MSC Software Corporation

To reduce the vehicle test time for fatigue/durability evaluation

Apply Adams Car with the Virtual Proving Ground for Road Loads Generation

The medical industry is moving in a direction towards robotics to help patients in the rehabilitation process. Gait training (over ground or on a treadmill) has become an essential part of rehabilitation therapy in patients suffering from gait impairment caused by disorders such as stroke, spinal cord injury, and multiple sclerosis. A focus on the human in collaboration with a robot puts emphasis on the adaptability, safety, and task specificity of robotic assistance. Hence, in the development of novel rehabilitation prototypes engineers face the challenge of combining suitable design concepts, high performance actuator technologies, and dedicated control strategies in view of improved physical human-robot interaction (HRI). The improvements should lead to a better insight into effectiveness of robot-assisted rehabilitation and ultimately, lead to therapies that are more effective. One of the approaches to facilitate the design process, in terms of development time, functional and safety evaluation, is using computational multibody simulations. Nowadays, multibody modeling and simulations are recognizable as an efficient and relative inexpensive evaluation approach. Due to the continuously increasing complexity of the wearable robots, almost any study conducted in the field of robotics can profit from a simulation of the system behavior, foregoing experiments on a real platform. Moreover, an advantage of using multibody modeling represented by the possibility to predict various outputs that are difficult, dangerous, or even impossible to reproduce in the real experimental setup.

The 3D model of a novel CORBYS rehabilitation device has been developed and co-simulated with the human body using object-oriented multibody dynamics software, Adams.

Adams gave researchers the additional insight they needed on the push-pull actuation system. The simulation results show that the transmission efficiency of the PPC is dependent on nonlinear friction between the tendon and the sheath. While the friction was influenced by an attached load to the cable and the curvature of the PPC. The simulation results had an impact in defining the actuation system parameters and appropriate control implementation design. These insights helped them present a working concept, which will open doors for further exploration for research and development.

According to modeling experience in Adams, the team confirm that multibody simulation tools are very effective in cases when the main design, technical, and functional characteristics of the real system are accurately reproduced in computational model. In order to obtain a useful functional model, users need a good understanding of the governing mechanics describing a physical system to make relevant choices between numerous simulation platforms.

• Studied human-robot interaction forces during walking exercise
• Simulation helped make sure the working prototype met the safety requirements for patients
• Evaluated the push-pull cable actuation system followed by control strategies optimization

In designing heavy machinery, such as those on cranes or oil rigs, small plastic components or rubber seals can be vital to the integrity of those large structures. Stephen Armstrong an FEA Analyst/New Product Development Engineer and his team at Parker Hannifin Corporation work on designing just these types of parts.

Parker Hannifin is a trusted leader in motion and control technologies. Stephen’s team’s main area of focus is on seals that are comprised of hyperelastic materials such as rubber, polyurethane, and other compounds. These seals are used in a variety of applications in heavy machinery, medical devices, military and aerospace industries.

Engineers working with these materials focus on nonlinear analysis in most of their projects, because these materials mainly exhibit non-linear behavior. MSC’s Marc was their tool of choice for simulating such behaviors.

Enhance the seal design and reduced physical testing

In recent years, there has been a global initiative to reduce traffic noise and improve comfort in automotive vehicles. Engineers have to meet stringent government regulations while still improving the passengers’ experience. One requirement involves a measurement procedure commonly referred to as Pass-by Noise. The maximum allowed sound level for Pass-by Noise has recently been reduced, now representing a new constraint on the design of commercial vehicles. Countermeasures to reduce noise emissions consist in moderating the different acoustic sources by either acting on the noise generating mechanisms or managing the noise propagation. Adding sound absorbing materials or modifying parts of the vehicle geometry are solutions that engineers are investigating to solve this problem. With its wide range of vehicles, the Renault team has to anticipate the evolution of Pass-by noise regulations and design vehicles according to future constraints. Renault decided to extend its acoustic simulation capabilities and model the exterior acoustic propagation using Actran, a product of FFT, an MSC Software Company. With Actran, Renault was able to improve their designs and reduce development costs by considering the vehicle acoustics early in the design phase.

When studying Pass-by noise, it is essential to make sure that the numerical simulation is accurate. The absolute sound level recorded during the test determines if the vehicle will pass or if it will be rejected. “We had some measurements from physical testing available when we started the validation,” Philippe explains.

