News Excerpt:

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed an analysis software called FEAST.

About FEAST:

• FEAST (Finite Element Analysis of STructures) is the structural and heat transfer analysis software based on the finite element method realised by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.
• It is supported by state-of-the-art pre/post processor - PreWin.
• Its sub-structured and multi-threaded solver implementation ensures high performance by exploiting the multi-core architecture of modern computing platforms.
• The software can be deployed in Linux and Windows operating systems.
• It is available in three versions. The classification is based on the number of finite element nodes viz; Academic (for students and educational institutions), Premium (for small and medium scale industries) and Professional (for general large scale applications).
• To popularise this software among the potential Indian user base, the ISRO has also published a book targeting undergraduate and postgraduate students, offering more insights into the fundamentals of the FEA method and how FEAST can be used for solving real-world problems.

Significance of FEAST:

• It has real-life applications in structural engineering, solid mechanics and heat transfer problems of Aerospace, Automobile, Civil, Mechanical and Marine engineering.
• It performs Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of various structures, including rockets, aircraft, satellites, buildings, etc.
• The cost of owning the software is a fraction of the price compared to similar non-indigenous software packages.
• So far, users have mainly depended on expensive software versions from foreign firms for this function.
• With FEAST, ISRO hopes to take this indigenous FEA software to the Indian user base.
• The software can be customised for specific user requirements.
• Operable in Windows and Linux operating systems, the software can run on systems with minimal hardware configurations.