Finite Element Analysis
Finite Element Analysis is a numerical technique for finding approximate solutions to partial differential equations (PDE).
FEA Related Software
These are some open source software options for Finite Element Analysis:
Pre and Post processors
- Gmsh is a pre and post processor.
- It makes use of the OpenCASCADE, NETGEN and TetGen libraries.
- Has a stable Windows and Linux versions
- Salmoe is an open source (LGPL) pre and post processor based on OpenCASCADE which is software development platform freely available in open source. It includes components for 3D surface and solid modeling, visualization, data exchange and rapid application development.
- http://www.code-aster.org/V2/spip.php?article303 (linear static analysis version, needs to be built from source on linux)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salome_%28software%29
- http://www.caelinux.com/CMS/
- http://www.salome-platform.org/
Solvers
- CalculiX is a finite element suite licenced under the GNU-GPL.
- Home page and Linux version: http://www.calculix.de
- Windows build: http://bConverged.com
- CalculiX comes with a pre and post processor called CGX
- The solver in CalculiX is CCX
- Code_Aster is Linux only
- Documentation in French or machine translated English
- OpenFEM is an open-source software freely distributed under the terms of the "GNU Lesser Public License" (LGPL). It is a general purpose multi-physic FEM environment. (at http://www-rocq.inria.fr/OpenFEM/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=3
- needs http://www.scilab.org/ Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, or other linux distro in ix86 architecture are best bets for getting this going
- The finite element modeling Markup Language (femML) effort is addressing the problems of data interpretation and application interoperability in the Finite Element Modeling domain. femML is an XML-based language for describing finite element models and associated results for inter - and intra- application data exchange and integration.
- Elmer is open-source software for performing multiphysical simulations including fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, electromagnetics, heat transfer and acoustics through partial differential equations and using the finite element method.
- To get Elmer on Ubuntu, 1. The source files can be downloaded from the Elmer official site, then compiled and installed. OR 2. Elmer can be directly downloaded and installed through the Ubuntu Software Center that can be accessed through Applications>Ubuntu Software Center
- To get Elmer on Windows, 1. Binary files to be downloaded and installed with for windows are available from the Elmer official site
- ASCII STL Mesh files can be imported into Elmer from CAD software such as FreeCAD
