mBrace3D
Advanced FEA software for curved plate girder and tub girder bridges
User-friendly 3D shell modelling for steel bridge erectors and designers
BENEFITS
PARAMETRIC MODELING
STATE-OF-THE-ART SHELL MODELS
AUTOMATIC POST-PROCESSING
User-friendly input
No geometry drawing
Compatible with Excel
Automatic meshing
Fast, 64-bit sparse solver and eigensolver
Covers any type of curvature, skew, bracing arrangement
Capturing of all buckling modes (lateral-torsional, local, global)
Accurate displacements, major-axis bending stresses, lateral bending stresses, cross-frame forces, etc.
Immediate generation of shear, torsion, principal bending and lateral bending moment diagrams for design checks
Automatic vehicle load optimizer based on influence surfaces
ANALYSIS TYPES
Linear elastic
Eigenvalue buckling
Geometric nonlinear (large displacement) with initial imperfection
Eigenvalue frequency (natural modes)
Vehicle load optimization (plate girders only)
LOAD TYPES
Gravity
Wind
Construction loads
Vehicle loads
Temperature loads (expansion/ contraction)
Support settlements
OUTPUT
Displacements and stresses
Shear and moment diagrams
Cross-frame forces and support reactions
Buckling and natural modes
Influence surfaces and critical vehicle load pattern (plate girders only)
FEATURES
FREE TRIAL
For a free 15-day trial copy, follow these instructions on your computer:
1. Download and unzip this executable.
2. Run the executable and email the code at: contact@mbrace3d.com. Include your name, company, company address.
3. Check your email. The software installation package and its corresponding 15-day license file will get to you within 24 hours.
Note: For students and faculty members, please follow the same procedure and also include in your email some proof of your status (for example for students, valid student ID or equivalent, and for faculty members, link to a personal webpage on your university's website or equivalent). You will then be issued a free 90-day copy (which can be extended for free if necessary). Any complementary information on what you plan to use the software for (e.g. graduate course in steel bridge design, academic research project, etc.) is always appreciated.
PRICING
Licenses are valid for 1 year and are computer specific (standalone licenses).
Academic and student licenses are free.
For commercial licenses, a site license subscription system is implemented. Further details available here.
ABOUT mBrace3D
mBrace3D is a niche, state-of-the-art finite element analysis software specifically designed for plate girder and tub girder bridges. Its main purpose is to bring the capabilities of 3D shell models to the steel bridge industry, which has primarily relied on 1D line analyses or 2D grid analyses, as 3D shell models have long been downplayed as time-consuming and reserved to an “elite” group of FEA experts.
By generating 3D models parametrically, mBrace3D enables bridge erectors and designers to embrace the benefits of 3D finite element analysis in their daily practice, which is the most appropriate analysis method, especially for curved or skewed systems during construction, where structural stability problems may occur.
Designed by structural engineers directly, mBrace3D is capable of running several types of analyses on complex plate girder and tub girder systems: linear elastic, eigenvalue buckling, eigenvalue frequency, and geometrically nonlinear analyses.
While initially the focus was on the erection and deck placement analyses, and in particular, the detection of potential structural instabilities, mBrace3D is now also able to compute influence surfaces for the composite steel/concrete system, allowing for vehicle load optimization (VLO) and load rating analyses.
Previously known as UT Bridge (the software was in its very early phases the product of a TxDOT funded research project at the University of Texas at Austin), mBrace3D has become a commercially available software but remains free for students as well as researchers, and remains relatively inexpensive for bridge erectors and designers.
mBrace3D Ltd. is a private limited company registered in England at the Companies House (Company No. 13054569) since December 2020.