NASTRAN(ID:726/nas001)

For NAsa STRess ANalysis program.

Large stress analysis problems. Engineering language, listed [?] 1976.



Structures:
References:
  • Final Report for NASTRAN Project. March 1970. Goddard Space Flight Center, Computer Sciences Corporation. view details
  • NASTRAN Demonstration Problem Manual. Scientific and Technical Information Division, Office of Technology Utilization, National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 1970. view details
  • The NASTRAN Programmer's Manual: Part I. Scientific and Technical Information Division, Office of Technology Utilization, National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 1970. view details
  • The NASTRAN Programmer's Manual: Part II. Scientific and Technical Information Division, Office of Technology Utilization, National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 1970 view details
  • The NASTRAN Programmer's Manual: Part III Scientific and Technical Information Division, Office of Technology Utilization, National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 1970. view details
  • The NASTRAN Theoretical Manual Scientific and Technical Information Division, Office of Technology Utilization, National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 1970 view details
  • The NASTRAN User's Manual: Part I. Scientific and Technical Information Division, Office of Technology Utilization, National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 1970 view details
  • The NASTRAN User's Manual: Part II. Scientific and Technical Information Division, Office of Technology Utilization, National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 1970 view details
  • Tocher, James L. and Herness, Ervin D. "A Critical View of NASTRAN" view details
          in Fenves, SJ, "Numerical and Computer Methods in Structural Mechanics", Academic Press, New York, 1973 view details
  • National Aeronautics And Space Administration NASTRAN: Users' Experiences Washington, DC, U.S. A National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1973 (NASA TM X-2893) view details
          in Fenves, SJ, "Numerical and Computer Methods in Structural Mechanics", Academic Press, New York, 1973 view details
  • "The NASTRAN User's Manual", SP-222(C3), NASA. view details
          in Fenves, SJ, "Numerical and Computer Methods in Structural Mechanics", Academic Press, New York, 1973 view details
  • Holmes, Harvard H. "Graphics Modeling Techniques in Computer Aided Design" Berkeley, UC California 1975 view details Extract: NASTRAN, SPICE and TRANSPORT
    Types of Existing Systems
    We can divide CAD software into three general areas: data structure and data management techniques, computational techniques, and user interface techniques. Examples, are described which are effective in each of these areas.
    Architecture is a design area in which data structure and data management techniques predominate. These systems typically have a rather large data base,.but only modest requirements-for complex computations. There are single architectural systems which have subsystems for the design and checking of space utilization, structural details, architectural aesthetics, bills of materials, and building codes. A variety of subsystems are required to support the multitude of overlapping considerations which influence such a design. The architectural designer may change rapidly from one design aspect to another in this way. For example, he may change a room, then check the new space utilization and view a perspective drawing; change some structural details, then see how costs are affected and check for compliance with the building codes. To support this switching from one subsystem to another, the overall architectural CAD system must be modular and it must have a very general data structure and data management facility.
    The predominant type of CAD systems are those which are used for their analytic capacity. Examples of such systems are NASTRAN, for structural analysis, TRANSPORT, for accelerator magnet design, and SPICE, for electronic circuit design. These systems operate on modest amounts of data (from a data management point of view), so they have tended to use data structures formulated to facilitate the required computation. Another characteristic of these systems is that they are very specific; they concentrate very thoroughly on a very small problem area. The algorithms used by these computational systems show that they have a good theoretical framework. Nevertheless, they recognize a large number of special cases, often at substantial cost in software. NASTRAN, for example, recognizes beams, plates, cylinders, and many other shapes.

