Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Composite Materials Analysis & Simulation |
Founded | 2000 |
Headquarters | Laramie, Wyoming |
Key people | Jerad Stack, CEO |
Firehole Composites (formerly Firehole Technologies, Inc.) was a supplier of computer-aided engineering (CAE) software and consulting services specializing in analysis of composite materials. Founded in 2000, the company's mission is to provide enabling technologies to further the widespread use of composite materials. Their products include Helius:MCT (a multiscale simulation tool for composite progressive failure analysis), Helius:CompositePro (a classical laminate theory and simple structural analysis tool), Helius:MatSim (an online micromechanics lamina simulator), and Prospector:Composites (an online composite material properties database hosted by IDES Inc.).
Firehole’s principal product, Helius:MCT, is a simulation tool built to improve the accuracy of composite structure analysis and is available as an advanced capability add-on to commercial finite element analysis (FEA) packages (such as Abaqus and ANSYS). It is based on Multicontinuum Technology (MCT), an analysis methodology developed specifically for composites which, rather than treating the composite as a homogeneous material, extracts the separate stress and strain fields for the constituents (fiber and matrix) of a composite material. [1] [2] In doing so, distinct failure criteria and material nonlinearity can be applied separately. This permits Helius:MCT to identify failure of individual material constituents and degrade a composite material accordingly, providing a robust progressive failure simulation that captures failure initiation all the way up to and beyond ultimate structural failure.
Firehole was acquired by Autodesk in 2013 for an undisclosed sum. [3]
Firehole Composites began in the academic research of composite material analysis during the mid-1990s. The core technology was part of an academic research project underway in the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Wyoming. In 2000, a number of graduate students and faculty at UW saw the commercial potential of the technology and founded Firehole Composites. Firehole Composites continues a collaborative relationship with the University of Wyoming and sponsors ongoing research into composite analysis technology.
During its first years of existence the company focused on the research and development of composite technologies utilizing the US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs. Recent technology demonstration efforts have included participation in the World Wide Failure Exercise and a large structures failure analysis and test program with the US AFRL Space Vehicle’s Directorate.
In January 2009, Firehole launched their first commercial product – Helius:MCT. The name Helius, a general branding for Firehole products, refers to the Greek god of sun and vision and represents the idea of added vision or insight into composite material analysis.
Firehole Composites name sake is the Firehole River, a Wyoming river that originates in Yellowstone National Park. The Firehole is unique because it flows through several geyser basins which empty hot water into it, often causing steam to rise. It was named by early trappers because the steam makes it appear as if it is on fire. The Firehole is also known for exceptional fly fishing.
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems. It is one of the oldest and broadest of the engineering branches.
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has offices worldwide. Its U.S. offices are located in the states of California, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, Michigan, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Its Canada offices are located in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.
Ansys, Inc. is an American multinational company with its headquarters based in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. It develops and markets CAE/multiphysics engineering simulation software for product design, testing and operation and offers its products and services to customers worldwide.
The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) is the national research laboratory of the United States Forest Service, which is part of USDA. Since its opening in 1910, the FPL has provided scientific research on wood, wood products and their commercial uses in partnership with academia, industry, tribal, state, local and other government agencies. The laboratory is headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. The focus of the Forest Products Laboratory is to promote healthy forests and forest-based economies through the efficient, sustainable use of the Nation's wood resources.
MSC Software Corporation is an American simulation software technology company based in Newport Beach, California, that specializes in simulation software.
This is an alphabetical list of articles pertaining specifically to Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM). For a broad overview of engineering, please see Engineering. For biographies please see List of engineers and Mechanicians.
Johann Hadji Argyris FRS was a Greek pioneer of computer applications in science and engineering, among the creators of the finite element method (FEM), and later Professor at the University of Stuttgart and Director of the Institute of Structural Mechanics and Dynamics in Aerospace Engineering.
NEi Nastran was an engineering analysis and simulation software product of NEi Software. Based on NASA's Structural Analysis program NASTRAN, the software is a finite element analysis (FEA) solver used to generate solutions for linear and nonlinear stress, dynamics, and heat transfer characteristics of structures and mechanical components. NEi Nastran software is used with all major industry pre- and post-processors, including Femap, a product of Siemens PLM Software, and the in-house brands NEi Nastran in-CAD, NEi Fusion, and NEi Works for SolidWorks. This software was acquired by Autodesk in May 2014.
