Simulating Reality by MSC Software

MSC Software Magazine | Volume V

Summer 2015 Issue

Global Ground Vehicle & Heavy Machinery Industry Conference 2015 Sept 16-17, 2015 Troy, Michigan Register Today! www.mscsoftware.com/gv-hmi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE STORY

EDITOR LETTER

CO-SIMULATION SPOTLIGHT

1 Reaching the Apex

LETTER FROM THE CEO

8 Noise Prediction of Moving Mechanisms Co-Simulation Feature

Simulating the Complete Engineering Process

Evaluating Suspension Components Earlier in Design

MSC IN THE NEWS

Volvo Car

Simulation News & Media Coverage

System Analysis 15X Faster with Co-Simulation Litens Automotive

PRODUCT NEWS IN-BRIEF

14 Tackling Conflicting Performance Requirements

Ford Motor Company

2015 MSC New Product Releases

Simulations Give Insight into Bedsore Problems CEI

FEATURE STORY

TECH TIPS

MSC Apex: Latest Release Delivers Dramatic Time-Savings in Mid-Surface Modeling

Marc: Defining Axis of Rotation of a Rigid Body

Optimizing MSC Nastran Nonlinear with Multi-Core Technology

Patran: Useful Tools for Contact Analysis

Accelerated MidSurface Model Construction Workflow

24 Analyzing Design Modifications Faster TLG Aerospace

25 From Two Days to One Hour Dynetics

26 Aero Supplier Achieves Dramatic Time Savings DEMA

28 The Award-Winning MSC Apex

Intel

Joe Satkunananthan, MSC Software

36 2015 Simulating Reality Contest Winners

Christian Aparicio, MSC Software

MSC Learning Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s e-Learning

Adams: The New ANCF Object: FE_Part Maziar Rostamian, MSC Software

PARTNER SHOWCASE

30 Smart & Collaborative 3D CAE Visualization Solution for MSC Nastran, Marc, and SimManager VCollab

Christopher Anderson, MSC Software

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

40 Simulating Complex Package Folding Procedure IIT

UNIVERSITY & RESEARCH

SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT

Adams Curriculum Kit 2nd Edition is Here!

Simufact: Welcome to the MSC Family Volker Mensing, Simufact

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EDITOR LETTER

LESLIE BODNAR

Executive Editor

Reaching the Apex

simulating

REALITY Executive Editor Leslie Bodnar leslie.bodnar@mscsoftware.com

Editor/Graphic Designer Marina Carpenter

Is modeling and simulation finally reaching higher levels of usability, accuracy, and efficiency? Engineers are telling us, yes. In fact, it is. In this issue, we introduce new technology that is already pushing the envelope by creating dramatic time savings for engineers involved in the initial stages of the analysis process - specifically geometry repair, modeling, and meshing. These mundane and repetitive tasks are where our customers tell us they simply need a new approach, a better one. Our answer – MSC Apex. And, this is just the beginning of what’s to come.

Reaching the top and pursuing greatness in the application of engineering simulation throughout the stages of new product development and into design validation is what we will always strive to help engineers do. Already in its fourth release, MSC Apex is producing real time savings for companies like TLG Aerospace, DEMA, and Dynetics Technical Services.

On page 24, TLG Aerospace engineers describe how they were able to reduce geometry cleanup and meshing time by 75%. While DEMA engineers were able to reduce the time required to analyze their design by 60%. See page 26. Also included in this issue is a dedicated Co-Simulation Spotlight. Beginning on page 8, we introduce five stories each describing different methods for applying co-simulation such that engineers are now able to test more scenarios with higher fidelity and better accuracy than ever before through virtual testing. Integration of simulation technologies also cuts development time and drives rapid innovation in products. For example, Volvo Car is coupling multibody dynamics and nonlinear FEA to design lighter suspension systems and look at more design alternatives. See their story on page 10. Litens Automotive is able to achieve a 90% reduction in computation time using the same approach. See page 12.

marina.carpenter@mscsoftware.com

Assistant Editors/ Graphics Contributors Daryen Thompson daryen.thompson@mscsoftware.com

Jennifer Betonio jennifer.betonio@mscsoftware.com

MSC Software Corporation 4675 MacArthur Court, Suite 900 Newport Beach, CA 92660 714.540.8900 www.mscsoftware.com

The automotive and machinery industries aren’t the only ones benefiting from advancements in co-simulation technology. On page 16, see how it’s revealing hidden insights into bedsore problems for hospital equipment manufacturers. Reaching the top and pursuing greatness in the application of engineering simulation throughout the stages of new product development and into design validation is what we will always strive to help engineers do. Thank you to everyone who shared their story with us. Sincerely,

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2015 USER CONFERENCES Simulating Reality, Delivering Certainty

Beijing, China May 27

Michigan, USA September 16-17

Xian, China May 29

Tampere, Finland September 22

Tokyo, Japan June 4

Moscow, Russia October 7-8

Paris, France June 10-11

Budapest, Hungary October 8

Brno, Czech Republic June 10-11

Bologna, Italy October 14

Istanbul, Turkey June 11-12

Rotterdam, Netherlands October 15

Gothenburg, Sweden June 15

Belgium October 15

Munich, Germany June 16-17

Torino, Italy November 11

Napoli, Italy July 10

Madrid, Spain October

Queretaro, Mexico August 18

Pretoria, South Africa March 17, 2016

Pune, India September 4

For more information, visit: www.mscsoftware.com

LETTER FROM THE CEO

DOMINIC GALLELLO President & CEO MSC Software

Simulating the Complete Engineering Process

few years ago I attended a global leadership conference where the attendees on the opening night sat right in the middle of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. They powerfully demonstrated the sounds that an orchestra would make if they were not working well together. It was not good. Finally the conductor took control of all the sections and to no surprise, the music was fantastic. If you think about the number of simulations that take place in a product development process, it is really not much different. If one of the members of the simulation orchestra delivers great results, but they are alone and disconnected from the rest of the development process, it is pretty clear that the results will not be optimal. Over the past few years, we have been assembling the major sections of the simulation orchestra to simulate the complete engineering process: • Materials – The design of new materials which reduce weight and provide same or better structural integrity with reduced part count, materials that have better acoustics properties, etc. is becoming more and more critical. This can be for materials of chopped fiber and continuous fiber composites as well as metal which is still the predominant material for cars, trains and planes. Design, testing and management of new materials should be a natural part of the design process, not relegated to just a “special few”. We enable engineers to use the design variables of new, advanced materials with certainty as a natural part of their design process.

• Fabrication – As the materials are chosen, they need to be formed into parts. Forming, forging and other fabrication processes are done by a huge number of companies. Forming simulation we have done before, but annealing, rolling, curing, 3D printing and general simulation of fabrication is something new and offers our customers the ability to use simulation to explore the impact of fabrication on the materials behaviors and the robustness of their designs in the face of realizable material variability. Support the simulation of the as-manufactured spatial property variation to enable parts/systems designers to design to robust manufactured parts with minimal margins. Enable the fabrication engineering departments to decide on the best ways to work the material to obtain the design targeted properties. • Parts – The ability to quickly model and shape parts for simulation that runs the first time has been difficult to achieve over the years. And now, as light-weighting is driving engineers to refine their parts designs and 3D printing and other fabrication methods are opening new design options, it is even more critical to enable engineers to design the parts. It is no longer enough to validate that the part meets its operational criteria.

Make simulation tools easier to use and tie them more closely to the geometrical design parameters. Enable the easy exploration of fabrication methods in the simulation of parts behaviors. • Assembly –Idealized parts from the traditional design process don’t always behave the way you want after being fabricated and then joined to an assembly. Welding, riveting, annealing and spatial variations from strain hardening and forming of steel and aluminum change the characteristics of the subsystems and systems and this cannot be ignored. The joining process is another very important input into the design process to understand overall system behavior and how to exploit it in the design of parts and in the design of the assembly process itself. • Systems – Getting the system model just right gets more and more challenging. Lightweighting, acoustical optimization, energy management, stability augmentation of the dynamic behavior and more and more specialized load cases coupled with a need to minimize the use of margins of safety to create certainty in the design creates a seemingly endless back and forth between the system model and the myriad of part models. The reduction of just one loads cycle has incredibly positive time and cost impact on the overall development process. Enable the systems model and its criteria to be visible throughout the design process. Simplify the exchange of systems and parts behaviors and properties through the supply chain. All five pieces of the process are now in place. With the building blocks laid down, it offers us incredible opportunities to assist our customers to accelerate not only each piece of the process but also to exploit even greater design improvements by simulating the materials to systems processes. We look forward to working with you to realize the full potential.

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MSC IN THE NEWS

Simulation News & Media Coverage Acoustic Simulation Software Helps Appliance Engineers Meet Demands Appliance Design More people are living side-by-side with their appliances in smaller spaces, so they want quieter machines, but not completely silent machines. They want enough sound to confirm the refrigerator is working or the washing machine has completed its cycle, but no more. At the same time that engineers are trying to strike that balance, government agencies are mandating greater energy efficiency and “end of life” design that minimizes waste and maximizes re-use. Throw cost, style, and size into the mix, and engineers face a tangle of conflicting priorities. Acoustic simulation can resolve that conflict by giving engineers insight for developing products with appropriate sound profiles while balancing other design considerations. Integrating acoustic simulation technology into their design processes provides manufacturers with the insight necessary to know where the balance between consumer preference and government restrictions lies. They don’t need the resources of a multinational corporation to do it. They just need to know that they have options for understanding their products’ acoustic behaviors without raising their costs. http://bit.ly/1ddtJRj

Ford Applies New Simulation Technology to Solve Challenges Design World Lugging is a familiar – and unwelcome – challenge that symbolizes the tension between fuel economy and noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) in motor vehicle design today. Lugging occurs when a vehicle is operating at a high gear and a low engine speed – below 2,000 RPM – and the driver hits the accelerator. Engineers can adjust the vehicle’s transmission to accelerate smoothly in high gear – a process called “slipping” – but doing so reduces the car’s fuel economy. Therein lies the conflict. Consumers want the smoother rides that slipping the transmission yields, but automotive engineers are under enormous pressure to improve fuel efficiency to meet ever-stricter government mileage requirements. Ford’s solution came through a combination of simulation and modeling technology and an open standard for co-simulation called Functional Mock-Up Interface (FMI). Ford created detailed 3D models of the drivetrain and the entire vehicle in MSC Software’s Adams multi-body dynamics software. Simulation results demonstrated that a slip of 40rpm slip was the optimal trade-off between NVH and fuel economy. Simulation will help engineers develop vehicles that deliver the comfort and performance required to appeal to customers and the efficiency to meet increasingly stringent fuel economy standards. http://bit.ly/1GizEzv

Nonlinear Forming & Welding Simulation Brings “As Manufactured” Data to MSC Engineering.com In February 2015, MSC Software acquired Simufact, creators of metal forming and joining simulation software. The software is a popular nonlinear CAE Tool used by the automotive, OEM, aerospace and machine part industries. The tool is designed to reduce the trial and error associated with manufacturing a product on the shop floor. In fact, some Simufact customers have reported that they have been able to cut their physical testing in half, and reduce the cycle time of a new part to a single week when using the software. For MSC users, however, Simufact will help to complete the simulation process chain. This will give engineers the ability to simplify the assessments of their “as manufactured” designs. http://bit.ly/1AL3dFy 4 | MSC Software

Simplifying Simulation Scientific Computing World Software that is easier to use allows engineers more time to focus on simulation and analysis of the data rather than trying to adapt to new software, learn proprietary coding languages, or the worrying about how to map algorithms to the latest GPU or accelerator technology. For instance, aircraft noise has become a major concern and in some cases is an obstacle to growth in air transport as numbers of airports place restrictions on the amount of noise that can be generated by an aircraft. Designers and engineers must work hard to reduce the noise of jet engines by placing acoustic liners in the nacelle, a housing that holds engines, or equipment on an aircraft, to minimize the fan noise radiated from the engine. One example of the use of MSC software for acoustic simulation looked at the use of nacelle liners on Airbus aircraft. The company evaluated several different shapes and materials to understand the best performance. Airbus found that it could dramatically reduce the time required to design and evaluate acoustic liners by moving to a simulation-based process using Actran acoustic simulation software developed by Free Field Technologies (FFT), a subsidiary of MSC. http://bit.ly/1JSrlcP

