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Simulation Software

MSC Apex Harris Hawk accelerates structural analysis for aerospace composites

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Bruce Jenkins | Ora Research

MSC Apex Harris Hawk is the eighth release of MSC Software’s revolutionary new CAE platform aimed at making sophisticated, full-powered structural modeling and analysis capabilities easily, intuitively and safely usable by engineers and designers without specialized CAE training and expertise. This newest release targets the need for accelerated structural analysis in aerospace engineering and manufacturing. For background, see our MSC Apex Grizzly: Structural analysis for massive assemblies and MSC Software democratizes vibrational analysis with MSC Apex Fossa, both published in this blog.

Aerospace vehicles are some of the most complex structures to design because of the high levels of physics and mathematics involved, MSC notes. “CAE has been a key driver for reducing cost and accelerating innovation,” the company observes, “but current processes still suffer workflow inefficiencies, and results often come too late in the design cycle—especially when designing composite structures.”

“Unique composite modeling and simulation experience that closely mimics the steps of the manufacturing process”

MSC Apex Harris Hawk delivers what the company describes as a “unique composite modeling and simulation experience that closely mimics the steps of the manufacturing process.” Instead of using finite element abstractions, MSC Apex lets engineers manipulate physical representations such as fabric, layups, plies, panels and zones. Within a few hours, the company reports, MSC Apex users can become efficient with composite modeling and on-the-fly failure calculation.

structural modeling and analysis
MSC Apex Harris Hawk model of a composite-layup airframe structure.

“MSC Apex gives EcoFlight the tools it needs to fulfill many of our aerospace and motorsport engineering analysis requirements,” says John Wighton, Director at EcoFlight, an Aspen, CO-based organization that uses small aircraft to educate and advocate for the protection of remaining wild lands and wildlife habitat. “The composite functionality in Apex Harris Hawk embeds methodology and capability, which greatly improved process efficiency. We couple the advanced composites capabilities of MSC Apex with MSC Nastran to give consulting clients a flexible and fast capability at a cost-effective price.”

Key new features

Modeling productivity—This release introduces a new geometry tool for surface extensions to eliminate manual rework and to allow engineers to automate model preparation tasks. Generative tie connections for assembly creation now takes minutes instead of hours, MSC says. Users can now create large assemblies of parts using mesh-dependent connections while preserving the product structure. MSC Apex Harris Hawk also features a high-performing hex meshing tool to help users mesh complex solid geometries.

Complete structural analysis—MSC Apex Harris Hawk expands its structural analysis capabilities with support for multi-events static analysis. Users can now manage multiple load cases. It also provides the ability to define pre-stiffening in the linear bucking scenario. The brand-new model browser-picking tool better supports result processing for model introspection.

Open and complementary—Beyond modeling productivity and structural analysis completeness, MSC Apex Harris Hawk continues to build on an open and interoperable framework through a full set of Python scripting APIs for conceptual modeling iterations, and interoperability with MSC Nastran-Patran including export of scenarios.

MSC Apex Harris Hawk

EcoFlight

Lensing 2020 and beyond: 8 megatrends in engineering modeling and simulation

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Bruce Jenkins | Ora Research

This second decade of the twenty-first century is witnessing an explosion of invention and innovation in digital engineering technologies unrivaled since the 1980s, when so many foundational tools and methods were either created or brought to practical fruition. Here are eight megatrends that we believe will drive generational leaps forward in engineering modeling and simulation technologies, methods and work processes through 2020 and well beyond:

  • Simulation-led, systems-driven product development.
  • Democratization of engineering modeling and simulation.
  • Simulation app revolution.
  • Design space exploration.
  • Topology, materials and process optimization for additive manufacturing.
  • Simulation for the Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0.
  • Big-data analytics in simulation.
  • Cloud HPC for simulation.

Already, each of these is today the focus of intense development by technology providers—and of investigation, investment and, in many cases, deployment by leading engineering organizations. Much of this work is succeeding in at last transforming long-established, powerful but formerly difficult-to-use, specialist-user-only tools into practical everyday engineering aids. And some of it—rather a lot, actually—is giving engineering organizations capabilities never before possible.

trends in engineering
Naisbitt’s 1972 classic of forecasting and futurology.