NEi Software, founded as Noran Engineering, Inc. in 1991, is an engineering software company that develops, publishes and promotes FEA software programs including its flagship product NEi Nastran. The FEA algorithms allow engineers to analyze how a structure will behave under a variety of conditions. The types of analysis include linear and nonlinear stress, dynamic, and heat transfer analysis. MCT, PPFA, dynamic design analysis method, optimization, fatigue, CFD and event simulation are just some of the specialized types of analysis supported by the company.
Junuthula N. Reddy is a Distinguished Professor, Regent's Professor, and inaugural holder of the Oscar S. Wyatt Endowed Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA.[1] He is an authoritative figure in the broad area of mechanics and one of the researchers responsible for the development of the Finite Element Method (FEM). He has made significant seminal contributions in the areas of finite element method, plate theory, solid mechanics, variational methods, mechanics of composites, functionally graded materials, fracture mechanics, plasticity, biomechanics, classical and non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, and applied functional analysis. Reddy has over 620 journal papers and 20 books and has given numerous national and international talks. He served as a member of the International Advisory Committee at ICTACEM, in 2001 and keynote addressing in 2014.[2][3]
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is similar, but deals with the electronics side of aerospace engineering.
Charbel Farhat is the Vivian Church Hoff Professor of Aircraft Structures in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where from 2008 to 2023, he chaired the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. From 2022 to 2023, he chaired this department as the inaugural James and Anna Marie Spilker Chair of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is also Professor in the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, and Director of the Stanford-King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Center of Excellence for Aeronautics and Astronautics. From 2017 to 2023, he served on the Space Technology Industry-Government-University Roundtable; from 2015 to 2019, he served on the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB); from 2008 to 2018, he served on the United States Bureau of Industry and Security's Emerging Technology and Research Advisory Committee (ETRAC) at the United States Department of Commerce; and from 2007 to 2018, he served as the Director of the Army High Performance Computing Research Center at Stanford University. He was designated by the US Navy recruiters as a Primary Key-Influencer and flew with the Blue Angels during Fleet Week 2014.
The theory of micro-mechanics of failure aims to explain the failure of continuous fiber reinforced composites by micro-scale analysis of stresses within each constituent material, and of the stresses at the interfaces between those constituents, calculated from the macro stresses at the ply level.
HyperSizer is computer-aided engineering (CAE) software used for stress analysis and sizing optimization of metallic and composite structures. Originally developed at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as ST-SIZE, it was licensed for commercial use by Collier Research Corporation in 1996. Additional proprietary code was added and the software was marketed under the name HyperSizer.
cadec-online.com was a multilingual web application that performs analysis of composite materials and is used primarily for teaching, especially within the disciplines of aerospace engineering, materials science, naval engineering, mechanical engineering, and civil engineering. Users navigate the application through a tree view which structures the component chapters. cadec-online is an engineering cloud application. It uses the LaTeX library to render equations and symbols, then Sprites to optimize the delivery of images to the page. As of 2021, the application is no longer available.
RFEM is a 3D finite element analysis software working under Microsoft Windows computer operating systems. RFEM can be used for structural analysis and design of steel, concrete, timber, glass, membrane and tensile structures as well as for plant and mechanical engineering or dynamic analysis and analysis of steel joints.
MSC Marc is a nonlinear finite elements analysis software used to simulate behavior of complex materials and interaction under large deformations and strains. It can also simulate multi-physics scenarios across structural, thermal, piezoelectric, electrostatic, magnetostatic, and electromagnetic behaviors. It uses automatic two-dimensional and three-dimensional remeshing to analyze structures undergoing large distortions, and crack propagation.
Wiesław Kazimierz Binienda is a Polish-American scientist, researcher, PhD, and professor and co-director of the Gas and Turbine Research and Testing Laboratory on the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Akron.
Carlos E. S. Cesnik is a Brazilian-American aerospace engineer, academic, and author. He is the Clarence L. (Kelly) Johnson Collegiate Professor of Aerospace Engineering and the founding Director of the Active Aeroelasticity and Structures Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan. He also directs the Airbus-Michigan Center for Aero-Servo-Elasticity of Very Flexible Aircraft (CASE-VFA).
Richard H. Gallagher was an American civil and aerospace engineer, researcher and president of Clarkson University from 1988 to 1995.