Validation Ensures Trains Are on Track to Meet European Safety Standards

When Ana Casares Crespo, a former member of the ARUS Andalucía Racing team from University Seville in Spain, was looking for a final degree project, the team was inspired by the capabilities of Altair’s software. They came up with the idea to improve the impact properties of the vehicle nose cone laminate with the help of simulation. With more than seven students actively using Altair products to improve various aspects of the vehicle, the decision to incorporate Altair tools was an obvious choice. They wanted to make use of the knowledge they had gained from previous studies for structural design of aerodynamic packages. The team conducted static analysis and topological optimization using tools from the Altair HyperWorks™ suite, which helped them create optimized, lighter components. To improve the impact properties of a Formula SAE car’s nose cone laminate, the Altair solution included structural analysis, and topology optimization verifying structural behavior of a new material. The benefits were improved impact characteristics and fracture properties, and lighter components.

Rimac Automobili’s main challenge has been to design a monocoque as a single carbon fiber part with an unprecedented size. Hence, in the development of the monocoque, the main topic to manage was the material, a lightweight, carbon fiber reinforced with epoxy resin. As this carbon fiber is an orthotropic and brittle material, its representation in a finite element (FE) material card is very difficult. To meet this challenge the company introduced Altair HyperWorks™ into their development process.

The International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) is an automotive testing and R&D centre. In their pursuit to carve a niche as a one-stop solution for the automotive industry’s needs in the areas of product design, testing and validation, the ICAT team required a very advanced suite of software solutions. They needed a software suite that would save them time, money and also help in all phases of product development. The Altair software suite has greatly helped the team in providing timely and appropriate solutions to their clients.

HyperWorks used by leading Indian manufacturer of seating systems Harita, for homologation testing, regulations and crash analysis for all commercial vehicle seats, bus passenger seats and tractor & off-road seats

Beta Epsilon designs racing cars and offers engineering. Beta Epsilon offers component and vehicle meshing, FEA analysis of metal and composite components, crash test simulation, optimization, and CFD simulation. Beta Epsilon uses HyperMesh, OptiStruct, HyperCrash, RADIOSS, AcuSolve, HyperView, and Virtual Wind Tunnel. With HyperWorks, Beta Epsilon could improve the quality of its products and extend its range of services.

American Railcar Industries, headquartered in St. Charles, Mo., designs and manufactures commercial railroad cars, producing every part of the car above the wheels. Customers use the company’s railcars to transport all sorts of liquid and solid raw materials, including oil, coal, cement, sand, grain and other substances. Their designs include boxcars, gondolas and hoppers, among other styles.