VW Utilises Ansys Engineering Simulation Software

Volkswagen (VW), a German car manufacturer, has signed a master agreement with Ansys to use its multi-physics engineering simulation solutions. The decision to use Ansys software was based on its ability to address the bandwidth of applications and the fact that the Ansys Workbench platform allows for substantial process compression.

In its research and development, VW uses structural mechanics, fluid dynamics and explicit analysis tools from Ansys to perform studies on climate control, headlights and engine internal flow. 'The Ansys Workbench concept is convincing because we can easily do coupled simulations and, in this way, accurately account for the entire range of physics,' said Dr Ralph Sundermeier, head of the department for computer-aided-engineering methods at VW.

Ansys Software Helps Ferrari Improve Comfort

Italian car manufacturer Ferrari is using software from Ansys to optimise automobile design and performance. Ferrari is using software from Ansys to predict thermal comfort in a vehicle's interior. In order to assess comfort qualitatively and quantitatively, the car manufacturer worked with Pisa University in Italy to define thermal comfort indices and to evaluate the general aspects of thermal comfort.

Since an experimental approach was not practical, the investigating engineering team used fluid dynamics software from Ansys to perform the calculations. According to Giovanni Lombardi, professor of aeroplane aerodynamics and vehicle aerodynamics at Pisa University, the Ansys engineering simulation software rendered accurate and reliable results.

The research team based its resulting 'global thermal comfort index' on several local indices: the thermal equilibrium of the human body, discomfort caused by drafts and horizontal and vertical temperature gradients. Various factors were studied, including the car's velocity and materials (leather, glass and aluminium) as well as sensitivity to warming or cooling on various body sites (leg, arm and face, covered with clothing or not), solar irradiance, vehicle interior size and air flow.

'The advantage of simulation-driven product development is that no complex physical models or testing configurations are required and the design can be tested, optimised and, if necessary, modified virtually at an early stage in the development process,' said Jim Cashman, president and chief executive of Ansys.

Ansys Updates Engineering Simulation Platform

Ansys has brought out ANSYS 12.0, its engineering simulation platform and integrated technology that supports Simulation Driven Product DevelopmentGBP. Smart Engineering SimulationGBP from ANSYS 12.0 dramatically compresses design and analysis cycles, enabling parametric studies and design optimisation across multiple physics, increasing the accuracy and completeness of virtual prototypes and capturing and re-using simulation processes and data.

The ANSYS 12.0 software suite supports fast product-design and validation in a complete, highly usable virtual environment that captures complex and coupled physical phenomena - providing a high degree of confidence in product designs. ANSYS 12.0 allows engineers to access an unequalled depth and breadth of technology to compress their design processes and to create innovative products rapidly and cost effectively - while reducing the time and money invested in physical-prototype development and testing.

At the foundation of ANSYS 12.0 is the ANSYS WorkbenchGBP 2.0 platform, a flexible simulation environment that allows engineers to easily set up, visualise and manage simulations. The ANSYS Workbench environment captures and automates repeatable processes, providing dramatic productivity gains and enabling engineers to arrive at better designs faster. Engineers can easily investigate multiple what-if scenarios, optimise their designs across multiple physical phenomena and design for six sigma.

ANSYS 12.0 software allows customers to explore a complete range of dynamic behaviour, from frequency response to large overall motion of nonlinear, flexible multi-body systems. The suite encompasses a broad solver-portfolio that spans a full range of functionality, from structural mechanics to fluid dynamics to thermal analysis to electromagnetics. ANSYS 12.0 delivers a multiphysics capability that supports the most accurate and realistic simulations of product performance in the real world - assessing compound physical effects.

ANSYS 12.0 technology allows users to set up and manage coupled physics simulations with drag-and-drop ease. Together with its existing, coupled physics technology, ANSYS 12.0 establishes a smarter approach to comprehensive multiphysics simulations. With the introduction of the fluid-flow solver ANSYS FLUENT into the ANSYS Workbench platform, CFD practitioners can now leverage a parametric and persistent modelling environment and gain access to key enabling technologies such as bi-directional CAD integration, advanced meshing and powerful post-processing.

