System Optimization with Altair MotionSolve 

1. FEA Explicit Dynamic for Drop Impact Simulation Using Altair Radioss　 2. Multi parameter Sensitivity Analysis & Deterministic Design Optimization on A/C Outdoor Unit. 3. Uncertainty Quantification & Reliability Based Design Optimization 2D CFD Case Study

The door closing feel is directly experienced by the customer and is typically treated as a subjective functional attribute. Objective targets have also been identified and correlated with subjective feelings, even though the final sign-off happens based on subjective assessment. Door Closing is a complex function involving multiple subsystems, their behavior & interface across parts.

AAM has been providing mechanical drivelines to automotive customers for more than 25 years. As the automobile transitions to electrification, so too must the driveline. AAM has developed a suite of innovative, lightweight, compact and cost-optimized electric drive units and electric beam axles to meet the growing global technology demand as electric vehicles continue to expand over the next decade. Engineering simulation, optimization and validation tools were significant enablers to increase the validation confidence and reduce the time to market for these new products.

The ever-advancing digitization is being driven by the convergence of simulation, data, and HPC. While virtual methods, interoperable tools, and standardized interfaces become state of the art, the engineers and their management will play a significant role to break down silos and benefit from a Digital Thread. In this fireside chat, we will discuss the importance of people to unleash the potential of Digital Twins, how they can combine the different fields of product development and what is still missing to make the connection.

Gaining insights into a product’s performances has never been easier. With the HyperWorks Design Explorer, users can easily set up and execute the design of experiments (DOE) and optimization studies, learning which attributes contribute the most to the different performances, review, plot, and compare results from multiple runs, and ultimately identify optimal designs. The quick and easy setup process is solver independent, yet fully integrated with Altair’s structural analysis solutions. On the other hand, many design specifications are quantifiable and can be confirmed by physics but optimizing a design for subjective design requirements such as the look and feel of a product requires a different approach. This is when expertAI can help. It uses machine learning to enable you to include criteria that have traditionally been considered purely subjective or expert-driven in design optimization. The AI algorithms cluster your designs with respect to their subjective behaviors allowing them to be labeled to train a model aligned with your preferences.

The Digital Twin concept is broadly applicable to all Altair customer base wanting to develop better products faster. We will explain how to maximize the value you can get from the Altair Platform for Digital Twins. We will illustrate how this solution helps diverse engineering teams develop better, more complex products faster by avoiding work in silos. This will include proven uses cases for the convergence of simulation and data.

Altair products are quickly evolving into AI-driven products. Starting from the modeling and visualization products, the latest release of Altair HyperWorks includes features like shapeAI, which quickly finds and classifies parts “by shape” inside geometry files or finite element meshes - when you want to locate all of the bolts, shafts, and gears in a complex assembly - by applying machine learning.

What makes artificial intelligence a game changer is not what movies depict with the loud destructive powers of artificially intelligent robots. It’s the opposite, it is the silent creative destruction that it brings as apps in our phones or features in the tools that we use such as spam filters, fraud detectors, and recommendation engines. When combined, these tools make our lives more enjoyable, safe, and productive. In a similar spirit, at Altair, we have been working on powering product design and development with AI to make your work lives more enjoyable, and productive. Our focus has been improving processes and outcomes by reducing repetitive, labor-intensive, non-value-added tasks as well as emulating experts and enriching performance predictions with real-time field predictions. What makes these offerings unique is their no-code integration to the tools that you are already familiar with and hence not requiring you to have to leave your own working environment. In this presentation, examples of such AI-Powered product design processes will be demonstrated. The presentation by Dr. Fatma Kocer, VP of Engineering Data Science at Altair, aired at Future.AI in June 2021, and is almost 30 minutes long. Ready to see how your company can drive innovation with AI-powered design? Contact our solutions experts today. View all Future.AI 2021 Presentations

For several years now, co-simulation between Multibody Dynamics (MBD) codes like MotionSolve and Discrete Element Method (DEM) software like EDEM has been used for many applications such as vehicles and material transportation. One missing link has been a realistic tire model that not only could interact with the soil material in a realistic way but also show the influence of varying tire pressure, change in contact area and pressure distribution over said contact area.

For very soft material such as deep mud with a high-pressure tire, using a rigid wheel is a decent approximation. But for tires on harder surface, this method has several short comings. For example, a rigid representation of the tire will have neglectable rolling resistance while the pressure distribution on a real tire has its peak well ahead of the centerline of the tire producing a resisting moment to the motion. The contact patch area will in reality not depend on sinkage, but the sinkage is dependent on the contact area that is dependent on load and internal pressure.

