<<

Developing Power Keeping JSF Pilots Innovating Better Products Tools with Simulation Cool in the Cockpit with Optimization Tools

Ideas and Strategies In Product Development

NASA Develops Wireless Sensors to Detect Lightning Strike Damage to Composite Aircraft

Winter/Spring 2015 | An Publication HyperWorks Unlimited®

Fully managed HPC cloud appliances for CAE

1820 E. Big Beaver Road Troy, MI 48083-2031 www.C2Rmagazine.com

Editorial Director Beverly Beckert [email protected]

Publisher Michael J. Kidder [email protected]

Media Services Manager Sam Schulenberg [email protected]

Creative Director Cavedweller Studio [email protected]

Audience Development Manager Maria Miesik [email protected]

Concept To Reality is published semi-annually for Altair Engineering, Inc. by Penton Marketing, a unit of Penton. HyperWorks Unlimited HyperWorks Unlimited Virtual Appliance Physical Appliance

1300 E. 9th Street Cleveland, OH 44114-1503

Subscription Services To subscribe to Concept To Reality, visit www.C2Rmagazine.com/subscribe

Send address changes to: Beverly Beckert Penton • Unlimited use of Altair’s HyperWorks CAE suite 1300 E. 9th Street Cleveland, OH 44114-1503 • Pre-packaged, fully-configured, no IT support required • Single pane of glass, secure access to HPC resources © 2015 Altair Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved. • Dynamic scalability to support varying CAE demand All trademarks, company names and • Simulate anywhere – remote modeling, analysis, visualization product names referred to throughout • Value-based, pay-for-use model for small and large enterprises this publication are the properties of their respective companies. All rights reserved.

Visit altair.com/cloud to learn more Printed in the U.S.A. about simulating in the cloud with Altair.

Innovation Intelligence®

Altair_Cloud-C2R_Advert_032017_03.indd 1 3/20/15 3:23 PM Winter/Spring 2015 Contents

12 Features 04 Simulation Powers Development of Professional Power Tools CAE is a core element in developing high-end, long-lasting professional power tools at DeWalt, a Stanley Black & Decker brand. NASA Develops Wireless Sensors to 08 Detect Lightning Strike Damage to Composite Aircraft Computational electromagnetic software enables a team of researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center to develop wireless resonant sensors that can measure and mitigate lightning strike 04 damage to composite aircraft. 12 Chiller Unit Keeps Joint Strike Fighter Pilots Cool A model-based embedded development system enables AMETEK to design, simulate, create firmware for and validate a chiller unit 08 16 control system. 16 Optimization Technology: Leveraging a Solid Foundation to Innovate Better Products For more than 20 years, steady improvements in the OptiStruct solver platform have enabled users in a range of industries to tackle increasingly complex design challenges. Departments LETTER FROM THE CEO: Ad Index 02 Coupling Topology Optimization with 3D

IFC...... Altair Printing Can Spur Design Innovation 3...... solidThinking 3D printing’s symbiosis with topology optimization enables greater creative expression while maintaining structural integrity and 7...... FEMFAT performance attributes. 15...... Fluidon IBC...... Cradle IN THE NEWS BC...... Altair 19 Stay up to date on Altair’s latest activities

Winter/spring 2015 | Concept to reality | 1 Letter from the CEO

Coupling Topology Optimization with 3D Printing Can Spur Design Innovation

With today’s rapid advancements in James R. Scapa Over the past 20 years, Altair has pioneered Chairman and CEO, Altair additive manufacturing (commonly known as and globally led the advancement of topology 3D printing), the manufacturing industry is on optimization technology. Delivered through our the cusp of an innovation explosion. This shift OptiStruct® and solidThinking Inspire® software promises to challenge our conventional thinking brands, our technology allows designers and and practices and even revolutionize how we pro- engineers to discover completely new shapes to Wduce products and how we design. meet aggressive packaging, lightweighting and For the design and engineering community, structural performance objectives. 3D printing this will mean fewer and some different creative provides new opportunities to fully explore the limitations inherent with traditional manufac- design space – unconstrained – for even greater turing methods. To fully realize the potential of savings and increased performance. additive manufacturing, a fundamental rethink- For example, a unique capability of 3D print- ing of the development ing lies in its ability to manufacture hollow process is required to take shapes with complex external geometry using advantage of the enormous tiny cells known as lattice structures. OptiStruct 3D printing’s symbiosis with design freedom it offers. now extends topology optimization to assist in Never before has simula- the efficient blending of solid-lattice structures topology optimization enables tion, especially topology with smooth transitional material volume. optimization, been more To enable more efficient data transfer for pro- greater creative expression while relevant to the design duction, Altair is working closely with several community, allowing software and hardware partners – including most maintaining structural integrity and development of the most of the 3D printer equipment manufacturers – to performance attributes. innovative, lightest weight accommodate various requirements of the 3D products of our time. printing process. Forward-thinking com- We invite you to learn more about Altair’s panies have long employed technology to support 3D printing – and how topology optimization to create innovative, light- it can improve design innovation – by visiting weight, and structurally efficient concepts. It is www.altair.com/3Dprinting. To see how the stra- particularly well-suited for use with 3D printing, tegic use of simulation can drive performance, since topology optimization tends to create free- quality and efficiency in product development, form, organic structures that are often difficult to please enjoy the applications shared in this issue construct in their literal form using traditional of Concept To Reality. manufacturing methods. 3D printing offers symbiosis with topology optimization, enabling greater creative expression while maintaining structural integrity and performance attributes.

2 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 Design for the Freedom of Additive Manufacturing

What if you could start your design process with the ideal structural part and then use the freedom of additive manufacturing to make that part a reality? With solidThinking Inspire®, this is now possible.

 Learn more at solidThinking.com/InspireC2R

© 2015 solidThinking, Inc. All Rights Reserved. An Company Design Strategies Simulation Powers Development of Professional Power Tools CAE is a core element in developing high-end, long-lasting professional power tools at DeWalt, a Stanley Black & Decker brand. By Evelyn Gebhardt

Since the invention of the firsthand-held power tools more than 100 years ago, the industrial power tool industry has evolved to a very competitive and challenging market. There is a high and increasing demand for long-lasting quality tools offering power, quality and safety. These tools are used under the harshest conditions and are expected to work without any Sperformance loss over years with little maintenance. Global and regional competition to build better tools is very high. Because of the long life cycle of power tools, a short time to market with new advancements is important for brand loyalty and staying ahead of the competition. DeWalt, a Stanley Black & Decker brand, is a leading manu- facturer of industrial/professional power tools with more than 300 power tools and equipment products as well as 1,000 power tool accessories, including corded and cordless drills, saws, hammers, grinders, routers, planers, plate joiners and sanders as well as lasers, generators, compressors, and nailers, among others. DeWalt tools can be found wherever tools are sold, globally. The DeWalt brand has three development sites – one in the United States, one in China and one in Germany. The German development site in Idstein designs, develops and manufactures hammer drills for the DeWalt brand, handling everything from the initial concept to the engineering and the manufacturing. A team of engineers executes the simulation/ computer-aided engineering (CAE) tasks, collaborating closely with the hammer drill design teams at the Idstein facility. CAE Increases Global Competitiveness Eight years ago, the DeWalt engineers took a major step to expand the use of CAE technology within their estab- lished product development process. During the learning and early adoption phases, CAE was not relied upon heav- DeWalt, a Stanley Black & Decker brand, is a leading manufacturer of indus- ily within DeWalt’s mature, proven development cycle. Since trial/professional power tools such as this jackhammer. The company relies on then, staff expertise and organizational confidence have grown CAE technology within its product development process to optimize its tools.

