Figure 1. Image courtesy of Dassault Systemes.

One of the downsides of hexahedral elements is the meshed geometry must be such that there is a sweepable shape. This means that overhangs, extra extrusions, and holes that don’t follow the sweep direction would all make it impossible to use these advanced elements for analysis. Many simulation programs get around this by splitting or “partitioning” the shape into separate volumes that are sweepable. As usual, 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation does this as well but ups the ante above those other tools. Let’s take a look at partitioning for simulation on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.

Partitioning for Better Meshing

We’ll start with the part below. It is a cylinder from an air-cooled motorcycle engine. Notice the removal of small features like fillets on the simplified version in the figure below.

Figure 2

We can take the simplified model into the Structural Model Creation app to get feedback on how to best mesh this shape. Select the compass, click Structural Model Creation, click “Partition Hex Mesh,” and finally select the component itself as a support. 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation will then color the part according to the methods that can be used to mesh it.

Figure 3

The orange color on the part in the figure above indicates a volume that is NOT mesh-able by hexahedral elements. As is, 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation will assign a tetrahedral mesh instead. However, many of the areas on this model could be split from the others into sweepable shapes. This is where partitioning comes in!

Meshing in 3DEXPERIENCE with the Partition Tool

The partitioning tool is most easily accessed via the Simulation Model Preparation app included with your 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation role. Simply click the compass and select the app from the list to launch it. This app contains sets of tools used for simplification of CAD models for use in simulation. We’re looking for “Partition” under the “Idealize” tab. See figure 4 below:

Figure 4

All we must do to partition the component is to select the part as the “Volume to partition” and use cutting elements such as faces, planes, surfaces, etc. to divide the part into sweepable features. For example, if I want to partition one of the assembly tabs, I can select the face that it is extruded from as a cutting element. If we extrapolate that face infinitely, it will cut through the tab, separating it as its own volume. See below:

Figure 5

Now if we check the color coding to view the types of mesh we can use for each volume, we see the small extrude we split off is colored yellow-indicating a hex-meshable volume. See below:

Figure 6

Automatic Partitioning for Automatic Meshing

We can continue splitting features manually to create the fully partitioned model. It’s a simple process that works very well. However, recently one of the updates to the meshing feature in 3DEXPERIENCE Simulation has added an automatic partitioning tool to do all of that work for you! All you must do is select the volume, and click the checkbox for “Automatic Partitioning,” and soon you will have a fully hex-meshable part! You can see my example below:

Figure 7

As with all automated tools this will not work for every geometry, but in my experience, it does a great job splitting prismatic parts like this one. A further benefit of using the “Partition” tool is that the partitioned hex-mesh will be fully conforming. That means that adjacent volumes of hex meshes will share common nodes at the volume’s boundary.

Figure 8

Figure 9. Image courtesy of Dassault Systemes.

Finally, if you are attempting to mesh a part that has non-sweepable volumes, the partition hex-mesh algorithm will assign tetrahedral elements to the non-hex volumes and create a “tie contact” between the volumes automatically! Optionally, you can also specify a layer of pyramid elements to act as a conforming mesh boundary between the hexahedral elements and the tetrahedral elements. You can see a visual representation of how that works below:

Thank you for partitioning some of your time to read my blog today. Simulation model preparation is a vital step in achieving accurate simulations, and again the 3DEXPEREICNE Platform goes above and beyond in enabling engineers to do what they do best.

Matt Sherak
Sr. Simulation Product Specialist
Elite Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

Reaction forces are exerted by a body when an external force is being applied to it. For instance, if you’re walking on the street, there will be a resultant reaction force exerted by the street. This reaction force has two components. First, we have a vertical component to support the force from your weight. The second is a tangential component, friction. And so, from this example, it becomes apparent that those forces are only present at constrained nodes, and not free ones. This is also where Abaqus calculates reaction forces.