Enabling leaps forward are underway in both hardware and software architectures

Hardware—From on-premise to cloud:

  • Universally accessible.
  • Fosters infinitely elastic collaboration among users.
  • Commodity pricing (AWS, Azure, et al.) makes unprecedented computing power available to all.
  • Cloud HPC at last removing longstanding cost barriers to adequate CAE processing power.

Software—From SQL schema-on-write database architectures to NoSQL schema-on-read architectures:

  • Fast.
  • Scalable.
  • Designed to exploit cloud computing resources.
  • “Schema-on-read” allows data to be captured, stored and subsequently acted on with almost limitless freedom, without the application developer having to create a schema for the data in advance.
  • Two key benefits of schema-on-read:

o   “Gives you massive flexibility over how the data can be consumed.”—Tom Deutsch, Solution CTO with IBM.

o   And “your raw/atomic data can be stored for reference and consumption years into the future.”—Deutsch.

Leading NoSQL database MongoDB:

  • Powers eBay, FourSquare, LinkedIn and many other massively participatory sites.
  • In engineering, MongoDB is the database platform used by:
    • Onshape.
    • Frustum.
    • More on the way.

Across the coming months and years we look forward to continuing our investigation and coverage of these and more step-change developments enabling and driving today’s and tomorrow’s revolution in engineering modeling and simulation.

MongoDB

Onshape blog

Frustum

Ora Research press: Background, examples, cases

Collaboration works to improve CAD simulation

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SimScale GmbH (“SimScale”), a provider of the full-cloud engineering simulation platform, announced a collaboration with Siemens PLM Software and Tech Soft 3D to optimize the simulation workflow through better CAD model handling. SimScale will bring the benefits of Siemens’ Parasolid software and HOOPS Exchange to a browser-based CAE.

simulation of electronic enclosure

The latest release of SimScale, available shortly, will integrate Parasolid and HOOPS Exchange for a more convenient and seamless simulation workflow, while at the same time increasing simulation result accuracy—both in FEA and CFD.

“Our vision at SimScale is to enable every designer and engineer to take full advantage of engineering simulation—independent of budget, hardware and know-how. This includes seamless interoperability with the customer’s CAD system as well as fast, robust and accurate preparation of CAD data to achieve reliable simulation results quickly. Integrating Parasolid and HOOPS Exchange will help us achieve just that.” said David Heiny, CEO and co-founder of SimScale.

Parasolid is a 3D geometric modeling component for computer-aided design, manufacturing and engineering analysis (CAD/CAM/CAE) solutions, while HOOPS Exchange is a CAD translation software development kit (SDK).

“This latest implementation of Parasolid in a cloud-based application will enable engineers to simulate, test and modify 3D models using only a web browser,” says Jim Rusk, chief technology officer, Siemens PLM Software. “In selecting Parasolid, Simscale also obtains translation-free interoperability with hundreds of other applications that integrate Parasolid to design, edit and exchange high-precision 3D models based on the Parasolid XT data format.”

SimScale
www.simscale.com

Tech Soft 3D
www.techsoft3d.com

New EDEM/RecurDyn co-simulation solution gives off-highway equipment engineers high-fidelity modeling of bulk material behaviors

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Bruce Jenkins | Ora Research

Bulk-material simulation specialist EDEM released a co-simulation solution between its software and RecurDyn, the multibody dynamics modeling and simulation toolset from FunctionBay. This new integration enables engineers designing heavy equipment such as excavators, ploughs and off-road vehicles to introduce realistic bulk-material behaviors into their multibody dynamics simulations. EDEM says the new technology offers heretofore unrivaled insight into how material loads are transferred throughout the product’s structure and systems, and provides engineers with essential insights into equipment/material interactions.

Introducing EDEM high-fidelity load values into RecurDyn multibody dynamics simulations frees engineers from hand calculations and guesswork.