4 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 MODELING “The second reason,” says Syma, “is Altair as a company itself. Altair really is an engineering company. Most of its employees are engi- neers, and when we talk to them, significantly, and CAE we always know that we are talk- is now a fully integrated, ing to experts who understand us, mainstream activity in our challenges and our needs, not DeWalt’s hammer drill devel- only as simulation and software opment process. experts but also as engineers. We Detailed cutaway view of Dewalt’s One of the first Altair CAE tools Stanley Black & Decker/ hammer drill finite-element model regularly hold meetings with the DeWalt German engineers started to use was HyperMesh®, developed using HyperMesh®. German Altair team in Cologne, a finite-element pre-processing software. Part of Altair’s and I can say that both parties ben- HyperWorks® CAE suite, HyperMesh is used for tasks such ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION efit from these technology-driven as meshing and model setup. Later, other HyperWorks’ tools meetings. We give them input about followed, among them HyperStudy® for optimization tasks; new things we tested to help them HyperView® for post-processing; and RADIOSS®, OptiStruct®, improve the software, and we receive MotionSolve® and AcuSolve® for solving explicit and implicit their support in using the soft- finite-element analyses, multi-body dynamics and fluid ware without opening a new project problems. for every request – all included in To accelerate its development process while ensuring an the license fee for the software. unwavering commitment to quality and performance, espe- “Another important reason why cially for the high-end DeWalt product line, Black & Decker we work with Altair and its solu- started to ramp up its own CAE department at the DeWalt site tions,” continues Syma, “is that Altair in Germany. offers an entire suite of CAE tools. If “The company realized that it had to start using virtual you also consider the Altair Partner development tools more and that it needed to implement new Drill hammer gear housing struc- Alliance program, you are able to tural analysis for assembly and development methods, extending traditional practices based operating loads using OptiStruct®. handle almost every development on experience and physical tests,” says Andreas Syma, direc- task with HyperWorks and its partner tor of Global CAE for DeWalt power tool development. “With tools, including multi-physics and co- CFD ANALYSIS the competition we face, especially in hammers, and the strong simulation aspects.” pressure to reach market maturity as early as possible while keeping all of our quality standards for professional tools as Automation Ensures high as possible, Stanley Black & Decker had to enhance its Unwavering Quality development processes,” he explains. “As a first step, we imple- mented advanced CAE methods within Dewalt’s development Syma describes that a regular use process of hammer drills in Germany. With the success of the of the HyperWorks suite is to simu- CAE methods and the development processes created, we are late the power tool drop test – a very now beginning to implement these throughout Stanley Black common event experienced through- & Decker Inc. for the development of various power tools.” out the service life of any hand-held Today, the Idstein CAE team is using the entire power tool. For the virtual drop test, HyperWorks suite for almost all CAE-related tasks and has the engineers use HyperWorks to Drill hammer airflow simulation also started to implement tools of the Altair Partner Alliance using AcuSolve®. streamline the modeling, analysis (APA) – a program that provides Altair customers access to and results visualization for multiple third-party partner solutions through Altair’s unique unit- IMPACT ANALYSIS drop orientations to predict resulting based software licensing system. Through the APA, DeWalt damage in order to take corrective engineers use FEMFAT and DesignLife for fatigue analysis as steps earlier in the design phase to well as DSHplus in combination with MotionSolve for complex minimize failures in the field and hydraulic and pneumatic systems co-simulation. warranty claims. Following drop test- Syma notes, “I can point out three reasons why we work ing, a power tool has to comply with so extensively with Altair and its solutions. First, there is the set high-quality standards, i.e. noise licensing system – this is really unique in the market. You have and vibrations. In addition, it must a pool of license units you can use for every application offered Hammer drill impact transfer demonstrate no structural damage and penetration analysis using under the licensing agreement. RADIOSS®. and be electrically safe.

Winter/spring 2015 | Concept to reality | 5 Design Strategies

With the virtual drop test, engineers engineers then automatically analyzed vari- can quickly realize any weak points and ous variations of the geometries to see which improve the design until it fulfills all qual- design offered the best hammer mechanism ity aspects. Since the CAE engineers work performance. closely with the design teams, iterations can “The implementation of a CAE-driven be carried out very quickly and easily at a design process,” explains Syma, “really fraction of the cost and time needed for the changed our way of developing new prod- same number of physical tests. ucts. It helped us to test various designs very DeWalt engineers have also adopted the quickly and to find the global optimum. We use of Altair’s optimization technology very defined the design space and applied bound- early in their new product development pro- ary conditions, i.e. load cases. The CAE tools grams – even before the design is made. One then helped us to find an optimized design example of how DeWalt engineers are using with the best possible performance. In a this method, more commonly known as sim- weekend, we can now calculate several hun- ulation-driven design, is in the development dred different model variations and create and optimization of hammer mechanisms. thousands of results, which we post-process The hammer mechanism is a critical automatically, to know in which direction component of a drill hammer and com- we have to fine-tune development.” DeWalt engineers apply co-simulation to bines a lot of engineering competencies. One of the major reasons to automate improve the performance of products using Together with Altair, Syma’s team defined a development processes of professional high- Altair’s OptiStruct® topology optimization and parametric model – a parametric structural performance tools is the strong competition MotionSolve® multi-body dynamics analysis technologies. Redesigning this connecting rod mesh created by applying Altair’s morphing in this market. Syma says, “Our products using co-simulation resulted in a 25% reduction in technology. By using design of experiments have always been very good: they have a long maximum stress level and a lighter weight product. (DOE) and optimization methods, the lifetime, are durable and powerful. But if you

