MSC Nastran

Perform comprehensive, multidisciplinary analysis. MSC Nastran offers multiple analysis disciplines in one structural analysis solution to solve a wide variety of engineering problems. 

• Linear or nonlinear analysis
• Static analysis
• Dynamic (NVH & Acoustics included) analysis
• Thermal analysis
• Buckling analysis

One integrated solution for complex engineering challenges

Reduce your dependency on multiple structural analysis programs from various vendors by using one solver for your most complex engineering challenges. 

Perform fatigue analysis with embedded fatigue technologies and reduce the time usually associated with fatigue life determination.

Assess the behaviour of advanced composites and fibre-reinforced plastics with built-in progressive failure analysis and user-defined services for mean-field homogenization coupling with Digimat. 

Structural assembly modelling

One structural component is rarely analyzed independently. Structural systems include numerous components and must be analyzed as a whole. Join multiple components for system-level structural analysis with MSC Nastran.

• Expedite meshing with Permanent Glue to connect incongruent meshes that would traditionally require time-consuming mesh transitions
• Save time constructing assemblies that consist of welds or fasteners with specialized connector elements
• Use modules to combine and manage multiple components of a structure and form a complete assembly without the need to use additional connection elements or worry about ID numbering schemes
• Speed up the re-analysis of large assemblies by constructing Superelements, or collaboratively sharing Superelements with other manufacturers while concealing confidential design information
• Perform contact analysis and determine contact stresses and contact regions in multi-component designs
• Increase productivity by using the automatic contact generation feature to automatically create the contact bodies and define the contact relationship between them.

Customer Testimonial
"The use of glued contact for assemblies reduces the problem setup time from 1 day to 1 hour and avoids tedious mesh alignment between parts.”
- Julien Rodess, Study Engineer Sogeti

Design optimisation is critical to product development, but is often an iterative process that requires extensive manual effort. MSC Nastran includes optimization algorithms that automatically seek optimal configurations for your designs. 

• Optimise designs for stress, mass, fatigue, etc. and get almost instantaneous results as you iterate on design variables such as material properties, geometric dimensions, loads, etc.
• Enhance the shape or profile of structural members with shape optimisation
• Find optimal composite laminate ply thicknesses with topometry optimisation
• Determine optimal bead or stamp patterns for sheet metal parts with topography optimisation
• Remove excess and unnecessary volume with topology optimisation
• Simultaneously optimise multiple models across disciplines with multi-model optimisation

Increase your productivity with the high-performance computing enhancements to MSC Nastran. Analysis models can be very large and require extensive time and computing power to solve with traditional methods. MSC Nastran features high-performance computing capabilities that help you solve problems and perform analyses much quicker. These investments in high-performance computing can save engineers hours or days of analysis time and improve the profitability of your products. 

• Take advantage of multi-core and multi-node clusters with parallelization technologies like shared memory parallels and distributed memory parallels
• Accelerate simulation time and obtain higher performance for large models using the automatic solver selection feature, SOLVE=Auto. Let MSC Nastran automatically select the optimal solver and the most efficient parallelization method to use based on the analysis specifications (element types, solution type, available memory etc.)
• Utilize nVidia GPU Cards to accelerate the analysis of models composed of solid finite elements
• Perform modal analysis faster by using a highly tuned Lanczos solver or Automated Component Modal Synthesis

Hexagon offers many resources to support you as you use MSC Nastran. Available services include:

• Technical support, often rated 4.5 out of 5 by customers
• SimAcademy, where you can learn more about MSC Nastran from our experts

MSC Software was one of the original developers of the first NASTRAN code, and that same dedication to NASTAN continues with Hexagon today. MSC Nastran has been continuously developed for over 40 years and is constantly evolving to meet today’s toughest engineering challenges.

Airframe Designs, Ltd

Alson E. Hatheway Inc (AEH): Nastran

Avio ensure the VEGA launcher's structural integrity

Boiler Structure: Static Simulation

Composite materials in aerospace

Designing a plastic robotic arm

Faster testing and virtual validation of access

Framework Construction: Static simulation

Honda Motor Company

Joby Aviation

Kú Cycle

Making solar panels ready for lift-off

Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group

MSC Nastran Volvo Bus Corporation case study

MSC Software helps Scania reduce cabin noise

Optimising design of a flipper device for airplane

Panasonic Ecology Systems: Indoor air circulation

Race sports: Catch the highest performance

Royal Enfield: Motorbike pass-by noise

Structural Design, Analysis, and Testing

Team Fast Forest: Quick as lightning

Tyvak engineers use MSC Apex to reduce satellite

University of California, Irvine: MSC Nastran

Optimizing dynamic analysis with ACMS in MSC Nastran

Predicting fatigue lifetimes