Let’s take a look at two ways to find and plot the reaction forces, as well as why you might choose one over the other.

Model Setup

The model below shows an explicit simulation of a rigid sphere bouncing on a trampoline. We’ve modeled the trampoline bed as well as the trampoline frame using S4 elements. As for the sphere, we’re using R3D4 elements. Lastly, we’ve modeled the springs as SPRINGA elements.

The legs of the trampoline frame are fixed in all degrees of freedom (ENCASTERED). Additionally, the bases of all seven legs of the frame are tied to a reference point using a kinematic coupling constraint. Since this is a drop test, we’ll apply an initial velocity of 5 m/s to the rigid sphere. A gif shows an animation of the simulation, with the color field set to von Mises stress.

Because the legs of the frame are constrained in all degrees of freedom, Abaqus will calculate the reaction forces there, and only there.

There are two ways of extracting the reaction force:

1. To obtain the data at better resolution with a higher sampling rate, you can request the reaction force history output at the reference point tied to the legs. You can adjust the frequency to output at higher sampling rates.
   • In Abaqus/CAE, this is done by Output > History Output Requests > Create, then choosing RF under Forces/Reactions
   • In the input file:

     *Output, history, time interval=0.0005
     
     *Node Output, nset=Set-1
     
     RF1, RF2, RF3, RM1, RM2, RM3

     (Set-1 contains the reference point mentioned earlier)

     

2. If you forget to request the history output, Abaqus, by default, outputs preselected field output variables. After step 4 (below), be sure to select the reference node tied to the legs of the trampoline frame. You can find this under the Elements/Nodes tab.

Plotting Reaction Forces Results and Discussion

To highlight the difference between the two methods of obtaining the reaction force, I’ve overlaid the reaction force from the history output as well as that from the field output in one plot. This plot shows the force on the legs of the frame obtained from the history output. The period is 0.0005 seconds, or a sampling frequency of 2000 Hz, resulting in 2000 points. Additionally, you’ll see the same force obtained at a much lower sampling frequency from the field output variable, shown in yellow.

Within the range of 0.8 s to 1 s, it is clear that the force from the history output is well sampled, while the force obtained from the field output is under-sampled and does not represent the complete behavior of the structure.

Capturing the reaction force at a high sampling rate is typically only a concern for high dynamic systems. This is not the case when using Abaqus/Standard to run static analyses. For such studies, it’s sufficient to observe the reaction force coming from the field output, as the last increment is what matters.

Conclusion

To summarize, I would advise you to always output reaction forces using the history output rather than the field output. Depending on your application, and if you want to output the reaction force at a high sampling rate, you can do this without sacrificing memory on your disk.

Bilal Abdul Halim
Application Engineer Specialist, Simulation
Computer Aided Technology

“There’s a reason why there’s an eraser on a pencil.” That’s how Dan Saperstein, CATI’s senior vice president of business systems, describes the creative, iterative process of developing a product for the real world using simulation. In the early design stages, simulation allows companies greater leeway to experiment and innovate—to design with a pencil, rather than a pen.

“Companies traditionally brought products to market through physical testing,” says Dan. “They would physically design it, build it, break it, and redesign it until it was no longer broken.” It’s a process that is both time consuming and expensive, and is also limiting in the type of tests that can be performed and the data it is possible to collect from them. With simulation, the story is different. “We’re able to bring our customer’s process to market a lot faster, allowing for better quality and better innovation. Simulation is no longer a nicety in the marketplace—it’s a necessity.”

Joe Formicola, CATI’s vice president of CAE simulation solutions, concurs. “I see simulation becoming even more of an important tool for product development. It’s becoming increasingly available because of its ease of use on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and the connectedness to CAD, but also because of the computational capabilities that the cloud has allowed us to have.”

If the advantages that simulation brings to an engineering firm are hard to overstate, so too are the benefits that come from working with an experienced sim team.

