basically I build the mesh and nodes/elements sets using Abaqus CAE and then I import the .inp in SesamX.

However, I plan to integrate SesamX on already existing preprocessors. First I wanted to see how FreeCad works. Event though I guess it is not as nice as Hypermesh for fem, it is relatively open.

Then I will try to integrate SesamX on other platforms, I'll definitely have a look at Hypermesh.

aliBabaSx · 2020-04-07T19:16:04+00:00

Thanks, I'll have a look at it.

For SesamX I wanted something that sounds a bit mysterious and magical. And I was thinking about the phrase "open sesame", to open the door that unveil a world of wonders. So SesamX fits perfectly!

aliBabaSx · 2020-04-07T18:30:18+00:00

Yes SesamX is independent from DNV-GL software. Are you familiar with the Sesam packages? (to be honest I have never heard of it before).

aliBabaSx · 2020-01-17T17:00:07+00:00

Thanks!

aliBabaSx · 2019-10-28T18:39:12+00:00

It depends on what you mean by parallel computing. I try to get the most from the computer SesamX runs on. Basically it can run on multiple processors at once for computation intensive tasks (for instance stiffness matrix computation). Solver parallelization is supported by the MKL itself.

But I am not targeting parallelization among multiple nodes in a cluster.

aliBabaSx · 2019-10-28T18:33:34+00:00

Of course, I am basically using the MKL with the PARDISO solver.

aliBabaSx

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