EDEM’s software models and simulates the behavior of a wide range of real-world bulk materials—from gravel, sand and rocks, to compressible soils, clays and highly cohesive ores, as well as powders. Users can select materials from a library of over 40,000 ready-to-use materials models, as well as create customized models to suit specific applications needs.

With an easy-to-use interface, highly optimized CPU and GPU solvers, and powerful analysis tools, EDEM delivers realistic predictions of material loads and forces acting on equipment parts during operation. During simulation, the new coupling transfers the realistic material loads from EDEM directly into RecurDyn, where they are used to calculate the effect on equipment dynamics. The updated dynamics are then passed back to EDEM to provide realistic force-feedback modeling throughout the simulation process.

“Engineers no longer have to rely on ‘rules of thumb’ and assumptions to get realistic material loads in their multibody dynamic simulations”

The ability to introduce high-fidelity load values into their RecurDyn multibody dynamics simulations frees engineers from having to rely on hand calculations—or engineering-intuition assumptions and guesswork—to represent equipment loads, resulting in greater design confidence. This also allows extensive what-if analysis to be performed without the need to build costly, time-consuming physical prototypes.

Engineers can also readily explore different product scenarios and easily compare designs across a range of various materials and equipment maneuvers early in the design cycle. This provides greater insight into equipment performance and enables more design optimization improvements to be made. It also gives confidence that equipment will perform as expected in specific conditions.

EDEM CEO Richard LaRoche commented, “When designing heavy equipment, being able to accurately predict the loads and forces acting on equipment is key to optimizing equipment performance and durability. By coupling EDEM with RecurDyn, engineers no longer have to rely on ‘rules of thumb’ and assumptions to get realistic material loads in their multibody dynamic simulations.”

FunctionBay CEO Michael Jang added, “Our partnership with EDEM means our RecurDyn users can get access to an accurate representation of the loads and forces acting on equipment. This capability brings greater insight into equipment performance and results in increased design accuracy and reduced prototyping costs.”

The EDEM-RecurDyn coupling is available as part of the recently released EDEM 2018 and RecurDyn V9R1.

EDEM

FunctionBay

Composite material manufacturing simulation: ESI PAM-COMPOSITES 2017 aids suppliers of automotive and aircraft interiors

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Bruce Jenkins | Ora Research

Continuing its leadership in delivering highly efficient, usable industry-targeted and task-specific solutions, ESI Group released ESI PAM-COMPOSITES 2017. This latest version of its process simulation software for manufacture of composites addresses fiber-reinforced structural and semi-structural components as well as multi-material thermoformed acoustic and cosmetic interior parts and trim used in ground vehicles and aircraft.

Comparison between digital grid produced by ESI PAM-COMPOSITES (left) and physical grid (right) of an automotive synthetic floor carpet.

Design and manufacturing engineers in automotive and aeronautic manufacturers are tasked with creating lightweight yet strong and durable composite components that meet all quality requirements at affordable cost. PAM-COMPOSITES 2017 helps these engineers to create a simulated part that matches the exact nature of the composite material, to improve manufacturing process stability and repeatability, and to reduce manufacturing defects for a wide range of composite material types and manufacturing processes.

Targeting thermoformed acoustic and cosmetic multi-material components used in auto and aircraft interiors

While past improvements to the software focused on continuous-fiber-reinforced composite parts with high structural-performance demands, PAM-COMPOSITES 2017 targets the thermoformed acoustic and cosmetic multi-material components typically used in automobile and aircraft interiors. This new version gives users the ability to accurately determine the noise and vibration response (NVH—noise, vibration and harshness) of the manufactured product by predicting the stiffness and thickness in each region of the formed part. Typical defects induced during manufacturing, such as tearing and skin texture modifications, can also be anticipated and corrected through digital simulation. This cost-effective solution enables process and design engineers to digitally model, evaluate and optimize the manufacturing of composite parts more accurately than before, and minimize costly, time-consuming physical testing and prove-out of production processes.