This was the logic CATI followed in late 2020, when they acquired Caelynx, an Ann Arbor-based team of simulation consultants specializing in the Dassault Systèmes product line of simulation software, which also includes SOLIDWORKS. By bringing on a simulation team with decades of expertise in diverse fields, CATI could better support their own customer base of SOLIDWORKS users by helping them integrate their CAD workflows to a wider range of advanced simulation tools.

However, as Joe is quick to point out, an expert simulation team is an enhancement to a company’s internal team, not a replacement. “We want our customer’s expert engineers to have expert tools. But to create these types of easy-to-use workflows that connect to CAD and are very advanced, you need people with experience who have in-depth understanding of the physics solvers, of the CAD tools, and who are used to working with customers and helping them implement these tools.”

For as impressive as all that sounds, the depth and breadth of CATI’s new simulation team can best be demonstrated by introducing the individual members. If your company needs simulation support, these are the people ready to assist you.

Meet the CATI Sim Team Leaders.

As a review, the two preferred methods of connecting geometry between SOLIDWORKS and SIMULIA for SOLIDWORKS are below:

1. SOLIDWORKS Connector App in the Collaborative Designer for SOLIDWORKS role (UES)
2. Direct Import

SOLIDWORKS Connector App (UES)

The SOLIDWORKS Connector is accessed directly from the SOLIDWORKS CAD interface. When a part or assembly is ready to be uploaded to your cloud tenant, simply click the 3D Experience pane. From there you will see any parts or assemblies in the current SOLIDWORKS window. Selecting “Save” will upload these files to your cloud tenant. You will notice under the Lifecycle tab, that there are various options for revision creation and management. This is a key differentiator between the SOLIDWORKS Connector and Direct Import. The SOLIDWORKS Connector has the capability to capture full design histories via revisions, and doubles as a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution for your SOLIDWORKS files. The ancillary benefit is that any simulations that use this geometry can be updated and re-solved for new results. Let’s look at the example, a monitor stand.

The file has just been designed using SOLIDWORKS. We open the 3D Experience task pane and upload the file to the tenant.

Once it is uploaded, we can set up the simulation using the Structural Mechanics Engineer, or Structural Performance Engineer roles (sold separately). When viewing the results, we can see that the stress is too high.

From there, we can go back into SOLIDWORKS and “reserve” the model to make changes. We will add some thickness to the ribs and arms, then re-save the file to the cloud.

We open the file with whichever structural creation app you have access to, and we can update the geometry by selecting the “Update SOLIDWORKS” button. Now we can re-mesh and re-run the study to obtain updated results.

I hope this blog has educated you on how to use the SOLIDWORKS Connector app for importing your files onto the 3D Experience platform, and how to leverage this functionality to update simulation results. Personally, I find that the SOLDIWORKS Connector is a much more useful tool than using a direct import of geometry, but ultimately both can maintain associativity to your CAD data. I will cover the direct import tool in detail in a later blog. In the meantime, please reach out to your Computer Aided Technology account manager for any further questions, we are happy to help!

Matt Sherak
Sr Simulation Product Specialist, Elite Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology

In Abaqus (the parent technology behind SIMULIA for SOLIDWORKS), a step refers to the type of solver that will be used in the simulation. It is akin to choosing the study type when creating a simulation in SOLIDWORKS. The benefit of the step definition is that multiple steps can be taken sequentially. For example, you could start with a static step to apply some bolt preload on the assembly in question, and then proceed to do a frequency step on the prestressed components. This is something that cannot be done in SOLIDWORKS Simulation.

