Commercial Applications for Earthquake Engineering Simulation

Many earthquake engineering applications are best-solved by commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software tools.  These proprietary tools are robust and reliable, and have been tested on the full range of real-world problems via their extensive use in mechanical, automotive, and aerospace engineering practice.  For earthquake engineering practitioners who require high-fidelity results and responsive and knowledgeable technical support, commercial applications provide an excellent means to gain accurate results that can be trusted on the job.

Most proprietary simulation tools listed here were originally developed for mechanics applications such as virtual impact testing of automobiles or laptop computers.  Some of these commercial tools demonstrate their mechanical engineering origins by requiring substantial work to set up civil engineering problems (e.g., base motions due to earthquake excitations), but all of them are capable of accurate rendition of a wide variety of earthquake engineering problems.


ABAQUS

ABAQUS is one of the most comprehensive finite element tools available.  The range of features of the ABAQUS software suite runs the full gamut of computational analysis capabilities, including implicit, explicit, and modal analysis; linear and nonlinear static and transient capabilities, and multiphysics and multibody simulation methods.  One of the most important features of ABAQUS is its extensible material models, which permits users to add new material response modules to the core set of ABAQUS modeling capabilities, e.g., constitutive models for soils, concrete, and other materials of Civil Engineering interest.  Another important feature of ABAQUS is the level of integration among the products that comprise this family, so that ABAQUS tools offer "one-stop shopping" for a wide variety of finite-element analysis needs.

URL's for ABAQUS Information

http://www.hks.com/
http://www.abaqus.com/



ADINA

ADINA includes a wide variety of solution techniques for static and transient problems, including the robust nonlinear analysis techniques that give this finite-element toolkit its name (ADINA = Automatic Dynamic Incremental Nonlinear Analysis).  In addition to its considerable capabilities for structural analysis,  ADINA also permits fully-coupled fluid-structure interaction simulations that are useful for tsunami analyses.  The ADINA system includes an incredible variety of capabilities, such as integration with solids modeling applications, visual pre- and post-processing tools, and features to support multiphysics simulations involving coupled solid, fluid, and thermal response.

URL's for ADINA Information

http://www.adina.com/



ANSYS

ANSYS is a popular commerical finite-element package that supports solid, fluid, thermal, and electromagnetic analysis, as well as various combinations of these physical responses  The ANSYS finite-element toolkit interfaces with the LS-DYNA explicit dynamics code so that a full range of implicit and explicit analysis capabilities are available to ANSYS users.  ANSYS supports many advanced finite-element techniques, including both h- and p-element technology, an efficient suite of scalable solution techniques that provide for sparse direct, parallel frontal, and iterative solvers, robust contact/impact algorithms that are required for many complex multibody and multicomponent analyses, and a variety of nonlinear material models.

URL's for ANSYS Information

http://www.ansys.com/



LS-DYNA

LS-DYNA is a robust and capable finite-element application from Livermore Software Technology Corporation (LSTC). LS-DYNA has an wide range of finite-element modeling capabilities for high-fidelity engineering mechanics simulations, including nonlinear dynamics capabilities for analyzing structural frames, smooth-particle hydro and meshless techniques appropriate for slope-stability problems in geotechnical engineering, ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian) analysis capabilities for large-deformation problems and fluid-structure interactions, and normal mode integration for modal analysis of large structures.  LS-DYNA is highly scalable, and runs in parallel on distributed-memory clusters of both Linux/Unix or Windows machines. It includes an excellent visualization environment for problem setup and graphical post-processing, as well as structural optimization capabilities that are available within the separate LS-OPT application.

URL's for LS-DYNA Information

http://www.lstc.com/



SAP2000

SAP2000 is a powerful finite-element analysis tool for structural analysis and design.  It is one of the few general-purpose analysis tools that is specifically designed for civil/structural settings, and its structural engineering orientation makes it easy to use on a variety of practical problems such as high-rise structures and bridges.  SAP2000 includes features to handle the full range of structural analysis problems in both the time and frequency domains, and can readily model structural details such as isolation bearings, materials such as structural steel, and loading details such as live loads on bridges.  SAP2000 also includes visual tools intended to aid in problem setup and solution interpretation.

URL's for SAP2000 Information

http://www.comp-engineering.com/products/SAP2000/sap2000.html