According to a reporter, the use of outdated software may be leading to incorrect, and potentially unsafe, analysis and/or design results in cases where known issues have already been identified and corrected in later updates.
In one instance, a review of analysis and design results for a large structure involving Finite Element Analysis (FEA) revealed inconsistencies between the original design and a later review. The discrepancy was ultimately traced to the use of an older version of the software, which contained a very significant bug. Under certain circumstances, this bug caused a significant portion of laterally applied loads to be effectively excluded from the analysis.
The software producer had previously identified and corrected the bug, listing the correction in their list of software fixes and updates. However, this listing only became available after the bug had been discovered and resolved. The bug was noted as critical due to its potential to produce unsafe design results.
The reporter believes that there are two factors here:
- Many engineers are using outdated software without recognising the inherent dangers. The reporter feels that users may be missing out on important updates that can affect the analysis and/or design.
- An ongoing problem in the industry of a severe lack of checking of the outputs produced from software analysis and design packages.
There is another aspect to this issue: the question of what testing is carried out by the software producer. A review of their published lists of software fixes reveals a rather extensive number of corrections. While not all of these affected the analysis and design, a significant number did.
The reporter emphasises that engineers should perform more validation checks of their software, highlighting that this should be an essential requirement of a company’s quality assurance (QA) policies.
Users of software should ensure they are using the most up-to-date version and be aware of the nature of any updates applied by the manufacturer. Where necessary, designs created using older software versions potentially affected by a bug should be reviewed.
The reporter believes that software producers should provide more information about the checking, testing and QA processes undertaken for their products.