Materials to Reduce Vehicle Weight Today’s Motor Vehicles A new generation of materials management technology will open a window on lighter, more efficient vehicles. Composites, reinforced plastics, and lightweight steel and aluminum, are being deployed across the automotive industry at record rates to improve fuel efficiency. Automotive OEMs are integrating new materials into parts and assemblies in existing designs and developing completely reimagined platforms around them, such as the BMW i3 and i8. New material systems provide significant benefits in specific weight and stiffness. However, because of their variability due to new manufacturing methods and engineers’ lack of familiarity with them, new material systems demand significantly more and different types of testing – potentially increasing up-front cost. This expansion of testing obligates OEMs to rethink how material systems are managed, and how they must evolve to support wider uses of new materials. Such a system must put materials in the forefront of engineering to use materials as an essential design variable to innovate. The ability to model material properties quickly, easily, and in detail is essential to adopting new materials that will make automobiles lighter, more fuel efficient and, ultimately better for the environment. http://bit.ly/1S4iudL

Class Gives United States Marine Corps Engineers New Analytical Tool Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System In February 2015, the United States Marine Corps put some of its engineers through an intensive nineday training course on Adams. In less than two weeks, the students realized that learning Adams could put them on equal footing with engineers in the private sector. Adams’ powerful analysis capabilities are giving the USMC the ability to start bringing engineering work back in-house, allowing them to quickly and accurately analyze any vehicle mishaps that may occur. http://bit.ly/1PPUK9i

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PRODUCT NEWS IN-BRIEF

2015 New Product Releases The 2015 product release lineup delivers new event simulations for vehicle modeling, coupled physics, extended material modeling methods, an all-new release of MSC Apex, and a range of advanced engineering simulation technologies for streamlining the analysis workflow. In addition to the releases mentioned below, please expect later this year to see new 2015 releases of Marc, MSC Nastran & Patran, SimManager, and additional releases of Digimat, Simufact, and Actran. New Release Highlights:

Adams 2015 Extends Vehicle Simulation Scope for Automotive Engineers The Adams 2015 release delivers new functionality and major enhancements in many areas, especially for Adams/Car. Automotive engineers will benefit from new out-of-the-box, customized solutions for model setup and vehicle event simulations. The new features also give users the ability to create higher fidelity subsystems in their vehicle models. Highlights of the release include: Higher Fidelity Modeling • Adams/Machinery Compatibility in Adams/Car - High fidelity gear and motor modeling in car & driveline • Nonlinear FE Part Support for Adams/Car – Geometric nonlinearity for vehicle subsystems modeling and simulation • Adams-Marc Co-simulation Enhancements – Easier and faster Multibody Dynamics-Nonlinear FEA Integration • New Vehicle Database – Provides availability of key vehicle types out-of-the-box

New Vehicle Events • Full-vehicle Suspension Parameter Measurement Machine (SPMM) - Tune suspension parameters for desired vehicle behavior without costly iteration with physical prototypes • Static Vehicle Characteristics (SVC) – Computes and reports key metrics of the vehicle at static equilibrium • Tandem Axle Suspension Analysis (TASA) – Delivers support for tuning of multi-axle architectures For details, please visit www.mscsoftware.com/product/adams

MSC Apex Diamond Python Delivers two products; Modeler and Structures + SmartMidsurface™ The latest release of MSC Apex enhances the engineer’s workflow and daily productivity with many innovative modeling and analysis capabilities. The MSC Apex Diamond Python release introduces: • • •

The fourth release of MSC Apex Modeler - A CAE Specific direct modeling and meshing solution that streamlines CAD clean-up, simplification, and meshing workflow. The second release of MSC Apex Structures - An add-on to MSC Apex Modeler which now expands MSC Apex to a fully integrated and generative structural analysis solution. New incremental Mid-surface modeling workflow (SmartMidsurface ™) for dramatic time savings

Diamond Python delivers a solver integrated solution for interactive and incremental structural analysis. Modeling, validating, solving, and exploring designs has never been this efficient and easy. MSC Apex helps users to dramatically reduce the amount of time that it takes to build and validate models, a task that does not add any value to the design process. This frees users to focus on delivering not just acceptable designs but ones that are optimal - in an environment that is fun to use. For details, please visit www.mscapex.com 6 | MSC Software

Digimat 6.0 The material modeling platform for simulating a range of composites This latest Digimat 6.0 release brings a series of new features and improvements for modeling and analyzing composite materials, from Short Fiber Reinforced Plastics (SFRP) to Discontinuous Fiber Composites (DFC) and Continuous Fiber Reinforced Composites (CFRP). The new release also introduces Digimat-VA, a unique software solution dedicated to accurate virtual characterization of CFRPs to dramatically reduce the cost and time associated with material characterization and qualification. Digimat-VA, which stands for Virtual Allowables, offers a dedicated integrated workflow starting with easy and efficient creation of advanced multi-scale material models (including micro-level variability and progressive failure), FEA simulations of common test coupons, and automatic post-processing for computing mean strength and A/B-basis values. Any engineer concerned with characterizing a new composite material, exploring the design space or better understanding widespread mechanical properties will find in Digimat-VA a productive solution to save time and money. For details, please visit www.e-xstream.com

MaterialCenter 2015 Delivers material data integration and ease of use to dramatically improve engineering simulation workflows MaterialCenter 2015 is an out-of-the-box Material Process and Data Lifecycle Management solution with direct integration into many of the CAE pre- and post-processing tools commonly used by engineers. The integration provides direct support to retrieve a material model from MaterialCenter without leaving the native CAE pre- and post-processing application. MaterialCenter 2015 also enables users to create and edit material data directly from the browser environment. Along with MaterialCenter’s Excel integration, this provides a completely traceable system to ensure users are aware of all the modifications made to the data. MaterialCenter is the single point of entry for all of your materials related activities including physical test data entry and reduction, multi-scale materials modeling, approval workflow and the export of simulation ready data to analysis. For details, please visit www.mscsoftware.com/product/materialcenter

Material Databanks Secure, reliable, and fast access to material data The MSC Material Databanks are collections of technical materials information in electronic format. The databanks are developed and maintained through MSC’s partnerships with premier sources of materials information. They provide a comprehensive source of material property data for use by engineers for design and analysis. Benefits include: • • • •

Easy access to high-quality, reliable material data from around the world to improve team efficiency and information workflow. Improved quality and consistency with engineering data derived from a single source. Reduced transcription errors with electronic data transfer. Increased accuracy of predictive analysis, product design, and simulation using certified material data records for CAD, CAE, or PLM software.

For details, please visit www.mscsoftware.com

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CO-SIMULATION SPOTLIGHT

MULTIBODY DYNAMICS - ACOUSTICS SIMULATION

By: Dr. Diego Copiello, Product Marketing Manager, Actran & Yijun Fan, Product Marketing Manager, Adams & Easy5

Noise Prediction of Moving Mechanisms Introduction The reduction of the development cycle and resources needed for designing quality products is always a major industrial challenge. The integration of different CAE technologies allows making a step forward to this aim. For example, by enabling Multibody Dynamics (MBD) engineers to access preliminary acoustic data in their familiar MBD environment, it allows them to detect unsatisfactory designs even without being acoustic specialist or with the direct support of an acoustic engineer. Moreover, trying to connect the two worlds can lead to loss of information and requires additional manual work for the engineers. On the contrary, with an integrated solution, the data exchange between MBD and acoustic departments would be limited only to some advanced acoustic results. This article will discuss how Adams and Actran, the MBD and Acoustic solutions of MSC Software , are combined and integrated together enabling MBD engineers with the possibility of an insight into the acoustic

8 | MSC Software

behavior of moving mechanism early on in the design process. Moreover, the acoustic engineers can still get more valuable information from the further post-processing of acoustic results.

Multibody Dynamics Coupled with Acoustic analysis It is generally difficult to predict the noises coming from a moving system like transmission system or gearbox. One, there are complicated moving mechanisms inside the system, and different ways in which the parts interact with each other causing varying contact forces and vibrations. Two, understanding how the dynamic performance can influence the acoustic waves radiated from the gearbox casing is also a big challenge. Without the ability to accurately predict how the system dynamics will impact its noise performance, engineers don’t have an efficient method to redesign their systems to improve acoustic behavior.

Figure 1. Conventional workflow for MBD-Acoustics integration

Figure 2. New workflow for highly integrated method

The traditional workflow for such analysis involves three interfaces, Multibody dynamics (MBD) tool, finite element analysis (FEA) tool, and acoustic software. First, Engineers would need to perform the dynamic analysis in an MBD tool to get the dynamic loading on the gear casing surface, and since that time-domain results usually can’t be read into Acoustic software directly, they would need to convert the complete structure response in the frequency domain, after that, they can finally read the surface vibration into the acoustic software and use it as a boundary condition. This workflow is fairly laborious and could require several CAE engineers to cooperate together every time there’s a change in the design. MSC Software has recently developed a new methodology allowing the engineers to perform the modeling within the Adams’ interface and get initial results and impressions of the acoustic behavior without manually exporting the results into acoustics software to perform noise analysis. Typical acoustic results are computed via Actran, and displayed in Adams interface, including the acoustic pressure evolution in time at selected positions around the model and audible wave files for listening to the sound. Such new workflow greatly reduces the time and cost to conduct acoustic analysis on moving mechanisms like a gearbox, enabling engineers to do more iterations on the new system design in the same period of time comparing to the conventional method. Indeed, the new methodology fully automates this workflow into a single simulation environment by embedding Actran’s new time domain acoustic solver into Adams. This allows MBD engineers to perform a first iteration on acoustic results including the evaluation of the sound quality provided by a specific

transient phenomena. Let us also assume a gearbox composed by three gear pairs. The input wheel is subject to a rotation ranging between 0 and 3000 RPMs. To evaluate the acoustic response, we can consider a number of microphones distributed around the gearbox. For example, the microphones could be spatially distributed accordingly to the standard ISO 3744.

Figure 3. Gearbox model with three gear pairs & flexible casing

Figure 4. Acoustic analysis setup in MBD environment

Figure 5. Acoustic Pressure evolution in time for the surrounding microphones

product design. Thereafter, and only if deemed necessary, acoustic engineers can perform a more detailed analysis by investigating acoustic maps in the time domain or by converting only the most relevant results in the frequency domain.

The Gearbox Example With the aim of illustrating the MBD & Acoustic integrated solution; let us consider a gear box for example: the motion of the gearwheels causes the vibration of the gearbox which affects then the physical behavior of the gearwheels leading to a strongly coupled problem. The vibrating gearbox also transmits energy to the surrounding fluid and the acoustic waves radiate from it. Contemporarily, the acoustic waves affect the structural vibration as well. However, if on the one hand the Multibody dynamics and structural simulation domains are usually strongly coupled and shall be solved contemporarily, on the other hand the feedback from the acoustic waves to the structure can be neglected when considering an acoustic radiation occurring in air. This assumption allows the engineers to split the analysis of a vibrating structure into two subsequent steps: the MBD analysis is run first and outputs the structural vibration on the structural domain. These vibrations are used as boundary condition for the acoustic analysis which can be efficiently performed by means of Actran’s time-domain solver especially for

In the Adams model, the gearbox casing is considered flexible to capture its surface response. The rest of the gearbox (like gears, shafts, bearings) are rigid parts. Although the gears are not flexible parts, it is still possible to calculate the tip relief and crowning effects which can impact the dynamic loading on the gearbox casing. After the Adams model is set up, a 5-seconds dynamic analysis is conducted with the rotational speed of the input shaft ramping up from 0 to 3000rpms. From the analysis, we got outputs for all the loads and contact forces of each component as well as the displacement, velocity and acceleration of each system’s part. Following the MBD simulation, and while still in the Adams environment, an acoustic toolkit is launched to set up the parameters for the acoustic analysis like the acoustic mesh, radius of the infinite elements, speed of the sound, fluid density, output format, acoustic environment (the material) and so on.. What this toolkit does is that it will convert the MBD results into boundary conditions for acoustic model, and perform the acoustic analysis in the background using the new Actran time domain solver. Specifically, the casing acceleration (or equivalently the displacement or the velocity) and the surface mesh of the casing are used to feed the acoustic simulation tool. As the meshing requirements for the structure model are more restrictive than the acoustic ones, the structural and acoustic meshes are incompatible. This also implies that a projection procedure from the structural mesh to the acoustic one is needed. When the acoustic simulation is done in the Adams’ environment, you can go to the MBD postprocessor and get some of the acoustic results of this gearbox casing like the acoustic pressure evolution in time for the

Advanced in the integration of CAE technologies enable a reduction of development time and resources. surrounding microphones at each microphone location and sound file (.wav). Figure 5 shows an example of the acoustic response in time domain of all the surrounding microphones; this first result allows the identification of instants and areas where the acoustic pressure could exceed unwanted values, which means some potential noise issues. Moreover, these data can be converted in audio files to get the audio quality of a certain gearbox design directly in a single simulation environment, enabling MBD engineers to detect unsatisfying results from an acoustic perspective. Time domain data can be further converted in the frequency domain thanks to Actran’s utility ICFD. Thereafter, results can be postprocessed in ActranVI to get a thorough understanding of the acoustics. For example, Figure 6 depicts the waterfall diagram of the noise at a microphone surrounding the gearbox case. The main noise contribution is given by the 25th and 50th orders highlighted by two straight lines in the picture. These orders are linked to the first gearwheel since it features 25 teeth. Between 800 and 1300 Hz the noise levels are much higher. This is due to the excitation of specific structural modes by the first gearwheel. Figure 7 depicts the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) versus the machine RPM automatically extracted by Actran’s WaterfallViewer from the plot of 6. This allows to better understand the impact of the different orders on the acoustic performance. Indeed, at low machine rotational speed the 50th order has a major contribution to the radiated noise, whereas the 25th mainly impacts the system at higher rotational speed.

