NX Hendrick Motorsports

Premier NASCAR team uses lessons learned as catalyst for improvement

Industry Hendrick Motorsports leverages Automotive and NX CAE for forensic failure transportation analysis and developing improved components Business challenges Decoding the mechanics of a failure Deliver high-performing cars Hendrick Motorsports is a critically and engines with minimum acclaimed and immensely successful risk of failure NASCAR® racing outfit. Operating out of a Understand and develop 430,000 square-foot campus in Concord, solutions for track failures , the team represents an Design and validate part fixes important part of NASCAR history, having rapidly won 10 championships in the premier Sprint Cup Series. Its roster of stock car Push the performance drivers includes , , envelope and retain compet­ and Jr. itive edge Hendrick Motorsports’ four Sprint Cup teams are supported by a staff of 500 and new ideas and approaches to gain a competitive edge. Keys to success a wide array of technologically sophisti- cated tools, including product lifecycle Integrated NX design and management (PLM) software from Although Hendrick Motorsports under- analysis environment Siemens PLM Software. stands that failures are an inevitable part Powerful geometry editing of competitive racing, they are determined and cleanup capabilities Despite the best efforts to ensure the per- to learn from them: “We don’t make the same mistake twice,” says Jim Wall, direc- Rapid and automatic updating formance of critical systems, component tor of engine engineering. of analysis models for faster failures are commonplace in motor sports. design-analysis iterations The balance between the need for more speed (through innovative design and To that end, Hendrick Motorsports utilizes Robust structural analysis weight reduction) and durability puts Siemens PLM Software’s NX™ software for capabilities yielding deeper almost every part on the edge of failure on its product development needs. For com- performance insights every run. It is simply impossible to test or puter-aided design (CAD) and computer- analyze every component under every aided engineering (CAE), Hendrick Results possible operating condition. Failures that Motorsports employs NX CAD, NX CAE and occur during a time trial, practice round or NX Nastran® software. The forensic analy- Developed understanding of race are just a fact of life on the track. This sis of failed parts is particularly important. underlying physical behavior is particularly true for race teams that are The idea is to transform inevitable compo- that caused failures constantly pushing the limits, trying out nent failures into lessons learned and applied.

www.siemens.com/nx Results (continued) Avoided repeat component failures Rapidly designed and analyzed multiple solutions Delivered high-performing, durable components in time for the next race

“We are using finite element Reproduction of yielding on rear suspension parts, Valve spring shear stress distribution using NX CAE analysis as an upfront tool with solution shown in second image, using NX CAE. simulation. for the design, so we don’t have to break the part before we improve it.” “The ability to turn designs into real Redistributing the load hard parts is critical for us, and the NX During a routine post-race inspection of Jim Wall suite helps support every facet of that,” rear suspension parts after the Talladega Director, Engine Engineering notes Wall. 500 in May, 2012, a race that involved Hendrick Motorsports speeds up to and over 200 miles per hour “We decided to try adding a To gain an understanding of a part failure, (mph), yielding was observed on the rear cone shape to the crush the team first recreates the failure analyti- housing saddle assembly as well as the sleeve. We modeled it up cally so the model can be validated against trailing arm channel. (Yielding refers to using NX and updated the the failed physical component. The vali- the metal permanently deforming or CAE model with a few dated model is then used to fundamentally cracking.) mouse clicks before using re-engineer the part to prevent the failure NX Nastran to solve the while still maintaining the design intent. “We were concerned and decided to inves- model. Results proved that This approach is leading to some creative tigate a solution with NX CAE,” says the cone shape helped redis- yet practical solutions to failures experi- Charles MacDonald, a design engineer for tribute the load sufficiently enced on the race track. vehicle engineering. “A baseline model to prevent yielding. We had was built to visualize the yielding, and this found our solution.” Enabling quick fixes also served to correlate the model and the The benefit of the approach with NX CAE is results against their physical counterparts. Charles Macdonald that part fixes can be validated virtually, Once validated, we used the model in a Design Engineer, Vehicle meaning that prototype testing can often predictive context to evaluate potential Engineering be avoided, saving precious time. Addi­ solutions to the yielding that was Hendrick Motorsports tionally, the tight integration between NX observed.” CAD and NX CAE accelerates the evalua- tion of numerous solution proposals, as Using NX CAE, a of potential solu- changes are pushed directly and seam- tion areas were identified for exploration. lessly from the CAD part to the CAE model. When these changes resulted in localized This is particularly crucial during race sea- improvements, but not a complete prob- son, when the team has mere days to react lem resolution, they were eliminated as to a track failure before the next options. One idea that was proposed competition. finally yielded promising results.

