Sol 600 vs 106 vs 400

[thecadguy]

Dear All,

I have been successfully running Sol 600 (MD 2010) for non-linear material static loads. I understand that this utilizes MARC in the background and I have been post processing the T16 results file. I have been using the MATEP pointing to the stress strain curve. Just recently I started using the CASI solver which has cut down on my solution times quite a bit. In fact, I have been getting fairly familiar with all the param options for MARC.

Question:
I am using A356 Aluminum material with strains under 5%.
Is Sol 600 only for large strain solutions?
Should I be running Sol 106 instead since it is small strain problem? Sol 106 seems outdated. It appears I would have to use MATS1 instead of MATEP. This begs the question of using a 0,0 point in the table depending on the card. It apepars MATS1 wants a 0,0 and MATEP may not?

Should I be using Sol 400 for small strain non linear which appears to be upgraded over Sol 106?

Is Sol 400 faster than Sol 600?
Does it even matter because the strains are under 5%?
I am happy with SOl 600 but now fearful that the answers may be compromised because of the large strain formula?

Sorry for rambling on but this is getting confusing.

Thanks in advance

 

[ZeroExperience]

Is Sol 600 only for large strain solutions? No, I'm fairly certain there is a large displacement or large strain setting you can turn off in Patran.

Yes, stay away from SOL106. Use SOL 600 or 400.

The speed of a solution is problem dependent. I remember a tip in one of the nastran manuals, keep a log of your solution run times, and use it to improve the speed of your solution.

Yes, the large strain option may impact your solution, but i'm certain you can turn it on.

I understand it may be confusing.
SOL600= Marc FEA solver doing the nonlinear analysis
SOL400= MSC Nastran FEA solver doing the nonlinear aanslysis. If you do SOL 101, 103,etc with the same model, use SOL400 for nonlinear. If you ONLY use SOL600 for ONLY nonlinear analysis, use SOL600.