Firehole Releases Version 2.0 of Helius:MCT™

Advanced Composite Simulation Now Available for ANSYS Users.

LARAMIE, Wyo - Firehole Technologies, Inc, a developer of analysis software for structures with advanced composite materials, announces the immediate availability of Helius:MCT Version 2.0, the most advanced composite analysis solution commercially available. With the release of version 2.0, users of multiphysics engineering simulation software from ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANSS) now have access to multi-scale and progressive failure technologies for analyzing advanced composite materials.

“Helius:MCT is designed to enhance an engineer’s existing analysis software to better simulate large scale structures with composite materials. It is built to handle complex load states at the constituent level — that is, the behavior of the fiber and the matrix, allowing for much better prediction of composite behavior — in a manner that is computationally efficient and easy to understand,” said Jason Gies, Firehole’s VP of Business Development. Gies continued, “Firehole is excited to make this functionality available to ANSYS® users.”

“Composite materials have much more complex properties than traditional materials such as iron or steel,” said Dipankar Choudhury, vice president, corporate product strategy and planning at ANSYS, Inc. “ANSYS understands the additional complexity of these materials and offers a significant amount of composite modeling capability in our products, such as layered shell and solid elements, generalized section definitions for composite layer properties and orientations, advanced failure criterions, and cohesive zone materials models for studying delamination failure of composites structures. Through this partnership with Firehole, our joint customers can perform composites analyses with far more accuracy, and do deeper interrogations of the materials at the micro level.”

As with other FEA platforms, Helius:MCT is available as a seamlessly integrated product with ANSYS software. The Helius:MCT product includes a plug-in application that allows for simple inclusion of composite materials into an FEA model, as well as an add-on module that enables the ANSYS structural mechanics solver to perform multi-scale analysis. Also part of the package is Helius:MaterialManager, an application used to easily define composite materials and store them in a database.

Using Helius:MCT™, engineers can reliably predict the performance of prototype or concept structures with composite materials prior to actual fabrication and testing, thus reducing the total cost and time of the development cycle while simultaneously increasing structural reliability. The technology has been demonstrated to provide improved accuracy of composite material structural behavior as compared to traditional composite analysis technologies.

With advanced methods developed specifically for composite materials, Helius:MCT enables users to achieve better simulations for composite structures. Contact Firehole for documented test-vs.-analysis results, case studies and more information.