Ever stricter regulatory mandates drive revolution in auto interior materials

To meet ever more stringent automotive regulatory mandates, automakers have had to effect an evolution, indeed in many instances a revolution, in the materials that make up car interiors. Recently, Japanese floor carpet manufacturer Kotobukiya Fronte needed to quickly advance from manufacturing rubber carpets to use of new synthetic-materials carpets—a challenge the company rapidly and efficiently met with PAM-COMPOSITES.

According to Takumi Fujino, a member of the Acoustics and Simulation Group within Kotobukiya Fronte’s R&D Department, “ESI PAM-COMPOSITES is equipped with the features and parameters necessary for carpet analysis. The analysis accuracy and the usability are excellent, and graphical display of analysis results is easy to understand, which is why we rate it highly. We consult with ESI daily about various matters such as how to reduce calculation time or what kind of modeling is necessary. ESI Japan is also actively and frequently providing information. We recognize that the early practical application of simulation of sound absorption type carpet is largely owed to support from ESI Japan.”

Automotive and aircraft interior designers and manufacturing process engineers no longer need to be experts in FEA

Also new in PAM-COMPOSITES 2017 is a grid tracing tool that lets engineers analyze the length variation on each segment of the grid as they would do on physical prototypes. Also, a new element elimination function enables visualization of physical holes or fiber separations generated during the thermoforming of composite products. ESI says PAM-COMPOSITES 2017 is dedicated to supporting automotive and aircraft interior designers and manufacturing process engineers who, thanks to its process-oriented graphical interface, no longer need to be experts in finite element analysis.

ESI PAM-Composites 2017

Kotobukiya Fronte case study

New Simcenter 3D v12: Scale, depth, speed of integration progress unsurpassed

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Bruce Jenkins | Ora Research

Siemens’ newest version of Simcenter 3D, its flagship environment for multidisciplinary computer-aided engineering, offers new comprehensive solutions across multiple simulation disciplines. Key features:

  • Powerful generative design workflows support fully integrated topology optimization and Convergent Modeling for efficient design and simulation.
  • Advanced solutions deliver on Simcenter’s strategy for structural dynamics, motion and acoustics, delivering superior functionality and performance.
  • Improved industry workflows include universal connections support for efficient modeling of large assemblies.

Simcenter 3D is an advanced standalone CAE application for analysts and discipline experts that works with data from any CAD source. Being built on the Siemens NX platform, it of course works seamlessly with NX CAD. With more enhancements than any previous release, the newest Simcenter 3D—part of Siemens’s Simcenter portfolio of simulation and test solutions for predictive engineering analytics—looks to revolutionize how simulation engineers can help drive design direction in industries such as automotive, aerospace and industrial machinery.  See our Predictive engineering analytics: Simcenter unifies, advances Siemens PLM’s simulation/test portfolio.

Technology Results Viewer: Newly integrated workflows in Simcenter 3D v12

The new release integrates significant capabilities that were previously available in legacy simulation tools such as LMS Virtual.Lab and Samtech Samcef. Integration and expansion of these capabilities into Simcenter 3D’s unified, scalable and open environment aims to help engineers, analysts and designers improve their overall productivity, and give their organizations access to a broad yet deep array of simulation technology.

Scale, depth, speed of integration work all impress

The scope, scale, depth and—perhaps above all—swift, determined execution of Siemens’ work to intelligently integrate its many CAE-related acquisitions over the past handful of years is unsurpassed by anything comparable we can recall anywhere else in the industry. The latest Simcenter 3D release, and Siemens’ continued progress in realizing its overall Simcenter vision, is testament to the high caliber of both its technologists and its senior management—few companies in any industry can boast the same number of truly world-class executives and experts shepherding and coordinating the various Siemens PLM Software businesses and product families.

Topology optimization works seamlessly with Convergent Modeling for comprehensive generative design workflows

The latest Simcenter 3D release provides topology optimization solutions that work seamlessly with Convergent Modeling technology to provide comprehensive generative design workflows. These solutions allow for more accurate motion modeling, and more efficient acoustic and structural dynamics simulations.

Convergent Modeling within CAE environment.