To access the various step definitions, you must have already created a “FEM Rep” (mesh) definition, and a solid section (material) definition. From there, you will launch whatever structural app your roles grant you access to; it is either “Linear Structural, Structural, or Mechanical Scenario Creation.” The types of steps will change depending on your Role. Once you have a scenario created, go to the “Procedures” tab on the 3DEXPERIENCE command manager to create a step. See below:

Let us start with the simple “Static Step” on the left. This step type is only available in the Structural Professional Engineer role or above. Despite the name, this type of step is analogous to a nonlinear study in SOLIDWORKS Simulation. When selecting the static step, you will be prompted with time increment options similar to the nonlinear study in SOLIDWORKS. See below:

• A static step is used when inertial effects can be neglected, but still allows for rate dependent plasticity and hyperplastic behavior. This is the default study that I use when I run structural studies on the 3D Experience platform. This type of study allows for loads, restraints, and other simulation parameters to be varied using a time amplitude curve.

The next logical step to cover is the “Quasi-Static” step. This step type is only available in the Structural Professional Engineer role or above.

• A Quasi-Static step is nearly identical to a static step. The differentiator here is that this type of step allows for the time dependent material behaviors like viscoelasticity, creep and swelling. This type of step still does not take inertial effects into account, so impacts and other dynamic events should not be used here.

Next up, we have the Implicit Dynamic Step. This step type is only available in the Structural Professional Engineer role or above.

• An Implicit Dynamic step is similar to the nonlinear dynamic study type in SOLDIWORKS Simulation. This type of step allows for the calculation of time and rate dependent material properties we mentioned above but has the bonus of also allowing for inertial effects in the model. This type of dynamics is usually used for moderate or long duration dynamic events. The general rule of thumb is that this would be used when structural responses are in the order of seconds (or longer), not fractions of a second.

The “big brother” of the Implicit Dynamics step is the Explicit Dynamic Step. This step is only available in the Structural Mechanics Engineer Role:

• The Explicit Dynamic solver is the flagship of the Abaqus Explicit product line. This solver is my favorite thing about the SIMULIA for SOIDWORKS product. Note that this step has a much different definition window than the others. This is because the solver uses an explicit time integration method which is unconditionally stable. The caveat here is that VERY small-time steps should be used. As a result, this type is study is reserved for only the most energetic, highly dynamic simulations, such as impacts or drops.

There are many other types of steps available in the SIMULIA for SOLIDWORKS product line. I may cover the other types in a future blog, but I figured I would cover the big ones here. Other honorable mentions include:

• Static Perturbation Step
• Buckling Step
• Frequency Step

I hope that this blog has helped to demystify the slew of step types that are available on the 3D Experience platform. The added complexity of these analyses can make the transition to SIMULIA for SOLIDWORKS daunting at times but fear not! The friendly people at Computer Aided Technology are here to help you and your business stay ahead of the curve and make the best products possible with SOLIDWORKS and 3D Experience.

Matt Sherak
Simulation Product Specialist, Applications Engineer
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

Luckily, the screen didn’t crack, but the sudden jolt of adrenaline gave me some inspiration. A few months ago, I was able to enlist the help of our wonderful hardware team to use our Creaform 3D Scanners to scan the surfaces of my phone to create a digital model to work from. Then, in SOLIDWORKS, I was able to reverse engineer and design a phone case and print it using the TPU material on the Stratasys F370 machine. Long story short, I have a CAD model of both my phone, AND the phone case that I have on it. Doing a drop test simulation is the logical next step.

I don’t design phone cases for a living, which as it turns out, is probably a good thing! When I dropped my phone, my custom case popped right off it. I found myself wondering if I could replicate that. SOLIDWORKS Simulation Professional has had Drop Test studies for a while, but they are limited to only Linear Elastic, and Von Mises Plasticity material. The Stratasys TPU material is more of a rubber, so I need to use a hyperplastic material model. I turned to SIMULIA for SOLIDWORKS Structural Mechanics Engineer role for its explicit dynamics solver and vast array of material models. I’ll walk you through some of the highlights of the setup.

Getting the SOLIDWORKS model into the 3D Experience Platform is simple through the 3D Experience Connector for SOLIDWORKS. You can review that process in a couple of blogs by my colleague Randy Simmons by using these links below.