“When we started the project we were quite far, we needed to analyze the results and understand the problems in the way we were modelling. Now we are quite happy with the results. We went quite fast in improving the accuracy.” Following this successful validation phase, the methodology is now used daily by Renault engineers to optimize the technical definition of the vehicle to be sure that absorbing materials will be placed exactly where needed. “Compared to the initial target, we achieved much better performances. We started from scratch for this exterior acoustic problem, and what we were able to achieve in just a couple of years in this project is quite impressive to me” concludes Philippe.

Reducing development costs by integrating acoustic constraints at early stages through simulation.

For more than 25 years, Stratasys has been a defining force and dominant player in additive manufacturing – notably inventing the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) Technology. The company’s solutions provide customers with unmatched design freedom and manufacturing flexibility – reducing time-to-market and lowering development and manufacturing costs.

FDM® (fused deposition modeling) is becoming the technology of choice for rapid production of high-temperature (> 177 ° C), low-volume, composite lay-up and repair tools, as well as for moderate-temperature (<163 °C) production sacrificial tooling. Relative to traditional tooling materials and methods, FDM offers significant advantages in terms of lead time, tool cost and simplification of tool design, fabrication and use, while enabling increased functionality and geometric complexity.

• Print it right the first time!
  Iterate designs and parameters through simulation rather than wasting time and materials with iterating through printing
• Save time & material!
  Anticipate printing issue with simulation (e.g., evaluate the impact of the printing direction and location on results)
• Minimize warpage in only two steps!
  Thanks to a predeformed geometry
• Optimize the manufacturing process!
  Quickly explore at virtually zero marginal cost the sensitivity of process parameters on the process quality and part fidelity
• Access to an easy, efficient and user-friendly GUI!
  Designed to follow the printing workflow and accessible for non FEA experts

MSC Software pioneered many of the technologies that are now relied upon by the Aerospace industry to analyze and predict stress and strain, vibration & dynamics, acoustics, and thermal analysis in their flagship product, MSC Nastran. Similarly, MSC Marc and MSC Adams are highly regarded as industry-leading applications for non-linear simulation and kinematics, respectively.

TEN TECH LLC, a Los Angeles based engineering consulting firm, conducts complex engineering Finite Element Analysis. As subject matter experts in shock, vibration and thermal analysis for the Aerospace & Defense Industry, TEN TECH LLC relies heavily on MSC solutions. The types of products and applications TEN TECH is involved with share a common characteristic: field failure is never an option. To validate these designs, complex multi-physics analyses and high-performance solvers that provide great accuracy are required. TEN TECH LLC being a Small Business, high-end CAE software procurement is always a delicate balancing act as high performance and accuracy comes at a hefty premium. At least it did until now: enter MSC One.

MSC One is an expanded products token system that allows companies to take advantage of the breadth and depth of MSC Software’s simulation portfolio within a flexible token-based licensing system. Offered on an annual subscription basis, MSC One provides efficient implementation and access to a suite of multidisciplinary engineering software tools.

For TEN TECH LLC, the ability to easily access the extensive MSC One product portfolio, including all of MSC’s core products such as MSC Nastran, Adams and Marc, but also Sinda and SC/Tetra for thermal and CFD analysis was an easy choice. Access to such a variety of tools through a “check-in, check-out” token system, allows the team at TEN TECH to solve a multitude of their clients’ vibration, non-linear, thermal and CFD problems for a fraction of the cost typically incurred.

Recently, TEN TECH LLC’s Structural Mechanics Group has been actively involved in the development of telescope structures, providing Finite Element Analysis expertise for the design validation of the telescope structure supporting the Polarization of Background Radiation telescope array experiment (POLARBEAR-2).

Funded by the Simons Foundation, POLARBEAR-2 is an international collaborative effort including 8 countries, and 20 institutions. Based in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the Simons Array, comprised of three polarization of background radiation telescopes, will probe the skies in search of proof of inflation, the hypothetical moment following the Big Bang.

“We heavily relied on MSC Apex and MSC Nastran to perform these complex structural analysis tasks. MSC One made our life much easier than with our traditional workflow” - William Villers, CTO & Director of Engineering at TEN TECH LLC.

The TEN TECH team was able to quickly mesh and run FEA on a very large and detailed model of a complex assembly, starting from native CAD files. Apex allowed the team to proceed with incremental analyses of subassemblies and build a very large and complex model “right the first time”. With Apex, the engineers shortened their “CAD to FEM to Analysis” time by 25%-30% compared to their traditional workflow process. At the same time, they delivered a high fidelity, reliable model to their client.