This presentation introduces the new PM-FlexTire model that is integrated in EDEM and will work with MotionSolve. Requirements for creating and correlating the tire model is presented together with several application examples on mud, clay and gravel beds.

Presented at the ATCx Heavy Equipment in May 2021.

Speaker: Jesper Slattengren, Technical Fellow, Pratt Miller

Duration: 20 minutes

The chassis of a the RAVO 5 iSeries street sweeper has been a proven design that has remained relatively unchanged since the mid-60’s. However, due to increasing weight and size requirements, as well as possible changes to the driving mechanism, an overhaul of the chassis platform is needed. To develop a new (modular) chassis, which is suited for upcoming and future changes, a CAE-driven design approach is chosen, which is being performed by VIRO. When using computer-aided engineering (CAE), the chief problem is to define or estimate the acting loads and / or boundary conditions on a structure. In case such a structure is dynamically loaded, such a determination is further aggravated. Furthermore, if that structure is a chassis, a wide range of load cases and interconnected systems (e.g. tyres, suspension) effect the multifaceted loading behavior.

By utilizing multibody dynamics (MBD) and creating a MBD-model of the current street sweeper, a first step is taken towards developing a new (modular) chassis. The calculated loads and moments acting on the suspensions and chassis are quantified for e.g. several worst case scenarios, which allows for well-founded decisions in relation to the new design. Furthermore, these load conditions can be used as input for future topographic optimizations and / or stress analyses. An important part, when creating a CAE-model, i.e. in this case a MBD-model, is the validation of that model by experiments and /or analytic formulations. Consequently several calculated load cases have been tested in the field and in mutual cooperation. A subsequent verification shows that the measured accelerations correlate well with the calculated accelerations from the MBD-model.

Presented at the ATCx Heavy Equipment in May 2021.

Speaker: Thijs Romans, Group Leader Engineering Analysis, VIRO

Duration: 20 minutes

G.S. Vidyaprakash presents how Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd. drives the design process with simulation. In his presentation First Time Right Machine Design with CAE Simulation, he discusses reliable simulation techniques to predict & prevent failure modes.

Controller strategy expert Lorenzo Moretti presents how to improve Cobot collaboration. In the context of virtual commissioning, he discusses how more meaningful controller design is possible with realistic plant models.

Dr. Fatma Kocer VP, Engineering Data Science at Altair showcases the impact of AI in development environments. In particular on how CAE tools will evolve and Design Exploration is taken to the next level.

Benoit Pelourdeau presents how Stanley Robotics SAS drives the design process with simulation, to develop the world's first robotic car storage service. Learn from him how the interdisciplinary mechatronic product development team succeeds with accurate virtual prototypes.

Daniel Jauss, Application Engineer CAE, gives a Demo Sessions on Altair Simulation Solutions for faster evaluation of real-world machines, explaining how to improve system understanding with dynamic motion analysis to Identify real behavior of the machine assembly and Identify peak loads.

Simon Zwingert, Technical Consultant, gives a Demo Sessions on Altair Simulation Solutions for faster evaluation of real-world machines, explaining how, to improve the design with studies and the design exploration on the complete assembly to perform weld line optimization.

Christian Kehrer, Business Development Manager System Modelling, gives a Demo Sessions on Altair Simulation Solutions for faster evaluation of real-world machines, explaining how CNC control optimization is performed to realize toolpath error correction of a CNC milling machine, with system simulation and how more effective controller design with realistic plant models is realized.

Indradev Babu, Managing Director, UCAM PVT LTD, explains how he developed a CNC Jobshop to the largest manufacturer of CNC Rotary tables—presenting different development examples, he explains how Simulation Driven Design helps him to differentiate and what simulation Strategies he implements in the customer-centric development for the following generation Machine Tools at UCAM.

Industry expert Dennis Baum presents how Weber Maschinenbau applies simulation, how simulation can be used along product lifecycle and which benefits arise to customers and internal processes.

Martin Kemp, Regional Manager at Altair, Dr. Denis Cumming, a Senior Lecturer at The University of Sheffield, John Milios, CEO at Sendyne, Dr. Gregory Offer, Reader at Imperial College London and finally Professor Jun Xu, Director of Vehicle Energy & Safety Laboratory at The University of North Carolina, present - Developing Predictive Electro Thermal Cell Models for Pack Level Deployment. This presentation will focus on the simulation of the battery cell to represent its complex thermal and mechanical behaviour. The thermal behaviour requires the simulation of the electric behaviour within the cell which leads to the generation of heat. Managing the thermal behaviour is fundamental to the long term health of the battery. The talk provides an overview of the technologies used to simulate battery behaviour, commencing with the understanding of the battery structure including the simulation of electrode manufacture. Both electrochemical and equivalent circuit models will be discussed with the advantages and disadvantages of both methods presented. Finally, machine learning technology is used to create an intelligent cell model which retains accuracy whilst delivering computational efficiency which can be used in Part 2.

