Research Solvers
FEA Lab exposes 26 analysis types on macOS. This guide covers the solvers beyond the production structural/thermal core — the ones researchers and specialists use for fracture, multiphysics, reliability, and advanced materials.
All solvers are honestly labelled in the capability matrix:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Production | Validated against closed-form or NAFEMS benchmarks. Runnable with confidence. |
| Beta | Executable with known limitations. Not yet validated against published benchmarks. |
| Research | Proof-of-concept or deterministic-basis demos. Not validated for engineering use. |
Fracture Mechanics (LEFM + level-set crack tracking)
Status: Production for LEFM post-processing (2D SENT K within 2%, Paris life within 1%). No enriched XFEM element assembly yet — enriched-basis functions exist but are not wired into the solver.
What it does: Crack-tip stress intensity factors and fatigue crack growth against a prescribed crack path — not automatic XFEM crack propagation.
Workflow:
- Design Studio → block or plate geometry
- Conditions → clamp + tensile load
- Solve → XFEM / Fracture (structured result: K_I, J, Paris life)
- Report includes stress-intensity summary
Agent Hub: analysis.runSteps or fracture.kFromJ, xfem.propagate
Limitations: 3D mixed-mode propagation remains research. No automatic crack-path evolution.
Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI)
Status: Shipped on macOS as a lumped stagnation-pressure model (one-way Bernoulli load + two-way empirical gap-closure fixed point). No fluid mesh and no flow solver — not general FSI. Web path remains research.
What it does: Applies fluid stagnation pressure p₀ = ½ρv² to the structure and re-solves with gap-closure feedback.
When to use: First-pass loads on structures in fluid flow where a lumped pressure estimate is acceptable — not co-simulation.
Workflow:
- Design Studio solid → mechanical conditions
- Solve → Fluid-Structure (FSI)
- Result: displacement field + converged gap-closure status
Agent Hub: fsi.run with fluidDensity, flowVelocity
Limitations: General co-simulation (arbitrary fluid meshes, real traction coupling) remains research. 2D Quad4/Q8 structural side only.
Piezoelectric Analysis
Status: Shipped on macOS (d33 actuation, 6.27% constraint gap vs closed form). Web path remains research.
What it does: Couples electric field to mechanical strain via piezoelectric constants.
When to use: Sensors, actuators, energy harvesting, MEMS.
Workflow:
- Design Studio solid → mechanical conditions
- Solve → Piezoelectric
- Result: free strain, constraint gap vs closed form d33*V/t
Agent Hub: piezo.run with voltage
Limitations: d33 actuation only (macOS; 6.27% constraint gap). Full piezoelectric tensor coupling and the web runtime remain research.
Electromagnetics (2D Magnetostatics)
Status: Production (A_z formulation)
What it does: Solves 2D magnetostatic problems in cylindrical coordinates.
When to use: Motors, transformers, solenoids, magnetic sensors.
Workflow:
- Design Studio solid → no mechanical conditions needed
- Solve → Electromagnetics
- Result: Ampere-invariant validated field
Agent Hub: magneto.run with current, relativePermeability
Limitations: 2D only. 3D magnetostatics and time-varying fields remain research.
Stochastic / Reliability Analysis
Status: Production (FORM reliability). Monte Carlo and SORM are deterministic-basis demos; polynomial chaos expansion is research.
What it does: Monte Carlo, FORM/SORM, polynomial chaos expansion for uncertainty quantification.
When to use: You have uncertain loads, material properties, or geometry and want reliability indices or failure probabilities.
Workflow:
- Design Studio solid → mechanical conditions
- Solve → Stochastic / Reliability
- Result: reliability index β, failure probability, sensitivity indices
Agent Hub: stochastic.form, stochastic.run, stochastic.sorm, stochastic.pce
Limitations: No end-to-end FEA release case yet (algorithm self-tests pass). Monte Carlo and SORM are demos, PCE is research.
Isogeometric Analysis (IGA)
Status: Research (NURBS basis demos)
What it does: Analysis-splines directly from CAD geometry — no meshing.
When to use: You want exact geometry representation and smooth stress fields.
