Simplify and Scale FEA Post-Processing - Read, Manipulate, Create, and Visualize Custom Simulation Results with Altair Compose®

Crashworthiness optimization at BMW with AI-enhanced surrogate modeling. BMW uses Altair’s integrated Machine Learning solutions within HyperWorks to generate optimization constraints that mimic engineering expertise. Clustering, an unsupervised machine learning algorithm, helps engineers to understand how crash kinematics affect key performance indicators (KPIs). Favorable crash kinematics are then enforced during the optimization process through the use of a classifier that, in effect, emulates engineering decision making throughout the process.

Jyoti CNC Automation Ltd. designs and manufactures a wide array of CNC Machines for metal cutting industries. They utilized Altair HyperMesh to optimize the existing design and improve static stiffness of their machines, and Altair HyperWorks to reach the optimized design and arrangement. Altair OptiStruct solver was then used to validate the effectiveness of the optimized product design. The result was an immense benefit in terms of resources and cost saved as mechanical accuracies were ensured right at the stage of the FEA software level, without having to create the physical prototype.

Founded in 1961, STARCO develops and delivers high-quality wheel and tire solutions to the European market. Since 2017, STARCO has been part of the KENDA Group, one of the world’s major tire and tube manufacturers, with a workforce of over 12,000 employees and sites all over the world. Developing wheels has always been a big engineering task – manufacturers have to meet high performance targets while also meeting budget, material, and environmental requirements – a difficult, time-consuming challenge for engineers today is the model setup. To solve some of these challenges STARCO turned to Altair, who provided a solution: Altair® HyperWorks® is a high-performance finite-element pre-processor that provides a highly interactive and visual environment to analyze product design performance, offering direct interfaces to commercial CAD and CAE systems and a rich suite of easy-to-use tools to build and edit CAE models.

Sika is a specialty chemicals company, and a leader in developing and producing systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing, and protecting in the building sector and automotive industry. Offering a wide range of BIW noise reduction and vibration damping solutions and addressing problems encountered in automotive development, Sika is a key development partner for OEMs and suppliers. Sika’s structural systems team focuses on solutions reinforcing the customer’s BIW and NVH issues. Using the Altair design space workflow, Sika engineers eliminated time-consuming steps in their workflow. This let them make faster decisions - instead of hours in the prior standard workflow, it now only takes minutes. Modeling time was reduced by 70%, giving the team to spend more time gaining a deeper knowledge of the part and its improvement. Sika won the 2018 Altair Enlighten Award with its ultra-lightweight constrained layer material composite for structure-borne noise reduction.

For more than 60 years, L&L Products have been providing unique solutions to the automotive industry. L&L Products Composite Body Solutions (CBS™) structural reinforcement technology is commonly used to enhance overall body-in-white (BIW) stiffness, other benefits include load path management, section integrity, light-weighting, increased durability, while having no impact in body shop practices. CBS™ aims to deliver an efficient solution for both current and future-ready applications requiring lightweighting. L&L Products reduced their concept topology optimization model build times by 80% by using the Altair® HyperWorks® Local Design Space workflow. The ability to create models more efficiently provides a mechanism to arrive at an optimal solution quickly, streamlines in-house processes removing the dependency on other teams, and provides an opportunity to explore more design variants to arrive at a truly optimal solution.

While rail is the most environmentally friendly means of transport, freight trains today do not look much different than those from the past. To reach the climate and energy targets of the European Union while achieving higher payloads and a better ROI, the railway sector needs an innovation boost to build more efficient and sustainable rail freight wagons. TransAnt GmbH, a joint venture with ÖBB Rail Cargo Group and voestalpine Steel Division, was established to bring more efficient and sustainable rail freight solutions to the market. With its innovative concept based on modularity and lightweight design, once operational the company seeks to revolutionize the market as a full supplier of freight wagons. The company used Altair® HyperWorks® for topology optimization – in particular Altair® HyperMesh® – to realize the transition to a weldable structure, Altair® HyperView® for pre- and post-processing, and Altair® OptiStruct® for FEA (including local buckling) and optimization.