Conclusions

Figure 6. Spectrogram at one of the microphones surrounding the gearbox

Figure 7. SPL of orders 25 and 50 VS RPM

Advances in the integration of CAE technologies enable a reduction of development time and resources. This article provides an example of these benefits by illustrating how the integration Adams and Actran improves the workflow for CAE engineers. Specifically, multibody dynamic and acoustic time domain analyses are integrated into Adams’ environment enabling MBD engineers to perform preliminary acoustic performance evaluations of their products. These evaluations also include the investigation of the noise quality thanks to the generation of audio files. Finally, and only on most relevant cases, advanced post-processing can be performed by acoustic engineers in Actran’s environment. u Volume V - Summer 2015

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CO-SIMULATION SPOTLIGHT

MULTIBODY DYNAMICS - NONLINEAR FEA CO-SIMULATION

Evaluating Suspension Components Earlier in Design Volvo Car Looks Into New Technology to Simulate Complex Load Cases

Based on an interview with Anders Wirje, Technical Expert at Endurance Attribute & Chassis CAE Dept,, Volvo

vehicle might be subjected to misuse, peak load or strength events such as driving over a curb or skidding against a curb a few times during its life. These durability load cases play a major role in the product development process since they potentially drive the design for several components. At Volvo, the “driving over a curb” and “skid against a curb” strength events are classified into two categories, Level 1 and 2. Level 1 represents extreme customer usage and the requirement is that all functions remain intact with no visible or noticeable deformation of any component of the vehicle. Level 2 covers customer misuse and a certain amount of damage is accepted with a safe failure mode. Structural deformations are acceptable but there should be no separation or breakage. For level 2 it is desirable that a predetermined inexpensively replaceable component deforms and protects neighboring components, a design principle known as chain of failure.

Challenge The capability to perform peak load simulation with a high level of confidence is of great

10 | MSC Software

importance to setting the design loads for components and studying vehicle behavior in these events. Volvo uses Adams multibody dynamics software to simulate Level 1 load cases for driving over a curb and skidding against a curb. The components of interest are modeled as linear flexible bodies in Adams. This allows for linear material response for flexible bodies so this method is only valid up to small plastic strains which is a good fit for Level 1 load cases. On the other hand, Level 2 load cases involve plasticity and buckling of flexible bodies for which there has not been a way in Adams to simulate with sufficient levels of accuracy up to now. The skid against a curb load case is verified with physical testing with a known mass hitting the vehicle at a specified velocity and impact angle. These tests require prototype hardware that is expensive to build and only available later in the product development cycle. “We wanted the capability to simulate Level 2 load cases in order to be able to evaluate design of suspension components earlier in the development cycle without having to build hardware for each design alternative,” said Anders Wirje, Technical Expert CAE Durability at Volvo.

Figure 1: Physical testing of skid against a curb load case

Solution/Validation MSC recently introduced the Adams-Marc co-simulation capability that makes it possible for the first time to include geometrically and materially nonlinear structural behavior in multibody dynamics simulation. Any Adams model and any Marc model can be used in co-simulation with this tool. Post processing is done separately, Adams results in Adams and Marc results in the Marc postprocessor, or using Computational Engineering International’s (CEI Inc.) EnSight post-processor which can import both Adams and Marc results. When setting up the co-simulation model for the skid against curb load case, the Marc model contains the lower control arm and bushings connecting the LCA to the subframe whereas the rest of the half-vehicle model are included in the Adams/Car model. Due to the extreme nature of a peak load event, component modeling is absolutely critical to simulation accuracy. All components have to be described within their full range of excitation. Key components and behavior to model include: •

Contacts between curb and tire & between curb and rim

•

Elastomers, i.e. bushings

•

Camber stiffness of the suspension

•

Flexibility and plasticity/buckling of structural components

Adams runs a dynamics analysis while Marc runs a quasi-static analysis which means that mass and inertia of the component is not accounted for. It would also be possible to run a transient analysis in Marc that would take mass effects into account. Adams leads the co-simulation and then feeds its results to Marc. Marc interpolates the Adams results to catch up and passes the results to Adams which extrapolates them in taking the next step. The simulated event has a duration of 0.7 seconds in clock time. The communication interval is 5e-4 seconds in clock time. The

total simulation time was a very reasonable 40 minutes on a Dell laptop with 16 Gigabytes of RAM and a 2.7 GHz CPU. The Adams – Marc co-simulation of the Volvo S80 front suspension accurately predicted the behavior of a Level 2 skid against a curb load case. The low velocity impact (Level 1) and high velocity impact (Level 2) cases showed the same behavior as the physical tests.

Results/Benefits The ability to accurately simulate Level 2 load cases will make it possible to substantially improve the product development process. “From the early stages of the development process, we will be able to evaluate the performance of alternative designs in terms of their performance under Level 2 loads,” Wirje said. “The ability to quickly and easily look at alternatives at a time when we are not locked into any particular approach should make it possible to meet performance requirements with a lighter suspension that can improve the fuel economy of the vehicle. At the same, we should be able to reduce the cost and time involved in suspension development by performing product development more accurately from the beginning so fewer prototype verification cycles are required. Of course, full physical verification will be performed at the end of the project.”

About Volvo Car Group Volvo Car Group manufactures and markets sport utility vehicles, station wagons and sedans. Sales for 2014 hit a record of 465,866 cars, up 8.9 percent from 2013. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of Zhejiang Geely Holding of China since 2010. u

The ability to quickly and easily look at alternatives at a time when we are not locked into any particular approach should make it possible to meet performance requirements with a lighter suspension that can improve the fuel economy of the vehicle.

Results of Adams-Marc co-simulation of Level 1 skid against curb event show no buckling or plasticity

Results of Adams-Marc co-simulation of Level 2 skid against curb event shows buckling and plastic deformation, matching physical testing results Strain mapped onto lower control arm in Level 2 skid against curb event

Close-up view of Adams-Marc co-simulation of Level 2 skid against curb event

Lateral force on front bushing based on linear elastic simulation (blue trace) and fully non-linear Marc component (red trace) Volume V - Summer 2015

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CO-SIMULATION SPOTLIGHT

MULTIBODY DYNAMICS - NONLINEAR FEA CO-SIMULATION

System Analysis 15x Faster with Co-Simulation Litens Automotive Group achieves 90% reduction in computation time

Based on an interview with Dr. Steve Jia, Chief Engineer, Litens Automotive Group

itens Automotive Group’s patented TorqFiltr torque modulator uses an arc spring isolator mechanism to decouple the accessory drive system inertia from the engine torsional vibrations. The Litens torque modulator controls the system resonant frequency by tuning the spring stiffness to the system inertia. Because the spring stiffness is softer than traditional rubber isolators, vibrations from the engine are mostly absorbed before being transmitted to the accessory drive belt. This results in isolation of all components in the accessory drive, and any accessory drive resonance has very small peak amplitudes, since there is very little excitation. The product is dimensionally rather small, but incorporates a complex mechanism consisting of a series of components that transmit power to each other through complicated frictional contacts rather than fixed connections. “This device provides an enormous design challenge,” said Dr. Steve Jia, Chief Engineer for Litens Automotive Group. “We need to fully understand the

12 | MSC Software

behavior of the design under dynamic loading conditions. The product must be customized to deliver optimal performance for many different automotive engines. In the past, this involved a time-consuming and expensive trial and error process.”

Challenge Litens developed the ability to accurately simulate the operation of its torque modulator including how the design behaves, how components move and react against each other, and what happens under dynamic loading conditions with MSC Marc nonlinear finite element analysis software. Simulation provides substantial cost savings by accurately predicting performance of a proposed design without the considerable expense and lead time required to build and test a prototype. However, the computational resource requirements are considerable because a nonlinear finite element analysis is performed on each component. Time to perform a typical simulation is 30 hours, which limits the degree to which nonlinear analysis can be used in the

design process. “We were looking for an approach that would allow us to simulate the performance of our torque modulators, including material and geometric nonlinearities, in a fraction of the time so that we could integrate advanced nonlinear analysis into the design process,” Dr. Jia said. “We had the idea of combining multibody dynamics (MBD) simulation at the system level with nonlinear finite element analysis at the component level for components with large deformation to achieve a fast solution and accurate results.” MBD software has previously been integrated with linear FEA software, but not with nonlinear FEA, which is needed to provide accurate results for components with large deformations and material nonlinearities, such as the right and left side springs used in the torque modulator.

Solution/Validation “MSC is the leader in nonlinear analysis with Marc and the leader in MBD software with Adams, so they were the obvious choice

to approach with our request to integrate these two technologies,” Dr. Jia said. MSC engineers coupled Marc and Adams so that the interaction between the motion behavior in Adams and the nonlinear behavior in Marc is taken into account in the simulation at both the system and component level and solved at each integration time step. Deflections calculated by Adams are taken into account at each time step in Marc and dynamic loading conditions are transferred from Marc to Adams. Marc determines stress and deformation at the component level with geometric, material, and contact nonlinearities taken into account. The Adams-Marc co-simulation capability was introduced in a beta release of Adams 2014. The beta release was validated on the Litens torque modulator before the software was released to the general public in Adams 2014.

The Litens torque modulator controls the system resonant frequency by tuning the spring stiffness to the system inertia.

Results Litens CAE engineers set up the typical simulation so that only the left and right springs are modeled as flexible bodies in Marc and all other components are modeled as rigid bodies. Six contact points are established between the shell of the torque modulator and the springs, and these points are used by Adams to provide displacements to Marc, and by Marc to provide forces back to Adams. Under these conditions, Adams-Marc co-simulation analyzes the torque modulator in only two hours, 1/15 of the time required for Marc simulation. A small difference of 10% in results was seen with co-simulation, and this was expected since normal Marc simulation analyzes all components as flexible bodies while the co-simulation models most components as rigid bodies. The Marc simulations have previously been found to be very close to physical measurements. The cosimulation results for key values, such as the inner drive angle as a function of input torque, were found to vary by less than the 10% from the Marc simulation over two revolutions of the input shaft. “This small difference in results is acceptable considering the dramatic reduction in computation time provided by co-simulation,” Dr. Jia said. “This technology will make it

possible for the first time to utilize advanced nonlinear FEA as an integral part of the design process. We see this advancement as similar in significance to the advancement several decades ago in computing power which made it possible to integrate FEA into the design process. It is expected that Adams-Marc co-simulation in the early stages of the design process to evaluate different design alternatives will significantly speed up the design process. Once we find a design that looks promising, we will run a more accurate Marc simulation to validate its performance.”

