Purdue University Develops MSC.Patran/Nastran-Swiftcomp GUI

In his recent article, a Graduate Research Assistant at Purdue University, Xin Liu describes the MSC.Patran/Nastran-SwiftComp GUI: A plugin for multiscale modeling of composite materials and structures. The software is an open-source, third party software developed to integrate SwiftComp into MSC.Patran/Nastran, powering the conventional structural code tool with accurate constitutive modeling for anisotropic, heterogeneous materials and structures. The MSC.Patran/Nastran-SwiftComp GUI was developed by the Multiscale Structural Mechanics research group at Purdue University and is available on Purdue’s Composite Design & Manufacturing Hub (cdmHUB), where users may access the software after creating a free log-in. Video tutorials are available on the AnalySwift YouTube channel. This multiscale modeling module is developed based on the recently invented theory called Mechanics of Structure Genome (MSG), which is implemented into SwiftComp. The MSC.Patran/Nastran-SwiftComp GUI provides the automated conversion of the MSG plate and beam stiffness matrix into MSC.Nastran shell and beam element properties and materials. In order to reduce the modeling efforts for creating complex microstructures of woven composites, the code TexGen has been integrated into the GUI. This provides a rapid textile composite microstructure generation for constitutive modeling. SwiftComp is a general-purpose multiscale modeling code that enables users to perform efficient and accurate modeling of composites.