Dr. Richard Boyd, Technical Specialist at Altair take us through his presentation, Simulation Technology Facilitating Battery Pack Range Optimization. Richard will take the battery module presented in Part 2 and create a full 3D model of the module - the duty cycle, event and optimization is repeated in this environment. This is performed efficiently in a Finite Element environment. In addition, a link to a 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics solver is highlighted if additional verification is required.

James Eves, Team Manager at Altair, Jonathan Stevens, Senior Development Engineer at Equipmake and Andy Jones, Innovation Program Manager at HiETA Technologies, discuss AMPERE, a joint project to produce an extremely lightweight, efficient but low-cost electric motor with an extremely high continuous power density. The consortium will present some of the engineering challenges that designing such a high performance motor has posed, and how these challenges have been overcome through advanced manufacturing technology and simulation driven design.

Matt Kedgley from Engenuity introduces us to FiRMA, an analysis method that tackles the difficult task of predicting the structural performance of randomly oriented fibre composite components. This method has been developed and made possible using a customisation of Hypermesh. The Finite Element (FE) models are pre-processed into the FiRMA format before being submitted for analysis solve through HyperStudy.

In this presentation, MIRDC’s Bionic Intelligent Automatic Guided Vehicle (BI-AGV) is introduced. This “collaborative handling module” has three characteristics of wireless intelligence, flexible use and flexible movement. Through the wireless intelligent collaborative handling system, it can control several automatic guided vehicles (AGVS) in real time, and several vehicles can conduct remote control and serial connection to carry out handling tasks. At the same time, the 360-degree mobile omni-directional wheel design framework is adopted. It has the advantages of flexible use in the area where the traditional unmanned vehicle cannot run smoothly in the indoor narrow space.

Steven Ford, Principal Engineer at Edwards Lifesciences does a high-level walk through on how simulation has evolved in the cardiovascular device space over the last two decades. An example of how Altair HyperStudy has been an exceptional tool for deeper learning with respect to device performance will also be highlighted as a step along this journey. The recording is about 15 minutes long and was originally presented at the Altair Technology Conference 2020.

Full evaluation of a design concept requires the definition of many complex details. However, complex geometric details constrain design flexibility.

The world is full of bulk and granular materials. From ores being mined, soil being excavated, rocks being conveyed, or powders being processed - over 70% of all industrial processes involve the handling or processing of these challenging materials.

Simulation-driven design powered by topology optimization was created by OptiStruct over two decades ago. Its success has changed the CAE/CAD industry as today all vendors have embraced this trend.

Winning the innovation race for mechatronics products requires a tool set which can support a multi-disciplinary development process from early concept design up to in-service support.

These success stories illustrate how customers are leveraging Altair's Math & Systems technology for Model-Based Development to develop better products, faster. Simulations involve 3D, 1D, and/or 0D modeling approaches based on the integrated use of Altair MotionSolve™, Altair Activate™, and/or Altair Compose™.

With the prospect of increasing labor shortages among a wide variety of industries, combined with the significant costs of occupational injuries and the ever-increasing pressure to increase productivity, leading robotics company, Sarcos is in a unique position to deploy industrial robotics designed to increase productivity while eliminating injuries, by augmenting rather than replacing human workers. Chris Beaufait, COO of Sarcos, discusses the current robotics landscape, why automation is not the right solution to the problems industries are facing, how Sarcos and its product lineup - including the full body, fully powered Guardian XO exoskeleton - will play a critical role in defining the workforce of tomorrow, and his vision for the robotics industry over the next five to 10 years.

This presentation introduces an application of a unique, highly automatic, multi-physics design strategy for E-motors, based on a current program at Mercedes-AMG GmbH. The strategy considers essential development requirements including electromagnetics and thermal requirements, NVH, stress and durability. It accommodates for DOE, multi-objective optimization and design exploration methods to be used to explore and find feasible motor designs. The presentation will show how the strategy adds efficiency to the E-motor development process and how it impacts the total costs of development.