HyperWorks Unlimited HPC Appliance Improves the Capacity for Innovation

Stanley Black & Decker (SBD) is consis- cost of the HPC resources but also about tently seeking ways to maintain a the effort to maintain and support a competitive edge and bring better-per- complex HPC system, as well as the ability forming products to market faster. One to fully leverage the hardware with the just a few days. way the industry leader has learned it can necessary software licenses to keep HyperWorks Unlimited provides accomplish these goals is by leveraging utilization high. numerous benefits including: simulation-based optimization early in the SBD secured bids from three leading • Comprehensive CAE suite with fast, design process. By running simulation HPC hardware providers, but the proposed powerful solvers software on a high-performance comput- solutions did not allay their cost and • Pre-configured HPC system fully ing (HPC) platform, engineers can test complexity concerns. SBD then reviewed managed by Altair several hundreds of designs at a time and HyperWorks Unlimited®, a private cloud • Major cost savings over traditional gain new insights into product perfor- computing solution from Altair. This hardware or software purchase mance, durability, cost and weight. turnkey appliance includes pre-configured SBD now takes advantage of Previously, SBD had been using HPC hardware and software – with HyperWorks Units for unlimited use of all workstations running LS-DYNA, with an unlimited use of all HyperWorks applica- HyperWorks and PBS Works software optimization runtime of about three weeks. tions plus PBS Works for HPC workload within the appliance, supporting massive But this runtime was not sufficient to stay management. virtual exploration. By leasing the competitive – SBD’s goal was to turn The SBD team ran a benchmark study HyperWorks Unlimited appliance, SBD around a job over a weekend (i.e. less than that proved RADIOSS and HyperStudy also shifts its HPC investment from a three days). from Altair would be equivalent in accuracy capital expense to an operational expense. SBD understood that it needed more and performance to their current In addition, SBD deals with a single computational power to meet its goals but LS-DYNA/optiSLang solution. SBD then vendor: Altair fully supports the hardware was reluctant to invest in more hardware or moved forward with the HyperWorks and software, from deployment to ongoing compute cores. The company was Unlimited solution, choosing a 160-core maintenance and support throughout the concerned not only about the additional system that Altair delivered and installed in contract period.

6 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 don’t improve your development processes is available earlier within the shops can be high-performance power tools. and reach a faster time to market, the com- bought sooner. This increases our revenue “For me,” Syma concludes, “Altair’s offer- petition may catch up. If you want to be a and adds to our success.” ing of an entire suite for CAE applications leader in this market, you have to apply vir- is the best solution available in the market tual development tools and methods. If not, Future Development to support innovative product development. you won’t stay in the top list of professional It includes close to everything we need on a tool providers. This is not only valid for drill In a highly competitive market such very high level and all under one licensing hammers but also for angle grinders, drills, as the industrial power tool market, the system – from pre-processing to optimiza- nailers and impact wrenches. In addition we importance of virtual development methods tion tools and solvers to post-processing. have to offer the tools at a competitive price, and the use of dedicated CAE technologies With the recent deployment of Altair’s new which means that we have to develop faster strongly increase. To handle cost-effective CAE high-performance computing appli- and to consolidate development costs. development of these complex products, the ance, HyperWorks Unlimited, HyperWorks “Due to these reasons,” continues Syma, implementation of CAE-driven design pro- really is the best solution for our organiza- “I see the importance of CAE in innova- cesses is almost mandatory. tion to cost-effectively scale to handle the tive product development, especially in Stanley Black & Decker has seen the varying, complex simulation requirements our industry, constantly increasing. The benefit CAE tools bring to their develop- across our entire product portfolio.” intensive and automated use of CAE tech- ment process at DeWalt Germany and nologies is the right way to go. In the long will apply the methods now at their other Evelyn Gebhardt is a contributor to Concept To run, we’ll be able to decrease the amount of development sites. Since last October, Syma Reality magazine. prototypes. Already, we see shorter devel- is now responsible for all DeWalt CAE opment cycles in our product development, departments worldwide – bringing the suc- For more information on HyperWorks and we sometimes get a design right at our cessful process he and his team developed and HyperWorks Unlimited, visit first development attempt. Each tool that in Germany to DeWalt’s other professional www.c2rmagazine.com/2015

FEMFAT (Finite Element Method Fatigue) performs fatigue analyses in combination 10th with all leading finite element pre-processors International and solvers. FEMFAT User Meeting • Fast and flexible fatigue life prediction • Multiple joint type assessment • Open database concept (materials, joints) 10-12 June 2015 Fatigue Analysis Software Steyr, Austria

www.femfat.com

2014-11_Femfat_Inserat_Altair_Final.indd 1 12.12.2014 12:30:29

Winter/spring 2015 | Concept to reality | 7 The Art of Innovation

Statistics on aircraft lightning strikes indicate that in a typical year of operation, a transport aircraft is likely to receive one or two lightning strikes. Depending on NASA Develops geographical regions, flight altitudes, routes and traffic -pat terns, the frequency of lightning strikes occurring can be higher than average. Lightning strikes are a safety hazard to aircraft, espe- Wireless SensorsS cially those manufactured with a considerable amount of composite materials compared to traditional aluminum- skinned designs. When a lightning strike occurs on an to Detect Lightning aircraft, the points of attachment and detachment on its surface must be found by visual inspection. Then, main- tenance staff must assess any damage to ensure safe flight operations. Strike Damage to At the NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, researchers are focused on how a NASA-developed wire- less sensor technology can be applied to lightning strike Composite Aircraft protection, damage detection and damage diagnosis on composite materials used in today’s aircraft. FEKO™ – a comprehensive electromagnetic simulation technol- ogy in Altair’s HyperWorks® suite – in combination with Computational electromagnetic software optimizing and validating sensor designs helps fast-track enables a small team of researchers readiness for aircraft safety and commercial applications. at NASA’s Langley Research Center to A Unique Sensor develop wireless resonant sensors that The Sans Electrical Connection (SansEC) sensor is a wireless electromagnetic resonator that can sense changes can measure and mitigate lightning strike in electromagnetic impedance of the materials in its close proximity. According to George Szatkowski and Kenneth damage to composite aircraft. Dudley, senior researchers at the Langley Research Center, it can measure electrical, mechanical, thermal By Beverly A. Beckert and chemical phenomena. What’s more, it can detect and identify delamination, punctures, voids and rips in com- posite materials.

8 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 Dudley explains that the sensor is a conductive spiral that can be any shape, such as square, triangular, etc. The conductive spiral is an “open” cir- cuit and is not directly wired to any source power. The sensor is powered using time-varying electromagnetic fields to gen- erate a resonant condition on the sensor. When activated by oscillating magnetic fields from a low power transponder, the sensor transmits an elec- tromagnetic response, whose frequency, amplitude and/or bandwidth can be correlated to the magnitude of one or more physical quantities. A remote antenna “interrogates” the sensor and collects the electromagnetic response. Dudley explains that unlike other sensors, a SansEC sensor can be designed for measurements unrelated to each other, like temperature and fluid level, and switch easily from one to another or do both simultaneously. What makes the SansEC sensor unique is that its open-circuit design has no conventional electrical connections, making it highly resilient to dam- age. Traditional closed-circuit sensors use electrical connections that can be degraded or damaged and have the potential for electrical arcing. In addition, the SansEC sensor operates as a single component. It weighs less than its closed-circuit counterparts and can be manufactured at a lower cost. It uses fewer materials, requires less time and labor, produces less waste, and has a broad range of applications. In the Lightning Lab

