AudiLab Software

Cast3M

Introduction

Cast3M is developed by Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA) in France.

The target domains are structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, thermal problems and magnetism. The primary target is 2-D and 3-D non-linear mechanics, including plasticity, buckling, creep, seismic analysis, thermoplasticity, post-buckling and fracture mechanics. A ‘wide range of materials’ is available - ‘from steel to concrete’.

Users give commands in an object-oriented language, GIBIANE (‘object’ in the everyday sense, not the computer-science sense) with more than 500 elementary operators acting on simple or complex objects.

Cast3M is freely available for research and teaching use. New versions are released yearly, and it appears to be under active development (as of 2005 summer). It is available for Microsoft Windows and various flavours of *n*x, including 64-bit versions.

Use with Fad

Our Fad finite-element preprocessor can export models in Cast3M format. Currently the export works only for thin-shell (Sap type 6) elements, not for solid elements or boundary elements.

Documentation

Extensive documentation, in French and also (for most) in English, is available on the Cast3M Web site.

The following are links to local copies (restricted access) of original documentation as of 2002 Jan (when I first experimented with Cast3M):

• Installation for MS Windows (French); see also Notes on new QuickWin interface for win32 (French)
• Beginning with CASTEM (English, 31 pp); includes introductions to the GIBIANE language and to creating a geometry, followed by discussions of a linear mechanics problem and of a thermal problem.
• Présentation et Utilisation de CASTEM (French, PDF, 103 pp);
• Presentation and Use of CASTEM 2000 (English, HTML, copied from http://www.cecalc.ula.ve/documentacion/tutoriales/castem/)
• Prise en main de CASTEM 2000 par l'exemple (French, 71 pp)
• Annotated testing files (English, 376 pp); includes 13 tests for elasticity, 2 for buckling, 13 for plasticity, 6 for behaviour laws, 5 for elastoplastic damage, 9 for fracture mechanics, 2 for composites, 4 for concrete, 3 for porosity, 1 for metal powder, 4 for joints, 15 for dynamics, 2 for nonlinear dynamics, 3 for thermal and 2 for thermomechanical.
• Table of operators (English and French); major operators include
  • SURF (surface) defines a surface mesh; the boundaries might be defined using the DROI (droit) straight-line operator, or the QUEL (quelquonque) operator for sequences of straight-line segments
  • MODE (modeliser) associates a mesh with a formulation type (e.g., mechanical, thermal, liquid); a material type (e.g., elastic anisotropic, or plastic); and an element type (e.g., thin shell, tetrahedron, or 20-noded cube)
  • BLOQ (bloque) specifies boundary conditions
  • EVOL (evolution) defines a function, e.g., a stress-strain curve, or a load as a function of time; the lists of independent and dependent variable values are often created using the PROG (progression) operator.
• Recueil fluide (French)

Cast3M was originally named ‘Castem’. It was renamed in 2000 or 2001 in reference to the new third millenium.