Convergent Modeling is Siemens’ name for the ability to edit faceted bodies as if they were typical, boundary representation (b-rep) bodies in CAD. Simcenter 3D now exposes Convergent Modeling within the CAE environment, helping analysts and engineers “bring legacy FE mesh data to life,” the company says. This lets mesh data be turned into a convergent body, which can then be edited and morphed into new geometry, remeshed, then re-analyzed faster.

Key technology enabling Convergent Modeling comes from software developer Frustum Inc. See our Frustum Generate topology optimization plus 3D Systems DMP expertise slash weight of GE aircraft bracket 70%.

Generative design solutions for designers and advanced analysts

Analyst-level topology optimization.

Working seamlessly with NX CAD and Convergent Modeling technology, Simcenter 3D now offers generative design solutions for designers and advanced analysts. For the first time, output from a topology optimization process can be utilized directly in the design process, without the need to recreate geometry. Furthermore, engineers can now work directly with scanned data or an optimized shape to conduct more detailed simulations to ensure performance. By using Simcenter 3D along with HEEDS software for design exploration automation, engineers are able to fully explore the design space and generate innovative designs that meet more stringent design requirements.

Expanded NX Nastran nonlinear capabilities, advanced composites analysis from LMS Samtech Samcef

Simcenter 3D now provides expanded support for general-purpose nonlinear solutions based on the NX Nastran multi-step nonlinear solver as well as advanced analysis of composites based on LMS Samtech Samcef software. This latest release also delivers several enhancements to improve industry workflows across a wide range of industries, for modeling connections in large assemblies as well as accurate simulation of flexible pipes and hoses.

Nonlinear simulation in Simcenter 3D is greatly expanded by leveraging enhancements in NX Nastran and integrating capabilities from the LMS Samcef solver. In addition to the already strong capabilities for simulating nonlinear thermo-mechanical behavior in turbomachinery, Simcenter 3D now offers expanded support for general purpose nonlinear simulation with more elements, greater robustness and algorithms for multi-step nonlinear simulation to provide enhanced realism and faster solution times. Additionally, support for curing simulation of composites now allows prediction of residual stresses and spring-back effects.

Several of the enhancements target industry-specific workflows. Simulation engineers in automotive, aerospace, and heavy machinery companies benefit from the integration of universal connections support, which can help to efficiently build large system models with many connections and solve across several solvers. Simcenter 3D also leverages the LMS Samcef solver for simulation of flexible pipes and hoses which are commonly used in a variety of industries.

Hybrid modeling lets analysts incorporate physical test data into simulation models for better accuracy

New with this release, hybrid modeling allows analysts to incorporate test-based data into their simulation models to achieve better accuracy within the simulation. Other enhancements include support for modeling sub-mechanisms within motion assemblies, faster computation time for analytical contact in motion models, and improved performance for interior and exterior acoustics simulation.

Leuridan: “More streamlined workflows and a broader set of simulations in support of performance engineering”

“Our Simcenter solutions deliver critical capabilities that help our customers engineer innovation into their products,” said Dr. Jan Leuridan, Siemens PLM Software senior vice president for Simulation and Test Solutions. “With our latest release of Simcenter 3D, we are able to integrate multiple technologies from different tools all under one platform. Capitalizing on our deep experience in geometry-based CAE as well as our strength in key disciplines such as structural dynamics, acoustics, motion and nonlinear analysis, we have enhanced Simcenter 3D to enable more streamlined workflows and a broader set of simulations in support of performance engineering.”

Simcenter 3D v12

Frustum

Elevate designs to the next level using simulation

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A survey of more than 500 companies in a variety of industries inquired about the actions engineers could take to improve product development. The results of that survey showed that the top action (75%) was to use simulation earlier in product development to improve the design process.

About 53% of the respondents said that they wanted to promote collaboration between simulation analysts and designers. Managements are looking to enable a closer collaboration between the designers who perform the product designs and the simulation analysts who use simulation to help guide design decisions.

49% of the respondents want to combine more physics to increase the realism of their simulations.

A poll from a recent webinar hosted by Design World with ANSYS, and presented by Steve Scampoli, lead project manager for the design business, and Tejas Rao, lead engineer at ANSYS, asked the webinar attendees how many use simulation as part of the product development process. 80% responded positively.

