Success Stories

James Fisher RUMIC Limited (JFRL) Speeds Specialized Marine Design Needs with MSC.visualNastran 4D

James Fisher RUMIC Limited (JFRL), headquartered in Cumbria, UK, is an established provider of specialized marine and nuclear decommissioning services including ship operation and management, technical engineering, and consultancy services in the marine and nuclear environments. The company also has unique skills in the use of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and manned submersibles. With a worldwide reputation, the company provides turnkey tooling design and build packages along with a range of services for the nuclear decommissioning industry. JFRL provides highly trained specialist personnel for a number of marine-based industries including oil services, sub-sea contractors and cable layers.

JFRL also operates and maintains UK submarine rescue assets on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. As part of this responsibility, JFRL undertakes detailed 3D design and analysis of remote tooling and submersible components and systems.

Before JFRL implemented MSC.visualNastran 4D into their design process, they tested their products by constructing full-scale mock-ups and physical prototypes. Because this process was both costly and time-consuming, they looked for a process and products that would help them speed up their product development cycle. Virtual Product Development tools from MSC.Software turned out to be the solution, helping JFRL achieve a new level of design process integration.

Simulation and Virtual Testing Key

JFRL was already using Autodesk Inventor 3D CAD design software within their design process. But in order to answer the question "Will our products work and last?," they needed a tool that would allow them to virtually test their products before building a first prototype.

"This tool needed to fit with our 3D CAD software," said Stephen Lainson, Senior Design Engineer of JFRL, "and because MSC.visualNastran 4D integrates into Autodesk Inventor, the choice was obvious. Another reason we chose MSC.visualNastran 4D is that it comes as a complete software package covering motion, stress and thermal analysis, which prevented us from having to choose and buy many different tools for all these tasks."

Today, JFRL engineers use Autodesk Inventor 7 to model concept designs, then simulate and analyse the model's motion using MSC.visualNastran 4D. After the motion simulation, the model is submitted for client approval, often as an animation file or VRML model. Using a 3D model helps the client understand design intent and is a preferred medium to traditional general arrangement drawings.

Some of the specific tasks for which JFRL uses MSC.visualNastran 4D are: motion analysis to confirm deployment and operation of remote tooling in a reactor working area; FE stress analysis of individual tooling components during the design process to optimise mass, size and/or manufacturing cost; and concept design optimisation of submersible components prior to detailed FE analysis and design validation to satisfy regulatory approval bodies.

In all these areas, JFRL has improved its development process because components and systems can now be tested throughout the design process against system-critical constraints, such as access limitations, mass limits and working envelopes. This has greatly reduced the need for physical testing once the system has been manufactured.

"Thanks to the combined use of 3D CAD software and MSC.visualNastran 4D, we have become much more capable in optimising designs with regard to mass, size, design-time, manufacturing and cost," said Lainson, "and we are passing these benefits on to our clients. We are able to demonstrate design justification to regulatory bodies much faster than by using traditional hand calculation methods, and we have been able to reduce the re-work after final construction to such an extent that we no longer build prototypes."

Process and Benefits: From 3D to a Fully Functional Virtual Prototype In one of its service areas, JFRL faced a specific challenge. Prior to the manufacture of a nuclear decommissioning system, and in order to satisfy the safety regulatory body, JFRL had to demonstrate the likelihood of a nuclear reactor component toppling from its semi-constrained position during decommissioning. Before the use of MSC.visualNastran 4D, this was very time-consuming and difficult because the calculation had to be done by hand. In addition, the results were difficult to justify without physical testing.

Using MSC.visualNastran 4D, JFRL was able to model the behaviour of the reactor component and demonstrate its stability under a variety of conditions. Subsequent to manufacture, physical testing was performed to confirm the analysis undertaken with MSC.visualNastran 4D. Now, as a part of the JFRL design process for decommissioning tooling, the company routinely presents clients a complete 3D virtual prototype in order to fully explain the form and operation of the tool prior to undertaking detailed design. The client is then able to include this information in operational safety case submissions. Since JFRL first applied these principles, it is rapidly becoming the standard against which other companies are being measured.

Customer
RUMIC
United Kingdom
http://www.rumic.co.uk/

Software involved
Autodesk, MSC.visualNastran 4D™,