Szatkowski and Dudley are part of the Lightning and Electromagnetics Effects Mitigation (LEEM) element supported by the Atmospheric Environment Safety Technologies (AEST) project. AEST’s areas of research include engine icing, airframe icing, and atmospheric hazard sensing and mitigation. The NASA AEST research focuses on enabling pilots and con- trollers in the National Aerospace System to obtain real-time, accurate information on a range of atmospheric hazards, leading to improvements in operational efficiencies. When lightning strikes an aircraft made out of aluminum, the metal con- ducts the current and voltage across the aircraft, typically off the tail or wing tips. Composite skinned aircraft do not possess the same level of conductivity and require additional design requirements to provide lightning protection. Szatkowski explains that to address this issue, aircraft manufacturers apply a thin metal shell on the exterior of composite aircraft to act like a “Faraday cage” – a metal mesh that essentially increases the conductivity of the surface to reduce the voltage across the aircraft. The shell adds conductivity to help reduce the lightning skin damage and prevent avionic upsets and currents entering the fuel tank; however, it also adds weight. In addition, aircraft paint typically coats the thin metal shell. An anomaly in the paint could be enough to create an electric field enhancement at that region, resulting in lightning attachment at the anomaly. The SansEC sensor, which is made of a thin, lightweight planar conductor, could eventually replace this metal shell. Szatkowski and Dudley note that the sensor can detect damage beneath the surface of the composite not visible to the human eye, providing a “structural health-monitoring” capability. How do the sensors work in a lightning environment? “When lightning is propagating through the atmosphere,” says Szatkowski, “it has a very strong NASA researchers conduct physical experiments electromagnetic field preceding it. Our sensors are designed to resonate in of lightning strikes, analyze the data and feed it band with the lightning spectrum, which will energize the sensor and estab- into the FEKO solver – a comprehensive elec- tromagnetic simulation technology that is now part of the lish the modal structure – essentially turning the sensors on when there is Altair HyperWorks suite – in order to improve designs of lightning present. The highest electrical field region on the sensors is where the SansEC sensor.

Winter/spring 2015 | Concept to reality | 9 The Art of Innovation the lightning will want to attach. the sensors. This coupling effect enables the “Where this would be of particular sensors to act more powerfully in concert. interest,” continues Szatkowski, “is the Researchers are also focused on the fuselage.” He explains that approximately sensor’s ability to detect damage from 50% of lightning attachments occur on lightning strikes as well as damage within the fuselage. The lightning hits a nose or a composite structures (ranging from mate- wing tip, and as it sweeps through – as the rial fatigue to foreign objects hitting the airplane is moving through that arc attach- aircraft, such as hail or birds). The sensors ment – it typically attaches on the fuselage. can alert pilots to damage as well as provide “With our sensors,” he remarks, “we situational awareness of a vehicle’s health can artificially enhance the electrification in unmanned aircraft. at a given point on the sensor, based on its Dudley says, “The changes in the fre- Langley Research Center design, and that will draw the lightning quency shift of the SansEC sensor – the way The Langley Research Center is one into that point. It’s my philosophy that if it shifts, the amount it shifts, the amplitude of 10 NASA research facilities. Located you can design where the lightning is going changes in the frequency – enable us to in Hampton, VA, its workforce includes to go, you can also design that location to diagnose the nature of the damage. We are about 1,900 civil servants and 1,800 be more robust.” still working on this but have demonstrated contractors who work on aerospace Dudley notes, “If we can create a the capability and feasibility in laboratory systems that can perform in our own preferred impedance path to the demonstrations.” atmosphere, on the or , or lightning to a hard point on the aircraft or anywhere that NASA explores with an edge extremity, it can then safely exit the Cooking with Fire aircraft, and satellites. aircraft and continue onto ground.” Major areas of accomplishment Currently, the team is testing a sensor Research on the SansEC sensor began include: that measures 16-in. square. The benefit to several years ago. According to Dudley, the • Developing technologies to make the larger size is it will generate multiple sensor always performed well in physical airplanes safer, quieter, faster and resonate harmonics in band with the radi- experiments the team conducted. more fuel efficient and environmen- ated lightning spectrum. Previous research During the first year of research, the tally friendly focused on 8-in. and 9-in. square sensors. team decided to implement computa- • Managing development of the Another area of investigation is combin- tional modeling techniques. Since NASA crew module launch abort system ing individual sensors into arrays. SansEC researchers knew of FEKO and its elec- • Testing a new concept for a heat arrays can be tiled across the surface of an tromagnetic simulation capabilities, they shield, known as a Hypersonic aircraft, either along the fuselage or across secured a license. One team member was Inflatable Aerodynamic the wings, similar to bathroom tiles. Clever designated to create computational models Deceleration, or HIAD variations of the tiling placement could cre- of the sensor as well as material models of • Tracking and studying pollution, ate a more opportune impedance path to composite layers. After coming up to speed smoke and fires from aircraft and the plane’s edge or ground points, thanks on its capabilities, the software enabled the spacecraft to better understand the to the electromagnetic coupling between team to validate their physical experiments. impact of aerosols in long-term In the second year, the team applied climate change the software to specific areas of The FEKO Solver study. Dudley explains, “We built a series of models to With the acquisition of EM Software & Systems – S.A. inform our experiments. application of the tool. For example, (Pty) Ltd. in June 2014, Altair added the FEKO® solver to First, we validated the things research on composite materials advanced its HyperWorks® suite. we already knew. Once from “simple” – defining the composite Typical applications of FEKO include antenna design we saw that the physical model as a solid sheet with a particular and placement, electromagnetic compatibility analysis, and computational results electrical property, dielectric properties bio-electromagnetics, radio frequency components, 3D matched up, we knew we and conductivity – to more “complex” – electromagnetic circuits, design and analysis of radomes, were cooking with fire and modeling individual fibers put together in and radar cross-section analysis. could use FEKO to inform us a sheet, then stacking the sheets and rotat- The name FEKO is an abbreviation from a German on the direction to take with ing them to evaluate the layups of different phrase, “field computations involving bodies of arbitrary our physical experiments.” composite matrices. shape.” The addition of FEKO to the HyperWorks suite will As the team’s confidence The team also used FEKO’s time help to address coupled electromagnetic-thermal and in the software’s capabili- domain capabilities to investigate light- electromagnetic-mechanical problems, among others. ties grew, so too did the ning strike attachments toward sensors.

