Current FEA software/Comparison to Ansys

khonfahm

Hi all,

This is my first post on this forum. I am located in Australia working as a mechanical engineer. Our Ansys License has expired (Technical support no longer available- Product purchased outright), and for some reason it doesn't allow the setting of 'large deflections' to be turned on (I'm quite sure this is because we have only the EMAG(electromagnetic) licence).

So it is for this reason I am currently investigating alternative FEA software to Ansys. Or I may renew our Ansys License, depending on what is the best solution.
Here are my required criteria:

• For doing a large deformation sort of analysis where non linear material effects come into play; stamping simulations
  
• Simulating a large explosion in a pressurised enclosure to see when the shell fails
  
• Simulating composite materials and their failure limit
• From what I have searched LS Dyna Seems like the best solver for my needs. It also seems to work directly from Ansys Workbench, which definitely is nice too.

Are there any other alternatives that are as user friendly that are worth investigating?

Thank you all in advance.