Altair SimSolid as a Meshless FEA Tool to Predict Structural Strength and Durability of a Simple Supported Beam

Presentation by Sharene Esther K., Senior Engineer – Applied Mechanics and Naresh Paddillaya, Associate Tech Lead – Mechanical Systems from Trane Technologies as part of Altair's Simulate at the Speed of Design 2025 conference.

Simulating real-life physical systems for strength and durability has become an inevitable part of any product development cycle. While traditional simulation software are doing a great job of providing close-to-reality results, it takes a lot of time and effort, and yet, the chances of manual errors are high. With Meshless FEA tools on the rise, this paper gives a brief explanation of the underlying methods used by the Meshless FEA solvers and how they are different from the traditional FEA solvers. Furthermore, this paper compares the modal, harmonic, random vibration, and fatigue results between a traditional FEA software and Altair SimSolid for a simply supported beam. This paper also discussed the techniques and settings that must be adopted to achieve results close to traditional FEA software. In addition to comparison with traditional FEA software, this paper also compares the FRF results of Altair SimSolid with test data. It concludes with the advantages and limitations of the newly evolving meshless FEA tool Altair SimSolid.