Why TeraScale?

Stretching of a Chain
(equivalent plastic strain)

TeraScale is committed to providing state of the art computational mechanics software that spans the hardware spectrum from single processor PCs to massive parallel clusters. Our software provides engineers with easy access to scalable, parallel, finite element analysis capability that has been specifically designed for parallel use.

We market affordable terascale computing in the form of our flagship TeraGrande finite element analysis product. We have designed TeraGrande so that you pay no performance penalty for running modest sized analysis models on a single processor. Nevertheless you can still achieve scalable performance for larger models that require more computing power from multiple processors.

TeraScale's analysis software was designed from its inception for distance and distributed computing. Our computational framework has a fundamental software design requirement to avoid moving big data. We provide web enabled pre and post processing that allows you to view results that exist on remote platforms on your local computer without moving the huge finite element results files.

Along with our general-purpose analysis capabilities, TeraScale offers a unique reinforced concrete capability that allows you to place the rebars throughout a solid model. The TeraScale rebar generator package automatically computes the intersections of the rebars with the solid elements that they penetrate. There is no need for the rebars to follow mesh lines or be connected directly to nodes. The TeraGrande rebar generator can be used with numerous mesh file formats to insert the rebars into the solid elements. TeraScale provides a concrete material model that computes discrete tensile cracking in up to three principal directions in the concrete. Cracks can open and close and reopen repeatedly. Once a crack forms, it never "heals" and the material model remembers the previous crack direction. In compression, the concrete model contains a plasticity model to capture concrete crushing. The TeraScale reinforced concrete modeling capabilities can be used to analyze the response of reinforced concrete structures to a wide variety of loading conditions. These include seismic loads, homeland security issues, and the modeling of hardened deeply buried targets.


Rebar Distribution within
the Solid Concrete Model

For example, the model shown at the right represents a two-span highway bridge that is simply supported at the two ends and continuous over the columns. The model contains over 200000 nodes, 160000 solid hex elements, and 87000 rebar elements. The six beams are all identical ASSHTO beams with a 56 ft span. The rebar distribution in the model is exactly as designed and built. This model easily runs on a single processor PC using TeraScale's TeraGrande general-purpose analysis software. The pictures below show the location of a blast load applied to the bridge and the subsequent cracking pattern in the bridge. Open cracks are shown in red and closed cracks are shown in blue.


Blast Pressure Distribution
on Bridge Deck at 4 msec

Cracking Pattern due to Blast Load after 76 msec

What is TeraGrande?

TeraGrande is a single, general-purpose finite element application for all your analysis needs. You will find a true seamless multiphysics capability in this integrated application.

With TeraGrande, you can perform an analysis sequence of different mechanics procedures in a single run. Each procedure in the TeraGrande library can inherit its state from any previous procedure in the sequence (including restarting from a saved restart file). There is no need to run one program, save a file, and then run another program with a restart file.

All the analysis procedures in TeraGrande provide full-large deformation/rotation implementations with a complete element library. Your models be two or three dimensional and may include the a mixture of of solids, shells, beams, and trusses elements. We provide a robust material library including elasticity, plasticity and concrete. We also provide a large library of Fortran user subroutines for you to write your own materials, loads, boundary conditions, etc.

TeraGrande Analysis Procedures
  • Statics
  • Explicit Dynamics
  • Implicit Dynamics
  • Steady State Thermal
  • Transient Thermal
  • Eigenvalue Extraction

Compressed Switch Assembly

What is Matrix Free?

TeraScale has implemented an innovative solver technology for finding the solutions to your mechanics problems. Conventional finite element applications form and solve a large (usually sparse) global set of equations, severely limiting the size of the problems you can solve and inhibiting scalable parallel processing. Our matrix-free iterative solver attacks the mechanics equations directly in the form of repeated evaluations of the equations. We never form a finite element matrix or assemble a global system of equations. What does that mean to you? You can solve bigger problems faster with smaller computers and you can solve gigantic problems using scalable parallel computing on multiple processors.


Compressed Switch Assembly
(Mises Stress)
Advantages of Matrix Free
  • Small Memory Footprint
  • Efficient Contact Algorithms
  • Improved Parallel Performance
  • Analysis of Large 3D Models

The multi-part switch assembly model shown above illustrates the advantages of matrix free methods. A conventional solver-based approach would suffer from two serious problems. First, the solver would have difficulty getting started because the uncompressed assemblage has rigid body modes (it would experience zero pivots). Second, the band width or front width changes considerably as the contact evolves. TeraScale's matrix-free solver avoids these problems entirely because it has no global matrix of equations to solve and because the contact calculations are totally explicit in nature.


How do you use TeraGrande?

TeraGrande can be installed on your own hardware platform or you can run it on TeraScale's Application Service Provider (ASP). TeraScale provides Grok, a graphical user interface used by all of TeraScale's applications. Grok is web-enabled so that you can open files across the World Wide Web. Grok is designed to provide analysis capabilities in a distance and distributed computing environment. We have designed Grok to avoid moving the big data associated with finite element analysis results.



Post-processing Using Grok

TeraScale's Secure ASP Site

Whether you are running on your own hardware or using TeraScale's ASP, you have easy access to all your files. Grok provides the interface to TeraScale's meshing application as well as the post processing capabilities for viewing results. Grok also provides the interface to prepare TeraGrande input files. Grok can be used to open files that are on the TeraScale Secure ASP Site and save files there for processing.