Fem & fea

Winzer

Just how does industry rely on open source ware?
This probably depends on the industry of course.

I ask this because there is a lot of neat open source stuff-- I am looking in the direction of finite element.
I really would like to learn a FEM and FEA program. Should I learn an open source program or a more popular industrial program?

--Edit: I forgot to mention that the program should be for linux. But mentioning one's for windows is ok.

Winzer

No takers?

minger

You might as well learn an open source one at home. Usually its a good start to learning programming as well, as the source is readily modifiable and extendable.

Having said that, open source FEA is very rarely used in industry. Anything not purchased will typically be created in-house.

Winzer

Ok. So what is some of the most popular software for FEA and FEM in the industry?
I know COMSOL PHYSICS is one.

minger

I use ANSYS, although its quite expensive. I hear COMSOL is much cheaper, so if you're going in just to learn, a COMSOL student license is probably significantly cheaper.

Nick Bruno

i would say GeoSTAR. its the program we used in my fea class and from the looks of it.. its probably cheap lol, but it gets the job done.

Astronuc

ANSYS, ABAQUS(now SIMULIA, the Dassault Systèmes brand for Realistic Simulation), and NASTRAN are the three popular FEA codes.

Most FEA applications in industry is done under some QA/QC system so open source is not used. The code and its application have to be approved in the nuclear and aerospace industries.

http://www.ansys.com/
http://www.simulia.com/

NASTRAN is perculiar because there are now several developers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nastran#NASTRAN_Options

COMSOL is a newbie to the field.
http://www.comsol.com/

All of them seem to have some academic licensing arrangement. Check with one's university or MechEng/AeroEng departments.