Improving perceived quality and passenger comfort by minimizing buzz, squeak, and rattle (BSR) and eliminating unwanted noises in a car is a common challenge in vehicle development, especially as these issues are often detected late in the development phase. The new aspect to this challenge is the development of electrical vehicles (EV) that do not have a combustion engine covering up these small noises. Headquartered in Göteborg, Sweden, China Euro Vehicle Technology AB (CEVT) is a subsidiary of Geely Holding Group, a global automotive group including brands such as Volvo Cars, Lotus, and others. CEVT is an innovation center for mobility solutions, focusing on vehicle architecture. To facilitate and improve design choices early in the development phase, CEVT uses Altair solutions and multi-disciplinary optimization for a simulation-driven design approach allowing for rapid design iterations.

In an effort to increase transportation safety, today’s bus rollover and crash test regulations have become more stringent. To ensure all products achieve the requisite safety regulations, Gemilang set up dedicated in-house testing facilities, including a tilt test platform to assess the stability of the vehicle, and a rollover test platform to ensure bus safety in the event of a rollover accident. Gemilang decided to leverage computer-aided engineering (CAE) simulation technologies to facilitate the bus rollover assessment during the early stage of product development and selected Altair as its technology partner.

High accuracy sensors and encoders are integral components of an e-motor drive, greatly impacting the quality and efficiency on the system. A purpose-driven simulation approach is needed to account for all the physical interdependencies within these complex multi-domain systems. Lenord + Bauer worked with Altair to develop a system simulation process for their high-accuracy encoders to understand their impact on the quality and efficiency of the system.

Truck dynamics, control system, thermal, and fatigue analyses all need to be completed when designing a new truck design. Using Altair HyperWorks, Hitachi achieves a 10% weight reduction in the main frame and rigid body, while maintaining product quality.

At the end of 2015, the XPRIZE foundation launched the Shell Ocean Discovery competition, a three-year global challenge to advance deep-sea exploration using autonomous subsea drones. Teams competed to develop underwater robots that could fully map 500 km2 of seafloor at a 4 km depth in less than 24 hours with no human intervention. One of the competing teams was TEAMTAO, a collaboration of Newcastle University, SMD (Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd), and UK Research and Innovation. Altair joined the project as a technical design partner and provided the team with simulation expertise to virtually simulate, optimize, and test the devices. Altair simulation specialists followed a simulation-driven design approach in order to save on development time and physical prototyping.

For a recent project, Altran, a leading global engineering consultant company, designed a fluidic circuit for a hemodialysis system. One of the main requirements for hemodialysis is to keep the temperature of the dialysis solution stable while it is flowing through the device. To achieve this, they investigated different layouts and optimal parameters for the fluidic system to minimize heat loss. Since the Finite Element model comprised of more than 7 million elements, they decided to explore different, more rapid simulation strategies for the design exploration stage. Reduced Order Models (ROM) were created using Altair Activate® and Compose® and were validated through comparison with existing CFD models. The use of ROMs, with 30x shorter simulation time, was not just ideal for quick optimization of the system, but also allowed Altran Engineers to challenge, and significantly alter the existing design of the circuit by increasing the number of considered layouts by 1000% (from 5 to 55).

TGM Lightweight Solutions is an engineering services company with a focus on lightweight design and strategic weight optimization for aircraft, rail cars, road vehicles, and marine vessels. For a recent customer project requiring weight reduction of a railway container, TGM used Altair HyperWorks to achieve the target weight. Topology optimization helped identify the weight savings potential, resulting in material and cost savings, and a 20% reduction in weight while meeting tight development schedules.

One of the competing teams in the Formula SAE competition is FST Lisboa of the University of Lisboa, Portugal. 39 students from seven different faculties use their know-how on motorsport technology and high-precision engineering to design and build a racing car fit for the competition. For their last car, the team had to design a new set of rims to further reduce the weight of the rim set by 25 percent. With linear static analyses and topology optimization solutions from Altair, the team was able to make sound geometry choices for the rims, and reduce the weight of the components, while meeting all compliance requirements.