10 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 Dudley says, “With this software, we five. We were able to pro- gained deep insights that we could not duce results more quickly have acquired through physical experi- and accurately than one mentation alone.” He explains that the would expect from a team team would look at the surface cur- of our size.” rents and electric field distributions on a To increase the effi- sheet or sensor and review how they were ciency and productivity emerging. From that, the team would tie of simulations, the team electromagnetic first principles to what has upgraded to a 4-CPU they were observing in the computational license from a 1-CPU Left: Image of an electric field map of a SansEC sensor. models back to the physical experiments. license. Previously, Right: Image of IR thermal data during lightning strike dis- “This led us to make incredible leaps depending on the complex- playing the attachment (where lightning resided on the in understanding how our sensor worked ity of the model, analysis sensor). This is a rough estimate showing correlation between the high electric field on the sensor to the lightning attachment location. and interacted in a lightning environment on a problem could take or in a damage-detection application,” 24 hours. Now, with a par- says Dudley. allelized 4-CPU version of the software modeling of the SansEC sensors increases “Once we would get a series of compu- running on a faster PC cluster with multi- the computational complexity of the prob- tational models,” he continues, “we would core capability, getting results can take as lem. Having a comprehensive simulation conduct an experiment in the lightning little as 30 minutes. tool like FEKO combined with powerful lab or in our high intensity radiated fields’ According to Dudley, the quick process- computer clusters, the research team hopes chamber. For example, we would set up a ing enables the team to explore even more to one day overcome the challenge. shield-effectiveness experiment in which complex models. It also opens the door to we would propagate a wave from one side investigate the use of SansEC sensors on Technology Transfer of the sensor through a wall to the other full-scale aircraft models. side and characterize the amount of energy Szatkowski envisions a “smart skin” While much of the SansEC sensor rejected due to the sensor, then compare it concept using surface tiling arrays of research has been focused on lightning with the computational models. SansEC sensors. The concept could be strike protection, damage detection and “We would then build material mod- carried out in a couple of ways. The damage diagnosis of composite aircraft els, go to the shop, and lay up a particular first approach is one in which the sen- materials, the sensor technology has much weave or orientation of a composite mate- sors would be interrogated for lightning broader applications. rial matrix. We would lay out a sensor strikes through antennas embedded on Szatkowski explains that the SansEC array, strike it and observe the physical the composite, or by direct wiring to the resonance sensor can be used in various experiments. From that, we would analyze sensors themselves. Instrumentation on industrial and medical applications. For the data from the physical test, take that board would quantify the health state of example, the automotive industry could use new knowledge, feed it back into FEKO and the aircraft. the sensors in tire applications to moni- lead to improved designs. The second approach would allow the tor for punctures, temperature, rotation “In this method of using the compu- interrogation system to be external to rate or wear. In the food industry, sen- tational electromagnetic modeling tool to the aircraft. Ground inspection crews or sors could detect spoiled products. In the inform our experiments, then feed experi- maintenance personnel would conduct the oil and gas industry, they could be used to ments back into this computational model structural health measurement post flight, test for water levels, iron or salinity, block- in an iterative approach, we achieved a sci- enabling the SansEC sensors to assist in the ages, leaks or pipe integrity. In addition, ence force multiplier for a small team of visual inspections. the medical and biomedical segments could Modeling a full-scale add SansEC sensors in bandages to monitor composite aircraft is an wounds. NASA is currently collaborating extremely challenging prob- with industry on technology transfer. lem. According to Dudley, According to the researchers, the uses such a model would incor- for the SansEC sensors – and computa- porate realistic composite tional modeling – are nearly limitless. properties, including the electrical properties of the Beverly A. Beckert is Editorial Director of Concept composites, which are vastly To Reality magazine. different from the highly conductive aluminum- For more information on FEKO, visit skinned aircraft. Adding the www.c2rmagazine.com/2015

Winter/spring 2015 | Concept to reality | 11 Process Automation

Chiller Unit Keeps Joint Strike Fighter Pilots Cool

A model-based embedded development system enables AMETEK to design, simulate, create firmware for and validate a chiller unit control system.

By Beverly A. Beckert

The Lockheed Martin Joint Strike nine layers of clothing. Fighter (JSF) program aims to deliver To prevent pilots suffering from heat affordable, next-generation striker aircraft stress in the cockpit and on the ground, weapon systems for the U.S. Navy, Air Force, AMETEK Inc., a leading manufacturer Marines and allies. Currently, the program’s of electronic instruments and electrome- Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II aircraft chanical devices, was contracted to design a are undergoing testing and final development. portable flight suit chiller unit. This cool- TThere are three versions of the aircraft – ing system works with a pilot cooling vest to one designed for conventional take-off and maintain a pilot’s deep body core tempera- landing, one for short take-off/vertical land- ture at ≤ 100.4° F (38° C). ing and a carrier variant. These sophisticated Working under a tight schedule, the aircraft feature an advanced airframe, auto- company leveraged VisSim™ solutions from nomic logistics, avionics, propulsion systems, Altair Inc. to design an embedded control stealth and firepower. system for the chiller unit. The VisSim plat- Pilots assigned to fly such sophisticated form enabled the team to build and simulate aircraft are subject to high levels of accelera- the plant model, design the entire controller tion – up to 9g – and must wear G-suits to and implement the controller design through prevent blackouts. In fact, pilots, depending rapid prototyping and debugging on the on the mission, can potentially wear up to embedded target. Pilot flight suit with AMETEK’s personal cooling unit (PCU) shown in the lower right.

12 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 A Cool System

The chiller unit or personal cooling unit (PCU) forms part of the individual cooling equipment, or ICE. Four components com- prise the ICE system: a PCU, a Li-ion battery, a battery charger and the fluid charger. AMETEK Principal Engineer Kevin Godfrey explains that the PCU interfaces with the cooling vest and delivers the cool- ing fluid. It uses a vapor cycle cooling circuit and receives fluid from the cooling vest, which transfers the heat load extracted from the pilot. In the cockpit, the PCU is powered by the aircraft’s power supply; the Li-ion battery provides the power to the PCU for ground use and attaches to it for ease of carrying. The battery charger provides the charg- ing profile required by the battery assembly and ensures the correct phase of charging is implemented by monitoring the voltage Model-Based Design and current draw taken by the Li-ion bat- tery’s cell pack. The fluid charger is designed When project development of the chiller A Global Reach to operate in a sheltered environment and unit began, Godfrey and his team had a has a manually operated pump that can fill, good idea of what they wanted to develop in AMETEK, Inc. is a global pressurize and drain both the PCU and the terms of hardware. The team decided to use manufacturer of electronic cooling vest. a model-based design approach – leveraging instrument and electromechanical According to Godfrey, the pilot’s vest simulation tools to create virtual prototypes devices. It has more than 120 circulates water glycol, and the chiller unit and to check that the prototypes worked manufacturing locations around the functions as a mini refrigeration system. “It properly before committing to the design. world and generated $3.6 billion in modulates the temperature of the cool water Godfrey had used VisSim tools previously sales in 2013. glycol fluid through piping next to the pilot’s and believed that its model-based embed- The company, with a dozen skin,” he says. ded development system, VisSim Embedded, divisions and business units, serves The chiller unit’s control system moni- would assist them in development efforts. the following markets: tors the temperature sensors and motor As part of the process, the team had to • Aerospace and Defense speed feedback and controls the compressor, model the plant (the cooling vest and the • Connectors, Metals and expansion valve, and fan pump, as well as portable chiller unit) as well as its operations Engineered System & Materials regulating the temperature to the pilot. The and develop the control system that was to be • Electronic Instruments temperature can vary between 57° F (14° C) embedded within the chiller unit. • Motors and Blowers to 72° F (22° C.) VisSim Embedded enabled engineers • Power Godfrey notes that the system has multi- to create a working model of the combined ple control loops. One, for example, regulates chiller unit and control system via a block the fluid-out temperature and the compres- diagram approach. They correlated and they automatically generated ANSI C code sor speed to achieve a specific temperature refined the plant model using measurements from the controller model, compiled and setting. Another control loop monitors the of plant responses in the lab. Engineers then downloaded the code directly to the Texas temperature difference over the evaporator built a multi-loop PID controller in VisSim Instruments (TI) C2000 target chip, using and controls the refrigerant flow. with interlock safety stages that stepped a bi-directional JTAG link (IEEE standard). Part of the design challenge is monitoring through the start-up and shutdown actions Engineers tested the control algorithm the various variables and developing the code necessary to avoid damage to sensitive device firmware running on the C2000 by using that goes to the controlling device to make components. This implemented “model-in- the VisSim target interface block. It resides those adjustments automatically. The chiller the-loop,” or MIL, testing. in the VisSim plant model running in real unit must also run within its power limits to After engineers debugged and tuned the time on the PC and uses JTAG technology to prevent damage. controller in offline VisSim simulations, easily provide an interface between virtual