About Litens Car Group Litens is a global organization serving the automotive market with high quality service and products for power transmission systems. Litens was the first company to develop and produce in volume an automotive automatic tensioner and single belt accessory drive. After 35 years, Litens has established its global leadership in automotive belt drive systems and component design applications. The company is engaged in the development of innovative products to provide its global customer base with unique engineered solutions to vehicle performance and NVH challenges. u

Comparison of dynamic spring load for left spring for Marc simulation vs. Adams-Marc co-simulation

Adams Model of the Center Drive and Marc Model of the Two Springs

The Adams-Marc cosimulation capability more than satisfies our guideline of ‘reasonable results in a reasonable time.’ With up to a 90% reduction in computation time, optimization using advanced nonlinear FEA becomes practical. Such development provides a great benefit and is crucial for our product development and we are proud to work together with MSC in advancing the technology.” Volume V - Summer 2015

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CO-SIMULATION SPOTLIGHT

MULTIBODY DYNAMICS - CONTROLS CO-SIMULATION

Tackling Conflicting Performance Requirements Ford Leverages Adams FMI Co-Simulation Method to Optimize Tradeoff between Fuel Economy and NVH

By Mario Felice & Jack Liu of Ford Motor Company & Wulong Sun of MSC Software

oise/vibration/harshness (NVH) and fuel economy often must be traded off against each other during the vehicle design process. For example, lugging is a condition that typically occurs when the vehicle is in high gear with an engine speed of below 2000 rpm. When the driver steps on the gas pedal under these conditions, the engine struggles to give motion to the vehicle while generating relatively little torque so acceleration is low. Lugging produces high levels of low frequency inputs because of the low firing frequency at low engine speeds and high loads. These low frequency inputs are frequently experienced by the driver and passenger as seat track vibration, steering wheel vibration and interior cabin boom sound.

with transmission fluid in addition to a lockup clutch and damper assembly. The clutch is electronically controlled to provide the desired level of slip. When required, the clutch locks up and provides a direct connection between the engine and transmission, resulting in near 100% efficiency and the best fuel economy. In lock-up mode, engine torque fluctuation is transmitted directly to the transmission, potential causing the drivetrain to generate vibration and noise. Slipping the torque converter increases damping,reducing sensitivity of the driveline vibration to the engine torque excitation and improvingNVH performance. On other hand, slipping increases losses due to fluid coupling and clutch friction which decreases fuel economy.

One of the primary methods by which engineers attempt to control lugging is through the torque converter which transmits and amplifies the torque from the engine to the transmission using fluid coupling. The torque converter consists of a pump, turbine, impeller and stator contained within a cavity filled

When developing a new vehicle model, engineers are responsible for meeting a wide variety of often conflicting performancetargets. Fuel economy and NVH are two of the most important categories of targets. With regards to lugging, NVH engineers are typically responsible for holding torsional vibration

Drivetrain model 14 | MSC Software

Challenge

Adams and AMESim FMI co-simulation

amplitudes at the transmission output shaft below a target value. The NVH team naturally would prefer a large amount of slip in order to help meet their targets while the team responsible for fuel economy would like slip to be as low as possible to meet their targets. Up to now it has not been possible to determine torsional vibration amplitudes with high levels of accuracy until a prototype vehicle is built and tested in the late stages of the product development process. However, at this late stage, the design is frozen and changes are quite expensive and could potentially delay production. Ford was looking for a method to simulate the effects of different torque converter designs so that engineers could make intelligent tradeoffs upfront in the design and development stages.

Torque converter assembly

We ran the model for different values of desired slip rpm across a broad range of engine rpm. The simulation results showed that a slip of 30 rpm or lower would fail to meet the NVH target while a slip of 40 rpm or greater would meet the target. The simulation showed that 40 rpm slip was the optimal value that would meet the NVH target and would result in the best trade off with fuel economy. Solution/Validation Ford engineers addressed this challenge by taking advantage of a new capability of MSC Software’s Adams to support the Functional Mock-Up Interface (FMI) tool independent open standard for model exchange or cosimulation. The FMI standard makes it possible to create a virtual product from a set of models of the physical laws and control systems assembled digitally. The FMI instance of a model is called a Functional Mock-Up Unit (FMU). An FMU is a formatted file containing an XML formatted model description file, dynamic link libraries and model data files. FMI can be used for model exchange or co-simulation. The Adams FMI support extends the Adams/ Controls Co-simulation support of Matlab and Easy5 to all software utilizing the FMI Cosimulation standard.

In this case, Ford engineers used an Adams 3D drivetrain and full vehicle model as the co-simulation master with an AMESim 1D converter slip controller model as the cosimulation slave with the goal of optimizing converter slip to meet the vehicle lugging NVH target while maximizing fuel economy. A drivetrain model was created in Adams/ Driveline including an I4 Gasoline Turbocharged Direct Injection (GTDI) engine with three mounts, a torque converter with a lockup clutch, a six-speed gearbox with internal shafts and planetary gear sets, and a front driveline with differential, link-shafts, halfshafts, constant velocity joints and wheels. The driveline model was incorporated into a full vehicle model using Adams/Car. The vehicle model includes the chassis, suspension, steering, brake and wheel subsystems. The AMESim torque converter model is a

proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller that provides the normal force on the converter clutch based on the difference between the actual slip and the desired slip.

Results We ran the model for different values of desired slip rpm across a broad range of engine rpm,” Mario Felice said. “The simulation results showed that a slip of 30 rpm or lower would fail to meet the NVH target while a slip of 40 rpm or greater would meet the target. The simulation showed that 40 rpm slip was the optimal value that would meet the NVH target and would result in the best trade off with fuel economy.” Engineers further studied the reduction in torsional vibration amplitudes generated by the clutch damper behavior and the torque converter slip. They also compared vibration at the steering wheel and seat track with 0 rpm and 40 rpm slip. The results showed that steering wheel and seat track vibration are drastically reduced by slipping the torque converter. “Next steps will include increasing the sophistication of the torque converter model by modeling the hydraulic system to provide more accurate predictions of normal force as a function of time,” Felice said. “We also plan to validate the model with physical testing results. Then we will integrate the co-simulation into the design process so that the torque converter design can be optimized early in the product development cycle.”

About Ford

Torsional vibration at transmission output shaft vs. engine rpm vs. slip rpm

The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker that sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand and luxury cars under the Lincoln brand. u

Steering Wheel and Seat Track Vibration are drastically reduced by slipping Torque Converter Volume V - Summer 2015

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CO-SIMULATION SPOTLIGHT

MULTIBODY DYNAMICS - NONLINEAR FEA CO-SIMULATION

Simulations give insight into Bedsore Problems MSC Co-Sim Technology Combines with EnSight 3D Visualization to Solve Bedsore Mystery

By Ms. Kara Gray, CEI & Mark Carlson, MSC Software

ach year, an estimated 1 million people suffer from painful bedsores in U.S. hospitals across the country. These wounds are the result of long-term confinement to a bed or wheelchair and often become seriously infected or develop gangrene. Not only are bedsores incredibly painful, but they can also be deadly, linked to a four-fold increase in death, with a hospital mortality rate of 23-37 percent. Compounding the problem, patients who develop bedsores also experience a five-time longer hospital stay, putting them at much greater risk of developing other ailments. Then, of course, there are financial implications: conservative estimates peg the cost of bedsores in U.S. hospitals at $55 billion per year. (All sources: http:// leedergroup.com/bulletins/bed-sores). Finding a way to prevent bedsores before they start is a high priority for hospitals, nursing home and long-term care facilities, as well as bed manufacturers. Conventional means of studying possible solutions typically involve long prototyping processes and the use of human test subjects, who are asked to lie in a bed for an extended period to see if they develop a bedsore. Instead, MSC Software’s Senior Engineer Mark Carlson and his team have developed a simulation test bed—both literally and figuratively—for assessing the impact of potential bed designs on bedsore formation in a matter of hours instead of months, with absolutely no risk to human health. The

16 | MSC Software

simulation combines the non-linear finite element solution capabilities in MSC Marc with the multi-body dynamics analysis power of MSC Adams, and the 3D post-processing visualization provided by EnSight from CEI. The analysis has been able to uncover critical, previously unattainable insights into the bedsore problem. This helps equipment manufacturers build better beds that can help prevent bedsores from forming in the first place.

More than Skin Deep One of the critical challenges in studying bedsore development is understanding how, where and why they develop. Anecdotally, Carlson and his team knew that the buttocks and heels are the primary locations for bedsore formation. Bed manufacturers have been experimenting for years with different types of bed surfaces, foam materials, positioning/ angling and other parameters to help better distribute the stresses caused by pressure and gravity across the body. The problem is, conventional testing typically involves two methods, which have some limitations. First, manufacturers ask human test subjects to lie on a pressure sensitive pad, which indicates how the contact patches manifest externally, on the surface of the skin. Researchers have long theorized that bedsores are more than just a surface problem—they actually manifest under skin, deep in the tissues of the flesh, muscles and even bone interfaces. Second, lab tests using body part

molds in a compression test machine can study the forces applied by those parts onto the bed, but only for those specific, individual parts—just the heel or the torso, for example. This kind of test makes no consideration for the changes, sometimes dramatic, which could occur when entire human bodies of varying sizes and anthropometric characteristics are positioned across the entire bed.

Marc/Adams Co-Sim Reveals Hidden Insights To study the problem more holistically, Carlson and team developed an advanced co-simulation solution that not only allowed researchers to study the problem more thoroughly, but also much faster, to accelerate material and equipment design innovation, testing and market delivery. Carlson began with Adams to simulate the rigid component geometry of the human body, using the Life Mod™ plugin (http://www. lifemodeler.com/products/lifemod/) from Life Modeler of San Clemente, Calif., to model the anthropometric data for various parts, sizes and characteristics of the human body from the pre-loaded Life Modeler geometry database. Adams was able to simulate the effects of bed settling due to gravity across the fifteen different body segments, accounting for accurate range of motion calculations, as well as the other complex dynamics and kinematics present in the various human joints. But, gravity settling is only part of the

equation—understanding the contact patches and associated stresses caused by those loading conditions in relationship to the bed was the next step. With MSC’s nonlinear finite element solver, Marc, the team was able to develop a mathematical model of the bed, including simulation of a wide array of foam materials, foam layering configurations and other properties. In addition, the team was able to create its own simulated foam materials and configurations for scenario testing. The Co-Sim solution, running the two solvers simultaneously to include the complex physical contact interactions along with accurate representation of the human motion, was critical to understanding the complete picture of the conditions under which bedsores develop, even beneath the skin’s surface. More importantly, the team was able to better understand, as well as practically quantify, the sensitivities of attribute combinations, and evaluate how even small changes in bed design, positioning, foam material and other parameters could have significant effect on contact stresses, even into the deep tissue layers below the surface. With the time synchronous co-simulation solution, the team was able to test hundreds of combinations, with varying anthropometric characteristic, bed geometries and complex foam materials in very short order.

Tissue Stress & Comfort Analysis: 50th Percentile Male on Multi-Foam Mattress

A Clearer Picture with EnSight While both Marc and Adams have their own built-in post-processing capability, they still generate separate data sets. To merge the two, Carlson and his team used CEI’s EnSight 3D visualization software from Computational Engineering International (CEI Inc.) of Apex, NC to view the data sets concurrently.

Soft Tissue Behavior Included at the Calf to Foam Interface

“Looking at Adams only, you’d see the human body sinking into nothingness, and with Marc you’d see the finite elemental deformations in the bed—the contact points—but no body. Once we time-sync the two and import the results into EnSight, you get a clear picture of the combination of both data sets at once,” Carlson said. “EnSight is so flexible and easy to use, that we can also plot data at the same time as we visualize, look at each data set separately or combine them into a single, immersive 3D view.” In addition to EnSight, the team used CEI’s EnLiten file viewer to share the 3D simulations with others who may not have EnSight. Carlson says the ability to demonstrate the research and results in a visually compelling way that everyone can access makes a

Finite Element Contact Stress on the Polymer Insert

tremendous impact in understanding and humanizing the results. “The enhanced communication we achieved with EnSight and EnLiten is huge,” he said. “Not only in any presentations I might put together, but also in the fact that I can send someone a full 3D EnLiten model, which they can study on their own, interact with, manipulate views and angles, turn parts and plots off. It’s free and they can use it independently of the simulation and visualization software.”

With the research enabled through the Marc/ Adams co-simulation, hospital bed and other equipment manufacturers can gain much greater visibility into what’s going on internally with the body in relationship to external forces and how to solve related challenges.

Originally developed as a customized solution, the Marc/Adams co-simulation tool is now available as a pre-packaged general purpose product. EnSight and it’s free 3D viewer, EnLiten, are compatible with MSC’s entire suite of solvers including Marc, Adams, Dytran and Nastran for stunning and compelling 3D visualization and communication.

“This capability is like installing sensors inside the body and on the surface that the body

To learn more, visit www.mscsoftware.com and www.ensight10.com. u

A Positive Prognosis

Close up of the calf contact stress

is resting on to get a picture of how the two interact. That just wasn’t possible before,” Carlson said. “And, it’s so much faster and less expensive than building prototypes, bringing in real people for testing and exposing them to the risk of complications, and then having to go back to the drawing board for every variable change. With Marc, Adams and EnSight working together, we can set up several variations to run simultaneously and have results the same day, versus waiting weeks or months for physical test or clinical trial results.”

