Frequently Asked Questions

DEM is a numerical method to simulate and study the behavior of granular media. It is a meshless approach, where the granular media is described by individual particles and the motion of each particle is calculated separately. Particles can be of any shape and their reaction forces are calculated by so-called contact models. The behavior of a granular system is the result of collective interactions of colliding particles.

FEA is a numerical simulation method to simulate the behavior of any given physical phenomenon. It is typically used to model structural and fluid mechanics as well as heat transfer and other physical phenomena, which are mathematically described by Partial Differential Equations. FEM is a continuum method, in contrast to DEM, and the material behavior will be described by constitutive laws.

Multi-body dynamics is a numerical simulation method to study the dynamic behavior of connected bodies. A body is usually a rigid or flexible part of a mechanical system, which will be connected to other parts with so-called links or constraints to restrict relative motion. It can be used to model complex mechanical systems and their motion easily by connecting parts with the right constraint type.

SPH is a numerical method for the simulation of solid mechanics and fluid flows. It is a meshfree Lagrangian method, where the coordinates move with the fluid (SPH markers). It is ideal for problems with complex boundary dynamics, like free surface flows and large boundary displacements.

Yes, ThreeParticle/CAE has a very powerful C++ API to extend the capabilities of our software with custom contact models, sensors, user-defined properties and variables, which are fully integrated into the GUI, as well as unique features to run special simulations like coating, sintering or moisture concentration.

The number of particles is not limited for ThreeParticle/CAE. You can run a simulation with several millions of particles, but your hardware should be appropriately and the number of particles also affects the simulation speed.

Total simulation time depends on different factors like your computer's hardware, number of particles, material properties and the scale of the system.

ThreeParticle/CAE has a very powerful solver to achieve fast and accurate simulation results. The software is highly parallelized for use in shared memory multi-core workstations and has a GPU solver for large scale simulations of Fluid-Solid-Interactions (FSI).

There is no need to couple ThreeParticle/CAE with third-party packages. It is a fully integrated tool with features like DEM, MBD, SPH, FEA, Heat transfer and wear analysis in a single environment.

If you want to couple it with third-party packages you can use the C++ API or MATLAB & Simulink to do this.

We have training courses for individuals and groups, which can be hold online or face-to-face, either in our Austrian office or on your own side. Our existing customers also get a collection of more than 40 tutorials how to use the software and our documentation is very intuitive with a step-by-step explanation of each module.

ThreeParticle/CAE is a modular software, which can be customized with many different modules to perfectly cover your needs. It can be pure DEM with simple shapes or you extend it to a multiphysis platform with complex shape types, FEA, SPH, Wear analysis, Multi-body dynamics and many more. We offer monthly and annual lease of each module as well as floating network and stand-alone licenses.

Get in touch with us to request a quote and tell us about your application, that we can help you to choose the right modules.

Our contracts can be concluded with a term of one month to several years.

Typically, we have annual licenses that are renewed annually by our customers. This has the advantage that you maintain full cost control and do not incur high costs for one-off investments.

Yes, ThreeParticle/CAE can be purchased as Network license, which can be used inside your local intranet with a license server. Network licenses have a special feature to borrow a license on your Notebook for several days without internet connection.

Stand-Alone licenses are used for single users with an adavantage of unlimited sessions of ThreeParticle/CAE on this computer. That means you can parallely run a simulation, do some Post-processing and open another simulation to prepare it for the next run.

Yes, we offer a FREE trial of ThreeParticle/CAE to get to know our software and to convince yourself about our latest and easy-to-use technology. Please contact us directly to get your free trial license.