MSC Software Corporation

The configuration of cooling fans inside electronic devices is complex. This frequently results in generating large amounts of data when trying to represent the configuration accurately for fluid analysis calculations. To deal with this, engineers use the concept of the pressure-flow-rate (PQ) characteristics to simplify the calculation, although it has been pointed out that this simplification often becomes the source of errors. Professor Hajime Nakamura, from the National Defense Academy of Japan, has been exploring these issues pertaining to fan models for electronic devices and has discovered a more accurate model.

Simulating complicated wind flows around buildings and the surrounding environment used to mean conducting wind tunnel tests that required a long time, large-scale facilities, and skilled experts. Now, many of the experimental tests are being replaced by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Combining these two approaches draws on the advantages of each and is commonly done in engineering today. But Mr. Tetsuo Matsuyama from WindStyle Corporation, who has used scSTREAM for many years, envisions additional opportunities for CFD. He explains how using scSTREAM proactively to interpret wind flow can change design processes and building management.

SC/Tetra is three dimensional thermal fluid analysis software developed by Software Cradle Co., Ltd. that is used by customers all over the world. SC/Tetra is renowned for being a highly practical and accurate analysis tool.

Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute (NMIRI) is a public research institute in Nagoya city that provides test and analysis support to small/medium sized companies in cooperation with local industries. When the client's work involves thermal management, the engineers at NMIRI use Software Cradle simulation tools to perform the simulations. The engineers also use these tools for their own basic research and to verify the performance of test instrumentation.

Payette, an award-winning architectural design firm located in Boston with 165 employees, specializes in high technology building design for science institutions, healthcare, and research facilities. With the emphasis on technology the firm’s projects often feature energy efficiency, naturally ventilated spaces, or a thermal corridor. Payette’s projects include the Duke University’s Environment Hall (Picture 1), George Washington University’s School of Public Health, and many more, all of which were recognized for design excellence. Payette has used scSTREAM CFD software since 2013.

The IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) plays an essential role in activating the inverter within the PCU (Power Control Unit), the main HEV/EV control module, to generate three-phase electric power.

SAXA Inc. (hereinafter SAXA) is a development company of business phone systems and network equipment and has obtained significant results using the software. SAXA launched a working group specializing in thermal design, and then in-house rules were prepared for selecting and utilizing software product before adopting HeatDesigner. 'HeatDesigner' is developed by Software Cradle and is one of the major thermo-fluid analysis software for electronic devices. And the company has achieved zero production rework in only one year. This time, we interviewed a SAXA staff about how they made full use of the software and what lies behind their success.

MIZUTANI ELECTRIC IND. (hereinafter Mizutani Electric), a specialty manufacturer of heat sinks and radiators for electronic devices, has been using Cradle scSTREAM for thermal analysis. Computational simulation has enabled the company to decrease the amount of experimental testing needed and substantially reduce their product development lead-time. Now they want to take another step to advance their simulation capabilities by drawing on their past experiences. To learn more about how Mizutani Electric is advancing the use of simulation, we interviewed Yousuke Watanabe, assistant manager of the Mizutani Electric Technology Center.

Enables simulation of moving objects with complex movements and/or rigid-body collision with walls - by overlapping multiple mesh regions

The demand for solutions to energy problems continues to grow, which underlines the significance of reducing energy consumption in the context of architecture lifecycle. SHINRYO CORPORATION has made remarkable achievements in the field of air-conditioning system design, which is crucial for solving this energy issue. They have introduced a way to incorporate CFD into their BIM system. This has equipped their engineers with the design tools needed to optimize air-conditioning systems.

JOS computes the temperature and quantity of perspiration of a human body. JOS models a human body by dividing it into seventeen body segments to simulate the morphological and physiological characteristics and thermoregulation function of each segment by solving heat balance equations.

Reinforced plastics and composite materials are chosen more and more because of their improved performance regarding damping for NVH applications compared to current metals. Material specialists need to efficiently identify this mechanical characteristic which, like the stiffness and failure, is anisotropic and driven by local fiber orientations in the material’s microstructure. Moreover for NVH purposes, the frequency dependency must be clearly identified in order to provide accurate material models to design engineers.

• Available in < 2 days when using available constituent models
• Quickly evaluate various multiphase materials to identify the best candidates for NVH targets
• Avoid waiting time and unneeded cost of performing additional experimental tests for each candidate material

Discontinuous fiber composites (DFC) are produced by compression molding of prepreg chips which are made of a combination of unidirectional fiber and a Thermoset or ThermoPlastic matrix. In some cases, matrix is made of thermoset which consolidate through a chemical/ cure reaction at elevated temperature. However, when the curing cycle is not well monitored it can be observed some cracks that appear between the chips due to apparition of thermal stresses normal to two chips.

Due to their complex microstructure, these materials request the definition of new dedicated methods in order to capture accurately the local orientation and to compute the local homogenized properties in order to simulate correctly the curing and the design process. Hence, the Digimat platform is used to build a complete methodology to compute these residual stresses and to take them into account during the design cycle of the part.

• Propose a complete methodology to analyze Discontinuous Fiber Composites: Understand the effect of the local microstructure on the behavior of the part.
• Improve the understanding of the effects of the manufacturing cycle parameters: Evaluate the risk fo the apparition of defects between the chips for a given set of parameters of manufacturing (pressure, temperature histories). Though their nature is different, this procedure can be applied for both, thermoset or thermoplastic resin.

Designing lightweight CFRP structures with confidence requires access to allowables values. Allowables generation is extremely time and money consuming. Various layups, coupon tests and environment conditions must be covered for each characterized material system. Each test configuration must be repeated many times to obtain a statistical evaluation of the mechanical property.

Digimat-VA successfully predicted allowable values within 10% error for all cases except the soft open-hole tension scenario. Typical run times for unnotched tests were 3 minutes, while it look less than 10 minutes for open-hole cases.

Laminate T-stiffeners are widely used in the aerospace industry to transfer the 3D complex loads between the stiffeners and the skins. However, the way they are manufactured can affect the inherent properties.

In this case, we have considered that the stiffener and the skin were assembled using an RTM process but because of the poor infiltration of the resin due to the fiber orientation changings, some dry spots appear in the noodle. These dry spots or voids affect the mechanical properties of the noodle and this knock-down of properties must be taken into account during the design process.

With Digimat, effective modeling solution enables to understand the sequence of failure of the structure and the resultant load level. The results allowed to capture the progressive loss of stiffness of the structure and the resulting load.