The new interfaces contain two new unique domain-level nodes, Mass Scaling and Artificial Viscosity.

There is also a new dedicated Explicit Dynamics study to automate explicit dynamics analyses.

A new multiphysics coupling node, Magnetomechanics, Boundary, allows the coupling of the Shell and Membrane interfaces to the Magnetic Fields and Magnetic Fields, No Currents interfaces.

A new General Contact feature is available in the Solid Mechanics interface. This contact formulation is particularly useful when there are many different boundaries that can come into contact with each other. Using this feature, you can avoid setting up many different contact pairs.

Damping and Friction subnodes can be added to General Contact.

A smooth penalty function has been added to the Contact and Interior Contact nodes. It is also available for General Contact. The new option uses a nonlinear (smooth ramp) penalty function for the contact pressure. This may improve the convergence significantly.

The control over the formulation of geometric nonlinearity in the Geometric Nonlinearity section of the settings in the Linear Elastic Material node has been updated. It now includes the possibility to define an additive decomposition of logarithmic (Hencky) strains. This option can give significant speedups in large strain analysis while giving virtually the same results as using full multiplicative decomposition.

Three new subnodes are available under the Solid material model:

A Periodic Condition feature has been added.

The sign convention for the stoichiometric coefficient in the Electrode Surface Coupling node has been changed. It now follows the convention used in the Battery Design Module.

New predefined phase field models have been added to the Phase Field in Solids interface. The new models are:

The Free and Porous Media Flow Coupling node sets the coupling between Laminar Flow and Darcy’s Law interfaces. The Poroelasticity node sets the coupling between the Darcy’s Law and Solid Mechanics interfaces. The Fluid–Structure Interaction (FSI) coupling node can now be applied at the interface between free flow domains and porous domains.

The Shell and Solid Mechanics interfaces now support the Linear Buckling analysis together with Floquet Periodicity and Cyclic Symmetry.

A new predefined sector dataset and plot templates are added when Cyclic symmetry is selected in the Periodic Condition node.

The options Maximum loss factor and Loss factor for compliance sH have been added to the Mechanical Damping subnode under the Piezomagnetic Material node.

A Loss factor damping option is now available in the Spring–Damper node.

The Spring–Damper node in the Shell interface now includes the possibility to add rotational stiffnesses beside the translational stiffnesses. Viscous damping can also be added to the translational and rotational components.

The warping displacement variable, dispn_warp, now uses the normal direction from the reference plane rather than the material normal of the selected boundaries.

A reference concentration has been added to the Intercalation Strain node. The addition allows you to define a strain-free configuration with a nonzero concentration.

An option named Volumetric strain has been added to the External Strain feature. Its purpose is to account for external volumetric strains.

In the Shell interface, the ability to enter stress tensor components defined in the spatial frame (deformed configuration) has been added to the External Stress node.

The Point Mass node is now also available in the Solid Mechanics interface.

It can be accessed in the Advanced section of the following multiphysics coupling nodes:

A new Joint Forces and Moments section has been added to the settings of the Fixed Joint node. The components connected by a Fixed Joint are rigidly attached to each other, and the forces or moments required to restrict the relative motion can now be computed.

A new checkbox, Correct for mismatching boundaries, has been added to the settings in the Continuity node. The purpose is to create a more accurate connection for cases when there is a gap or an overlap between the joined boundaries.

There are new methods available for hourglass stabilization: the Energy sampling, Hessian, and Flanagan–Belytschko methods. The latter method is only available in the Solid Mechanics, Explicit Dynamics interface.

The result template now uses the new Table Arrow plot for the normal and shear forces.

The traction variable phys.Trac is now always available on external and internal boundaries in the Solid Mechanics interface.

The definitions of the section forces using the traction variable phys.Trac based on the nominal stress, have been updated for geometric nonlinear analyses.

This functionality is available after pressing the Create Material by Value button.

The extra datasets created by the Test Material node in the presence of multiple components have been removed.

If a user adds several Test Material nodes in the same model, several datasets are created corresponding to the multiple components and physics. Out of these datasets, only two datasets are relevant; the others are empty.

Functions used in the Test Material feature must be defined under Global Definitions.

The variable for the real part of the quaternion for Rigid Connector, Rigid Material, and Attachment has changed. The internal dependent variable for the quaternion has been modified in order to be initialized with a zero solution.

The transformation matrix for the flexible option in the Solid–Thin Structure Connection multiphysics node has been improved for geometric nonlinear analyses.

The implementation of the Solid–Beam Connection and Shell–Beam Connection multiphysics nodes has been improved for geometric nonlinear analyses.

Only orthonormal coordinate systems defined in the spatial frame are allowed in the Gravity, Base Excitation, and Linearly Accelerated Frame nodes in all structural interfaces. This implies that such accelerations always must act in a space-fixed direction.