Winter/spring 2015 | Concept to reality | 13 Process Automation

plant outputs supplied to the firmware and firm- ware control output supplied back to the virtual plant model in VisSim. This implemented “processor-in- the-loop,” or PIL, testing. When engineers were satisfied with the embed- ded controller’s behavior, they replaced the interactive JTAG input/output (I/O) ports with VisSim blocks for analog-to-digital converter input, general-purpose I/O, pulse-width-modulated (PWM) outputs and custom hardware sensors. Engineers again generated ANSI C code from the controller model, downloaded it to the TI target and ran it against the model simulated in VisSim in real time. At this point in the development process, the controller was electrically connected to the VisSim virtual plant using VisSim/Real-Time PRO to interface to Measurement Computing PCI-based analog and digital I/O PC boards to create analog and digital I/O signals equivalent to the signals from the real plant. This implemented “hardware-in-the-loop,” or HIL, testing. Once that verification level was complete, the con- troller firmware was run with the actual hardware plant. Each subsystem was vigorously tested employing this established design-simulate-validate procedure. The testing was also key to adhering to the Safety Evidence Assurance Level (SEAL) standards required by Lockheed Martin. Bi-directional hyperlinks to requirements documents were placed in the VisSim diagram using hyperlink-enabled label blocks. VisSim compound block coloring was employed to track vali- dation progress. VisSim data export with automatic source diagram and time stamp served as evidence of validation of implementation in meeting the SEAL requirements. VisSim Embedded helped engineers prove that the chiller unit achieved the compulsory safety integrity level through subsystem and whole system testing as well as test result archiving. Efficiency and Quality

According to Godfrey, the team wanted to use a turnkey package in the model-based design process. (Top) VisSim is a visual environment for “We wanted to work in one environment, for the modeling and simulating complex dynamic entire tool chain,” he says. AMETEK did not want to systems and for model-based development of embedded systems. This image is an example of perform modeling work in one package and then turn hardware-in-the-loop testing used in the development it over to a separate coding team to write the C code of a portable flight suit chiller unit. (Middle) The and then verify it. control plots from this VisSim analysis show heat load Godfrey says, “The VisSim auto code generator changes in the chiller unit. allowed me to develop the control algorithm against In the AMETEK lab (right), Principal the model within a simulation environment on the Engineer Kevin Godfrey used the VisSim PC – and then take that core control algorithm and environment to model the chiller unit before put it down on the TI microcontroller unit (MCU) committing to any hardware. and control the refrigeration system.” He notes that

14 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 the C code generated from VisSim was con- with a small processor [to have efficiently “VisSim allowed us to model the system cise, sharp and targeted. generated code] because there are not a lot and be confident about our design before In addition, VisSim supports a real-time of extra processor resources. Otherwise, the committing to any hardware,” says Godfrey. operating system that responds to system code would be too big to fit in memory, and “The software guided us in the right path events very quickly within the constraints of the system would run too slowly to control to take and sped up development.” When it a control system running in real time. The the equipment.” came to the verification and validation exer- Visual RTOS provides an “embedded expert,” cises, the software allowed code segments to of sorts, when it comes to generating C code Pleased Pilots be individually tested and the results logged. for the TI DSP. In addition, AMETEK worked closely The TI target incorporates multiple To date, Lockheed Martin has not started with the VisSim consulting team, which pro- I/O components on a single chip, reducing formal inflight testing of the chiller unit, but vided advice on making best use of VisSim to the size and cost of the final system while it does have a unit that has undergone general create TI MCU firmware, as well as fielding increasing its reliability. To develop the C pilot testing. According to Godfrey, the pilots general support questions. code for each of the peripherals, however, are pleased with the chiller unit and don’t Moving forward, AMETEK plans to use is laborious, as a programmer would have want to fly without it. the model-based development process on to learn how all of the peripherals work AMETEK was also pleased with its other projects. For example, it will lever- and develop software for their respective model-based development process and age its work in embedded processors on an applications. VisSim’s contribution to it. According to armored fighting vehicle for Spain, an under- VisSim provides the ability to code for Godfrey, “One of the advantages of VisSim belly camera for a Turkish aircraft and a fan all the peripherals, handling interrupts and is that you are not directly coding in C. control for a Canadian vehicle. scheduling tasks automatically, right from You are employing a diagram and using the graphical diagram. the automatic code generator to create the Beverly A. Beckert is Editorial Director of Concept To With VisSim, AMETEK was able to iter- code.” He explains that if the automatically Reality magazine. ate and optimize the code to be as efficient generated code proved too long, for exam- as possible. According to Godfrey, “It’s more ple, he could go back and easily optimize it To learn more about VisSim, please visit critical within an embedded environment for efficiency. www.c2rmagazine.com/2015

- Hydraulic and Pneumatic System Simulation

- Hydraulic and pneumatic simulation models for 1D standalone analysis and for co-simulation deployment

- Thermo-hydraulic, particle/filtration and pipeline dynamic simulation capabilities

- Support of FMI 1.0 co-simulation slave

- Generic model export to Altair MotionSolve® and to MATLAB®/Simulink®

- Open model source code and expandable model libraries

FLUIDON Gesellschaft für Fluidtechnik mbH Jülicher Straße 338a - 52070 Aachen - Germany - www.fluidon.com

Winter/spring 2015 | Concept to reality | 15 Trends in Technology

In the late 1950s, engineers invented a method to study complex geometries undergoing loads. Eventually Optimization Technology: referred to as the finite-element method, it enabled users to model any geometry in Leveraging a Solid any type of physical condition. Soon after its discovery, the first paper was pub- Ilished suggesting use of this method in Foundation to Innovate an optimization loop to find an optimal, lightweight design. Better Products Thirty years later, research efforts turned to using finite elements and optimi- zation techniques to find the best material By Uwe Schramm distribution in a design space for a given load. At the University of Michigan, for example, professors and students imple- mented their findings into academic code that simulated bone growth trajectories. When one of the students joined Altair and brought news of this technology with him, Jim Scapa, founder and chief executive officer of Altair, saw the potential in engi- neering. Altair started collaborating with the University of Michigan and released the first commercial version of the software under the brand name OptiStruct® in 1993. This theme of optimization – woven throughout the product development pro- cess – has been a constant for Altair since the introduction of OptiStruct. Over the years, the company has built upon a solid technological foundation to advance the capabilities of OptiStruct and expand it into a multi-physics solver platform. Early Accolades