ANSYS 12.0 software is scalable and customisable. It allows individual customers to implement best-in-class technologies at levels appropriate for their own simulation needs. ANSYS 12.0 can be configured for advanced or professional users, deployed to a single user or enterprise and executed on laptops or massively parallel computer-clusters. ANSYS 12.0 is designed for dynamic CAE collaboration. It allows engineering teams to collaborate more efficiently on product design and development. Within a single project, several engineers can assess their designs within individual disciplines or easily co-ordinate multiphysics simulations.

To manage the workflow of a group of engineers and a myriad of projects, ANSYS Engineering Knowledge ManagerGBP (EKM) provides process and data management tools that allow engineers to easily archive, search, retrieve and report their simulation data. ANSYS 12.0 allows ANSYS Workbench users to connect directly to an installed ANSYS EKM data repository designed for enterprise or workgroup requirements, or deploy a single-user version of ANSYS EKM from ANSYS Workbench to manage simulation data on a local machine.

Ansys Application Enables 3D Structural Analyses

SMC has appointed Idac to develop a macro that will allow SMC engineers to predict the deflections and stresses seen by the telescopic communication masts the company manufactures. SMC is regularly required to design and manufacture telescopic communication masts, which are customised to handle customer-specified load configurations. The deflections of the mast must be kept within a very tight tolerance for proper operation.

Stresses also need to be kept within specified limits. SMC required an automated procedure to analyse different design configurations based on a number of predefined design variables under a given set of loads. This would require a set of input design variables to be supplied by a 'user' to the Ansys software, which would then create the Finite Element (FE) Model to be analysed, solve the FE Model and post-process the results into a set of text files and graphical plots for final assessment by SMC.

Idac was required to develop a macro that would allow SMC engineers to predict the deflections and stresses seen by the communication masts they manufacture. The project to create this automatic procedure was split into the following phases: generation of the parametric Ansys macro; generation of the design variables input file; and generation of the automatic post-processing macro. A macro to generate the parametric model was written, so that a model consisting of a set of concentric tubes overlapping at the ends would be created in the Ansys software for analysis.

Examples of the variables required for input by the SMC engineers for each tube were as follows: length; thickness; diameter; and overlap distance. Each mast tube also had the option of being guyed. The tube guy sets could be either three or four guy rope arrangements. The guy ropes could be solid (where tension and compression could be supported) or cable-like (supporting tension only). The geometry was meshed with 1D pipe elements, element type Pipe16 and the guys were meshed with either Link8 (tension and compression) or Link10 (tension only) elements.

The overlapping of the tubes was modelled with coupling restraints between the tubes. A 3D nonlinear (large deflection) structural analysis was carried out. The mast will be fixed at its base and the free ends of the guys will also be fixed. The guys, if defined, were specified an initial pretension load. External loads can be defined as follows: horizontal and vertical point loads at the top of the mast with an offset axial torque applied at the top of the mast; internal pressure in mast; and wind pressure applied up the mast (defined by SMC based on an equation dependent on height).

Material input was required for each tube; this consisted of Young's Modulus, Poisson's Ratio and failure criteria for safety factor calculations. The post-processing procedure was automated by means of a macro. Running of the macro generated a tabulated text file containing the tip deflection, the deflected angle and safety factors, as well as all the input variables. A set of stress plots was also created. The figures to the left and right show typical deflection and stress plot graphical outputs.

Idac has created an Ansys application for SMC enabling its engineers and project managers to run full and rapid 3D nonlinear (large deflection) structural analyses, by entering mast parameter values as prompted. The application extends the use of Ansys structural analysis software within SMC to a rapid assessment tool allowing them to access the impact of various customer-driven loading scenarios on proposed mast configurations. This capability will improve SMC's ability to recommend the most reliable, safe and economical mast arrangements to satisfy the customer's various 'in-field' requirements in the shortest possible time.

This makes SMC's engineering and sales department more responsive to design requirements and/or requests by clients to assess the impact of changes to the payloads imposed on an existing mast.