MSC Nastran’s high performance was highlighted throughout the entire project: through its ultra-fast iterative solver and GPU-accelerated processing for linear statics, to Automated Component Modal Synthesis (ACMS) and Distributed Memory Parallel (DMP) solver for large dynamics problems, MSC Nastran performed flawlessly and delivered the highly accurate results required to achieve the proper confidence level in the design.

TEN TECH plans to further utilize MSC’s products through MSC One, including Sinda, Adams, and MSC Nastran. The price of MSC One gives the TEN TECH team the financial freedom they need to use MSC Nastran and other products.

Increased productivity by utilizing MSC Apex Fossa to save time during the design process

Having a pleasant driving experience is a key determinant when purchasing or driving a vehicle. For companies buying trucks and for truck drivers, it is also a matter of health and productivity. Most drivers spend more than 8 hours a day in the truck cabin. High noise levels or unpleasant sounds in a working environment are known to cause excessive fatigue and health problems. It is therefore crucial for truck manufacturers to carefully design their new products and shape the cabin noise to go beyond the requirements of their customers, and propose the most enjoyable driving experience possible.

With a wide range of premium trucks, Scania, one of the world’s leading truck manufacturers naturally aims at designing trucks with outstanding comfort and performance. Scania’s Complete Vehicle Acoustic Department is focused on getting their vehicles up to speed with today’s drivers’ expectations by addressing the level and quality of cabin noise in their vehicles. The development for more optimized cabins is supported by extensive testing and the introduction of new methods based on vibro-acoustic simulations. For this endeavor, Scania’s development team chose to use Actran, a product of FFT, an MSC Software Company, to improve their designs and shorten their design cycles.

Scania aims to increasingly utilize Actran’s simulations results to compare different designs and define the design directions early in the product development cycle, without the need for physical testing. To support this decision-making process, a listening studio was built at Scania. The studio is similar to that of a professional mixing studio. It encompasses a 7.1 surround system for sound and is designed to produce exactly the same listening experience for anyone who is seated in the center of the room. During subjective evaluation sessions, Per-Olof conveys to his fellow colleagues his findings based on his simulations. He combines test and simulation data to replicate the environment of driving an actual truck. This process helps managers to make important decisions, which will affect the design of the cabin. “It is a very different response from management when you can play a sound and they can have this subjective experience,” Per-Olof said. “It’s not really possible to understand from a graph what you will hear in the truck,” he explained.

With the use of Actran in this new simulation process and the subjective evaluations allowed by the listening studio, Scania now has all the tools needed to improve its customer driving experience even further, while having a more efficient design process.

Enhancing the design of the truck to prevent the negative effects of Cabin Noise

Where did our universe come from? Since the beginning of time, astronomers and physicists such as Galileo, Copernicus, and Einstein have dedicated their life’s work to this timeless question. Even today, investigating the universe’s origins remains hotly debated. To help answer this, the team at the Giant Magellan Telescope is building a 200 foot-high telescope that will help scientists uncover what has plagued scientists and science fiction enthusiasts alike: Are we alone? How did the first galaxies form? What is the fate of the universe? The GMT is uniquely poised to answer these questions due to its ability to collect more light than other telescopes and to its’ uniquely high resolution (which will be the highest ever achieved in a telescope). The project is sponsored by Astronomy Australia Limited, Carnegie Observatories, Harvard University, and other leading universities and research institutions from around the globe. Due to the complexity of the structure, placement of mirrors, and movements that will occur during operation of the telescope, the engineering team at GMTO used MSC Software’s simulation tool, MSC Apex, to simplify and shorten their design and simulation workflow.

MSC Apex’s dynamic components for design, specifically its importing utility and meshing features, were instrumental in the design and analysis of the GMT. The software was essential in helping to identify particular wind dynamics issues during the design process, which allowed developers to save time and increase productivity. MSC Apex became a critical tool in the GMT’s design process due to its easy user interface and customized meshing and simulation features. With the aid of MSC Apex, engineers at GMTO will be able to answer some of the toughest questions faced by mankind in a more streamlined, efficient way than ever before.

Increased productivity by utilizing MSC Apex Fossa to save time during the design process

One of the most prominent areas of focus in the robotics industry today is the design of more human-like robots. Giving human features to robots offers tremendous advantages compared to traditional designs; for example, some robots are now designed with human-like legs rather than wheels, which enables them to move more easily in dangerous environments and over obstacles.

