Marine Structural Analysis Software

[Casper]

Hi,

I'm seeking advise from the experts, actually I'm looking for a structural analysis software that can be used for Steel, Aluminum, and FRP materials wether if it is an FEA or a beam element based system.

If you can also give some feedback about Maestro software from ATC if this could possibly use for FRP designs.

And what about Multiframe of Formsys?

Does the Strand7(Straus7) is good as well?

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Regards,
CAS

[ekamarine]

Well, I am not an expert but I might have couple of words to help. What kind of analysis we are talking about.

[Casper]

Its all about structural analysis

[sailfish25]

are you using a 3D modeling software? you might try to see if they have an add-on.

usually this stuff is expensive from what i know.

[MikeJohns]

Casper
What sized vessels are you working on ?
Maestro and similar are reasonable for ships. There are also programs from scantling societies worth a look if you design ships.

For smaller vessels (which GRP will fall under) the more general packages suffice very well.
Ansys and Strand/Straus are commonly used and Solidworks-cosmosworks is useful too. It is easy to change material properties for yield elasticity etc and you can analyze GRP structures this way.

[zeroname]

Maestro from proteousengineering , MSc Nastran , Ansys and multi-frame can do these works well

[Casper]

Originally Posted by MikeJohns

Casper
What sized vessels are you working on ?
Maestro and similar are reasonable for ships. There are also programs from scantling societies worth a look if you design ships.

For smaller vessels (which GRP will fall under) the more general packages suffice very well.
Ansys and Strand/Straus are commonly used and Solidworks-cosmosworks is useful too. It is easy to change material properties for yield elasticity etc and you can analyze GRP structures this way.

Thanks Mike, I appreciate your info, actually I'm looking for an analysis of both GRP and Steel or Aluminum materials let say I will design from a small crafts to a large ships I don't know which one is good in terms of general application, is necessary to have them both (Maestro and Strand)? or can Strand7 do this all alone?

What about combining them with Multiframe from Formsys?

I'm thinking which one of them can do all the analysis for the three Marine Engineering Materials so that I don't have to buy them all.

Regards,
CAS

[alidesigner]

Multiframe is excellent for beam models and now has load panels so you can apply pressure loads to your structure by loading the panels. It does not however give plate stresses.

For that you need FEA.

Strand doesnt support geometry based modelling very well but it is cheap. I use Nastran (Feamap) because it has great geometry modelling capability without the need for any other 3D CAD. Ansys is also very good.

Stay away from FEA that comes with 3D cad. It is only good for solid models. For ship structure you need to be able to model plate (shell) elements with offset beam elements.

Check out the white paper at the formation web site on ship structural analysis
http://www.fdsfiles.com/public/MF_ShipAnalysis.pdf

The is a great book at amazon that uses Nastran in its examples.
Here is a link to the page at amazon http://tinyurl.com/FEA-Book