Volume V - Summer 2015

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MSC Software

TECH TIPS Defining Axis of Rotation of a Rigid Body By Joe Satkunananthan, Sr. Manager, Global Services Post Sales Support Americas, MSC Software

When a rigid body is required to be rotated about an axis, how do we calculate the direction cosines of rotation axis?

As Mentat only needs the vector of the rotation axis, you can also get away by following the approach below.

In the example below, a cylindrical surface defined as a rigid body is to be rotated about an axis that goes through the points (1.25, 0.75, 1.50) and (7.85, 5.65, 10.25) as shown in Figure 1.

2. Select 2 points that would show the direction of the vector

Figure 1 In order to rotate this geometry about its axis, the center of rotation and direction cosines need to be inserted into Contact Body Control Parameter menu in Mentat shown in Figure 2. (Contact Body Properties > Body Control Parameters). The direction cosines of the rotation axis can be calculated from the coordinates of the two points through which the axis goes through.

1. Select Distance from Tools menu (you can also type the command ‘*dist’ in the dialog window at the command prompt). (Figure 3)

Figure 3 You would get 2 lines of output as shown below.

In addition to the distance between the selected two points, Mentat displays ∆x, ∆y, and ∆z. The second line shows the angles (in degrees) with respect to each of the axes. You can calculate the direction cosines by finding cosine of each of the angles. You can also just enter the numbers in the parenthesis (6.6, 4.9 and 8.75) to define the rotational axis (Figure 4).

Figure 2 Figure 4

18 | MSC Software

Useful Tools for Contact Analysis By Christian Aparicio, Product Marketing Manager, MSC Software

Contact analysis is used to simulate the interaction of two or more separate parts or when one part contacts itself. This type of analysis is useful for determining the load transfer and load path between components. In order to perform a contact analysis, contact bodies and the other bodies which they contact must be identified. In the latest release of Patran, we have introduced new functionality to expedite the process of creating the necessary contact bodies and pairs for a contact analysis.

How to quickly create deformable contact bodies in Patran:

Patran will then determine the contact bodies, list them in the model tree, and indicate the contact bodies with a magenta circle on the screen.

Contact bodies, as the name implies, are the parts of your model that will be in contact with other parts or itself. To enter the tool go to Tools > Modeling > Contact Bodies/Pairsâ&#x20AC;Ś The end result is a list of contact pair definitions. This example had 4 deformable bodies, so there are 3 contact pairs.

How to quickly create contact pairs in Patran:

1. Set Create to Deformable Bodies

Once the deformable contact pairs are created, a definition is needed to indicate which contact bodies touch other contact bodies. This definition is known as a contact pair. The same tool mentioned in the previous tip can also be used to create contact pairs.

2. Set Method to Properties

In the same tool as before,

3. Set Create From to Select Properties

1. Set Create to Body Pair

A new form appears. Do the following:

a. Click on the small icon that is to the right b. Select which properties are to be considered when creating the contact bodies 4. Click Apply

2. The Distance Tolerance is used as follows, if one contact body is within proximity or a certain distance of another contact bodies, the pair of contact bodies is expected to touch. For example, if the face of contact body 1 is 2mm from the face of contact body 2, a Distance of Tolerance greater than 2mm would be need in order for the application to generate a contact pair. 3. You may select All Bodies, which selects all Deformable and Rigid contact bodies, or Deformable Only. 4. For Create Form, the Select Bodies options allows you to select which contact bodies will be used to determine contact pairs. 5. Click on Apply.

Volume V - Summer 2015

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The New ANCF Object: FE_PART By Maziar Rostamian, Technical Representative, MSC Software

The FE_PART is a wholly Adams-native modeling object with inertia properties, which can undergo very large deformation or geometric nonlinearity. FE_PART is based on an MSC-authored adaptation of Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation (ANCF). This Adams object can model 2D or 3D beam-like structures. The 3D formulation is a fully geometrically nonlinear representation that can account for stretching, shearing, bending, and torsion. The 2D formulation is a geometrically nonlinear representation where the centerline of the beam-like structure is assumed constrained to a plane parallel to the model’s global XY, YZ or ZX plane. The 2D Beam can stretch or bend in plane and solves faster than the 3D Beam.

What are the benefits?

Application of FE_Part for Anti-Roll Bar Undergoing Large Deformations

acts upon. For example, if the FE_PART is a beam or cable, then the load is automatically set to have units of force and moment per unit length.

• No need for an FEA-Package to generate the FE_PART. • No need for subdivision of masses as in Adams Discrete Flexible Link. • Modification and parameterization is often easier than multi-MNF and Discrete Flexible Link. • Modeling a distributed load via “FE_Load” is far less time consuming than using discrete force vectors or MFORCES. • Support for stress and strain recovery in Adams/PostProcessor (X-Y plots) • Reduced noise in nonlinear contact where a geometry “wraps” around another since the geometry is not discretized. • No “seams” in the stress/strain results due to discretization. • 2D formulation option for faster analysis on planar problems

centerline x, y, z data. --

Create a curve using the matrix

Create a bspline elements using t he curve

• Use the bspline as the centerline for the FE_PART • Use the Curve Control Point from the bspline • Modify node spading or angle of rotation if needed. • Create a new section based on default sections. • Determine faceting tolerance for mesh refinement:

• Automotive Anti-roll bar

Coil springs

Leaf Springs

Under a given loading, a geometrically linear element undergoes higher torque than a geometrically nonlinear element. This is seen in the graph below: the FE_PART anti-roll bar shows a smaller twisting torque than the simple anti-roll bar.

• Heavy Machinery --

FE_LOAD/1, FE_PART=3, FX= 0, FY= -30*SIN(PI*S), FZ= 0, TX= 0, TY= 0, TZ= 0

Comparison between a traditional Anti-Roll Bar and an FE_PART Anti-Roll Bar

Industrial Applications: --

For a general distributed load shown below, the FE_LOAD statement can be defined as follows:

Cable Applications

• Aerospace --

Structures with large deformation

How to Implement? • Create an FE_PART using the FE_PART wizard: • Select material properties and beam formulation (3D, 2D) • Generate a centerline for the FE_PART beam-like structure: --

Create a matrix based on the

20 | MSC Software

• Use Adams Durability plugin to recover stresses and strains at any FE_NODE.

How to apply distributed loads? FE_LOAD special force is used to define a distributed applied load (force and moment) per unit length, unit area or unit volume. The nature of the force depends on the FE_PART this load

More to read: Please refer to the publically available FE_PART document, article DOC10651, for more details.

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FEATURE STORY

The New MSC Apex Diamond Python Release Delivers Dramatic Time Savings

SC Apex is a next generation simulation platform that is easy to use, easy to learn, and intuitive for engineers. It is a fully integrated and generative structural analysis solution for product designers and researchers. New to the latest Diamond Python release is a unique incremental mid-surfacing workflow, additional attribute capabilities, and expanded Analysis Readiness and Generative Behavior.

in Diamond Python is that this automated process is now applicable to non-uniform cross sections.

New Incremental Mid-Surfacing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; SmartMidsurfaceâ&#x201E;˘

Challenge: Before performing an analysis, there is the likelihood that an error exists in the model and would cause a computationally expensive analysis to fail mid-way through. The model is then inspected carefully for the error and repaired. On average, the troubleshooting process could require a time consuming 4 iterations.

Challenge: Existing methods in pre/post processors, while automated, often produce mid-surface geometry that is far from complete. A user then needs to devote substantially more time to repair the geometry before the mid-surface model is complete. Solution: MSC Apex features a first-to-market incremental midsurface approach that gives users more control and options early in the process for extracting mid-surfaces. The benefit is that this semi-automated approach produces mid-surface models closer to completion earlier in the process, saving the user time.

Additional Attribution Capabilities Challenge: The traditional process of assigning thickness and offset properties is exhaustive. Users have to manually measure every thickness and calculate each offset. Automated methods exist, but are limited to cross sections of uniform thickness. Solution: MSC Apex includes an automatic method to generate these thickness and offset properties rapidly, but what is new 22 | MSC Software

Expanded Analysis Readiness and Generative Behavior

Solution: MSC Apex includes an integrated solver that is the basis of an Analysis Readiness capability that inspects the model prior to analysis and prompts the user if any errors are found â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for example, say elements are found to be distorted and unacceptable for analysis. As the model is repaired, Analysis Readiness dynamically inspects the new changes and certifies the model is ready to be analyzed. Instead of making multiple attempts and devoting expensive computational time to failed.

To learn more about the new incremental mid-surface workflow and other capabilities mentioned, please visit www.mscapex.com and request a free trial.

Accelerated Mid-Surface Model Construction Workflow

Smart MidSurface

01 Identify MidSurface Pairs

02 Use Flexible Incremental Tools

03 Extract MidSurfaces and Repair

Use pairing technology to automatically identify guides for mid-surface extraction.

Add/Remove solid faces to pairs and merge pairs to incrementally guide extraction of mid-surfaces and maintain continuity across mid-surface junctions.

Create complete mid-surface models by extracting, extending mid-surfaces and trimming mid-surfaces. Extraction is applicable to uniform or non-uniform thicknesses and planar or curved solid faces.

04 Continue repairing with direct modeling & meshing

05 Automatically create thickness and offset assignments

06 Validate for Analysis

Use direct modeling to further repair geometry that may already be meshed. Slivers or cracks may easily be resolved and the mesh can be quickly regenerated automatically.

Use Auto Thickness and Offset to create numerous property definitions for shell elements, and export to the .bdf file format.

Perform an Analysis Readiness check and ensure models have necessary definitions for successful analysis.

MSC APEX TRANSFORMS THE WAY ENGINEERS PERFORM SIMULATION BY REDUCING CRITICAL CAE MODELING & PROCESS TIME FROM DAYS TO HOURS.

Volume V - Summer 2015

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MSC APEX TESTIMONIAL: TLG AEROSPACE

Analyzing Design Modifications Faster TLG engineers reduce geometry cleanup and meshing time by 75% What was the Project? Wings USA, Inc., a flight services company based in Janesville, Wisconsin, contracted with TLG Aerospace, LLC to analyze a proposed modification to light aircraft. TLG was asked to analyze the aircraft before and after the modification to determine whether or not the modification would have a significant impact on the fuselage stiffness.

pre-mod configuration using traditional surface geometry tools or 2.9 hours would have been required for the post-mod configuration. So the total cleanup time would have amounted to 12.6 hours. TLG engineers also assumed that the meshing time for both the pre-mod and post-mod configuration would have been equal to the cleanup time, so total geometry cleanup and meshing time would have amounted to 25.2 hours.

The MSC Apex Solution – Dramatic Time Savings TLG Aerospace engineers addressed these challenges by performing the cleanup and meshing with MSC Apex which features a complete set of direct modeling tools to improve geometry cleanup and meshing productivity.

What was the Challenge? The original CAD geometry was created to the normal level of precision achieved in the design process. TLG engineers then faced the timeconsuming task of cleaning up the geometry to the higher standards required for finite element analysis and meshing. As is typical with design geometry, the CAD model contained broken surfaces, surfaces that were not stitched together and redundant overlapping surfaces. TLG estimated that 348 minutes would have been required to manually make these corrections using traditional surface geometry tools. The geometry also contained non-congruent surfaces including gaps, interferences and non-mating surface geometry in 44 locations. An estimated 4 minutes would have been required to clean up each location for a total of 176 minutes. Total cleanup time for the pre-mod configuration was 9.7 hours. The post-mod configuration required a similar cleanup effort, however, a majority of this work from the premod configuration could have been applied to the post-mod configuration.

Pre-Mod Configuration

Post-Mod Configuration

Facets from complex surfaces drive node locations and poor element quality.

OML curvature does not match stiffeners, frames, intercostals and beams

4 locations @ 15 minutes/location

58 locations @ 6 minutes/location

60 minutes

348 minutes (approx 5.8 hrs)

Total cleanup time for Pre-mod configuration

Non congruent surfaces (gaps, interference, nonmating surface geometry)

290 minutes 40 minutes 132 minutes 584 minutes (approx 9.8 hrs)

44 locations @ 4 minutes/location 176 minutes

TLG engineers made the assumption that 30% of the total time required for cleaning up the Problems with original CAD geometry that needed to be cleaned up before analysis

Robert Lind, Director of Engineering, TLG Aerospace

“MSC Apex takes what used to be time consuming & frustrating geometry tasks using traditional programs & turns them instead into efficient and satisfying tasks.” 24 | MSC Software

MSC APEX TESTIMONIAL: DYNETICS

From Two Days to One Hour Dynetics Technical Services, Inc. achieves dramatic time savings What was the Project? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Space Launch System (SLS) will be the most powerful rocket in history, launching crews of up to four astronauts in the Orion spacecraft to explore multiple, deep space destinations. The RS-25 served as the Space Shuttle main engines and operated with 100% mission success during 135 missions. The RS-25 is being modified to serve on the SLS by increasing its power from 491,000 to 512,000 pounds of vacuum thrust among many other improvements.