The opportunity to reduce cost within the product development process is early in the concept and the design phase. Changes made later in the design process tend to increase costs, sometimes dramatically.

As you move into the prototype, then into production, and finally into service, the cost of making design changes can often significantly increase. Simulation has the greatest impact on design when it’s deployed early in the product development process.

Up front simulation also provides design guidance. It helps guide design decisions. Simulation answers questions like, is my design over stressed? How much deformation are these parts experiencing under load?

If you have a component mounted onto an engine, you might be interested in finding out the effects of vibration. What is the resonance frequency? If you have some type of service load for the parts or assemblies, what’s the fatigue life? When is the part going to fail? How many cycles can it withstand?

There is a lot of variation in how people handle product development:
–About 25% use industry or association standards

–About 23% use experience.

–About 31% use physical prototypes.

–About 18% use simulation

–About 2.5% use hand calculations.

Simulation is not the only tool used to validate design decisions.

ANSYS AIM offers a guided workflow through a simulation template that automates the setup and provides guidance through the process.

AIM leverages ANSYS solver technology “under the hood.” Whether it’s structural mechanics, electromagnetics, fluid physics, or heat transfer, AIM leverages ANSYS solver technology to make sure you’re getting the correct solution.

AIM allows collaboration between designers and simulation analysts, allowing for a seamless data transfer from AIM to either ANSYS Mechanical, or ANSYS Fluent.

ANSYS AIM also enables the use of multiphysics simulation.

A second poll question given to webinar attendees asked about design criteria. 67% responded that the accuracy of the analysis results is the most important criteria.

Ease of use was the second most mentioned criteria. If you are implementing simulation, you want that software to be easy to use and able to get from start to finish quickly.

The last desired criteria was: how fast can you get the solution from the program.

With AIM, you can start from virtually any CAD geometry, bring it into AIM, and quickly generate a mesh. This capability is due to ANSYS Solver Technology under the hood.

AIM offers several physics capabilities. With structural physics, for example, you can examine contact stresses between gear teeth. In a transmission assembly, you can look at the equivalent stresses in the gears, including frictional contact between the gear teeth. There might be a situation where you need to perform a simulation up front.

If you have assemblies, for example, would they have bolted connections? You might be interested in looking at the stresses as you’re tightening the individual bolts and looking at a bolt tightening sequence. You might also be interested in non-linear materials.

Maybe you’re doing a code evaluation, where you have to look at elastic- plastic analysis. Maybe you have a component that is overloaded, like a battery contact. Or you are interested in simulating the material beyond the yolk point. AIM allows you to solve a variety of structural applications through up front simulation.

AIM also can solve a variety of CFD applications, or fluid full applications. You might be interested in looking at the cooling of a device.

With components such as piping assemblies and valves, fluid flow or pressure drop may be of interest. Other examples include examining how a valve deforms based on the fluid pressures and temperatures. Another example is one-way fluid structure interaction simulation.

The next poll question focused on: what is the most common type of physics attendees need to simulate. Is it structural analysis? Stress and vibration? Fluid flow? It is drag, pressure drop, or velocity? Or thermal effects? Temperature or the heat flux in a device? Is it electromagnetics? The magnetic field? The magnetic force and torque? The current density?

The results of this survey showed that about 63% of webinar attendees are interested in structural analysis. About 23% are interested in fluid simulation, so looking at drag, pressure drop and velocity. A smaller percentage, about 10% are interested in thermal simulation. Finally about 4% are interested in electromagnetics, so looking at the magnetic fields, magnetic force and torque and current.

Some of the other capabilities of AIM allow users to rapidly evaluate design performance. You can leverage your parametric CAD data for parametric studies, or a design point study, evaluating virtually any input parameter to examine how it effects key outputs.

ANSYS
www.ansys.com

ANSYS introduces real time simulation software

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With ANSYS Discovery Live, engineers can rapidly explore design options and receive instant and accurate simulation results.

