Modelling sofware offers solutions but still has limits

Tom Shelley reports on state of the art in engineering modelling but qualifies the claims with a few words of caution A transformed vendor of analysis software is moving towards greater integration with design and general business processes, at a time when competition and pressures resulting from the increased costs of energy are significantly affecting the sorts of products that customers want. The software is continuing to develop, and makes the design of products possible that were not practicable before, but listening to users, it is evident that it is still necessary to be conservative in expectations about what the software can truly model. Bill Weyand is the new CEO of MSC Software, formerly head of SDRC, but brought out of retirement following an SEC investigation, after which in his words, "A number of people are no longer with the company." He told the annual Virtual Product Development Conference, this year held in Munich, that his goal has been to transform a vendor of software tools, into "The Enterprise Virtual Product Development Company." The concept is built around 'Sim Designer' which is a simulation workbench, whose first release is integrated with Catia V5, to provide, "Early confidence in the design", 'Sim Office' for the expert analyst and 'Sim Manager', the knowledge base for knowledge and process re-use. He also talked about the importance of "Strategic Partnerships," with customers, which in answer to our question, were said to involve monthly and bi-monthly meetings between supplier and customer, and semi-annual meetings between management executives of both companies, to assist in customers, "Re-engineering how they do their business." One of the driving forces is a move to make products more energy efficient. Bill Weyand addressed his audience quite passionately, pointing out that gas guzzling SUVs were filling US showrooms because customers no longer wanted them, and designers needed to get down to quickly designing mass market, fuel efficient hybrids, which customers did want, before manufacturers in the Far East came in to fill the gap. Listening to some of the customer presentations, it was evident that designers are already using software to tackle some of the quite difficult challenges caused by moving to more fuel efficient designs. Dr Daniele Speziani, technical director of Phitec Ingegneria spoke about dealing with 'Oil canning' when thin door panels click in and out when one takes hold of the handle, and denting of thin panels caused by palm printing, door to door contact, hail, stones and door to door impact. The challenge, we gathered was to design out problems at an early stage by changing the shape, manufacturing process or type of steel, rather than having to revert to an expensive bodge, later on, that might involve local reinforcement or turning to composites. For the oil canning studies, he described how his team had used MSC.Nastran linear buckling analysis, and for the dent studies, MSC.Marc elasto plastic analysis. In the course of the work, the company had developed its own software to prepare the solver's input file and display results, which he said was freely downloadable from their website, www.pithecingegnaria.it. Dr Joaquim Pujol, of the Zanani auto group in Barcelona, also described how he had used MSC.Marc to model wheel covers, to ensure that these are not so firmly attached that motorists cannot get them off without breaking them when they have to change a wheel, yet do not fall off when driving over bumps. The problem is apparently, to ensure that all function correctly despite variations within manufacturing tolerances. He was proud of the fact that his modelling results closely correlated with the results of real world tests on manufactured covers, enabling them to design the covers right first time in future. Other speakers described modelling aerospace components, engines, power trains, medical devices and rail bogies, particularly their interaction with rails and points. The latter, undertaken by Ilse Vermeij of NedTrain Consulting in The Netherlands, involved the modelling of interactions between trams and the 'English switch' which we learned was liable to derail good Dutch trams. She described using MSC.Adams/Rail, plus a considerable amount of extra work with Matlab to automate the effects of changing cross sections encountered as wheels went through the points. Nothing is easy it seems. MSC Software Phitec Ingegneria Pointers * MSC Software is moving from being a vendor of software tools to a provider of solutions, working closely with its customers * Despite the increasing sophistication of the software, it still often requires significant additional work to adapt it to solving real world problems, even those which at first sight might look trivial, because of their underlying complexity