When Ana Casares Crespo, a former member of the ARUS Andalucía Racing team from University Seville in Spain, was looking for a final degree project, the team was inspired by the capabilities of Altair’s software. They came up with the idea to improve the impact properties of the vehicle nose cone laminate with the help of simulation. With more than seven students actively using Altair products to improve various aspects of the vehicle, the decision to incorporate Altair tools was an obvious choice. They wanted to make use of the knowledge they had gained from previous studies for structural design of aerodynamic packages. The team conducted static analysis and topological optimization using tools from the Altair HyperWorks™ suite, which helped them create optimized, lighter components. To improve the impact properties of a Formula SAE car’s nose cone laminate, the Altair solution included structural analysis, and topology optimization verifying structural behavior of a new material. The benefits were improved impact characteristics and fracture properties, and lighter components.

To expand the rpm range of a motorcycle engine, a new type of rocker arm with lower inertia was needed at KTM. The new rocker arm was required to have the same, or better stiffness and deformation level as the previous design. KTM used Altair HyperWorks™ for nonlinear topology optimization and nonlinear structural analysis to develop the new rocker arm. Thanks to this, the component inertia could be reduced by 15 percent, component mass was reduced by 21 percent, and the stiffness increased by 14 percent which lead to an extension of the rotational speed by 150-200 rpm.

Rimac Automobili’s main challenge has been to design a monocoque as a single carbon fiber part with an unprecedented size. Hence, in the development of the monocoque, the main topic to manage was the material, a lightweight, carbon fiber reinforced with epoxy resin. As this carbon fiber is an orthotropic and brittle material, its representation in a finite element (FE) material card is very difficult. To meet this challenge the company introduced Altair HyperWorks™ into their development process.

Czech company Duratec Ltd. develops handmade bike frames using both aluminium and composite materials. For a recent project at Duratec presenting the latest approach in development of carbon fiber optimization of the bike frame, Altair HyperWorks was used for model creation in Altair HyperMesh, optimized via the Altair OptiStruct code and evaluated in Altair HyperView in the development and optimization of a lightweight composite racing bike frame.

Israeli motorsport company Griiip has designed a new, fast and professional race car that combines efficiency in racing with a competitive purchase price and low running costs, to make it more affordable. By harnessing the power of data, Griiip has created the first smart connected race car – the G1 – and with it, an entirely new racing series. Accessing the software via Altair's new Startup Program, Griiip engineers employ several products from the Altair HyperWorks™ suite, among these Altair Radioss™ for crash simulation, Altair OptiStruct™ for structural optimization, general FE analysis as well as Altair HyperMesh™ and Altair HyperView™ for pre- and post-processing tasks in the development of race cars.

Melbourne-based Integrated Design and Engineering Solutions (IDES) provides full “systems-life-cycle” tailored engineering solutions to fulfill demanding defence requirements. For the LAND 121 Phase 3A project involving the procurement of Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon light trucks for the Australian Army, the IDES team had to design a protective module for a G-Wagon variant intended for surveillance and reconnaissance (S&R). Altair HyperWorks was instrumental in enabling the quick, efficient and accurate development of an optimum design for the vehicle rollover protection structure (ROPS), saving valuable time while revising and significantly improving the structures’ strength and safety.

For a competition launched for the Museum of the 20th Century, Zaha Hadid Architects re-invented a similarly radical approach by applying new advances in technology to generate structural and architectural expression. With Altair’s assistance, they created a plug-in for their design tool, enabling topology optimization. Altair HyperMesh was used for finite element preprocessing mesh generation, with Altair HyperView providing post-processing and visualization solutions. Structural analysis solver Altair OptiStruct provided advanced analysis and optimization algorithms.

Sujan CooperStandard manufactures (anti-vibration) NVH products for leading automotive companies. Currently, the automotive industry is under extreme pressure because of environmental norms and has to adhere to stringent government policies related to pollution control and one of the simplest ways to address these is to optimize designs and reduce weight of products and components. They began using Altair HyperWorks on the on the recommendation of their joint venture partner CooperStandard. The team decided to improvise design of their Torsion Vibration Damper using Altair solutions like solidThinking Inspire to optimize designs of the brackets and OptiStruct for structural integrity of the designs. Altair solutions have helped Sujan CooperStandard get their product designs right the first time and consistently meet their time, cost and quality targets.