    Interactive CAD systems are rapidly moving from an academic to an industrial environment. While the data capacity and the computational capacity of these systems has been-modest, industry is finding that in many cases an interactive facility is cost effective. The GMS described in this work, together with one of the analysis routines forms a cost effective combination for many problems. While the ease of use of such a system will often encourage more analysis and hence more computing, the time saved by the user will usually more than compensate for the added computation cost.

          in Fenves, SJ, "Numerical and Computer Methods in Structural Mechanics", Academic Press, New York, 1973 view details
  • Sammet, Jean E "Roster of programming languages for 1976-77" pp56-85 view details
          in SIGPLAN Notices 13(11) Nov 1978 view details
    Resources
    • NASTRAN page at Open Channel
      external link
    • NASTRAN page at Open Channel
      NASTRAN, the NASA Structural Analysis System, is a powerful general purpose finite element analysis (FEA) program for use in computer-aided engineering. NASTRAN is a standard in the structural analysis field, providing the engineer with a wide range of modeling and analysis capabilities. Development of NASTRAN was initiated in the mid-1960's by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to provide an FEA capability for its aerospace research projects. Over the years, NASA has actively maintained and improved NASTRAN such that it remains a state-of-the-art structural analysis system.


      NASTRAN applications include almost every kind of structure and construction.
      Structural and modeling elements are provided for the specific representation of
      the more common types of structural building blocks including rods, beams, shear
      panels, plates, and shells of revolution. More general types of building blocks
      can be treated by combining these simple elements or by using the "general"
      element capability. The substructuring capability allows different sections of a
      structure to be modeled jointly after having already been modeled
      separately.

      NASTRAN permits the effects of control systems, aerodynamic
      transfer functions, and other nonstructural features to be incorporated into the
      solution of the structural problem. Among other analysis capabilities, NASTRAN
      can handle:

      • static response to concentrated and distributed loads, thermal
        expansion, and enforced deformations,


      • dynamic response to transient and steady-state sinusoidal loads, and
        random excitation,


      • complex eigenvalue determination for vibration analysis, dynamic
        stability analysis,


      • and elastic stability analysis.

      NASTRAN also has a
      limited capability for the solution of nonlinear problems, including piecewise
      linear analysis of nonlinear static response and transient analysis of nonlinear
      dynamic response. Users may develop their own analysis capabilities by using the
      Direct Matrix Abstraction Programming (DMAP) language to direct NASTRAN in the
      solution of general matrix problems.

      Two types of NASTRAN licenses are
      available for some destination platforms. Source Code licenses, which are
      available for all supported platforms, include the source code, executables,
      demonstration problems and a four-volume set of documentation which includes the
      Programmer's Manual. Executable Code Only licenses are also available. See the
      abstract for NASTRAN/XE. The individual volumes of the four-volume set of
      documentation for NASTRAN are also available separately.
      external link
    • About NASTRAN
      In the early 1960s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) determined that a large scale finite element-based program was needed for designing the space system for lunar exploration.


      To satisfy this need, a NASA team, headed by a visionary named Tom Butler, developed a set of specifications for an innovative analysis system. The new system was called NASA Structural Analysis System, or NASTRAN.external link
    • NASTRAN - background
      Analysis tools that supported World War II aerospace technology were not adequate to meet the design challenge of high-performance aircraft with swept wings. This lead to a revolution in predictive analysis begun at Boeing by Turner, Clough and their colleagues. Ray Clough coined the term "finite elements" to describe the new analysis technology.


      Finite elements and the parallel development of digital computers, provided designers with new insight on how loads are carried in a swept wing and lead to the detailed design of weight-efficient structures for transonic, and eventually, supersonic flight. The general purpose nature of finite elements was quickly recognized as the new type of analysis spread across the remaining manufacturing industries and into architecture and engineering of large buildings, power engineering and civil engineering projects.


      Today, finite element analysis is the main technology supporting a CAE application software industry that was estimated by IDC to reach $690.4 million in revenues during 2000.
      external link
    • NASTRAN - commercialisation
      the uses for NASTRAN expanded, NASA believed that the finite element technology incorporated in the program was an important national resource that should be widely disseminated. In a forward-looking move, the agency decided that the best way to accomplish this goal was to make the source code available to software companies that would further develop the code as commercial products.


      MSC developed its own commercial version, MSC.NASTRAN, which was first released in the early 1970's. Competitive commercial finite element packages from other university and industry sources also broke into the developing market in the 1970's, but NASTRAN remained the leading commercial software code stream. Other commercial versions of NASTRAN were developed by Universal Analytics and CSAR. MSC subsequently acquired these companies, however, so that MSC.NASTRAN is the only extant commercial version of the NASTRAN program.

      external link