MEDINA
Encyclopedia
MEDINA is a universal pre-/postprocessor for finite element analysis.

The development of MEDINA started in the early 1990s at Daimler-Benz AG and was proceeded at debis Systemhaus. Since 2001 the support and the development of MEDINA takes place by T-Systems
T-Systems
T-Systems is a worldwide operating ICT provider founded in October 2000. It belongs to Deutsche Telekom AG and its central office is located in Bonn, Germany. Within Deutsche Telekom AG it is responsible for multinational corporations and public-sector institutions. It operates in more than 20...

 International GmbH. The current release is MEDINA Rel. 8.2.

Architecture and Interfaces

MEDINA was designed as general purpose pre-/postprocessor for various areas of finite element analysis supporting most of the common CAD-formats, solvers and operating systems.

CAD-formats supported

Currently, the following CAD-formats are supported by MEDINA:
  • CATIA
    CATIA
    CATIA is a multi-platform CAD/CAM/CAE commercial software suite developed by the French company Dassault Systemes...

  • IGES
    IGES
    The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification is a file format which defines a vendor neutral data format that allows the digital exchange of information among Computer-aided design systems....

  • JT
    JT (visualization format)
    JT is a 3D data format developed by and is used for product visualization, collaboration, and CAD data exchange. It can contain any combination of approximate data, exact boundary representation surfaces , Product and Manufacturing Information , and Metadata either exported from the native CAD...

  • SAT (ACIS)
    ACIS
    The 3D ACIS Modeler is a 3D modelling kernel owned by Spatial Corporation . ACIS is used by many software developers in industries such as computer-aided design , Computer-aided manufacturing , Computer-aided engineering , Architecture, engineering and construction , Coordinate-measuring machine...

  • STEP
    ISO 10303
    ISO 10303 is an ISO standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of product manufacturing information. Its official title is: Automation systems and integration — Product data representation and exchange...

  • STL
    STL (file format)
    STL is a file format native to the stereolithography CAD software created by 3D Systems. This file format is supported by many other software packages; it is widely used for rapid prototyping and computer-aided manufacturing. STL files describe only the surface geometry of a three dimensional...

  • VDA-FS
    VDA-FS
    VDA-FS is a CAD data exchange format for the transfer of surface models from one CAD system to another.Its name stands for "Verband der Automobilindustrie - Flächenschnittstelle", which translates to the "organization of the automotive industry - surface translation format".Standard was specified...



Further CAD-formats can be supported using the solution for 3D data conversion of T-Systems called COM/FOX.

Solvers supported

In the current release, particularly the following solvers are supported by MEDINA:
  • Abaqus
    Abaqus
    Abaqus FEA is a suite of software applications for finite element analysis and computer-aided engineering, originally released in 1978...

  • Nastran
    Nastran
    NASTRAN is a finite element analysis program that was originally developed for NASA in the late 1960s under United States government funding for the Aerospace industry. The MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation was one of the principal and original developers of the public domain NASTRAN code...

  • PAM-CRASH
    PAM-CRASH
    PAM-CRASH is a software package from ESI Group used for crash simulation and the design of occupant safety systems, primarily in the automotive industry. PAM-CRASH enables automotive engineers to simulate the performance of a proposed vehicle design and evaluate the potential for injury to vehicle...

  • PERMAS

OS and hardware supported

In the current release, MEDINA is running under the following operating systems and hardware architectures:
  • Linux
    Linux
    Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

  • Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

  • IBM / AIX
  • Hewlett Packard / HP-UX
    HP-UX
    HP-UX is Hewlett-Packard's proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on UNIX System V and first released in 1984...

  • Silicon Graphics / IRIX
    IRIX
    IRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...

  • SUN / SunOS
    SunOS
    SunOS is a version of the Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems for their workstation and server computer systems. The SunOS name is usually only used to refer to versions 1.0 to 4.1.4 of SunOS...


FE-analysis in MEDINA

Particularly, MEDINA is being used for the following tasks of FE-analysis:
  • Crash simulations
    Crash test
    A crash test is a form of destructive testing usually performed in order to ensure safe design standards in crashworthiness and crash compatibility for various modes of transportation or related systems and components.- Types :...

    ;
  • durability analysis (thermal and mechanical loading);
  • NVH (Noise Vibration Harshness)
    Noise, Vibration, and Harshness
    Noise, vibration, and harshness , also known as noise and vibration , is the study and modification of the noise and vibration characteristics of vehicles, particularly cars and trucks...

    ;
  • simulations about pedestrian safety and passenger protection.


MEDINA consists of two modules:
  • a FEM preprocessor (MEDINA.Pre) and
  • a FEM postprocessor (MEDINA.Post).


In the preprocessor all steps are taken before the computation can start, i.e.:
  • Import of geometry data from CAD system;
  • Import of associated meta data from the CAD-system or PDM
    Product Data Management
    Product data management is the business function often within product lifecycle management that is responsible for the creation, management and publication of product data...

    -system;
  • Import of FE-models;
  • Editing and repair of CAD geometry;
  • Meshing;
  • Model structuring;
  • Definition of material parameters;
  • Definition of boundary conditions;
  • Definition of load cases;
  • Generation of the solver specific input deck.


In the postprocessor all steps are taken after the computation of the primary data of the solver is finished, e.g.:
  • Determination of the derived secondary data;
  • Illustration of the results (graphics, animations);
  • Export functionalities;
  • Generation of reports.

Characteristics of MEDINA

MEDINA was designed to support complex simulation tasks and huge FE models—found typically in automotive and aerospace industries—with high performance.

Important design elements to achieve high performance are parts structures and connector elements.
  • Parts enable an 1:1 mapping of the product structure of the CAD-/PDM-system within the FE model.
  • Connector elements are used for the generic as well as solver and client specific modeling of assembling techniques like welding, bolting, bonding.


Within the process step of the so called “model assembly” the single FE-components (parts structures and connector elements) are merged to the complex comprehensive FE-model representing complex products like vehicles, aircraft, etc.

Single process steps or complete process chains can be automated by protocol and script techniques. Dynamic commands enable to integrate client specific plug-ins within the standard functionality of MEDINA.

Target groups / User groups

Due to the development roots of MEDINA and the included functionalities for the analysis of huge FE-models MEDINA is a widely used pre-/postprocessor for FE analysis especially in automotive industries
Automotive industry
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....

.

Furthermore MEDINA is used in aerospace
Aerospace manufacturer
An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, and/or spacecraft....

, manufacturing industries, engineering service providers and universities.

External links

  • http://servicenet.t-systems.com/medina - official MEDINA web site (in English)
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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