ENGINEERING

ANSYS, a global innovator of simulation software and technologies designed to optimize product development processes, and J. Ray McDermott, a leading marine solutions company, today announced a strategic alliance which will enable ANSYS to capitalize on the complementary offshore software solutions developed by JRM Engineering, the engineering arm of J. Ray McDermott. The ANSYS suite of programs currently includes AQWA, the world- class multi-body hydrodynamics suite; ASAS, the global analysis suite for fixed and floating structures; ANSYS, the leading finite element suite; ANSYS CFX for computational fluid dynamics simulation; AutoReaGas, the explosion/blast simulation package; AUTODYN for explicit non-linear dynamics; and ANSYS Workbench for integrating CAE tools into a single environment. With the addition of the J. Ray McDermott structural modeling and analysis tool, MicroSAS, the ANSYS products will be enhanced to provide a comprehensive range of capabilities aimed at satisfying the demanding requirements of offshore engineers. In total this broad range of solutions will benefit certification authorities, contractors, fabricators, consultants and operators by meeting structural design and safety requirements from front- end engineering through to detailed components. Century Dynamics Inc., which became part of ANSYS in January of this year and which has many years of experience developing, marketing and supporting software for the offshore industry, will lead the initiative to capitalize on the opportunities which the new alliance will create. "Since the acquisition of Century Dynamics, ANSYS has moved quickly to reinforce its already strong range of offshore solutions within the ASAS and AQWA suites," commented Naury Birnbaum, general manager, ANSYS, Inc. and founder of Century Dynamics. "We look forward to working closely with J. Ray McDermott to consolidate the wealth of proven offshore engineering analysis and design software tools which this alliance will establish." MicroSAS represents over 20 years of development and use by J. Ray McDermott. MicroSAS has played a key role in J. Ray McDermott's development of structural floating and bottom founded solutions for a wide variety of water depths in all offshore areas of the world.