Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2021 - 15a

DEMOCRATIZING SIMULATION
CAE experts.This in turn
minimizes the iterations
required to arrive at a robust
design and frees up time
for the CAE team to take on
other projects.
» BENEFITS OF
SIMULATION APPS
The M&M team found
that the use of apps makes
concept evaluation and
finalization considerably more
accessible. With apps, the
designers can try out various
designs themselves and
objectively rank them based
on set criteria. The parametric
nature of apps offers
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      
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a lot of time. Designers require new concepts to be evaluated
quickly, which may not be possible because of the required
complexity of the analysis. After the design is evaluated by the
CAE team, the design team then modifies the design based
on the CAE results and again waits for validation by the CAE
experts. These iterations continue until a final design is obtained.
As a result, the design lead time can run into a couple of
months for some vehicle components, depending upon the
number of iterations required for design finalization. Moreover,
the time-intensive CAE analysis between design iterations
leaves the CAE experts juggling between intermediate design
evaluations across several departments of an organization.
Simulation software like the COMSOL Multiphysics®
software, with the built-in Application Builder tool, enable
domain experts to harness the power of simulation and help
companies like M&M to reduce this bottleneck. The Methods
Development team at M&M has developed close to 20
simulation applications, or apps, which are being used across
teams working in different domains, including design; testing;
and noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) analysis. The apps
are deployed to the organization using both COMSOL Server™
and COMSOL Compiler™.
These apps empower the design team with access to
engineering analysis tools, allowing them to actively
participate in the validation of new designs right from the
concept phase, thus collaborating much more efficiently with
convenience and flexibility for
different design options to be
evaluated quickly, leading to
a short turnaround time.
Apps are especially
beneficial when the design
is in the concept stage, since
there is no dependence on
CAD availability. Earlier, the
process was constrained by
delivery of the design layout
by the CAD team; this further
increased the design lead
time. With the introduction
of apps, the design evaluation
can begin much faster. Apps
are used as a starting point
when the detailed CAD is not
available. A number of ideas
are evaluated and the CAD is
prepared only for shortlisted
designs.
For example, in the Chassis
Concept Design app, faster
evaluation of key metrics,
such as the fundamental
frequency of vibration as
well as bending and torsional
stiffness, is possible while
performing NVH analysis.
The app users do not have
to manually add boundary
conditions and mesh; the
app is doing that for them
automatically. This leads to
a larger number of concept
designs being evaluated for
the same design cycle.
Another important aspect
is visualization of the concept
designs. In the earlier process,
the designers were using
time-consuming tools, or
they were dependent on
other teams to observe the
effects of their changes
on the ensuing design,
which in turn made it more
difficult to propose intuitive
modifications. The use of
apps allows designers to
visualize different designs as
well as the effect of changing
key parameters on the
resultant design. This enables
M&M teams to make more
informed decisions about
the feasibility of a design
concept. This is highlighted in
the Stabilizer Bar app, where
a simplified modal analysis
can be performed for quick
evaluation of various design
concepts.
Additionally, the
user-friendly interface
of simulation apps has
made them very easy and
convenient to adopt across
M&M. The design process is
easily accessible to various
teams involved, since the
apps can be launched from
the web browsers on their
individual machines with
the help of COMSOL Server.
Further, postprocessing and
sharing results via the built-in
reporting functionality makes
collaboration across teams
much easier.
Apps are also converted
into standalone executables
with COMSOL Compiler, which
simplifies the accessibility of
apps, since the app user can
run the simulation without
a COMSOL Multiphysics®
or
COMSOL Server license.
» STREAMLINING
PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
The most prominent
advantage observed by the
M&M team after adopting
apps in their design process is
that the number of iterations
before design finalization
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Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2021

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