LUSAS is a UK-based developer and supplier of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) application software products that bear the same name.

History

LUSAS has its origins back in 1970 when a group of research workers at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

(now incorporated into

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

) began work on the London University Stress Analysis System, "LUSAS". This team was led by Dr. Paul Lyons, who, in 1982, set up an independent company, Finite Element Analysis Ltd., to further develop, and subsequently market the software as a general purpose structural analysis system. In 1997, following the introduction of a range of specialist application software packages, the company, for awareness reasons, then started to trade under the LUSAS name.

Software

LUSAS software consists of a Windows-based Modeller, used for model building and viewing of results, and a Solver for carrying out an analysis. Four commercial application products cater for the following industries: * Civil & Structural - for civil, structural, nuclear, seismic, geotechnical and offshore engineering. * Bridge - for bridge engineering analysis, design, and assessment. * Analyst - for automotive, aerospace, defence, manufacturing and general engineering analysis. * Composite - for engineers designing composite products or components. For Universities, an Academic version which permits the running of any commercial LUSAS software product can be used for teaching and research use.

Example Applications

Civil and structural engineering uses include Anthony Gormley's Quantum Cloud, built alongside the Millennium Dome, (now the

O2 Arena O2 Arena may refer to: *The O2 Arena (London) *O2 Arena (Prague) *The 3Arena The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 Decem ...

), as part of UK's

Millennium Commission The Millennium Commission, a United Kingdom public body, was set up to celebrate the turn of the millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery to assist communities in marking the close of the second millennium and celebra ...

sponsored celebrations for the year 2000;

Spinnaker Tower The Spinnaker Tower is a landmark observation tower in Portsmouth, England. It is the centrepiece of the redevelopment of Portsmouth Harbour, which was supported by a National Lottery grant. The tower's design was chosen by Portsmouth reside ...

, the tallest publicly accessible provincial structure in the UK; and Gwangmyeong Velodrome, the largest domed structure built, so far, in South Korea.

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

s designed with the aid of LUSAS include the

Lune Millennium Bridge The Lune Millennium Bridge is a cable-stayed footbridge which spans the River Lune in Lancaster, England. It was designed by Whitby Bird and Partners, and built at a cost of £1.8m to commemorate the millennium of 2000. The bridge forms a "Y" ...

, and the

Gateshead Millennium Bridge The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian and cyclist tilt bridge spanning the River Tyne between Gateshead arts quarter on the south bank and Newcastle upon Tyne's Quayside area on the north bank. It was the first tilting bridge ever ...

both also built, coincidentally, as part of the UK's year 2000 celebrations, and the Vasco da Gama cable stayed bridge and associated viaduct structures in Portugal. General

mechanical engineering 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, an ...

uses are extremely varied and include thermal analysis of marine loading arms - used to transfer Liquid Natural Gas (

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

) from shore to ship and vice versa at a temperature of -163 degrees Celsius, nonlinear analysis of nylon polyamide

cable tie A cable tie (also known as a hose tie, zip tie, or tie wrap) is a type of fastener for holding items together, primarily electrical cables and wires. Because of their low cost, ease of use, and binding strength, cable ties are ubiquitous, findi ...

s used to bundle cables together, and contact analysis of

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...

and

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

hip joint components as used in artificial

hip replacement Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant, that is, a hip prosthesis. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi (half) replacement. Such joint replacement o ...

Composites engineering applications involve the analysis of

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

layups for potential

delamination Delamination is a mode of failure where a material fractures into layers. A variety of materials including laminate composites and concrete can fail by delamination. Processing can create layers in materials such as steel formed by rolling a ...

, material damage and fatigue modelling of many types of components in the automotive, aviation, and marine industries.

External links

LUSAS websiteStructurae database

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lusas Numerical software Finite element software