What was the Challenge?

The MSC Apex Solution – Dramatic Time Savings

Engineers sketched new surface boundaries

Taylor used the advanced geometry modification utilities in MSC Apex Modeler to greatly simplify the process of repurposing the CAD geometry. In this application of MSC Apex on a generic turbine blade geometry that has been encountered and analyzed by engineers for decades, the cleanup of geometric pathologies and arbitrary segment lines was reduced “from two days to one hour,” said W. Scott Taylor, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Dynetics Technical Services, Inc., who is working on contract at MSFC.

Ideal mesh quality is seen on leading (left) and trailing (right) edges

Engineers who have been modifying the design of numerous fuel pump components used on the RS-25 and many rocket engine systems up to and including the SLS, have based their analysis efforts on preexisting CAD design models. These models have been received either by direct third party translators or open standards like STEP. As a case in point, a recent demo is based on CAD geometry from a third party parametric solid modeling program that was altered to be generic and generally representative of the kind of complex airfoil geometries such as engine and fuel pump turbine blades. The geometry produced by the third party program required considerable cleanup work before it could be meshed for structural analysis.

Suppress edges functions used to remove undesirable edges in a single step

W. Scott Taylor, Sr. Mechanical Engineer, Dynetics Technical Services, Inc.

“The technology innovation represented in MSC Apex’s capability suite and ease of use was head and shoulders above any other stand-alone CAD healer or integrated CAD-CAE meshing software I used.” Volume V - Summer 2015

| 25

MSC APEX CASE STUDY: DEMA

Aero Supplier Achieves Dramatic Time Savings MSC Apex reduces time required to analyze aircraft avionics door for damage scenarios by 60%

Overview DEMA SpA is a major aerospace supplier that provides work packages for many major aircraft programs such as the Boeing 787, Airbus A380 and A321, ATR 42-72, Augusta Westland AW139, and Bombardier CS100. DEMA recently designed and built an innovative avionics bay pressurized door for a commuter jet. DEMA engineers developed an innovative design concept in which the door is assembled from sheet metal using a machinable plate that saves weight by eliminating the need for mechanical joints. DEMA needed to analyze the ability of the door to meet in-flight structural requirements in spite of multiple damage scenarios that might be incurred during service operations or could result from manufacturing variation in order to determine whether or not the structure maintains a sufficient safety margin. These damage scenario analyses are used as the basis for inspection protocols that are performed on a regular basis to ensure that the door is flight-ready. The damage scenarios included reductions in the thickness of the pockets and reductions in the thickness and height of the vertical stiffeners. The analysis procedure begins with analyzing the door at the as-designed thickness and height. If the calculated static margin is less than or equal to 0.05 then no damage is permitted in this area. If the calculated static margin is greater than 0.05 than the section is analyzed with 10% damage. If the calculated static margin at 10% damage is greater than or equal to 0.05 then 10% damage is allowed in this area. If the calculated static margin is less than or equal to 0.05, then the section is analyzed with 5% damage. If the calculated status margin with 5% damage is greater than or equal to 0.05, then 5% damage is permitted in this area. If the calculated static 26 | MSC Software

margin at 5% damage is less 0.05 then no damage is allowed in this area.

Challenge Four damage scenarios needed to be analyzed: 1) 5% reduction in stiffener height and pocket thickness 2) 10% reduction in stiffener height and pocket thickness 3) 5% reduction in stiffener thickness and pocket thickness 4) 10% reduction in stiffener thickness and pocket thickness. The door geometry had to be edited and the new geometry then had to be meshed and analyzed for each scenario. The normal procedure was to first analyze of the baseline geometry based on the computer-aided design (CAD) model that contains the geometry definition. The next step was to modify the CAD geometry

to replicate the first damage scenario. Modifying geometry can often be difficult with conventional parametric CAD because only features configured in the original definition as parametric can be easily modified. In some cases it is necessary to re-create the geometry from scratch because of inherent limits on editing parametric geometry. The resulting geometry was then meshed in the CAD program and exported to Patran where the model was completed with the addition finite elements such as MPC or CBUSH and then constrained and loaded with the appropriate load cases. Finally, MSC Nastran finite element analysis software was used to perform the simulations. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Generically in the past, each scenario would have required 16 hours for geometry modification and 4

CAD model inside MSC Apex

Mid-Surface extraction of vertical stiffeners

Pocket thickness modification inside MSC Apex

hours to prepare the mesh for analysis. The four scenarios required for the door would have taken a total of 80 hours to evaluate,” said Matteo Capobianco, structural analyst in charge of these activities.

Solution/Validation “We decided to evaluate the MSC Apex Modeler because we were looking to reduce the amount of time required for geometry modification,” said Danilo Malacaria, Head of Research and Innovation for DEMA. MSC Apex Modeler uses a direct modeling approach in which the geometry is directly created as features or individual operations without requiring a network of constraints between the features and without reference to its history. Users can edit geometry interactively by simply selecting entities of interest, such as a face edge or vertex, and push, pull or drag them to implement any modifications. For models that have already been meshed, modifications to the geometry will cause the mesh to be immediately regenerated with the geometry. DEMA engineers modified the door geometry inside the MSC Apex environment by dragging the zones impacted by the reductions to proper dimensions. The mesh was then automatically updated.

Results “Editing the geometry for one scenario took only 4 hours, a 75% reduction from the traditional method,” said Antonio Miraglia, Stress Lead for DEMA. “Prepping the model took four hours, the same as the traditional method. A total of 8 hours were thus required to model each scenario and 32 hours were required for all four scenarios, a 60% reduction from the time required in the past.”

Finite element mesh inside MSC Apex

DEMA is planning to implement MSC Apex Structures, an add-on module that provides linear structural analysis capabilities. This module will save additional time in the future because the elements, loads and constraints will updated along with the geometry changes in the MSC Apex environment. “We project that the use of MSC Apex Structures will reduce the time required for prepping the model to 2.5 hours for each scenario, reducing the total time needed to model all four scenarios to 26 hours, a 67.5% reduction from the previous method,” Malacaria said.

About DEMA SpA DEMA SpA manufactures and supplies aerospace assemblies and components such as aircraft fuselage sections, passenger floors, cockpits, tail cones, fan cowls, ramps, cargo doors, slide boxes, horizontal stabilizers, helicopter fuselages, helicopter tail booms and helicopter rear fuselages. The company’s areas of expertise include engineering, design, configuration management, weight and stress reduction, materials and processes, sheet metal processing, industrial engineering, manufacturing and composite part production. Founded in 1993, DEMA has about 800 employees and the headquarter is based in Somma Vesuviana, Napoli - Italy.

Antonio Miraglia, Stress Lead for DEMA

“Editing the geometry for one scenario took only 4 hours, a 75% reduction from the traditional method.”

Volume V - Summer 2015

| 27

The Award-Winning

INNOVATIONSPREIS-IT

BEST OF 2015

(finalist)

INDUSTRIE & LOGISTIK

Download the Free Trial Today! To learn more, visit www.mscapex.com 28 | MSC Software

PARTNER SHOWCASE

Smart & Collaborative 3D CAE Visualization Solution for MSC Nastran, Marc & SimManager

By Prasad Mandava, CEO, Visual Collaboration Technologies Inc.

Visual Collaboration Technologies Inc. is an MSC Partner, whose unique CAE Visual Collaboration Solutions were incorporated into SimManager allowing the simulation community to reduce, visualize, mine and share CAE data. Introduction Effective collaboration is a key requirement for efficient design of products in a globalized environment. Use of simulation in product development has grown from specific component level to much detailed assembly level to predict design behavior. Simulation studies and results are being used at various levels of the product development life cycle to make designs without having to build a large number of physical prototypes. Best in class companies using simulation as competitive advantage to bring products to market faster are making constant efforts to: â&#x20AC;˘ Improve collaboration among global teams â&#x20AC;˘ Manage CAE investments efficiently â&#x20AC;˘ Work diligently to maximize the utilization of the CAE investments Different types of simulations are performed using different tools resulting in a large number of vendor specific data formats. Managing several CAE data formats is always a challenge. More affordable HPC/Cloud computing resources are helping CAE analysts to solve increasingly complex simulations that were not possible to solve previously. However,

30 | MSC Software

such activities are resulting in huge simulation results files and posing new sets of challenges to CAE teams in managing the data. Large CAE results data files may reside globally at different locations. Collaboration and visualization of the data across teams and locations is a challenging job. Devising smart ways of finding, mining and visualizing important information is essential for the utilization of simulation results. An effective filtering, data reduction and easy to use visualization solution is necessary for handling large simulation data files and improving collaboration of CAE data in a global product development environment.

These smart tools include: CAX: a compact CAE Data format: A vendor neutral CAE file is more suitable for storing and communicating results from many different CAE tools. VCollab uses a proprietary compact data format called CAX. CAX can store CAD, FEA, CFD and other simulation data in a highly compact format. VCollab provides tools to convert MSC Nastran and Marc models and results files into .CAX format.

This article discusses a lightweight collaborative CAE visualization solution called VCollab.

VCollab: CAE data filtering and lightweight post processing solution VCollab is a collection of smart tools which provide a common Visual Collaboration platform for CAE data and helps in democratizing the visualization of simulation data.

Comparison of mesh geometry between two models

Comparison of CAE result between two models at hotspot locations

VCollab Presenter embedded in MS Office documents (3D Presentation)

Effective collaboration is the key requirement for efficient design of products in a globalized environment. VCollabâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CAX-Writer API can also be used to create CAX files from any simulation data. Lightweight CAE Data model: In general, CAE tools generate many results which may not be required for storing, processing or for communicating with others. Filtering of only required results from the large CAE Data file can reduce file size. For example, often only outer skin results of a set of load cases could be sufficient for decision making. Only few parts in a large assembly may have failed and the analysts need to communicate only those parts information to the designers. VCollab provides a tool called VMoveCAE for such filtering capability from many different CAE result file formats. The output from VMoveCAE is a common lightweight CAE result file in CAX format. VMoveCAE can also be used to extract required CFD information as sections, iso-surfaces and flow lines from result files of popular CFD tools. Geometry from different CAD models can be converted to compact CAX format using VMoveCAD. VMoveCAE converts MSC Nastran BDF, OP2, XDB files and Marc t16 as well as t19 files to .CAX files. In general, CAX file sizes can be reduced up to 95% or better for solid meshes and 60% or better for surface meshes. CAE Metadata Filtering: In general, SPDM/ PLM systems associate metadata with the stored CAE files such that required files can be searched quickly and effectively. For example, when maximum von misses stress for the model is stored as metadata, it is possible to search for models based on von mises stress criteria. It may not be feasible to extract such CAE parameters while searching. VCollab provides such a tool to extract certain CAE parameters (in XML format) from CAE files of different formats.

CAX Files as 3D Reports: CAX files can store many CAE views with color plots, XY-plot, vectors and labels as viewpoints. Anyone can display these CAE viewpoints with a click of a button in a VCollab Viewer as selection of 2D power point slides. This way, MSC Nastran or Marc models and results can be converted to CAX file with viewpoints and can be easily shared as a 3D CAE report either thru an e-mail or a browser or a PowerPoint file or thru a SPDM/PLM environments. Post-Processing and 3D Report Generation: Simulation experts are the people best qualified to process CAE results. They extract only required information and create reports. In general, 2D images and PowerPoint or pdf reports are created and shared. VCollab supports a 3D report sharing capability in the form of CAX. VCollab Pro is the CAX viewer which can be used for post-processing and viewpoint generation. The analysts can view any result saved in CAX, filter parts based on results, probe results, add notes/labels and create XY-graph for the relevant information. VCollab supports many additional functions such as, automatic hotspot label generation, to simplify the task of analysts. Any CAE view can be stored as a viewpoint. Based on the analysis, the analysts can further filter parts or result instances to reduce CAX file size or to share only required information. It is also possible to split an assembly into multiple CAX files. Multi model and multi-disciplinary Visualizations and Comparisons: VCollab Pro supports multiple CAX files from different CAE tools or from CAD files. One can view and compare a CAD model with CAE mesh model or compare two CAE models from different stages of analysis. VCollab Pro can also display geometrical difference between models as a deviation color plot, and compare results from two models and display comparison labels for the hotspots. Export to other formats: In addition to CAX for sharing, CAE analysts can use VCollab to export CAE data into many other popular formats based on the purpose of sharing. Using VCollab, CAE analysts can automatically generate PowerPoint files from viewpoints,

eliminating the need for manually saving images. Analysts can use VCollab to export CAE models and results from MSC Nastran and Marc into 3D PDF or JT for easier sharing and integration of CAE data with CAD systems. Visualization of CAE Results (3D report) for Improved CAE Data Visual Collaboration: The shared CAX files with CAE viewpoints can be viewed using VCollab Presenter. VCollab presenter is the CAX viewer which can be embedded into web browsers. Most of the SPDM systems are web based tools and can embed presenter as a simple to use CAE viewer. CAE result with viewpoints can provide a simple and easy CAE visualization environment across PLM/SPDM domain.

