Patent ID: 7840386

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for modeling mass of an object in a dynamic finite element model in order to obtain an iterative dynamic vibrational analysis, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining a weight statement that provides the mass of components in the object broken down by groups of the object; partitioning a finite element model of the object into sub-models according to the groups identified by the weight statement; determining which components of the object are structural and therefore comprise structural masses, and which components of the object are non-structural and therefore comprise non-structural masses; determining the non-structural masses within each sub-model which are significant by selecting the non-structural masses within each sub-model which exceed at least one of a pre-determined mass or a pre-determined percentage of a mass of the object, and modeling said significant non-structural masses within each sub-model by adding said significant, non-structural masses to the respective finite element sub-models; determining the non-structural masses within each sub-model which are insignificant by selecting the non-structural masses within each sub-model which do not exceed at least one of the pre-determined mass or the pre-determined percentage of the mass of the object, and scaling densities of the structural masses in each sub-model of the finite element model to accommodate for the respective insignificant masses within each sub-model; merging the sub-models into the finite element model to obtain a dynamic finite element model of the object; obtaining a response of the dynamic finite element model of the object; and repeating the method using smaller sub-models until the response of the dynamic finite element model of the object meets accuracy requirements in order to obtain an iterative dynamic vibrational analysis.