When OptiStruct was introduced, it was enthusiastically received. In 1994, Altair received the coveted Industry Week “Technology of the Year” award for OptiStruct. Early adopters included engineers in 1993 promotional automotive companies like General Motors, Steady improvements in the OptiStruct photo for the inaugural release Opel, Volkswagen and Audi. They recog- solver platform over 20 years have enabled of OptiStruct®. nized the potential of the technology for Pictured left to right saving material in product development. By users to tackle increasingly complex are George Christ starting a design with a material layout that -retired co-founder follows the load paths – and is, therefore, of Altair; Jeff design challenges. Now, OptiStruct in Brennan - Altair optimal – they were able to achieve material Chief Marketing savings and reduce the number of design combination with 3D printing helps to Officer; and James iterations downstream. Scapa - Altair In 1996, Altair brought 100% of the Founder, Chairman achieve more efficient structural designs. development of OptiStruct in-house to and CEO.

16 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 Design Process Using OptiStruct

consulting engineers from Altair ProductDesign together with client engineers to solve the toughest weight reduc- tion challenges posed in their product development process. In fact, Altair’s consulting arm was instrumental in driv- ing both the adoption of optimization technology and OptiStruct software development. With wider adoption of OptiStruct technology, more requirements arose. For example, new physical phenomena Courtesy of Volkswagen AG FEA FEA needed to be introduced to the models in addition to static Design Model Current Space Bracket Bracket Topology Optimized load path analysis. Further, more manufacturing techniques Production Verification Production Optimization had to be considered during the conceptual stage of the design process in order to derive the right shape. The need for more physics led to the implementation aggressively advance the technology and of such phenomena as structural stability, noise and vibration, temperature loading, impact deeply integrate it with its growing suite loading, dynamics of mechanical systems, etc. Altair’s vision of simulation and optimization- of CAE offerings. Renowned optimization driven design required that any new physics introduced into the solution also needed to be and software specialists Harold Thomas integrated with optimization. There is not simply a need for multi-physics simulation but and Yaw-Kang Shyy joined the company. rather for multi-physics-driven design and optimization. After only nine months, the first ver- As such, Altair embarked on a path to develop technology, including MotionSolve®, a sion of the new generation OptiStruct was multibody simulation code, as well as to acquire technology, such as RADIOSS®, a renowned released. One of the first projects included crash simulation code. RADIOSS and MotionSolve have been integrated seamlessly and are the design of an engine mount bracket used in unison with native OptiStruct solutions. from Volkswagen. The 23% weight reduc- tion was impressive. Development Trends As an early stage disruptive technology driven by growing industrial application, the Advances in manufacturing, including the introduction development team worked hard on usabil- of new materials and 3D printing, are currently the big- ity and functionality to fuel adoption and its gest contextual drivers for the development of OptiStruct. value to the product development commu- Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner project has brought a lot of atten- nity. One area on which they concentrated tion to the effective use of composite materials in product was the need to consider manufacturing development. The layout for such materials is not trivial. constraints right from the beginning. They Exploiting the nearly unlimited flexibility of composites in introduced techniques such as filtering out design requires a simulation-driven process. small design features and considering draw Composites allow structures that are completely cus- directions for castings. tomized to the respective loads. Only computer simulation and optimization can evaluate a large number of variants A New Century, More to arrive at the best possible solution. In this field, Altair Innovations engineers have designed an innovative new methodol- ogy for composite materials layout, and the approach has Though first adopted in the automotive been well-suited to projects within the aerospace industry. Traditional Design industry, material layout via optimization In fact, the technology has won several awards for light- techniques trickled into other industries. In weighting innovation. Source: Systems Airbus/BAE 2000, aviation giant Airbus engaged with Recently, additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, Altair to find the optimal material layout has moved into the engineering mainstream. The biggest for the leading-edge wing ribs of its new advantage of this approach to manufacturing is the near superjumbo A380. Several hundred kilo- absence of design constraints. Additive manufacturing is grams of material could be saved on a single very flexible and can actually produce the designs that are plane. Soon after, Boeing also adopted the conceived via material layout optimization with little to no technology. rework. Some processes even allow multiple materials in a OptiStruct used to optimize the design of Since “structural optimization” as a single part. Other advantages include in situ manufactur- parts like the leading- discipline was still somewhat unknown ing, reduction of lead time and removal of most logistics edge wing rib package shown and unfamiliar to engineers, Altair intro- cost. This technology is tremendously promising and is above can result in as much duced a new service model called the the perfect manufacturing complement to OptiStruct to as 40% mass reduction and a Optimization Center. This model placed achieve the most efficient structural designs. weight saving of over 500 Kg per aircraft.

Winter/spring 2015 | Concept to reality | 17 Trends in Technology Courtesy of EADS

3D printed optimized aircraft door Design and hinge bracket using the optimization optimization of engine available in OptiStruct and composite floats. solidThinking Inspire.

Altair’s understanding of the relation- ship between simulation and optimization is a big differentiator for the company. Physics may be complex, and brining rele- vant simulation into the design requires the A Broad Platform use of optimization throughout the process. Moving forward, Altair will continue Aside from the capabilities of OptiStruct as a concept development tool, its platform to build on its solid foundation of optimi- enables a multitude of physics to be solved in parallel, coupled, or sequentially. Through zation tools. There are other domain areas the integration of new solvers, numerical procedures and material models, OptiStruct has that are unfamiliar with this message of matured into a multi-physics solver platform addressing complex loading environments. New optimization. Altair looks forward to the optimization methods have been integrated, and the development team has consistently tar- opportunity of expanding knowledge and geted ease of use, helping users choose the appropriate solution approach. providing the tools that enable users to It is important to simulate multi-physics and to make models that represent real physics innovate better products. correctly. However, simulation results only describe a state. Of course, evaluating a number of parameters through multiple simulations helps comprehension of their influences. The ques- Uwe Schramm is Altair Chief Technical Officer, tion remains: What next? Solvers and Optimization. Knowing the sensitivity of a response with respect to a design parameter does enable insights on how to change the parameters. Thinking about it will only yield the right answer For more information on OptiStruct and occasionally, whereas optimization algorithms automatically trade different attributes solidThinking Inspire, visit www.c2rmagazine. towards the given requirement, yielding the right answer with a higher degree of certainty. com/2015. Altair multi-physics uses optimization to leverage and trade differ- ent simulations of different disciplines to achieve design goals. Strategic Design

A conceptual tool like OptiStruct, used early in the design pro- cess, enables strategic design – knowing where the load paths are, where to add or remove material, or where and how to modify a shape based upon materials considerations – which can improve design outcome. Given that OptiStruct is complex finite-element software, designers may not be willing to invest the time to ascend a rather steep learning curve. With that in mind, Altair has developed solidThinking Inspire®, a conceptual design tool that incorporates material layout via optimization into an intuitive interface. This software has intro- duced a new mode of user interaction, whereby designers interact with and develop virtual prototypes based on optimized geometry. Structural form-finding and multidisciplinary optimization with Details of the computational setup are hidden. OptiStruct allow architects to explore and experiment with new shapes and new materials to build complex, innovative building structures.