Connecting SOLIDWORKS To Your 3DEXPERIENCE Platform

Common Workflows for Getting SOLIDWORKS Geometry INTO the 3DEXPERIENCE “xApps”

Once the files have been uploaded, I can open them in the Structural Model Creation app.

In this app, we create the meshes for the individual components and assign material properties. I can use advanced elements like hexahedra and wedges. Then I assign a hyperplastic material to the case, and a glass material to the phone body. If I had a more detailed model of the phone, we could include the other materials as well.

Next, we switch over the Mechanical Scenario Creation app to take advantage of the Explicit Dynamic step needed for a drop test study. In this case we’ll simulate 0.05 seconds after impact.

We’ll give the model an impact velocity, assign gravity, and enter general contact. General Contact is one of the big trademarks of the Abaqus solver. It’s similar to using SOLIDWORKS Simulation and assigning the global contact definition to “contact” (previously called no penetration).

With the setup complete, all that is left to do is solve the study. Once completed, we can view the heart wrenching moment of device-floor collusion!

As I said before, it’s obvious I am no expert designer of phone protection equipment. On the bright side, I AM a simulation expert, and this analysis has given me some good insight into my design flaws. Stay tuned for the new and improved model, which I hopefully never have to test physically. In the meantime, I hope this blog has enlightened you to some of the advanced capabilities of SIMULIA for SOLIDWORKS.

Matt Sherak
Elite Application Engineer, Simulation Product Specialist
Computer Aided Technology, Inc.

• What once took a day now takes an hour.
• What once required human decision-making doesn’t anymore.
• What was once cost-prohibitive to use isn’t anymore.

These are paradigm shifts that advance the starting line for industry newcomers and have the potential to exponentially grow productivity, when in the right hands.  The lesson is — effective FEA in 2021 makes total use of the technology of 2021.

What does it look like when you reconceive FEA for powerful distributed computing, for high-speed data and networks, for major process automation and streamlining?  Let’s find out.

Adjusting a filleted face on an imported and
reparametrized STEP file in 3DEXPERIENCE

Rules-Based Automeshing Does the Trick.

Marcel adds washer patterns to his bumper mesh

Assembly Connections and Contacts Take Minutes, Not Hours.

Creating the entire assembly’s welds
in FE by using the CAD data

Material Assignments Are Automatic and Error-Proof.

Assigning materials in FE isn’t the most tedious of processes (unless your assembly is huge), but it does take time and it definitely introduces opportunity for error.  What better way around this task than to use the material assignments already present in the CAD data?  That’s another modeling task that we can leave in the past.

In 3DEXPERIENCE, a shared material database across the organization also means no more typing or transferring material cards with every project.  Simply pick the material and the level of fidelity (nonlinearity, temperature dependency, etc.) from your library — no file transfer, no transcription errors, no redundant work.

Analysts Can Tweak or Update the Design and Rerun Almost Instantaneously.

We’ve all looked at our FEA results and seen an obvious change that would improve them.  What’s the next step to verify that?

One button to update the full, connected assembly FE.

I’d rather do the new way.  This kind of workflow is enabled by the unbroken chain of data from CAD to CAE and back, as provided by solutions like 3DEXPERIENCE.

Rules and Templates Have Reduced or Eliminated Much of the Iterative Analysis Workflow While Also Improving Consistency.

A comprehensive iterative update to your model may include substantial changes to nearly everything in the assembly.  While the fundamentals remain the same, in the traditional way of FE modeling, that could still amount to basically doing everything over again.  This is where rule-based modeling really shows its strengths, especially with recent improvements to automeshing algorithms.

Rather than exercising your modeling judgment on every meshed surface in the model again, if you can instead just apply a template, or set of modeling rules, to each component and let the computer do the rest, you can churn out iterative analysis in a fraction of the time it used to take.  Modeling templates can also grow to encompass model interactions, analysis outputs, and more.  These rules and templates are, essentially, inviolable modeling guidelines that can also ensure consistency across different iterations, projects, and even analysts.