Simulation is a critical engineering technology, but it is still not the easiest software to use. To address this issue, ANSYS is expanding Pervasive Engineering Simulation, empowering engineers to take advantage of powerful simulation tools early in the design process. The Discovery Live software allows engineers to immediately examine the impact of their design changes. The simulation is interactive, which can be experienced in three areas—interactive results, interactive display of the results, and as engineers change the geometry of their designs, the simulation changes instantly as a result of those geometry changes. Users can pose what-if questions upfront in the design process to rapidly explore thousands of design options and receive immediate feedback.

“Discovery Live breakthrough technology places real-time simulation in the hands of every engineer.  Easy to use, it enables true digital experimentation,” said Mark Hindsbo, vice president and general manager, ANSYS. “This will fundamentally change product development, inverting the traditional process by bringing simulation upfront and enabling millions of engineers to benefit from the power of simulation.”

The simulation technology is based on the massive parallel nature of graphics processing units (GPUs). NVIDIA GPUs deliver supercomputing capabilities and, when combined with the engineering simulation of Discovery Live, results can be calculated thousands of times faster than with conventional methods. This has been combined with nearly five decades of ANSYS experience and validation of simulation methods and best practices, making it intuitive for the non-simulation expert to use the software.

Discovery Live supports fluids, structural and thermal simulation applications – enabling engineers to experiment with design ideas and see instant feedback. Users can run an analysis first approach as they design – enabling them to iterate with a 3-D model and interactively explore the impact of simple and complex changes.

ANSYS, Inc.
www.ansys.com

ESI Virtual Seat Solution helps JSP improve automotive seat manufacturing accuracy

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Bruce Jenkins, Ora Research

JSP is a global business serving the automotive, construction, civil engineering and packaging markets with a range of expanded polymers. When the company first began to embed plastic and metal components into its automotive seat designs fabricated in ARPRO® expanded polypropylene (EPP), its engineers discovered that this made post-fabrication shrinkage of the product more difficult to predict. The modeling and simulation methods they were using at the time failed to account for thermal effects during shrinkage, making simulations of the manufacturing process unrevealing and unreliable. Consequently, additional physical trial and error were required to achieve the correct final form, stretching out development schedules and driving up costs.

JSP automotive seat fabricated in ARPRO expanded polypropylene (EPP)

To overcome that problem, JSP adopted ESI Group’s ESI Virtual Seat Solution (VSS). With this new technology, JSP engineers found they can now—reliably and recurrently—define a target shape that includes plastic and/or metal molded inserts, select the density of their ARPRO® foam, then calculate the mold shape that will deliver the required geometry for each component upon completion of the molding and curing process.

Thermal shrink simulation—distorted shape.

“ESI Virtual Seat Solution allowed JSP to accurately predict the distortion of parts as they cured,” says JSP engineering manager Kipp Boegner. “Consequently, we were able to design molds that compensated for that distortion before they were constructed, saving us a tremendous amount of time, effort and money. This improvement in JSP’s capabilities is a competitive advantage that we can use to capture additional business and increase our market share.”

EPP foam benefits for automotive seat fabrication

JSP is a global supplier of ARPRO® expanded polypropylene (EPP) foam, used in the manufacture of a wide range of automotive components. Because of its high strength-to-weight ratio, ARPRO is widely used in seating structures to achieve significant weight reduction. The material is also highly versatile, so seats can be readily engineered to control the H-point for different driver/passenger morphologies.

Metal wires can be molded directly into an ARPRO® part. These insert-molded components create integrated subassemblies that can be used as primary or secondary attachment features to the steel seat frame or for structural enhancements. The addition of these elements provides opportunity for further weight reductions as they can replace the traditional heavy, steel anti-submarine ramp.

A typically molded ARPRO® foam part, without insert-molded components, will typically shrink about 2% in volume after a standard molding process. However, the addition of plastic or metal components molded into the ARPRO® part cause the part shrinkage to vary locally, resulting in dimensional errors in the final molded part if these effects are not predicted and then factored into the mold shape.

