Case Study: Northrop Grumman achieves automated, scalable FEA post-processing and reduced errors with Altair Compose (Altair)

Read, Manipulate, Create, and Visualize Custom Simulation Results with Altair Compose®

Northrop Grumman, a global leader in aerospace and marine systems, faced a time‑consuming, error‑prone post‑processing workflow that required manually computing combined stresses from NASTRAN results for models containing hundreds of 1D beam elements with varying cross‑sections. They worked with Altair to automate and scale this process, using Altair Compose (with visualization in Altair HyperView) to replace manual calculations with a repeatable scripted workflow.

Altair delivered a template Altair Compose script that reads model/results files (using commands like readbdf), identifies beam elements and cross‑sections, computes stresses, and outputs new H3D results for visualization; NGSC engineers then adapted it for production. The Altair solution streamlined and standardized post‑processing, scaled to models with hundreds of beam types, reduced manual work and errors, and produced editable, repeatable stress reports viewable in HyperView/HyperGraph.

Northrop Grumman

Doug Beattie

Senior Principal Structural Engineer