“Prototypes of the ADDAM robot and the robotic arm were built and performed as predicted by the simulation with a high degree of fidelity. The ADDAM robot demonstrated human-like walking capabilities and met all of our other design objectives. The robotic arm can lift an object greater than 5 kg even though its own mass is only 2.2 kg.” - YongKwun Lee, Professor in the Department of Biorobotics in Kyusyu Sangyo University.

Researchers are planning to improve on the design of ADDAM by using multibody simulation to further improve the capabilities of ADDAM, such as by enabling it to perform fast walking, running, jumping, turning, and lifting heavy weights.

• Adams simulation results achieved good correlation with physical measurements
• Design of Experiments was applied on the robot model to optimize each design parameter using Adams
• Prototypes of the ADDAM robot and the robotic arm were built and performed as predicted by the simulation with a high degree of fidelity

Welding is a common practice in the automotive, aerospace, railways, ship building, and machinery industries. It allows for the joining of components by subjecting them to intense localized heat which melts and coalesces the material in the welded region, forming a permanent joint. Multiple process parameters influence the effectiveness of the welding, which include energy source, shape and size of the melt zone, heat affected zone, and speed. Understanding and improving this challenging process through physical iteration can be time consuming and expensive. MSC’s Marc, a nonlinear finite element analysis tool, can provide the required insights needed to solve these parameters in a cost-effective manner.

The model demonstrated the effects of thermal contact at the joint interface during GTAW welding of the dissimilar materials, and the influence of transverse offsetting of the arc away from the weld line. “We found Marc to be very good in simulating the complex physics of the welding problems. Matching results with experimental data demonstrated that this approach can be used to significant costs by reducing material waste and improving life of the welded parts,” says Singh.

• Easily try alternative approaches without having to invest in physical experimentation
• Gain greater insight into temperature gradients with simulation, which are harder to measure in physical tests

Mankind has explored the galaxies, the depths of the sea, and looked back millions of years into the past. But, there are still some surprisingly large gaps in our understanding of the human body and how it works. For example, the knee joint is at the center of the kinetic chain running from the foot to the pelvis. But the connection between the tibia and femur provides very little geometric constraint. Knee stability is achieved through the operation of a multitude of soft tissue structures. The details of how these structures work are still largely a mystery. MSC’s Adams, a multibody dynamics simulation solution, can provide the right insights to help get a better understanding of the inner workings of the knee.

With the use of Adams, MAC researchers have begun to take the steps to grasp the complexity of the menisci function in the knee. They found that increasing the ligament length by about 20% will result in almost a complete loss of force transfer through the menisci during walking. The reduction in the forces absorbed by the menisci increases the forces that were directly transmitted between the tibia and femur, increasing the potential for joint damage and pain. These results will enable researchers and physicians to target and prevent future pain and damage more efficiently than ever before.

• Predicts ground reaction forces with over 90% correlation to physical results
• Accurately predicts internal contact forces
• Determines effect of slack in menisci

There are many coastal areas where local geography constrains the movement of ocean tides, resulting in very strong currents. Water is 800 times denser than air so these currents could potentially generate a lot of electricity. GE tidal turbine technology brings proven concepts and industry-leading knowledge to tap into this reliable and predictable energy source. The Oceade* tidal turbine features a buoyant nacelle that enables the turbine to be easily towed to and from the operating site. This eliminates the need for specialist vessels, reducing the cost of installation and maintenance. GE has proven its Oceade* turbine operating at a full 1 Megawatt, injecting over 1.2 GWh of electricity to the grid. This test program has enabled GE to validate the installation and retrieval processes, autonomous running, and the performance and power curve of the new turbine.

The simulation results provided the information to evaluate the dynamic response of the proposed design prior to investing in a physical prototype and testing. Based on the results, GE design assumptions and margins were verified and opportunities for optimization identified. The company is now moving forward to the testing phase confident that the design has been “de-risked” from a dynamic as well as a kinematic standpoint. “This project was a great working experience that allowed the GE team and MSC consultants to share knowledge and gain experience from their own respective expertise,” concluded Valentin Radigois, Lead Engineer, Mechanical- Components, GE Renewable Energy.

• Predict the dynamic behavior of the turbine including multiple flexible components
• Integrate real bearing and gear effect including 3D contacts
• Simulate various dynamic loads to evaluate complex behaviors and coupling effects
• Performed modal analysis of the full structure