Composite Puck Failure Criteria are now available for output via the CFAILURE I/O Options entry for Static, Normal Modes, and Transient Analysis. The MATF Bulk Data Entry is introduced to specify the PUCK failure model properties. This feature is currently only supported for analysis (optimization support will be added in a subsequent release).

Nonlinear Restart is now supported for Large Displacement Nonlinear Transient Analysis, Bolt Pretension, and Inertia Relief. The RESTARTR and RESTARTW I/O Options Entries can be used to activate Nonlinear Restart capabilities.

Mean Stress, Stress Amplitude, and corresponding Damage at every cycle is output for Fatigue Analysis via the RNFLOW I/O Option. The output is printed in .rnf files.

A new Lagrange multiplier method is available for rigid CBUSH elements via SYSSETTING(PBUSHFORM=LAG) I/O Options entry. The previous penalty formulation is the default and can also be explicitly activated using SYSSETTING(PBUSHFORM=PEN) I/O Options entry.

Fatigue Analysis based on Random Response Analysis is now supported. The LCID field on the FATLOAD Bulk Data entry can reference the subcase ID of a Random Response Subcase. The RDMGMDL continuation line on the FATPARM Bulk Data entry can be used to specify Random Response Damage models. The RANDOM continuation line on the FATPARM entry can be used to define other parameters for Random Response Fatigue. The damage/life results can be evaluated for shells/solids, spot welds and seam welds. This feature is currently only supported for analysis (optimization support will be added in a subsequent release).

CVISC and CDAMP Bulk Data entries are now supported for Direct Nonlinear Transient Analysis.

Simple plots for nonlinear runs can be viewed during runtime using the Graph button in the HWSolver Run Manager Window. The plots contain all nonlinear iterations across all subcases.

Inertia Relief is now supported for the model with more than six rigid body modes via PARAM, INREL, -2, METHOD. The METHOD option references the ID of corresponding EIGRL or EIGRA entry. Models with mechanisms may have more than six rigid body modes.

User-defined Material is now supported via the MATUSR Bulk Data entry. The LOADLIB I/O Options Entry can be used to identify the user-defined material file (both Win64 and Linux64). Currently, only solid elements are supported.

The MU1 field on the PCONT Bulk Data entry can reference a TABLES1 entry to define a friction table based on pseudo time of the current nonlinear increment. This will allow the user to specify time-dependent friction.

MPC’s and Rigid elements are now included in the grounding check when using the GROUNDCHECK Subcase entry.

Pressure loads are now follower loads by default.

The CORDM continuation line is now available on all solid elements to define material coordinate system directly on the element Bulk Data entries. CORDM was only available in PSOLID up to previous release. It is now also available in solid element entries.

Restart (save results and retrieve for restart) is now available for nonlinear analysis.

With new option added as PARAM,NLMON or subcase selector NLMON, the displacement results for each iteration will be available in the _nl.h3d file while the job is running. This is available for both small and large displacement analysis.

With TCL script provided in installation, the script will parse the .out file and help the user identify which nodes have convergence issues.

SMOOTH option on CONTACT is now supported for Finite Sliding with CONSLI option.

Both Master and Slave side of results are available for surface-to-surface contact.

The user can now choose DOFs to be constrained for MPC based TIE contact.

Some of the calculation for nonlinear analysis is sped up with OpenMP implementation. The performance benefit would be seen in large displacement analysis or the nonlinear material with plasticity.

With DIRECT option on NLADAPT, the user can choose fix time step for Large Displacement Analysis instead of dynamic time step schema.

CELAS is now supported in Large Displacement Nonlinear Analysis.

The results of stability check is available in the .out file. Such output can be turned off with PARAM,CHECKMAT,NO.

PLOAD, PLOAD2 entries are now supported as Follower Forces in Large Displacement Nonlinear Analysis.

With this option (TRACK=CONSLI on CONTACT bulk entry), the contact search is conducted for every nonlinear iteration. Continuous sliding contact is expected to produce more accurate results and better convergence robustness for some cases, especially when very large sliding and/or distortion are presented.

OLOAD support for Incremental Results output (NLOUT) in Nonlinear Analysis.

Inertia Relief support for large displacement Analysis.

GENER/DAMPER option support for PBUSH1D.