Sharing and Visualization of MSC Nastran and Marc Results in Microsoft Office and Web Browsers Large MSC Nastran and Marc result models can be easily converted into lightweight CAX files with CAE viewpoints. These CAE viewpoints may have only required results views, hotspot labels, graphs and any other comments from the analyst. VCollab Presenter is the CAX viewer which can be embedded into Microsoft Office documents such as PowerPoint presentation, Word document and Excel sheet. This will enable 3D visualization while sharing these documents. PowerPoint presentations with 3D models can be very effective in CAE review meetings. The CAX files can also be displayed in web browsers using embedded VCollab Presenter. This can be used to share and visualize CAE data in the intranet.

Integration of VCollab with SimManager VCollab is a lightweight CAE post processing solution that delivers the biggest value when it is integrated with a web based PLM or SPDM system where teams can access the CAE models and results through a browser for decision making.

To be continued on page 35.. Volume V - Summer 2015

| 31

SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT

Simufact: Welcome to the MSC family On Thursday, February 12th 2015, the signatures are rendered! Hands are shaken. Faces are smiling. Somebody says: “Welcome to the MSC family!” 1+1 = 3. Somebody states: “A New Era begins!”

By Volker Mensing, Simufact Engineering

What has happened? Simufact, a familiar acquaintance and partner, joins MSC Software. MSC and Simufact are linked through a common history. It quickly becomes apparent: This acquisition is more than just a business takeover. “We have been collaborating closely with MSC from the beginning of our 20-year history,” says Michael Wohlmuth, CEO, Founder and Managing Director of Simufact. “Simufact now steps into a New Era.”

Who is Simufact? Simufact is an expert in manufacturing simulation, providing simulation solutions for metal forming and joining, as well as

32 | MSC Software

customers including Airbus, Audi, Bosch, Daimler, Ford, GKN, Schaeffler Group, SMS Meer, ThyssenKrupp, VW, ZF, and many others.

Drivers and Strategic Goals

welding. The company is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany with approximately 50 employees, over 75% of whom are experienced engineers. Simufact has a direct global presence as well as a wide reseller network and many prestigious

Dominic Gallello explains: “We are acquiring Simufact because our customers are increasingly concerned about simulating the as-manufactured product rather than just the initial design. By connecting Simufact’s manufacturing process oriented tools to design simulation, we can better assist our customers with their drive for ‘first time right.’

The CAE approach “design as manufactured” requires an even closer connection between CAD-based product design, CAE- verified and optimized prototyping, and proper manufacturing. The declared goal is to consider manufacturability in the early phase of product design. Prototypes developed by the use of CAE technologies are only half as valuable when they subsequently cannot be manufactured. “Another benefit to engineers is that Simufact’s tools are uniquely effective at simulating the manufacturing process chain because of a strong connection to MSC’s simulation products, which result in significant reductions in shop-floor tryouts and associated cost,” Dominic Gallello adds. The advantages of virtual prototyping find their seamless continuation in virtual manufacturing process design. Some of the ways in which Simufact customers benefit include: • • • •

Higher economic efficiency Improved quality More robust processes Preserving and increasing process knowledge • Better figures in series production -- Extended tool life -- Less waste -- Reduced material usage -- Reduced energy use -- Higher machine utilization rates

Products and Fields of Application Simufact’s product lines Simufact.forming and Simufact.welding are able to simulate a broad spectrum of forming and joining processes and the most common welding processes. Simufact.forming is established software for the simulation of industrial forming processes. The software modules cover the complete spectrum of forming technologies including Hot Forging, Cold Forming, Rolling, Ring Rolling, Sheet Metal Forming, Open Die Forging, Mechanical Joining, and Heat Treatment. It guarantees a realistic portrayal of the processes with full 3D functionality and 3D representation of all tools & parts. High quality results are guaranteed since Simufact.forming is based on MSC’s Marc and Dytran solver technologies, which enable the representation of complex nonlinear physics of the forming process with high precision. Simufact.welding is high performance software for welding process simulation allowing for elastic-plastic material behavior to be modeled. As one of the most important tasks, the software succeeds in realistically predicting the distortions and residual stresses that occur during welding, while considering phase transformations and controlling these in the component. Simufact.welding considers microstructural properties in the heat-affected zone; its form allows conclusions about the properties of the weld seam, in particular its strength. The user gains valuable clues to identify

welding defects such as hot cracks in the simulation, to avoid them in practice. Simufact software not only simulates single production steps, but the modules can be combined - even across both product lines - and thus consistently simulate a complete process chain.

Outlook and Take Away Simufact continues its operation as a 100% subsidiary of MSC Software under the very capable leadership of its cofounders Michael Wohlmuth (CEO) and Dr. Hendrik Schafstall (CTO); as well as their CFO, Frieder Carle. The well-established Simufact brand is a strong addition to MSC’s solution portfolio. The acquisition strengthens MSC`s as-manufactured approach. Simufact’s product offerings share a common technology backbone with MSC’s solvers, facilitating the simulation of manufacturing processes on the product as designed. Simufact’s technology positions MSC as a leader in simulating advanced manufacturing processes. u For more information, visit: www.mscsoftware.com/product/simufact

Volume V - Summer 2015

| 33

SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT

Optimizing MSC Nastran Nonlinear with Multi-Core Technology Intel® and MSC Software Team Up to Optimize Performance of MSC Nastran Solution 400

By Mike Lafferty, Technical Computing Marketing Manager, Intel Americas

he MSC Nastran Advanced Nonlinear module (SOL 400) allows engineers to perform structural and thermal nonlinear analysis via implicit methods. Engineering problems that exhibit nonlinear material behavior, contact, and geometric nonlinearity may be solved. SOL 400 is targeted at customers familiar with the linear static in MSC Nastran as it allows simple conversion of linear models to nonlinear models.

Pardiso Power In MSC Nastran 2014.0, Intel and MSC Software teamed up to improve the performance of the Advanced Nonlinear module by incorporating the PARDISO solver from the Intel® Math Kernel Library (Intel® MKL) into MSC Nastran for use in SOL 400. The Intel MKL PARDISO sparse direct solver has exhibited unparalleled performance on today’s multi-core computing architectures and has been a part of the Intel Math Kernel Library for multiple generations. The Intel MKL PARDISO sparse direct solver is also used in two other products at MSC Software. Since 2008, the PARDISO sparse direct solver has been used in the Marc Advanced Nonlinear FEA Product of MSC Software, and as of 2014, it is also used in the premier Acoustics Simulation Package,

34 | MSC Software

Actran, from MSC Software. Developers at MSC Software have worked closely with Intel MKL developers on getting the best performance out of PARDISO.

en-us/articles/requirements-for-vectorizableloops for an indication of what sort of loops can be vectorized, and /en-us/ for more detailed information about vectorization.

The advantage of the Intel MKL PARDISO solver is it obtains optimal performance on the newest architecture from Intel, which today is the Haswell. Applications containing floating-point loops that can already be vectorized using Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions (Intel® SSE) instructions are likely to see significant gains just by recompiling for Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel® AVX), due to the greater width of the SIMD floating-point Intel AVX instructions. Applications that call performance libraries such as the Intel® Math Kernel Library, that contain many functions optimized for Intel AVX, may see gains even without rebuilding. The benefits of recompilation are likely to be significantly less for applications containing mostly scalar code, integer code, with very heavy access to memory, or heavy use of double precision divide and square root operations. The same is true for applications with hot loops or kernels that do not vectorize; however, the Intel AVX instruction set contains some new features that help to vectorize certain loops that were difficult to vectorize using SSE instructions. The latest Intel® Compilers also contain new features that allow more loops to be vectorized. See /

Parallel Direct Sparse Solver for Clusters is a powerful tool set for solving system of linear equations with sparse matrix of millions rows/columns size. Direct Sparse Solvers for Clusters provides an advanced implementation of the modern algorithms and is considered as expansion of Intel MKL Pardiso on cluster computations. For more experienced users, Direct Sparse Solvers for Clusters offers insight into the solvers sufficient to finer tune them for better performance. Direct Sparse Solvers for Clusters is available starting with Intel MKL 11.2.

The advantage of the Intel MKL PARDISO solver is it obtains optimal performance on the newest architecture from Intel, which today is the Haswell.

Figure 1: Scaling of Matrix Solution (left) and Total Wall Clock Time (right) for Intel MKL PARDISO sparse direct solver versus the MSCLU sparse direct solver.

A Matter of Scale Intel MLK PARDISO provides a much needed parallel performance improvement for SOL 400. PARDISO has much better SMP scalability than the existing MSC

cores for the model displayed in Figure 2. At 16 cores, the matrix factorization phase – which is about 40% of the total solution time is solved twice as fast using Pardiso. With 32 cores, even faster run times are possible.

sparse direct solver. For example, in Figure

The Future

1, the PARDISO solver ran 3x faster than

For the next release, MSC Software is teaming up with Intel developers on

the MSC default solver, MSCLDL using 16

both extending the reach of Intel’s MKL PARDISO sparse direct solver in MSC Nastran to cover linear solution sequences like SOL 101, 103, 107, 108, and 111. Additional improvements to performance for SOL 400 with respect to the PARDISO solver are also planned. Besides work with the PARDISO sparse direct solver, there are also plans for acceleration of the MSC Nastran Sparse Direct Solver, MSCLDL, using the Intel PHI. This will provide the first Intel PHI capability for the MSC Nastran product. We lastly note that Intel and MSC Software continue to have a strong relationship with mutual benefit to both companies. u

Continued from page 31.. VCollab is tightly integrated with SimManager to provide CAE data enrichment as well as CAE data viewing & processing capabilities. As shown in the figure below, SPDM systems will associate and manage CAX files along with other required CAE files so that only required CAE information can be stored in the SPDM system. VMoveCAE will generate CAX files and CAE information that can be used to generate required metadata from different CAE result files. VCollab Pro is used to create CAX files with Viewpoints. These lightweight files can be stored in a SPDM system or they can also be stored in PLM systems as reports associated with design data. VCollab Presenter is well integrated into the SimManager window to provide CAE visualization for the CAX files in the SPDM system.

An ability to quickly extract and visualize key simulation information from MSC Nastran and Marc, using the VCollab lightweight simulation solution through the SimManager framework would help the CAE analyst in his/her decision making and improve efficiency. Such an integrated solution will help digital product development in many ways.

Summary •

VCollab is a Smart & Collaborative 3D CAE Visualization Solution for MSC Nastran, Marc and SimManager

•

Productivity of CAE analysts is improved as they can now work with compact CAX files instead of huge native CAE files for quick processing and automated 3D report generation.

•

CAE analysts create 3D CAX files with their viewpoints and share only the

relevant post processed information with designers. These 3D reports can be managed and visualized across the globe using SimManager. •

The CAX file created from MSC Nastran and Marc is used to transfer CAE data into any PLM system to store or collaborate with design and other communities.

•

Simple to use common CAE smart viewers support most of the CAE displays and help with reviewing and quick decision making around work in progress CAE data. Such a system improves the productivity of analysts, reduces the load on the CAE IT infrastructure and improves collaboration among the global teams. u

Integrating VCollab with MSC Nastran, Marc & SimManager Volume V - Summer 2015

| 35

SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT

2015 CONTEST WINNERS About the Contest Individuals from industry and academia were invited to participate in the 2015 “Simulating Reality” contest by submitting a video or image demonstrating how they used MSC Software technology to develop interesting products and future design innovations. We are proud to announce the Winners:

Top 3 University Winners KTH-Royal Institute of Technology Adams demonstrates ability to accurately evaluate new logging machine design. MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

The images or videos, and related descriptions submitted by participants were to meet one or more of the following criteria in connection with use of MSC technology: • • • •

Showcase innovative industry applications Demonstrate resulting business benefits Showcase great impact on society or industry Demonstrate leading edge product design

Top 3 Industrial Winners Saab Aeronautics Adams Simulation Solves Stability Problem in Rotary Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

Imperial College London

Bias Engineering

Predicting combat boot performance from underbody blast using nonlinear FEA analysis.

