Patent Document ID: 20060282240
Application ID: 11432821
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method and computer-implemented system for coupling multiple, concurrently-running FEA analyses of an entity that has multiple levels of organization in a way that enables each analysis to inform and be informed by analyses of higher and/or lower levels of organization in the entity, the system comprising: (a) a “controller” function capable of at least; (i) initializing the overall problem; (ii) coordinating the overall movement through the sequence of the analysis; (iii) coordinating establishing multiple FEA analyses and initializing them using by loading the definitions of the various FEA models used to describe the various levels of organization in an entity and their relationship to each other, possibly including delegating the FEA analysis startup loading of some of the FEA models and their relationship to one or more of the running FEA analyses; (iv) facilitating interaction between the concurrently running FEA analyses, possibly including a translation/transformation function that modifies the state information from one FEA analysis so as to make it useful in informing other of the FEA analyses; (b) two or more instances of a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) analysis function each capable of at least; (i) focusing on a specific aspect of the entity at a specific level of organization in the entity; (ii) loading the appropriate model(s) required for its analysis; (iii) the ability to send its state information regarding the current state of the entity at the level it is modeling to other instances of FEA analyses focusing on higher and/or lower levels of organization in the entity, possibly including a translation/transformation function that modifies the state information so as to make it useful in informing other the of the FEA analyses; (iv) the ability to be informed by FEA analyses occurring on higher and/or lower levels of organization in the entity by receiving state information from those models; (v) the ability to output result data during and/or subsequent to the FEA analysis.