The best way to manage both the project data and the processes is within a single platform like 3DEXPERIENCE.  That way, those templates are just a few clicks away.

Freely-Accessed File Systems Are No Longer the Best Way to Manage Your Data.

Who likes to go through their files, do FTP transfers, and deal with hard drive failures?  No one!  The best place for your files to reside is on reliable enterprise storage, whether on-premise or on-cloud, within a shared project structure that you don’t have to personally manage.  This is the direction things are going for a reason:

• You’re protected from catastrophic data loss.
• You don’t have to organize and synchronize your own file system.
• You don’t have to manually send, receive, and archive files.
• You’re able to quickly access your work from any computer with a network connection.

You get all that with platform solutions like 3DEXPERIENCE.

You Don’t Model Up Several Design Alternatives — You Propagate an Optimization Study from One Design.

Comparing simulation results from 50 autogenerated,
multivariable design options

Large Models and Results Files Are Not the Difficulty They Used to Be.

Why It’s Time to Reassess Our FEA

The last several years have brought about seismic shifts in the way we do digital business, and these changes cannot be ignored.  FEA today isn’t the FEA of yesterday “but faster”:

• FEA today is an open, two-way connection with design data and personnel.
• FEA today has eliminated many of the most tedious and time-consuming aspects of FE modeling.
• FEA today has restructured its model preparation labor to be highly reusable and scalable.
• FEA today can exhaustively optimize engineering output with automated processes.
• FEA today reduces or eliminates costly IT distractions regarding data and computing.
• FEA today is, yes, faster — and also higher fidelity.
• FEA today brings enterprise computing to everyone everywhere with cost-effective cloud solutions.

The latest engineering simulation tools address longstanding user frustrations and time sinks by finding completely new ways to handle many things we used to take great pains to do manually.  Even from the very first step of importing CAD, there are foundational new approaches that can bring tremendous benefits to the process.  These benefits roll over into many of the most tedious and time-consuming analysis tasks, into collaborative workflows and their associated labor, and even into some of the real decision making to solve complicated engineering problems.  And, due to evolving cloud business models, all of this technology is more accessible than it’s ever been, so that one engineer can operate with the resources of an industry juggernaut.

The sharpest minds can nurture good ideas as fast as they can think them up, no longer subject to the leveling effects of slow and/or expensive computing.  It’s an exciting and crucial time to reassess your FEA process if you haven’t done it in a while.  So much has improved in not just the speed of the solvers, but how we actually make models and collaborate with our team, and who can access this fantastic technology.  It really unleashes us to do more of what we love to do — the actual engineering!

Effective Methods for User-Defined Meshing in CST Microwave Studio A key benefit of CST Microwave Studio is the broad selection of high-frequency solvers. This includes two general-purpose base solvers, Time Domain and Frequency Domain, and two special-purpose solvers, Integral and Asymptotic. We will review user-defined meshing methods, best practices, and solver settings that affect mesh quality and solution convergence. We will also discuss how reproducing results in different domains and with different meshing techniques can greatly contribute to confidence in simulation results.

3DEXPERIENCE: A CAE PARADOX How I’ve Been Doing More Engineering with Less Work As a simulation engineer for a CAE consultant, I spend a lot of time in pre-/post- tools, and over the past year, 3DEXPERIENCE has become my tool of choice for simulation. In this talk, I’ll be demonstrating the variety of ways 3DEXPERIENCE has impressed me and allowed me to do FEA faster and easier than I was accustomed to when coming from other tools from both DS and competitors.