Workflow:
- Design Studio solid → conditions
- Solve → Isogeometric (IGA)
- Result: deterministic basis demo (not validated for engineering)
Agent Hub: iga.evaluate
Limitations: Catalogue status is NOT_VALIDATED. No production error bounds. Research use only.
Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINN)
Status: Research (AI solver demos)
What it does: Trains a neural network to satisfy PDE constraints without a mesh.
When to use: Exploratory research, inverse problems, surrogate modelling.
Workflow:
- Design Studio solid → conditions
- Solve → PINN (AI Solver)
- Result: console-only output (not validated)
Agent Hub: analysis.runSteps with kind pinn
Limitations: No production error bounds. No model governance. Research use only.
Fatigue Life
Status: Production (S-N high-cycle, Coffin-Manson low-cycle)
What it does: Cycle counting, S-N / Miner / Coffin-Manson life prediction.
When to use: Components under cyclic loading.
Agent Hub: fatigue.rainflow, fatigue.miner, fatigue.coffinManson, fatigue.paris
Limitations: Multiaxial, weld, wide-band remain research.
Composites
Status: Production (Tsai-Wu + Hashin first-ply failure)
What it does: Laminate ABD stiffness, first-ply failure, progressive ply damage.
Agent Hub: analysis.runSteps with kind composite
Limitations: Multiaxial and delamination remain research.
Creep
Status: Production (Norton power law with Arrhenius activation — there is NO Bailey secondary-creep term; treated as a trend-check tool, no long-duration validation case)
Agent Hub: analysis.runSteps with kind creep
Limitations: Primary creep, creep damage, creep rupture and creep-fatigue interaction remain research.
Acoustics
Status: Production for a 1-D uniform tube only (modal frequencies vs closed form). No 2D/3D acoustic elements, impedance or radiation boundary conditions.
Agent Hub: acoustic.tubeModes
How to enable Research Mode
- Open Settings (⌘,)
- Under Research Mode, toggle Enable Research Mode
- The Solver Hub now shows all 26 analysis types with honest Production / Beta / Research badges
- The Research Solvers guide appears in the Help ▸ Domain Guides menu
When Research Mode is off, the Solver Hub only shows production-validated solvers — the clean workflow for everyday engineering.
Agent Hub automation
All research solvers are accessible via the agent-dock/1 HTTP protocol on 127.0.0.1:8765. External AI tools (Hermes, Claude, OpenClaw) can drive the full solver catalog programmatically.
Example — run FORM reliability: ``bash curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8765/api/agents/dispatch \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"action":"stochastic.form"}' ``
Example — run piezoelectric analysis at 100V: ``bash curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8765/api/agents/dispatch \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"action":"piezo.run","params":{"voltage":100}}' ``
See the in-app AGENT console tab for live dispatch tracking.
Boundaries of truth
What's validated
| Case | Reference | Error |
|---|---|---|
| XFEM 2D SENT stress-intensity K | Analytical | < 2% |
| XFEM Paris-law life | Published benchmark | < 1% |
| Topology optimization (SIMP) | Compliance closure suite | pass |
| Static linear / modal / thermal / buckling core | NAFEMS + closed-form | see Validation catalogue |
What's NOT validated (honest limits)
- FSI (one-/two-way) — lumped stagnation-pressure model; no published benchmark parity and no fluid solver.
- Piezoelectric — closed-form 1D checks only (6.27% constraint gap); no coupled 2D validation case.
- Magnetics (2D A_z magnetostatics) — Ampere-invariant validated (0.5%); no measured-data comparison.
- Stochastic / MC / SORM / PCE — algorithm self-tests pass; no end-to-end FEA release case (FORM is the production path).
- IGA (NURBS) — patch tests only; not release validated.
- PINN — proof-of-concept stub; do not use for engineering decisions.
- ROM (POD) — reconstructions verified on tutorial meshes only.
- Creep (Norton redistribution) — trend checks; no long-duration test case.
These solvers are labelled Research or Beta in the capability matrix (Help ▸ Capability Matrix). Treat their numbers as indicative until a validation case lands in the catalogue.
Keep exploring
Open the interactive workspace — mesh, solve, validate and export in the browser.
Start a guided solve