18 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 In the News

RUAG Space and Altair Design and Optimize Luxury Mobile Phone 3D Printed Satellite Manufacturer Dials Up the Altair Private Cloud Antennae Solution Vertu, the world-renowned English RUAG Space, Europe’s leading equipment luxury mobile phone manufacturer, supplier to the space industry, with the support has invested in and deployed Altair’s of Altair ProductDesign, has used topology new HyperWorks Unlimited™ (HWUL) optimization in conjunction with additive private cloud solution for computer- manufacturing, or 3D printing, to redesign an aided engineering (CAE). Fully antenna support for an Earth observation satellite. configured with high-performance Engineers used OptiStruct®, a multi-physics computing (HPC) hardware and optimization solver in Altair’s HyperWorks® software, the solution offers unlimited CAE suite, to create a stiffer yet lighter aluminum component. For design, they leveraged use of all Altair HyperWorks engineer- solidThinking Evolve®, Altair’s concept design and rendering technology. ing applications. Design freeze was reached after only four weeks. The component was then manufactured Vertu has developed and deployed with a 3D printer from EOS, the German market leader in the area of industrial 3D printing. an automated drop test simulation process that is fully integrated into the For more information, visit www.c2rmagazine.com/news/2015/Ruag HWUL solution. From a CAD model, a very high-fidelity drop impact FEA model of the phone is set up to test different drop orientations, velocities Altair Acquires Visual Solutions Inc., and other scenarios selected by the user. The specified set of impact Adds VisSim to HyperWorks events are then scheduled and solved in parallel across the HWUL appliance Altair completed its acquisition of Visual Solutions Inc. in August 2014. The using Altair’s RADIOSS® structural addition of VisSim™, an innovative visual language for mathematical modeling, simulation and analysis solver for highly non-linear, model-based embedded system development, brings expertise in embedded controls to Altair’s dynamic problems. HyperWorks® portfolio. For more information, visit For more information, visit www.c2rmagazine.com/news/2015/VisSim www.c2rmagazine.com/news/2015/ Vertu

Altair PBS Works Named “Best HPC Software or Technology”

Altair’s PBS Works™ suite has been recognized as “Best HPC Software or Technology” in the annual HPCwire Readers’ Choice Awards, presented at the 2014 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC14), in New Orleans. The coveted annual HPCwire Readers’ and Editors’ Choice Awards are determined through a nomination and voting process with the global HPCwire community, along with a selection process in which the editors of HPCwire make selections. The awards are an annual feature of the publication and constitute prestigious recognition from the HPC community.

For more information, visit www.c2rmagazine/news/2015/PBS

Winter/spring 2015 | Concept to reality | 19 In the News noteworthy

Altair OptiStruct Revolutionizes Lattice Structures for 3D Printing

New OptiStruct® solver capabilities expand topology optimization support for the use of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing. OptiStruct now extends topology optimization to assist in the efficient blending of solid-lattice America’s Cup structures with smooth transitional material volume. Altair is working with partners like Materialise to enable more efficient data Challenger Artemis transfer for 3D printing. Software packages like 3-MaticSTL from Materialise focus on improvements of a given lattice component to accommodate the Racing Selects Altair various requirements of the 3D printing process, creating support structures where necessary. Optimization identifies where material is needed in a design as Technical Supplier and where it is not needed, prior to placing and optimizing lattice. Artemis Racing has selected Altair as For more information, visit www.c2rmagazine/news/2015/3Dprinting a technical supplier in the team’s bid to win the 35th America’s Cup in 2017. Areas of focus for this new era of wingsail foiling catamaran design Jaguar Land Rover Wins 2014 Altair include composites development, aerodynamics Enlighten Award for Vehicle Lightweighting simulation, structural optimization and fluid- structure interaction. Jaguar Land Rover won the 2014 linking strategies of weight reduction America’s Cup Yachts are built primarily Altair Enlighten Award competition in the body and chassis systems to using laminated honeycomb sandwich structures, for the development and implementa- powertrain and related secondary which are efficient at carrying loads. The team tion of its premium lightweight weight savings – while also maximiz- will use OptiStruct® to look at the composite architecture design concept on the ing recycled material use and lowering structure of the boat and assess different latest Range Rover vehicles. The energy consumption during the structural options to refine the design. Altair’s award, presented in collaboration manufacturing stage. The overall unique composite optimization technology can with the Center for Automotive result is a significant decrease in the guide optimal material placement for laminate Research (CAR), is the automotive carbon footprint of the vehicle, verified and honeycomb sandwich structures, producing industry’s first award program created through lifecycle analysis tools. the lightest weight structure that meets all specifically to acknowledge innova- performance requirements. tions in vehicle lightweighting. For more information, visit Its lightweight vehicle process takes www.c2rmagazine/news/2015/ For more information, visit JaguarLandRover www.c2rmagazine/news/2015/Artemis a holistic approach to CO2 reduction,

Daimler AG Certifies solidThinking Inspire Daimler AG has officially certified solidThinking Inspire®, software that enables design engineers to create and investigate structurally efficient concepts quickly and easily. With this certification, the tool becomes available to all design engineers within the car and truck development departments of the company as part of the Altair HyperWorks® CAE software suite. solidThinking Inspire enables users to generate an optimal new material layout within a given design space using loads as an input. Since the auto industry is continually striving for lighter and more structurally efficient designs to meet global emission regulations while improving product performance, designers will use solidThinking Inspire to create efficient components, assemblies and entire systems with minimum weight.

For more information, visit www.c2rmagazine.com/news/2015/Daimler

20 | Concept to reality | Winter/spring 2015 C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K Automotive’s Only Award Dedicated to Vehicle Lightweighting

The Altair Enlighten Award is presented in collaboration with the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), and recognizes achievements in weight reduction across the automotive industry from motorcycles to passenger cars, light-trucks to commercial vehicles and buses. Now in its third year, the 2015 award will be presented at the 50th annual CAR Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Mich., August 3-6, 2015.

2013 WINNER: BASF 2014 WINNER: JAGUAR LAND ROVER

The objectives of the Altair Enlighten Award are to:

• Honor the greatest achievements in weight saving • Inspire interest from policymakers, educators, students and the general public in the environmental impact, technical depth and diversity of weight saving innovations • Create further competition for new ideas within industry • Provide an incentive to share technological advances

Find out more, see the past winners and submit your entry at altairenlighten.com/award