Automotive suppliers are facing many challenges in having in-house simulation capabilities compared to that of OEM’s. One of the ways to overcome these challenges is to invest in simulation technologies that require an affordable initial investment, the ownership cost of which is low, the codes are reliable & proven, and the suite of tools provide suppliers access to a broad range of solvers (a true multi-physics environment) helping them pick and choose the solvers as per their simulation requirements. In the early stage of in-house simulation implementation at Endurance Technologies, HyperWorks was being adopted primarily for pre and post processing due to its extraordinary FE modeling solutions. With constant support, Altair team has helped Endurance in exploring and implementing various HyperWorks solvers at Endurance Technologies.

Subros is the leading manufacturer of thermal products for automotive applications in India and operates in technical collaboration with Denso. Being a major supplier of AC units to the predominant automotive segments and all classes of vehicles produced by global players in the country, it is very important for Subros to honor deadlines of product delivery with agreed benchmarks of quality. The Subros team has used Altair solutions such HyperMesh for FE modeling, RADIOSS and OptiStruct for structural analysis, AcuSolve for flow analysis, and solidThinking Inspire for Modal Analysis

HyperWorks used by leading Indian manufacturer of seating systems Harita, for homologation testing, regulations and crash analysis for all commercial vehicle seats, bus passenger seats and tractor & off-road seats

The project focused on the design and construction of a skiff, a particular kind of sail boat, within the given regatta regulation. With its modeling and calculation tools, HyperWorks helped the team to significantly reduce weight while increasing stiffness, while saving time and costs.

To optimize the car performance, the Auburn University SAE Racing Team focused on selected components that were most promising in terms of mass reduction with equal or increased stiffness. HyperWorks enabled them to reduce component mass-to-stiffness ratio, thereby improving car performance, speed up development time, as well as grow in knowledge of composite material design and optimization

Harald Hasselblad (PhD) - Senior Analysis Engineer at Volvo Car Group Sweden - talks about introducing an Optimization Culture Arena to support simulation driven development in his company.

As a key industry tool, HyperWorks becomes part of the Curriculum, providing hands-on training to Mechanical Engineering Students at Dal

Simulation is extensively used in the early development phases at the Sigma Group, where about 10-15 engineers are working with different types of simulations.

CAE is a core element in developing high-end, long-lasting professional power tools at DeWalt, a Stanley Black & Decker brand.

Analysis of MAHLE's automotive components and systems creates a huge amount of simulation data which is used to generate project reports. This reporting process can be a slow, manual process that ties up a great deal of the engineering team’s time that could be better spent investigating the results. The company wanted to explore ways of streamlining its simulation results reporting process when developing new pistons and connecting rods.

Automation of Engineering Analysis and Design Process in Subsea Industry

Recently, ACENTISS has developed the all-electric technology demonstrator ELIAS (Electric Aircraft IABG ACENTISS) based on the one-seater UL aircraft ELECTRA ONE from PC-AERO GmbH. To perform all the needed engineering and development work of the project ACENTISS applied Altair’s HyperWorks suite.

Beta Epsilon designs racing cars and offers engineering. Beta Epsilon offers component and vehicle meshing, FEA analysis of metal and composite components, crash test simulation, optimization, and CFD simulation. Beta Epsilon uses HyperMesh, OptiStruct, HyperCrash, RADIOSS, AcuSolve, HyperView, and Virtual Wind Tunnel. With HyperWorks, Beta Epsilon could improve the quality of its products and extend its range of services.

The Clemson University Deep Orange 3 program introduced future engineers to analysis software, enabling them to develop a novel sports car concept architecture.

By Dr. Paul Venhovens
Concept To Reality Winter 2013 Subscribe to C2R Magazine

Two-Wheeler Designer-Manufacturer Cuts New Component Time to Market and Optimizes Component Design with the Altair Partner Alliance

LG Electronics needed to sharply reduce their simulation time to meet rapid design cycle demands. They used Altair's automation capabilities and engineering expertise to significantly speed up and standardize routine drop test simulation processes , increase reliability and repeatability, and capture knowledge and practices. They were able to slice the time required for drop-test simulation from a week to just hours.

HBPO GmbH optimizes their design process by utilizing multiple products, such Total Materia and MADYMO, alongside HyperWorks products for the development of their front end modules.

Simulation tools isolate the cause of undesirable shipping loads on museum’s cultural treasures.