Boosting HyperWorks Further with Electromagnetic Simulation

Digital Twin is enjoying a breakthrough, fueled by advances in the sophisticated use of physics-based simulation models of varying fidelities. Connected and informed by data from the field with the help of artificial intelligence, Leonardo S.p.A. validates the performance of product systems virtually in the early stages of design to accelerate the development of their next generation of products.

Industry 4.0 is bringing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices, using modern smart technology via the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). IIoT technology is making agricultural and mining equipment, trucks, and other heavy industrial assets smarter by adding connectivity. Antennas play a critical role in providing reliable connectivity. During this talk, we will show how advanced electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools can help in the placement and integration of antennas into tractors, heavy-duty trucks, trains, etc. This talk also will showcase, use of wireless propagation simulation tools for network planning and virtual drive test (VDT) scenarios.Presented at the ATCx Heavy Equipment in May 2021.

Speaker: CJ Reddy, VP Business Development–Electromagnetics, Americas, Altair

Duration: 20 minutes

In a world of accelerating technological development, connected products provide the data for manufacturers to stay competitive. Discover how Toggled evolved from manufacturing commoditized lighting products to being a leader in connected building products. See what it takes to design and maintain a connected product ecosystem and the benefits of the data it collects.

In this presentation hear about academic research at the Antenna and Electromagnetics Group at Queen Mary University of London. Examples include the use of Altair Feko to enhance a bee tracking radar performance and to design new generation compact antenna test ranges.

Presented at the 2nd Altair Academic Outreach Event in June 2021

Speaker: Dr. Rostyslav Dubrovka, Lecturer, Terahertz & Quasi Optics Research Unit Manager, Queen Mary University of London
Duration: 21 minutes

In this presentation, MIRDC’s Bionic Intelligent Automatic Guided Vehicle (BI-AGV) is introduced. This “collaborative handling module” has three characteristics of wireless intelligence, flexible use and flexible movement. Through the wireless intelligent collaborative handling system, it can control several automatic guided vehicles (AGVS) in real time, and several vehicles can conduct remote control and serial connection to carry out handling tasks. At the same time, the 360-degree mobile omni-directional wheel design framework is adopted. It has the advantages of flexible use in the area where the traditional unmanned vehicle cannot run smoothly in the indoor narrow space.

Dr Venkat Perumal, Senior Principle Engineer at Stryker Global Technology Center discusses the adoption of simulation in Medical Device industry and how it helps shorten the overall product development cycle time & cost. While adoption of simulation has the ability to reduce and time, physics-based models need rigorous verification, validation and uncertainty quantification. This talk will include examples, where physics-based simulation results lent insight of the product performance, materials modeling and structure-properties correlation. The role of industry-academia-private & public partnership in driving the change from 100% ‘make & break’ to ‘simulation driven product development’ including regulatory submission will be discussed. The video is 12 minutes long and was presented at the Altair Technology Conference 2020.

Altair’s portfolio of simulation-driven design solutions covers – amongst many other disciplines – electromagnetics (EM) and electronic design automation (EDA).

Automotive and smartphone cellular telecommunication system shares the same root. However, some design parameters should have differences because of different design environment and user experience. One of the big design differences can be found on antenna design, especially antenna gain on elevation angle radiation pattern. This presentation is about a study of the elevation angle for better automotive telecommunication systems antenna design.

Presentation by David Aviram , EM Expert in Israel, Altair. Presentation at the ATCx in Israel, Netanya on October 30, 2019.

Presentation by Tal Oz, Officer, Israeli Air Force. Many modern radars measure the radial velocity of airborne targets using Doppler shift to distinguish between real targets and clutter (trees, clouds, birds). Radial velocity and Doppler shift are directly related for regular airborne targets such as Boeing 747 but even a standing still helicopter will produce some sort of measurable Doppler shift. It is a computationally difficult task to find the relevant helicopter RCS but a feature provided by Feko, the ""Numerical Green Function"" can dramatically improve computation time of such problems. The lecture will begin with relevant Radar and RCS introduction, some highlights of important Feko features and dynamic RCS results of a CAD model of a helicopter. Presentation at the ATCx in Israel, Netanya on October 30, 2019.