How JSP used ESI VSS to fix the problem

To accurately predict shrinkage, JSP turned to ESI Virtual Seat Solution (VSS). JSP’s first objective was to check the methodology and predictive capability of ESI VSS regarding the final distorted shape of the ARPRO® foam parts after they are manufactured and cooled to ambient temperature. Then, with the help of VSS, they looked into predicting the compensations in mold shape that were required so that the desired product geometry would be achieved after cooling. Last, they wanted to output the predicted compensated mold geometry to a CAD file for mold construction.

Today, using ESI Virtual Seat Solution, JSP can input a targeted part shape, including insert-molded plastic and metal inserts, select the desired density of ARPRO® foam, then run a simulation to predict the corrected mold shape that will be necessary to achieve the targeted part shape after the molding and curing process.

To date, JSP has successfully completed and correlated more than 18 studies to validate ESI VSS’s capabilities. Satisfied with the results, JSP has commissioned and constructed five production-capable molds based on ESI VSS’s output. These first molds have produced dimensionally capable parts as predicted, with no significant costs for revision.

ESI Virtual Seat Solution

ARPRO

 

ANSYS acquires CEI: Faster, smarter product decisions through engineering simulation visualization

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Bruce Jenkins, Ora Research

ANSYS acquired Computational Engineering International, Inc. (CEI), the long-established developer of a suite of products that help engineers and scientists analyze, visualize and communicate simulation data. Headquartered in Apex, NC, CEI has 28 employees and more than 750 customers worldwide. Its flagship product, EnSight, is a premier solution for analyzing, visualizing and communicating simulation data.

 

“The merger of the physical and digital worlds is resulting in products that were once unimaginable,” ANSYS observes, “and companies are faced with an overwhelming number of design decisions compared to previous product generations. That is something only engineering simulation can feasibly provide in a timely and cost-effective fashion. Users need to quickly analyze the immense amount of data that simulation generates to make the right engineering and business decisions. By bringing together the world leader in engineering simulation with the top simulation visualization tool, ANSYS is offering the industry new insight as companies increasingly rely on simulation to develop tomorrow’s products.”

 

“CEI has a long track record of success thanks to fantastic technology built by a world-class team,” said ANSYS vice president and general manager Mark Hindsbo. “By bringing CEI’s leading visualization tools into the ANSYS portfolio, customers will be able to make better engineering and business decisions, leading to even more amazing products in the future.”

 

“We’ve worked with ANSYS informally for years, but now are thrilled to become part of this great company,” said CEI president Anders Grimsrud. “Joining ANSYS will give our customers access to the best engineering simulation technology on the planet, and EnSight will help ANSYS users make faster, smarter decisions. It’s a win-win.”

CEI’s message: Steady and stronger

CEI says it will continue to operate, develop EnSight and related software, and serve customers all as before. No changes are currently planned that will affect product availability to its customers.

In a Q&A post on its web site, CEI further explains:

Q: Is this a good thing for the future of EnSight?

A: This will be a good thing for all of our customers for a number of reasons:

  1. As we become integrated into ANSYS, our customers will be able to reach technical support from multiple continents during all time zones.
  2. We will be adopting ANSYS development tools and procedures, which should result in more robust software.
  3. ANSYS has an entire testing department which will provide the opportunity to find and correct more problems before you see a software release.
  4. We will have access to human-factors expertise to help us build better user experiences.
  5. We will have access to a host of technology and expertise from ANSYS that we can take advantage of in the CEI products.
  6. Working from within the ANSYS sales and distribution channels, we will surely gain many more customers. More customers allows us more revenue to invest in more technology development. More development means you will gain access to even more capability than you have now.
  7. Removing the burden of corporate compliance will allow us to spend more time and resources on software development.
  8. The integration with ANSYS solvers will become better and higher-performance. EnSight will also be integrated with ANSYS Workbench.

Q: How will this affect the short-, medium- and long-term development plans for EnSight?

A: Short-term roadmap for EnSight remains unchanged. CEI continues to be focused on serving the needs of EnSight customers. The medium-term development roadmap for EnSight will begin to involve the requirements of a larger deployment of EnSight through ANSYS. Longer-term development is still focused on providing the best post-processing, visualization and analysis software for CAE simulations.

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