CFD for Oiling and Thermal Management of Drivetrain Components

In modern Electric Vehicles, body panel design plays a huge role in thermal management for the Li-Ion battery and powertrain performance. Early-stage aerodynamic and thermal prediction is necessary for surface optimization of vehicle exterior. Well defined and controlled flow phenomena need to be achieved around the vehicle during A- surface development phase, to improve the ride performance and handling of the vehicle on the road In this phase, Altair CFD Thermal solver AcuSolve drastically reduced the time consumed for analysis

The aerodynamics design of high-performance bikes plays a significant role in reducing the overall drag, increase in speed, and improving the range efficiency. To improve and sustain the performance of the EV, it is necessary to explore various factors such as aerodynamically streamlining the vehicle design, optimise frontal area, and cooling electronic components as well.

Sustainable designs last longer. David Yáñez from Vortex Bladeless, a Spanish start-up, shares his vision of the technology, the strategies used for the integration of the different physical phenomena involved in the simulation-driven design, and the development of their resonating structures having minimal parts susceptible to wear by friction. The simulation results from CFD, with fluid-structure interaction, and electromagnetic field simulation are compared with experimental wind tunnel results and from in-service environments.

Dust is a serious problem for industries that handle and process bulk materials, causing deteriorating ambient air quality, human health concerns, while increases housekeeping labor costs to meet safe levels for health and fire risks. Learn from Dr. Andrew Grima about the technologies employed to develop a successful solution to minimize dust by using calibrated discrete element modeling (DEM) and new dust extraction technology.

An intuitive and robust CFD workflow is available in Altair® SimLab® - a process-oriented, feature-based finite element analysis software that allows you to quickly and accurately simulate the engineering behavior of complex assemblies. For fluid and thermal analyses, SimLab can make the model setup process even faster, repeatable, thereby minimizing tedious manual steps that can be automated. A live demo will be performed using real-world models to show the simple and smooth analysis process in Altair SimLab that goes from CAD to results in minutes.

For the past three decades, Altair’s optimization solutions have driven the innovative, lightweight, and structurally efficient designs of many products you see and use every day. The intense focus on additive manufacturing in recent years have given a boost to topology optimization and generative design, providing more freedom to explore alternatives. Today, we keep on innovating the technology, looking at including multiple physics, like thermal, electromagnetics, and fluid flow to drive design. Altair AcuSolve – coupled with Altair Optistruct – enables engineers to find the optimum shape by simply defining inlets, outlets, and the allowable space in which the solver can work. AcuSolve’s gradient-based topology optimization method will quickly and efficiently find the path of least resistance to deliver fluid flows with minimal effort.

This presentation shows how advanced simulation technology can provide a cost effective way to minimizing the risk breaching noise regulations. Often the issue is only found out in a prototype testing scenario, bench test results can give misleading information as acoustic character of a rotating component will change in an installed condition. Altair CFD brings a solution to the market for installed fan acoustics by directly calculating the convective field, this virtual method can significantly reduce risk of failure leading to development cost savings and mitigation of timeline overshoot.

Presented at the ATCx Heavy Equipment in May 2021.

Speaker: Andy Fine, Vice President CFD Solutions, EMEA, Altair

Duration: 15 minutes

Martin Kemp, Regional Manager at Altair, Dr. Denis Cumming, a Senior Lecturer at The University of Sheffield, John Milios, CEO at Sendyne, Dr. Gregory Offer, Reader at Imperial College London and finally Professor Jun Xu, Director of Vehicle Energy & Safety Laboratory at The University of North Carolina, present - Developing Predictive Electro Thermal Cell Models for Pack Level Deployment. This presentation will focus on the simulation of the battery cell to represent its complex thermal and mechanical behaviour. The thermal behaviour requires the simulation of the electric behaviour within the cell which leads to the generation of heat. Managing the thermal behaviour is fundamental to the long term health of the battery. The talk provides an overview of the technologies used to simulate battery behaviour, commencing with the understanding of the battery structure including the simulation of electrode manufacture. Both electrochemical and equivalent circuit models will be discussed with the advantages and disadvantages of both methods presented. Finally, machine learning technology is used to create an intelligent cell model which retains accuracy whilst delivering computational efficiency which can be used in Part 2.

A welcome address to Altair's ATCx CFD virtual event hosted in 2020, presented by Andy Fine, VP CFD Solutions EMEA at Altair.

Presented at the ATCx CFD 2020, Fast and Accurate Solutions to Optimize CFD Performance by Stephen Cosgrove, VP CFD Solutions Americas at Altair.

Presented as part of the ATCx CFD 2020. Empowering Aerodynamic Design Exploration – Volkswagen Group Research Case Study by Dr. Bastian Schnepf, Technical Manager CFD Solutions at Altair.

Presented at the ATCx CFD 2020. A New & Revolutionary Way to Collect Energy from Wind by David Yáñez, Co-Founder of Vortex Bladeless.

Workshop 3: General Purpose CFD presented live at the ATCx CFD 2020 virtual event.

Recorded at the ATCx CFD 2020 virtual event, this is a Q&A with Torbjörn Larsson, Former Head of CFD for Ferrari F1. With previous roles at BMW F1, General Motors and Saab Military Aircraft, Torbjörn has 30 years of industrial experience in fluid mechanics and CFD. Listen to the questions our audience posed to Torbjörn in this 30 minute session.

Learn how Altair’s flexible and efficient CFD solvers pave the way for simulation-based design in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has long been regarded as an "expert" tool that requires specialized skill sets to apply properly.

This presentation focuses on presenting a synergy of different simulation methods and tools towards the accurate prediction of power losses, oil distribution and thermal effects focusing on an automotive and aerospace gearbox example. A number of different approaches are described, including CFD, gear design, bearing design and selection and oil selection, with the aim of maximizing efficiency and ensuring adequate lubrication of critical components and cooling of the powertrain components (e-motor and the associated gearbox)

Presentation by Dr. Milos Stanic, nanoFluidX Product Manager at Altair.

Optimising the rotational losses of an EV transmission is essential to improve range. Whilst bearing and gear losses are well understood, the interaction between rotating components and transmission fluid rarely exploited other than reducing lubricant viscosity. Effective methods for modelling drag and fluid transfer around a transmission have not robustly existed previously.

Converting electrical power into mechanical power to drive a fluid pump is wasteful. However, in tightly packaged EV transmissions where thermal cooling is limited it is essential to manage the lubricant. A novel method for passively moving fluid around an EV transmission with low losses has been developed. The system uses existing components in the gearbox to move fluid in a controlled manner. The cost savings of using this technology can be used directly elsewhere to improve vehicle range.

In order to iterate through potential design solutions a suitable computer based modelling approach had to be developed. A new smoothed particle hydrodynamics approach was created to predict the fluid movement and the drag level on the remaining components. A correlation of this approach was carried out with real world testing to prove its validity.

We are right at the beginning of the new mobility era with deep impact on the architecture of cars. Hybridization and electrification are the dominating topics in the automobile industry and consequently the powertrain of cars comes into the focus. However, the development of smart and efficient drive assemblies is challenging due to different and increasing demands such as legal restrictions. Numerical simulations can provide profitable support in the development of such components, especially when they are adopted during the early stages of the design process.