FEDEM Modules, Overview and Description

The Fedem simulation software is organized in modules. The figure below displays an overview that explains how they are related.

FEDEM Front End Modules

The Fedem front end is a modelling and postprocessing environment from which the Fedem Solvers are launched and controlled. This powerful set of modules provides the user interface of Fedem which is designed for easy navigation through complex models, events and results, keeping the connection between model and results as tight as possible.

Modeler

The modeler is the core of the user interface utilizing 3D graphics, navigation tools and property sheets to help the user to assemble the model. The components can be finite element models importet from nastran BDF, CAD geometry imported from VRML or simply defined by coordinates and mass properties only. All kind of linear/non-linear joints, springs, dampers etc, which constitutes your mechanism, are created in the modeler, visualized, and described. Functions are created or imported as x,y columns. Event description, loads & displacements, are defined in the modeler along with the solver set-up.

Control system builder

A fully graphical control system design board embedded in the modeler. Any number of control feed-back loops can be created and plugged in to the simulated mechanical system.

Structural post processor

Von Mises, max Principals and other results can be recovered and displayed for any time interval with any step size. System modes are also available. Summary plots can be produced to assess maximum stress values occurring during a given time interval.

Curve plotter & analyser

The curve plotter displays results from dynamical simulation on-the-fly. All loads and motions and many other results can be monitored, manipulated and exported. FFT, scaling and statistics are some of the functionality in the curve plotter.

Fedem Solvers

FE reducer

FEDEM's advanced model reducer reduces the DOF's of the Finite Element models to only include DOF's required. The combined static and dynamics reduction ensures a physically correct behavior of the reduced models.  The system determines automatically which DOF's to retain and which to remove.

Dynamic solver

The dynamic solver solver performs the non-linear dynamics for the time interval and time step size required by the user. When using add-on modules like the tire interface, the solver runs in conjunction with the external solver.

Stress/Strain recovery

The recovery module can be run after the dynamic simulation. Recovery means mapping nodal displacement from the reduced system back onto the full system, or parts of the full system, in order to investigate structural results.