ALGOR'S HEAT TRANSFER ANALYSIS SOFTWARE NOW HANDLES VARIABLE MATERIAL PROPERTIES AUTOMATICALLY

The left side of this insulated pressure vessel was modeled with constant material properties and the right side was modeled with temperature-dependent material properties. The side modeled with temperature-dependent material properties experiences a large change in thermal conductivity under a small change in temperature. Algor's heat transfer analysis software has been enhanced to handle such variable material properties automatically.

July 21, 1999, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- Algor, Inc., a leading maker of software for mechanical engineers, has announced that its Release 12 version of heat transfer analysis software has been enhanced to handle variable material properties automatically. Engineers can now more easily analyze changes in a part, assembly or mechanism's temperature profile to determine its impact on the design.

"A material's temperature-dependent properties are now taken into account without interruption during transient heat transfer analysis," said Michael L. Bussler, president of Algor. "This enhancement to our heat transfer analysis processor makes finite element analysis (FEA) of designs with variable material properties much easier."

Algor's heat transfer analysis software predicts temperature distribution, the rate of heat flow and the rate of heat flow per unit area (commonly referred to as heat flux) in a design. The temperature distribution over time is available in a transient heat transfer analysis. The results of the heat transfer analysis are easily transferred as temperature profiles for a linear or nonlinear static stress analysis or a linear or nonlinear Mechanical Event Simulation with Algor's Accupak/VE software. Accupak/VE realistically simulates motion and flexing in mechanical events and computes and shows resulting stresses on the computer model at each instant in time. Transient heat transfer results conveniently provide temperature descriptions at every point in time throughout a Mechanical Event Simulation.

Algor's Release 12 version of FEA software is available for PC workstations running Windows NT, 95, 98 and 2000.

Algor has been a leader in the engineering software industry since introducing FEA for PCs in 1984 and interfacing with CAD systems in 1985. The company recently celebrated 20 years of providing finite element customers with innovative, affordable and easy-to-use software products and superior educational support and customer service. Algor's FEA software has enabled 20,000 engineers in 60 countries to create safe, efficient, cost-effective designs.

Algor's most recent invention, FEA-based Accupak/VE Mechanical Event Simulation software with linear and nonlinear material models, replaces physical prototype testing with virtual prototype testing because it realistically simulates motion and flexing in mechanical events and eliminates the need to input dynamic loads. Algor offers a range of other FEA capabilities including linear stress, vibration and natural frequencies, heat transfer, electrostatics, fluid flow, piping design and composite materials. Algor's software interchanges data with products from ANSYS, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANSS), Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), Baystate Technologies, Inc., MacNeal Schwendler Corporation (NYSE: MNS), Parametric Technology Corporation (Nasdaq: PMTC), Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (Nasdaq: SDRC), Unigraphics Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: UGS), SolidWorks Corporation, a Dassault Systemes S.A. (Nasdaq: DASTY) company and others.