David Yáñez presents at the UK ATC 2019. Vortex Bladeless is a Spanish start-up that is developing a new wind energy technology. Its key characteristic is the minimization of mechanical elements that can be worn by friction. In the first stage, its application area seems to be distributed energy. For its development, CFD tools are being of vital importance. Both the fluid-structure interaction and the behavior of the magnetic fields in the alternator are being studied mainly with this type of tool. The results obtained are being contrasted with experimental results obtained both in wind tunnel and in real application environments.

A general vision of the technology, the strategies used for the integration of the different physical phenomena involved and the path traveled for its development will be exposed.

Presentation by Hervé Dutruc, Antenna and Communication Expert at Airbus Helicopters.

This presentation will highlight challenges faced by Airbus Helicopters for the antenna installation definition, considering the increase of use of composite materials and the increase of frequency for communication systems. Altair Feko simulations, done in the frame of weather radar investigations notably, will be presented.

Presentation by Dr. Ulrich Jakobus, Senior VP - Electromagnetic Solutions at Altair.

The presentation introduces the latest features implemented in Altair’s high frequency electromagnetic solvers Altair Feko & WinProp. Application of these features to propagation modelling, antenna design, antenna placement and the solution of EMC & radar scattering problems will be shown. In the outlook, a presentation & discussion of the roadmap is envisaged.

Presentation by Vincent Ardon, EMC Engineer at ALSTON Tarbes.

Due to the environment, more and more compact with signaling systems functioning from a few dozen of Hz to GHz close to train motors or traction cases, the prediction of magnetic field emitted by motor cables could help train designers early in the process and avoid EMC problems encountered at the end on the first train tests.

Magnetic field measurements are performed close to motor cables on a test bench with SiC power module generating high dV/dt (up to 11 kV/µs) and a 3-ph motor whose high frequency equivalent circuit (10 k-100 MHz) was established thanks to differential and common mode impedance measurements with Mirafzal method.

Several configurations are tested and modeled in Altair Feko: motor cables length (30 and 45 m), power module source signal (mono-pulse or PWM), and metallic environment (copper and iron plate above cables). Finally, results of comparisons between measurement and Feko simulations on the frequency range 1 k-10 MHz are presented.

Presentation by Nicolas Fagnoni, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

The University of Cambridge and the Cavendish Laboratory are closely involved in the design and development of two new radio-telescopes: the ‘Square Kilometre Array’ (SKA) and the ‘Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array’ (HERA). Using different approaches, these two radio-interferometers in particular are going to study the formation of the first structures of the early universe, by measuring the evolution of the distribution of the neutral hydrogen present in the intergalactic medium. Thus, it will be possible to probe a period between 115 million and 1.3 billion years after the Big Bang for HERA, and even up to 2.1 billion years for the SKA.

In this presentation, Fagnoni gives a brief overview of these two radio-telescopes, and explain how we used electromagnetic simulations to design these antennas before building the prototypes for validation.

Presentation by Gilles Vogt, Inteliance Technologies.

When adding a radome to any network antenna, the transparency of the radome is a major concern, especially when the networks is tightly designed. A very large radome (6m long) has been modeled in Altair Feko (full wave MLFMM) in the GHz band to quantify the attenuation due to the radome, but also its impact on signal phase. The model includes an equivalent sandwich material obtained from an optimization based on a 2D infinite plane model using Green’s functions.

Presentation by Dr. Ahmadreza Jafari, Radio Reception and Antenna Expert, & Phillippe Boutier, Référent RadioFréquence at Renault.

In this presentation, different examples of Renault RF simulations regarding antenna applications such as keyless entry and ignition, AM/FM/DAB radio, radar and V2X are explored. Simulations for keyless entry and ignition are performed using Altair Feko at 125 kHz and 433 MHz. The aim is to define antenna placements to achieve the required hand-free detection zone and remote-control range. Concerning AM/FM/DAB radio, rear-screen and foil antenna radiation patterns are simulated to optimize fine tuning validations. For the radar antenna, impact of the environment around the antenna is explored by simulation.

This presentation also deals with a simple and complete simulation approach for V2X, in which WinProp propagation scenarios are combined with various antenna solutions.

In the session there are great presentations from high quality speakers from industry sectors including automotive, aviation, aerospace railway industry, as well research. A wide variety of applications are covered, from antenna design and integration, to influences of radome structures on such systems, virtual test drives, as well as EMC related aspects such as emissions from cables and systems.

Additionally insight is given into fast and easy simulations to design matching networks, e.g. for complex antenna structures, and the session is finished with an insight into Altair’s recent and future development activities on the high frequency EM solution side.