Presented by: Jim Reed Senior Electromagnetic Engineer

Presented by: Marcel Ingels CAE Project Engineer

The conference will provide attendees from around the world with the chance to:

• Watch Plenary, including keynotes and messaging from our 3DS executives
• View 70+ user and 3DS presentations
• Search and build your own agenda
• Talk with other attendees in chat rooms in specific domain of interests
• Engage with their local team at Regional User Meetings in your own language
• Tour the expo hall and visit Partners and 3DEXPERIENCE Playground
• Q&A
• Connect and network with other users
• Much more!

Registration links, agenda, and conference guide can be found on our event page.

As electric vehicles take over a larger share of the automotive market, OEMs and suppliers alike need to make use of every tool at their disposal to improve the performance of their vehicles. At present, no tool is more essential than CAE simulation when it comes to helping manufacturers test the design of EM components and how they contribute to the structure, efficiency, and performance of a vehicle.

While a lot of attention is often focused on battery performance in EVs, the electric drivetrain also presents completely new engineering challenges that require extensive simulation in order to understand how interconnecting systems affect each other. From our experience working in the automotive industry, we have identified six key areas where simulation helps EV engineers improve drivetrain performance. Let’s take a closer look.

1. NVH

Trust the Drive – Electric Drive Noise and Vibration Analysis
WATCH THE WEBINAR NOW

2. Electric Motor Performance

Electric vehicles have typically lagged behind those with internal combustion engines (ICEs) in terms of power and performance. This has been a barrier to wider adoption, as improvements in motor and transmission performance have come at a tradeoff to battery longevity. However, newer EV technologies have increased the efficiency of electric powertrains, allowing them to compete with and even outperform their ICE counterparts.

Multiphysics simulations have been integral to these improvements, and can help automotive manufacturers develop even better designs. This can be particularly important in optimizing motor efficiencies with gear ratios, to improve performance on highways or during uphill driving.

3. Thermal Management

Electric Drive Engineering
WATCH THE WEBINAR NOW

4. Lubrication

Electric vehicles require different lubricants than ICEs. Without fossil fuels and with fewer moving parts, these systems run cleaner, meaning the engine oils will collect fewer contaminants over time from burning fuel. However, EV motors operate at very high speeds, and still require both oil and coolant. And, while EV transmissions are different from ICEs, they do still require lubrication for the gear reducer.

Thus far, there is no one solution to which lubricants should be used for different EV transmissions. While some manufacturers use traditional transmission fluid, others are relying on grease bearings with oil lubricants. CFD simulation can help engineers understand which lubricants work best based on their design choices.

5. New Materials

WLTP and Lightweighting – Lighten the Burden of WLTP
WATCH THE WEBINAR NOW

6. Durability

The reputations of automotive manufacturers are made or broken on the reliability and longevity of their products. Premature failure of components leads to lost trust among consumers, as well as extra expenses for manufacturers in case of a large recall.

Using CAE simulation, engineers can create models to run fatigue tests and predict failure conditions for every component in the EV driveline. These simulations can help manufacturers determine repair schedules and write better warrantees for their vehicles.

CATI can support your simulation needs for electric vehicle drivetrains.

CATI offers CAE simulation support for OEMs and suppliers in two key ways. First, we are value-added resellers (VARs) of Dassault Systèmes software, including Abaqus, CST Studio Suite, CATIA, and SIMULIA. For manufacturers who hope to expand their CAE departments we offer support for using this software to set up custom workflows.

Second, as CAE and FEA consultants, we bring our multidisciplinary expertise to the table, helping our clients find solutions to complex problems. We can perform CAE simulations for our clients, increasing the capabilities for those who do not have CAE engineers on staff, and expanding the capacity for those who need extra assistance during peak production times.

If you are looking for a CAE partner to help test designs for EV components, contact us. We would love an opportunity to contribute our automotive expertise to your project.

We hope these resources help you get quickly up-and-running with Abaqus and the other SIMULIA products that are essential to your productivity. Please know that you can reach out to us at any time for assistance. CATI is here for you.