“Our product release cycle can be as short “We decided to try adding a cone shape to as three days,” explains Wall. “If we have a the crush sleeve,” explains MacDonald. failure on Sunday, we’ve got to come up “We modeled it up using NX and updated with a fix, produce parts and retrofit the the CAE model with a few mouse clicks fleet, usually before Wednesday night before using NX Nastran to solve the when the trucks get loaded with the race model. Results proved that the cone shape cars for next weekend’s event.” helped redistribute the load sufficiently to “The use of NX CAE simula- tion tools was valuable in providing insight into the deformations and locations of stresses in a valve spring. It was this critical under- standing that helped us re-engineer springs that wouldn’t fail during the punishing duty cycles that our engines are subjected to on the speedway.” Bryan Fleck Engineering Analyst Hendrick Motorsports

prevent yielding. We had found our solu- “The use of NX CAE simulation tools was tion. This solution was rapidly adopted by valuable in providing insight into the the fleet for the remainder of the season.” deformations and locations of stresses in a valve spring,” says Fleck. “It was this criti- Unraveling the cause of engine failures cal understanding that helped us re-engi- Another case of failure analysis and rede- neer springs that wouldn’t fail during the sign involved engine valve springs, a punishing duty cycles that our engines are rather innocuous component that is often subjected to on the speedway.” not considered in detail. Valve springs are a critical component of an engine’s gas Repeated failure is not an option exchange system. Due to the high-cycle Forward engineering of motorsports com- nature of engine intake and exhaust ponents is a major focus at Hendrick events, these components need to be Motorsports. The objective is to design the designed and engineered for high-fatigue best possible component from the start, life. When Hendrick Motorsports had mul- taking failure risk out of the equation tiple engines fail during the course of the while maximizing performance potential. 2012 season, it was critical to identify the cause and resolve it as quickly as possible. “In the last decade we have been moving forward with a more optimal design from “Spring design is typically driven by basic the concept stage,” says Wall. “We are equations that characterize forces and using finite element analysis (FEA) as an stresses internally to the part, but do not upfront tool for the design so we don’t provide insight into the location of these have to break the part before we improve stresses,” explains Bryan Fleck, engineer- it. We want to engineer components that ing analyst at Hendrick Motorsports. “On allow our teams to showcase their talents the other hand, by using CAE tools, it is to the best of their abilities.” possible for a spring designer to assess the stress at any location within the spring, Designing with confidence providing insight for future design.” By focusing on forward-engineering parts with an analytical approach, Hendrick Using NX CAE, Hendrick Motorsports was Motorsports is producing precisely engi- able to examine the variation of stress neered parts that help mitigate the prac- throughout the spring coil. tice of over designing parts to avoid failure. This keeps additional weight off Solutions/Services NX NX CAE NX Nastran www.siemens.com/nx

Customer’s primary business Since 1984, Hendrick Motorsports has earned a record 10 championships in NASCAR’s premier division, the Sprint Cup Series. The organi- zation fields four full-time teams on the Sprint the car. Use of NX CAE allows engineers at Cup circuit with drivers Kasey Hendrick Motorsports to better balance Kahne, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie component strength with weight, getting Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. them closer to the optimal marriage of www.hendrickmotorsports. durability and performance sought by com every race team.

Providing the tools for victory Customer location With NX CAE in place, Hendrick Charlotte, North Carolina Motorsports is unraveling the causes of United States failures faster than ever, while developing effective, first-time-right fixes to these fail- ures. An extensive prototype part testing “The ability to turn designs and trial-and-error approach has been into real hard parts is critical replaced by upfront, analysis-led design. for us and the NX suite helps The results are high-performing, forward- support every facet of that.” engineered components, timely solutions Jim Wall to track failures and a continuation of a Director, Engine Engineering winning tradition. That’s the reward for Hendrick Motorsports paying attention to lessons learned.

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