Using Adams and Adams/Machinery simulations, engineers can accurately predict the results of a driveline testing that normally takes several months in only two weeks.

MSC Products Illustrated: Marc

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

36 | MSC Software

Radboud University Medical Center

TECHDYN Engineering

Evaluating new orthopedic implant for knee replacement in high-demand conditions.

Leveraging Marc nonlinear FEA capabilities to simulate dynamic extrusion of copper at high velocity.

MSC Products Illustrated: Marc

University Winners Showcase RWTH Aachen University Utilizing Adams to test the dynamical balance of an Air-jet weaving machine.

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

Industrial Winners Showcase Anadolu Isuzu Otomotiv A.S Adams helps engineers perform bump road test and reduce bus rollover risk.

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

Tai Yuan Institute of Technology

Bucyrus

Using Adams/Machinery to model crane transmission and cable systems and study the container's orentation during the hoisting.

Performing advanced dragline dynamics analysis to catch the major kinematics and dynamics behavior of the dragline front end.

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

University of Applied Sciences S端dwestfalen Investigating how the toe angle/camber angle reacts by varying the hardpoints position of the rear multilink suspension system.

Keikert AG Adams helps reduce time to design child safety latch system.

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

University of Pretoria

Mahindra Two Wheelers

Developing advanced ABS control strategies for off-road terrain.

Conducting engine cam dynamic analysis to study and reduce the tappet clearance when the engine is revving at high rotational speed.

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Studying teh mechanical performance of modular Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) prosthesis using finite element analysis.

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

Scientific Research Laboratory of Intellectual Systems Transport Performing virtual testing of commercial vehicle handling events with flexible frame, platform and cab.

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

Altem Technologies (P) Ltd.

Ford Motor Company

Performing dynamic analysis of motorbike to find out the conact forces between tire and ground when driving over an obstacle.

Leveraging Adams Tracked Vehicle (ATV) Toolkit to reconfigure mobile robotics into a humanoid formation without loss of balance.

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology

Hutchinson AVS NA

Leveraging flexible multibody dynamic analysis to simulate a 6-DOF insect flight considering fluidstructure interaction of flapping wings.

Nonlinear FEA simulation for bushing insertion helps optimize part for assembly process thereby reducing scrap cost.

MSC Products Illustrated: Marc

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

Instanbul Technical University Studying vehicle chassis behavior in differnt road inputs using Adams.

MSC Products Illustrated: Adams

CSIR National Aerospace Labratories Simulating the mechanical fight control systems of a light transport aircraft to accurately predict the stretch values.

MSC Products Illustrated: MSC Nastran

Volume V - Summer 2015

| 37

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SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT

MSC Learning Center’s e-Learning 18 online MSC Nastran and Adams courses & certification exams available, with 14 more online courses and certifications under development, including Marc, Patran, and Easy5!

By Christopher Anderson, eLearning Associate Manager, MSC Software

he numbers are staggering. In 2015, approximately 50 percent of engineers will be eligible for retirement. When they leave, they’ll take years of critical knowledge and experience with them. As the next generations move in, it will be essential to train them both quickly and effectively to avoid major impact on workflow and bottom line. This, combined with significant budget cuts that leave fewer and fewer training dollars, could have serious implications. Many corporations are turning to cost effective e-Learning solutions to meet the training needs of their employees. At MSC, we have witnessed firsthand the effects of training and travel budget cuts with a decline in public instructor led training attendance. When we surveyed our customers, 51% of them stated that they had never taken an MSC Software training course, all of them indicated an interest and need for training on MSC Software tools. Digging a little deeper, 47% indicated that course fees and travel costs had prevented them from being able to

attend a training course with other reasons ranging from schedule conflicts and not being able to take time from work. In response to this trend MSC invested in a Learning Management System, the MSC Learning Center, capable of delivering on demand online training courses (e-Learning). MSC Learning Center’s e-Learning subscription is for the engineer who quickly needs to be productive with MSC Software technologies. It provides an innovative and creative approach to instruction with unprecedented access to resources and information. Besides offering flexibility and cost savings, it allows engineers to proceed through a training curriculum “at their own pace in their own place.” Since the launch of e-Learning at MSC in early 2014, we have responded to customer feedback and made significant progress in improving our content both from a delivery and value perspective. We have transitioned from a product-based subscription to an all-inclusive subscription. This means that you now get access to all available productbased subscriptions in one “master” subscription for the same price; no need to have multiple subscriptions to meet your training needs. In 2014, we added 18 online courses and certification exams We have invested in a new e-Learning course viewer that contains keyword search, page preview in the table of contents, and faster navigation.

Throughout 2015, we will be adding training content for the Marc, Patran, and Easy5 product lines. We invite you to experience MSC e-Learning courses free trial. With the free trial, you will be able to view the first few sections of each MSC Nastran and Adams online training course. To learn more, visit: www.mscsoftware.com/msc-learningcenter and click on the free trial link. If you have any questions about MSC’s e-Learning please contact Chris Anderson at christopher.anderson@mscsoftware.com or contact your Account Manager. Volume V - Summer 2015

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CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Simulating Complex Package Folding Procedure IIT uses simulation to evaluate folding methods and new package designs

Based on an interview with Fernando Cannella, Italian Institute of Technology

onsumer products companies are continually developing innovative packaging methods. The highly competitive nature of this industry requires ever shorter development times and lower costs. Packaging plays a particularly important role in the high-quality confectionary market where producers produce elaborate cartons with complicated folding procedures that can be compared to origami. Most of these packages are not secured by glue, but rather

with complicated tuck-in operations, requiring that the carton be constructed with flaps and slots that mate to each other during the folding operation. Complex packages are traditionally built by human operators, because of the difficulty in developing automated machinery that can manage the complicated folding operations and also be readily adapted to new packaging styles as they are developed.

Challenge One of the greatest challenges involved in the design of the carton and packaging equipment is understanding the behavior of the carton during the folding process. The cardboard consists of a multiply ldile stiffness and low compression stiffness. When the adjacent panels rotate around a crease, the outer plies are stretched and the inner plies are compressed, as shown in Figure 1.

Task 1 - Tack In Fig. 1: 3D Adams simulation for package folding machinery

Fig. 2: Tuck-in operation by human fingertip and kinematic analysis. From top left to the bottom right: a) first flap folding, b) second flap folding, c) the third flap folding, d) the tuck-in of the third flap.

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The tuck-in operation, where the end flap of the lid is secured by inserting it into a slot, is the most complicated task of carton folding. The tuck-in operation is complicated by the

fact that the lid is divided into three links whose kinematics must be well understood to insert the end plate into the small slit. The tuck-in operation on a relatively simple carton is shown in Figure 2. The fingers fold the first piece of the lid as shown in a, then break the end flap crease as shown in b. The tuck-in operation is shown in c and the completed package in d. This complex operation can be completed without difficulty by a skilled person, however, it much more challenging to automate the process so it can completed at a high rate of speed while maintaining perfect quality. This research was led during the ARCHAP project.

Solution/Validation IIT engineers produced an Adams model of both the carton and robot to demonstrate how the folding operation could be performed. The robot has three finger with two degrees of freedom each whose layout is shown in the Figure 3. Central finger provides yaw motion at the base and pitch motions on the following two joints. The side fingers have only pitch motions so they can move on a planar surface. Each moving element of the

Fig. 3: D-RAPS robot in operating folding carton

The physical finger displacements correlate very well with the actual robot displacements. The carton folding sequence of the folding model also matched up perfectly to the actual robot. machine is connected kinematically to the carton model in order to fold the carton. This was accomplished by using Adams to develop the inverse kinematic solution of the fingers. The resulting joint angles were input to the multibody rotational and linear actuators to drive the simulation.

Fig. 4. D-RAPS robot in operation folding carton

Fig. 5: More complex folding operation: 19 panels and 15

Fig. 6: Carton folding trajectories for more complex folding operation

Fig. 7: D-RAPS model created with Adams

Fig. 8: Finger contact for from simulation

Task 2 - Oragami Carton Folding Automated folding machinery, on the other hand, is commonly used for simple packages that are produced in large volumes. Consumer products companies want to convert complex packages to automated production in order to improve quality and reduce the potential for repetitive motion injuries. But conventional automated folding machines are very difficult to adapt to new designs. So the industry is working on developing flexible automation systems based on programmable robots that can handle complicated packages and can accommodate new designs with software changes alone. The Dexterous Reconfigurable Assembly and Packaging Systems (D-RAPS) was developed by Prof. Jian S. Dai (Kings College London, London, UK) for use as a carton folding test rig to evaluate the use of robots in complex packaging operations, as shown in Figure 4.

Results “The physical finger displacements correlate very well with the actual robot displacements,” said Ferdinando Cannella, Head of IIT’s Advanced Industrial Automation Lab of Advanced Robotic Department. “The carton folding sequence of the folding model also matched up perfectly to the actual robot. With the Adams simulation model validated against the physical D-RAPS robot, researchers are now able to evaluate different folding methods and new package designs with the simulation model as opposed to having to use the actual robot. One the best result is that we computed the contact forces that were impossible to measure on the physical prototype, because the contact points were too small to install a pressure/force sensor and the motor typology was not suitable for this feature. This is an enormous advantage because many students use the robot for their research so it is often very difficult to get time on the actual robot. The Adams model of the robot, built by PhD

Fig. 9. Carton folding simulation matches real-life robot

candidate Mariapaola D’Imperio, can be applied not only to package folding, but also to a wide range of other robotic applications. IIT and Kings College London researchers are also working on introducing flexible materials into the model which will increase the accuracy of the simulation and make it possible to accurately simulate even more complicated folding operations.”

About the Italian Institute of Technology The Italian Institute of Technology is a foundation established jointly by the Italian

Ministry of Education, Universities and Research and the Ministry of Economy and Finance to promote excellence in basic and applied research and to contribute to the economic development of Italy. The primary goals of the IIT are the creation and dissemination of scientific knowledge as well as the strengthening of Italy’s technological competitiveness. To achieve these two goals, the IIT will cooperate with both academic institutions and private organizations, fostering through these partnerships scientific development, technological advances and training in high technology. u Volume V - Summer 2015

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UNIVERSITY & RESEARCH

The Adams Curriculum nd Kit 2 Edition is Here! This Adams tutorial package is designed as a supplemental curriculum kit for undergraduate Mechanical Engineering courses, including Design of Machinery, Dynamics, Mechanisms, and Mechanical Design. There are 44 examples in this Adams tutorial package, including some simple problems like “fourbar linkage”, “spring-damper system”, and also some real industrial examples like “Open differential” or “Gear Train System”, which are created based on a new powerful set of simulation modules in Adams called Adams/Machinery. Several examples were developed from specific textbook problems, for example, the four problems in section III were developed in reference to the textbook Design of Machinery (Fifth Edition) by Robert L. Norton. Design of 42 | MSC Software

Machinery has proven to be a favorite of both students and educators across the globe. It is currently used in over 100 schools in the U.S. and Canada and in many more worldwide in both English and several other languages. The book is praised for its friendly writing style, clear exposition of difficult topics, attractive appearance, thorough and relevant coverage, its emphasis on synthesis and design, and its useful computer programs.

Teach with Adams We are asking you to use this Adams tutorial package as supplemental learning material for your courses in your mechanical engineering program today, as a way to further develop the skills of your students in engineering simulation, and to prepare them for engineering careers in the future.

Download Today! To learn more, visit: www.mscsoftware. com/adams-tutorial-kit

Allowables... At Your Fingertips

Integrated Solution to Compute Virtual Allowables Digimat-VA (“Virtual Allowables”) is an efficient solution that empowers engineers to virtually compare materials before going into the lengthy physical allowables process. By generating virtual allowables, engineers can start component design in parallel with a physical allowable campaign. Digimat-VA provides a method to virtually test the behavior of composite coupons (unnotched, open hole, filled hole) in order to select and compute the allowables of composite materials.

WHY DIGIMAT-VA? • It defines a text matrix in a few clicks • It creates multiscale material models based on composite datasheet

• It models batch and process variability • It can go beyond recommended CMH17 procedures • It turns a test matrix into FEA runs to obtain virtual allowables