Presentations recorded during the 2018 Global ATC in Paris, France on October 18, 2018.

Presentation by Jordi Soler, VP of Global Business Development, Electromagnetic Solutions at Altair.

Electrified, connected, autonomous and shared are four converging mobility megatrends having game-changing effects on the automotive and transportation market. These trends are like to drive more change during the next decade than over the last four decades.

Through real use cases, this presentation will explain how Altair’s electromagnetic simulation solutions are helping customers to solve design and validation challenges related to, among others: (a) EMC tests at component and vehicle levels considering the powertrain of an EV, (b) wireless charging and radiation hazard, (c) virtual test drives to reduce costs and time of the extensive road tests being done to study and analyze new connected vehicle functions, and (d) advances on process automation to reduce modelling time.

Automotive radar operating in the 77 GHz band is primarily used for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle technologies. The effectiveness of AEB systems in detecting pedestrians and bicyclists cannot be objectively verified due to lack of standard test targets and protocols. The current test protocols are only for vehicle targets and pedestrians, with a plan to include protocols for bicyclist detection in the near future. The key elements of these standard AEB test protocols are the standard test targets, or surrogates that are able to produce similar sensor responses as real-life cars, pedestrians, and bicycles. This talk will discuss the electromagnetic design and performance of the vehicle, pedestrian, and bicyclist surrogates developed for evaluating 76-77GHz PCS radars, as well as the related test protocols.

Advances in computational electromagnetic tools have made electromagnetic (EM) simulations possible for various applications. Now numerical simulations can be performed to evaluate the effects of antenna design, placement, radiation hazard, EMC/EMI, etc. for wide ranging industry applications. Numerical approaches that include full wave techniques such as Method of Moments (MoM), Multilevel Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM) and asymptotic techniques such as Physical Optics (PO) and Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD) are being utilized to solve many challenging problems that were not possible in the past.

A radome (radar dome) is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar system or antenna from it physical environment with minimal impact to the electrical performance of the antenna. The proper selection of a radome for a given antenna can help improve the overall system performance through maintaining alignment by eliminating wind loading, allowing for all-weather operation, providing shelter for installation and maintenance, etc.

Both the automotive and aerospace industries face ever-increasing Electromagnetic Interference challenges. In the automotive case, new problems arise due to proliferation of electric and hybrid cars, which carry high-voltage systems, and of wireless infotainment and safety systems, which use high frequencies. The aerospace industry’s challenges are exacerbated by the use of composite materials and by the need to protect against lightning strikes. This presentation will discuss many of the challenges and explain how they can be met with simulation. A few practical examples involving cable harnesses will be analyzed in more depth.

This paper introduces some of the recent extensions to the computational electromagnetics code FEKO as released in Suite 7.0. The FDTD (Finite Difference Time Domain) method was added to the selection of available solvers. MLFMM (Multilevel Fast Multipole Method) and PO (Physical Optics) were hybridized for electrically large applications. The RL-GO (Ray-Launching Geometrical Optics) solver was extended and improved in terms of speed and accuracy, and a new interface to import measured near-field antenna data from MVG/Starlab will be presented.

Wireless technologies have proliferated onto automotive platforms as part of infotainment, telematics and active safety initiatives. These wireless solutions present engineers design challenges in the area of applied electromagnetics in terms of antenna design, antenna placement, electromagnetic compatibility and wave propagation. The Applied EMAG and Wireless Lab at Oakland University possesses an outdoor vehicle-level antenna range (80 MHz - 6,000 MHz) and full-wave electromagnetic field solvers with high end computers to solve these issues. This presentation will highlight some of the past and recent research projects conducted in my lab that relied on a full-wave electromagnetic field solver to investigate the issue and subsequently be validated with measurements.

The capability to assess the current or future state of the health of an aircraft to improve safety, availability, and reliability while reducing maintenance costs has been a continuous goal for decades. Many companies, government agencies, and academic institutions have become interested in Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) and a growing effort of research into “smart” vehicle sensing systems has emerged. Methods to detect damage to aircraft materials and structures have historically relied on visual inspection during pre-flight or post-flight operations by flight and ground crews. More quantitative non-destructive investigations with various instruments and sensors have traditionally been performed when the aircraft is out of operational service during major scheduled maintenance. Through the use of reliable sensors coupled with data monitoring, data mining, and data analysis techniques, the health state of a vehicle can be detected in-situ.