DYNA3D is an explicit, finite element code developed to solve high rate dynamic
simulations for problems of interest to the engineering mechanics community. The
DYNA3D code has been under continuous development since 1976[1] by the Methods
Development Group in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory. The pace of code development activities has substantially increased in
the past five years, growing from one to between four and six code developers. This has
necessitated the use of software tools such as CVS (Concurrent Versions System) to help
manage multiple version updates. While on-line documentation with an Adobe PDF
manual helps to communicate software developments, periodically a summary document
describing recent changes and improvements in DYNA3D software is needed. The first
part of this report describes issues surrounding software versions and source control. The
remainder of this report details the major capability improvements since the last publicly
released version of DYNA3D in 1996. Not included here are the many hundreds of bug
corrections and minor enhancements, nor the development in DYNA3D between the manual
release in 1993[2] and the public code release in 199