The Altair Multiphysics platform provides a broad portfolio of solvers and tools to help engineers develop e-motor design requirements by using simulation and optimization methods. This presentation provides examples, using Altair Machine Learning and optimization solutions, of the e-motor requirements by leveraging in data available, which is key for e-motor designers to reduce time-to-market.

In optimization it is sometimes desirable, but not possible to define constraints that fully reflects an expert’s requirements. This may lead to a design that does not function as intended. Machine Learning enables the user to set up subjective constraints, ensuring a design that has been trained to replicate the expert’s opinion. In this presentation machine learning is used to ensure axial crush for an automotive front crash event.

Presentation by Koby Ingram, Gevasol BV. Conceptual Design and optimization of an Electric Motor using Altair Flux and HyperStudy. The customized electric machine with high level demands and efficiency is a challenging topic requiring top level of expertise and best in class simulation tools. This work focuses on the usage of Flux and Hyperstudy as tools for bettering the design and design process of e-motors. Presentation at the ATCx in Israel, Netanya on October 30, 2019.

Presentation by Konstantin Arhiptsov & by Eitan Maler, Simulation Dept. IWI Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) at the ATCx in Israel, Netanya on October 30, 2019. These days, in IWI, complete multi physics simulation is an integrated tool in the development of any new product. The motivation is to completely simulate one or two firing cycles as close to reality. First step is the Multi Body Dynamics simulation to check all mechanism are synchronized and work properly. Second is the explicit simulations - calibrating the mechanical properties of the pistol, in that the springs, contacts, materials and gun powder properties based on one firing cycle. The following is to calibrate the Non Rigid Boundary conditions (NRBC’s). This calibration of boundary conditions which are not completely fixed is crucial to understanding the actual strains and stresses on the parts. One of the approaches was to use known data of the stiffness of arm and wrist, implementing this data into a HyperStudy model to compare and calibrate the results based on a slow motion capturing of a real firing. The results are promising, with high accuracy of the behavior compared to a real capturing of the shooting, up to the point of slider getting to the end of its move – where most of the kinetic energy transform into loads on the frame. The following steps will be to calibrate, using the same method, the return of the slider to it’s original position and perform more than one firing cycle.

Presenter: Christian Kehrer, Business Development Manager, Altair

This presentation discusses the multi-disciplinary evaluation of truck platooning, with the lead truck sending out acceleration, braking and steering signals for the following trucks to react accordingly. The benefits address safety requirements, fuel savings, traffic capacity and convenience. The presentation demonstrates why platooning requires a holistic approach in the sense of connecting different modeling and simulation methods for a virtual evaluation of this system of systems.

Presenter: Nino Michniok, Mechanical Engineering Student, University of Kaiserslautern

The first part of the presentation shows the detailed process of building the multibody system of an actuated exoskeleton in MotionView/MotionSolve (MV/MS). The required movements are transferred to the corresponding joints by “Motions”. By this the exoskeleton can Stand Up, Walk diagonally across the floor and Sit Down. In the second part the “Motions” in MV/MS are replaced by controllers (position control) whichdeliver a certain torque to actuate the exoskeleton. The main topic here is the implementation of the co-simulation between Activate and MV/MS. In the end the presentation gives a quick outlook of similar works at the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern in Germany.

Presenter: Dario Mangoni on behalf of Alessandro Tasora, Engineering Professor and Digital Dynamics Lab Leader, University of Parma

This presentation address the use of the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) deep reinforcement learning algorithm to train a Neural Network to control a robotic walker and a robotic arm in simulation. The Neural Network is trained to control the torque setpoints of motors in order to achieve an optimal goal.

Presenter: Kaustubh Deshpande, Chassis Engineer, Nikola Motor Company

This presentation describes Nikola Motor’s progression of design maturity from 1D CAE to 3D CAD/CAE for chassis system engineering work on their electric trucks. This progression spans from Voice of Customer to Functional Requirements to Functional Deployment to Structural Deployment. Nikola Motor starts with a ‘First Principles’ model of their truck/trailer vehicle dynamics, then they perform system modeling & simulation with Altair Activate using quarter- and half-truck/trailer models. Block diagrams are created using both signal-based blocks and physical-based blocks (with Modelica). Through this methodical process, Nikola Motor is able to derive more and better insight earlier in their development process regarding important vehicle characteristics for their trucks – ranging from ‘yaw rate of the tractor for loaded vs. unloaded trailer’ to ‘full-trailer load distribution sensitivity due to fifth wheel location’. Work is in-progress to tighten the connection between their 1D CAE simulations in Altair Activate™ and their 3D CAE multi-body dynamics simulations.