Surface-to-Surface discretization becomes default for TIE/CONTACT with FREEZE when the salve is not a set of grids and no heat transfer subcase is involved.

ADJUST for TIE or CONTACT with FREEZE now accounts for thickness padding (GPAD).

Removing/Re-activation of elements is now supported for small displacement nonlinear analysis.

Contact Area for Node-to-Surface contact is available.

Shell Elements are now supported for Large Displacement Nonlinear Static Analysis. This is supported for shell elements with PSHELL Property and MAT1 and MATS1 Material entries.

Structural Nonlinear Transient Analysis is now available. It supports Nonlinear Contact, Material, and Geometry. Two time-stepping schemes are currently supported: Generalized Alpha Method (default) and the Backward Euler Method. Structural Nonlinear Transient Analysis is supported only with large displacement theory, therefore, PARAM,LGDISP,1 is required. The NLPARM or TSTEPNL entry can be used in a subcase to provide nonlinear parameters and convergence tolerances. The NLADAPT entries can also be used to define parameters for time-stepping and convergence criteria.

Nonlinear materials (MATS1, MGASK, MATHE bulk data entries) and nonlinear bushing elements (KN option on PBUSH/PBUSH1D bulk data entries) are now supported for Preloading and Buckling analysis.

Node-to-Surface contact (DISCRET=N2S on CONTACT/TIE bulk data entries) with friction is now supported for Preloading analysis.

Certain displacement from preceding nonlinear subcase can be carried over to the subsequent nonlinear subcase. Such displacement is applied as if an enforced displacement is applied in subsequent nonlinear subcase. The D field on the SPC and SPCD entries can be set to F in conjunction with the CNTNLSUB entry to retain the deformed boundary resulting from a preceding nonlinear subcase.

CBUSH elements in a large displacement Nonlinear analysis are now resolved using Large Displacement Theory. Previously, CBUSH elements were supported using Small Displacement Theory in Large Displacement Nonlinear analysis.

The SVNONCNV flag on the NLOUT entry to output non-convergent solution for incremental loading results is now available for Large Displacement Nonlinear Analysis.

The Ogden Material Model for Hyperelastic Materials is now available on the MATHE entry. The Model field can be set to OGDEN to activate Ogden Materials on the MATHE Bulk Data Entry.

Neuber stress/strain is available in H3D format by adding the NEUBER keyword on the STRESS/STRAIN I/O Options Entry. Neuber corrected stresses and strains are calculated based on the Von Mises stresses from linear elastic analysis, the Young’s modulus and the nonlinear material property defined on the MATS1 entry.

Contact Interfaces or Elements can be added or removed for different nonlinear static subcases in the model. The parameters for the removal and/or reactivation of Contact Interfaces and/or Elements can be defined on the MODCHG Bulk Data Entry. The TYPE field should be used to choose the entity type (CONTACT/ELMSET) for removal or reactivation. The MODCHG Subcase Entry can be used to reference the MODCHG Bulk Data Entry.

With No Separation option, the contact won’t be open or separate anymore once closed at certain load increments. No Separation can be used together with friction. The SEPARATION flag on the PCONT entry can be set to NO to activate No Separation contact.

Normal and tangential components of Contact Force is available in the H3D file and .cntf file when the CONTF I/O Options entry is defined.

Pretensioning via STATSUB(PRETENS) entry is now supported for Fast Contact Analysis.

Multiple Rigid bodies (RBODY bulk data) can now have the same BID’s. In such cases, the RBODY’s are independent from one another. If multiple RBODY’s are added together with RBADD, the RBODY’s are connected to each other.

Bore deformation calculation (distortion of cylinder in engine) is available. This functionality identifies magnitude of deformation for different orders of distortion of the Bore for each layer based on the displacement on the bore surface using Fast Fourier Transform. The BORED Bulk Data Entry can be used to define the surface, coordinate system, and parameters required to request Bore Deformation output for Static Analysis Subcases.

Plastic strain results are supported for GPSTRAIN output request. The PLASTIC option is available on the GPSTRAIN I/O Options entry to output Plastic Strain (in addition to Total Strain). This is only available for H3D output.

Plastic stress/strain results at Element Corners are available for Shell and Solid Elements in the H3D file. The PLASTIC option in conjunction with the CORNER option is now supported on the STRAIN I/O Options Entry.