Your First Call When the Physics Get Real.

You don't have a CAE department. You shouldn't need one full-time.

Most industrial and energy companies have one generalist mechanical engineer who runs a linear FEA once a year, uses conservative safety factors calibrated in the 1980s, and defers to hand calculations when the geometry gets complex. This works — until it doesn't.

When it stops working: a pressure vessel nozzle under combined loading. A heat exchanger with thermal stress concentrations at the tube sheet. A rotating shaft with resonant frequencies near a forcing frequency. Flow maldistribution in a manifold that's reducing process efficiency by 15%. These problems require specialist analysis, but not a full-time specialist.

Situations where the generalist approach runs out.

• Pressure vessel nozzle under combined pressure, thermal, and mechanical loads — hand calculation per ASME Appendix 2 is conservative and you're over the weight budget
• Heat exchanger not meeting thermal performance target — flow distribution across the tube bundle is not uniform and you need CFD to prove it
• Fatigue crack found at a welded joint — need a fitness-for-service assessment and remaining life prediction before the next inspection
• Rotating shaft has a vibration issue — hand calculation suggests resonance is not a concern but the machine disagrees
• Need ASME or EN code-compliant FEA for a regulator or insurer — the linear stress analysis approach you've been using doesn't satisfy the requirements
• Power electronics enclosure has thermal failures — natural convection cooling is not working as designed but you can't characterize why without CFD