The document describes a new software tool called SDC Verifier that automates the structural verification process for finite element analysis (FEA) models. It uses recognition tools to automatically identify structural components like beams, plates, joints, and welds from the FEA model. It then extracts key properties of these components like beam lengths and plate dimensions to feed into industry standard checks for things like buckling and fatigue without requiring manual calculations. Results from the checks can be automatically generated into customizable reports, saving significant time over traditional manual processes. The tool allows engineers to focus on design optimization rather than administrative tasks.

1. STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS BASED
VERIFICATION PROCESS FOR FEA MODELS
Chris Teague
Saratech, USA
Wouter van den Bos
Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
1. Introduction
Once a finite element model is run to generate displacements, loads,
and stress contours, you often need to further process the data to check
against industry standards criteria such as beam and plate buckling,
joint analysis, fatigue life calculations, and in-house custom checks.
Then you may need to create a report documenting the model and
margins of safety with both tables and model plots. This can be a very
tedious and time consuming process the first time it is done. But with
changes to the design, updated load conditions, and other adjustments
to the finite element model, it can be a dramatic time saver if we can
automate this process. Plus the automation can help reduce mistakes,
since once the automation template has been verified, then you can
continue to reuse that template every time the finite element model is
updated.
A newly developed software tool SDC Verifier uses a new method to
automate this process. With it’s so called “recognition tools” dimensions
and orientation of structural components as plates, stiffeners,
bulkheads, welds, beam members or columns are identified in the FEA
model and the complete shape and size of the structural components
are automatically retrieved. Because it is only based on the element
and nodes description it doesn’t matter whether the model comes from
NX Nastran, MSC Nastran, NEi Nastran, Ansys, Abaqus, or LS-
DYNA3D.
Figure 1 shows this new workflow, starting with beam member
recognition, plate recognition, joint and weld recognition, which can feed
data into the checking module, and then finally into a report. We will
review this new process which automatically recognize features such as
beam length, joints, panels, and feed this data into formulas for beam
and plate buckling, fatigue, joints analysis, and other industry standard
checks that need to be made in order to complete the analysis on a

2. part. These results can then be automatically feed into a fully
customizable reporting wizard to automate the creation of a final report.
Figure 1: Workflow from feature recognition to checks to final report
The recognition tools use a unique automation method to automatically
find the length of a beam member used in the buckling calculations, the
height and width of the plate features, and the location and orientation
of the welds. This can be a dramatic time savings over the more
common manual calculations of each of these features. These
algorithms have been used successfully on models with thousands of
individual features.
2. Automated Recognition tools
Many finite element programs will return the length of a bar/beam
element, but for buckling and other checks we usually need the full
length of the member from joint to joint, not just the individual element
length. Finite element programs do not have this data, so either we
have to manually enter the data into custom programs, or we have to
model the structure using just one element from joint to joint. Neither
option is very ideal. The SDC Verifier tool has a built in algorithm to
automatically identify the actual length of individual beam or column

3. STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS BASED
VERIFICATION PROCESS FOR FEA MODELS
members, no matter how many elements are used. The stiffness
directions of joints between beam members are qualified as 1D, 2D, or
3D connections. The type of the connection determines if the beam
member is only supported in one principal axis or in both. The effective
length can in this way be determined for both the principal axis of the
beams. The tool can plot the calculated lengths both graphically and in
table form to help verify the accuracy and document the results to be
used in the report generator.
Figure 2 shows some results of the automated beam member finding
tool, with 2D and 3D joints highlighted.
Figure 2: Beam Length Determination and Plotting
Figure 3 shows an example of the beam length plot that shows the
calculated beam length for each of the beam members and shows the
results in a color plot for reporting and verification. You can easily edit
the numbers if you need to input a custom length. And this algorithm is
completely independent of mesh density, or FEA Solver brand.

4. Figure 3: Beam Length Plots
For plate models, the program will find the dimensions of each plate
component. This has been tested on models with thousands of plate
components as show in the example in Figures 4 and 5.
Figure 4: Plate sections

5. STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS BASED
VERIFICATION PROCESS FOR FEA MODELS
Figure 5: Plate sections with dimensions shown
It is possible to plot the number of elements in each plate station
location as shown in Figure 6. This can help verify that the results are
accurate.
Figure 6: Plate sections station vs. elements count

6. The weld finder recognizes all welds and updates the weld direction
automatically. It can then perform fatigue analysis on the welds. The
user has the ability to set the weld type classification for each weld so
that the proper calculation can be performed on the different weld types
(K0-K4, W0-W2) as shown in Figures 7 and 8. Stiffener and Girder
recognition is shown in Figure 9.
Figure 7: Weld Recognition
Figure 8: Setting classifications of the Welds

7. STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS BASED
VERIFICATION PROCESS FOR FEA MODELS
Figure 9: Locating Stiffeners (Blue) and Girders (Red)
3. Using the results from the automatic recognition tools
With the recognition tools, structural checks can directly be calculated
on the structural components instead of on individual finite elements.
This makes the tool mesh independent and very flexible. The beam
length tool will recognize effective lengths that may be different in the
weak or strong orientation. All this info can be automatically fed into the
formulas prescribed by national standards or by classification societies
such as API, ANSI, AISC, EN, DIN, ABS and DNV codes. Much time is
spend on keeping the complete verification process as open as
possible, All the formulas used can be seen, updated or customized
and new standards can be easily added. Figure 10 shows some of the
many parameters that can be edited and changed. Figure 11 shows an
example of an AISC Buckling Check being performed on a crane
structure, with the elements that fail the buckling check highlighted in
red.

8. Figure 10: Customizable Options
Figure 11: AISC Buckling Check
Furthermore the documentation of the results is highly customizable;
with either a wizard or report designer the full documentation process
can be fed to a report containing all necessary info. Model information,
size and weight of properties, total sum of loads and the load
combination matrix including tables, graphs and plots are available to
the user to add into a report. The menu structure of the report follows

9. STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS BASED
VERIFICATION PROCESS FOR FEA MODELS
the same calculation structure which enables easy browsing afterwards.
All this can be exported to any popular document format as Microsoft
Word or PDF. Figure 12 shows an example of the buckling results in a
table format. Many different kinds of tables can be created, and then
placed in the report template as desired. For the next set of analysis
runs, the tables and charts can be automatically updated.
Figure 12: ABS Plate Buckling Check in table format
4. Designing Reports and Using the Report Wizard
The report wizard process overview is shown in Figure 13. The Report
Wizard will guide you through the process of created a report template.
Figure 14 shows the model setup information that can be added to the
report, including model configuration, analyst and company names, file
name, types of elements, loads, boundary conditions, materials and
element properties.

10. Figure 13: Report Generation with the Report Wizard
Figure 14: Model Setup Report
Figure 15 shows some of the sample results checks, tables, and plots
that can be added using the report wizard.

11. STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS BASED
VERIFICATION PROCESS FOR FEA MODELS
Figure 15: Results Report
Figure 16 shows some examples of the tables that can be created,
including displacement on selected nodes, with the absolute maximums
highlighted, the extreme values for elements in each property, the sum
of applied forces for each load case, maximum stress values for each
load case, and the maximum stress values for each direction.
Figure 17 shows two examples of the charts that can be created. The
left side has a histogram of maximum results for each load case and
load set. The right side shows a chart of node or element results
versus load cases and load sets.

12. Figure 16: Results Tables
Figure 17: Histogram and Expand Graph charts
Figure 18 shows some of the sample results plots that can be created.
You can define different views to show the same or different results,
and each view can be used for as many different plots types as needed.
The template is fully customizable by the end user.

13. STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS BASED
VERIFICATION PROCESS FOR FEA MODELS
Figure 18: Results Plots
If you need to do more fine tuning of the reports, there is a Report
Designer option that will allow full customization of each section of the
report. You can drag and drop items into the report, change fonts and
headings, add and remove any of the plot and table types that are
available. A regenerate option exists in case you want to regenerate all
or part of a report with updated information. Figure 19 shows the Report
Designer.
Figure 19: Report Generation with the Report Designer

14. Once the report template and standard or custom checks are defined,
the file can be saved as a template and the template applied to an
updated or a completely different model and a new report with new
safety margins can be automatically produced. This new type of
engineering workflow process seems very promising and potentially
saves huge amounts of administration time, reduces the possibilities for
human errors along the road and ensures that the analyst can focus on
design issues and engineering solutions. Figure 20 shows a sample
template run with one model, and then it was rerun with a different
model to get a brand new report.
Figure 20: Report Template
5. Conclusion
This has been a short overview of the SDC Verifier tool that uses a
unique process to automatically recognize features of the model that
can be used in industry standard checks, such as beam and plate
buckling, fatigue analysis, joint analysis, and also in custom equations
that may be specific to individual customers. These results can then be
automatically fed into the report wizard and report designer tools so that
the user can automatically create new reports for each load case or
load set, with the final margin of safety highlighted in the report. There
are also tools available to help the user manage combination of
individual loads into load sets, and load sets into load groups for
detailed analysis. Then the reports can be saved as a template, to

15. STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS BASED
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make it very quick and easy to run new load cases, or modifications to
the design to find the final margin of safety since the templates are not
model specific, and can be rerun with any finite element model. This
can free up the engineer to work on the optimizing the design, since
less time will be spent on doing the calculation of individual margins and
creating reports, and they will be able to quickly find out if any part of
the model is failing due to any of the analysis check requirements. The
time lost in the often repeated process of data manipulation can now be
used to focus on improving the design. This will let the engineer be an
analyst, not an admin.