Abaqus 6.9 release has XFEM

Hi All,

The new Abaqus 6.9 release offers new capabilities for fracture and failure (XFEM) and much more.   http://www.simulia.com/products/abaqus_fea

Release Highlights:·         The Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) has been implemented in Abaqus and provides a powerful tool for simulating crack growth along arbitrary paths that do not correspond to element boundaries. In the aerospace industry, XFEM can be used in combination with other Abaqus capabilities to predict the durability and damage tolerance of composite aircraft structures. In the energy industry, it can assist in evaluating the onset and growth of cracks in pressure vessels.·         The general contact implementation offers a simplified and highly automated method for defining contact interactions in a model. This capability provides substantial efficiency improvements in modeling complex assemblies such as gear systems, hydraulic cylinders, or other products that have parts that come into contact.·         A new cosimulation method allows users to combine the Abaqus implicit and explicit solvers into a single simulation—substantially reducing computation time. For example, automotive engineers can now combine a substructure representation of a vehicle body with a model of the tires and suspension systems to evaluate the durability of a vehicle running over a pothole.·         A new viscous shear model allows the simulation of non-Newtonian fluids such as blood, paste, molten polymers, and other fluids often used in consumer product and industrial applications.