Altair Model-Based Development Customer Stories from 2019 Global ATC
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™.
Presentations, Videos
Multi-Disciplinary Evaluation Of Vehicle Platooning Scenarios
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.
Presentations, Videos
Heavy Equipment Simulations: Multi-body, Hydraulics & DEM
Presenter: Ronald Kett, Technical Specialist, Altair
For a Stewart-Gough-Platform (Hexapod), various software tools were used to study and design highly dynamic hydraulic drives together with an overall system control. Calculation of Eigenfrequencies, control design and comparison, hydraulic system design, and overall simulation control were done in Altair Activate, the mechanics of the Stewart-Gough-Platform was taken from a CAD model into Altair Inspire Motion. The co-simulation between control + hydraulics and mechanics was performed using Activate and Altair MotionSolve. Altair HyperView and HyperGraph were used to analyze and visualize the results.
With the highly integrated solutions, the results could be achieved within a very short time. The different types of models (linear/simplified/full mechanics/hydraulics) made it possible to start with fast development cycles and finally achieve reliable results.
Presentations, Videos
Real-Time Simulator of a Mobile Crane
Presenter: Arnold Free, Chief Innovation Officer and Co-Founder, CM Labs
Mechatronic systems and off-highway equipment design is rapidly evolving. With advanced control features, operator-assistance systems, and even full autonomy on the horizon, engineers are building complex systems simulation models to better understand their smart machines. Through the use of interactive and immersive VR software, systems models can be derived from high-fidelity engineering simulations and used for operator-in-the-loop, HIL, and SIL testing. Interactive virtual prototypes allow for human-factors test and measuring system performance in hyper-realistic virtual worksites. Simulation is also being used for AI based perception and motion planning in autonomous systems. Sales and marketing departments are now using interactive simulations and visualization to demonstrate products. The value of simulation is expanding rapidly in OEMs.
CM Labs Simulations has recently partnered with Altair to bring together engineering simulation and interactive real-time systems models to perform all of the above. Validated multibody systems dynamics models from Altair MotionSolve can be used to build interactive models in Vortex Studio and combined with advanced real-time 3d graphics to create immersive live simulations with human interaction. With real-time simulation, it is also possible to connect to interactive control models and system level multidisciplinary simulations with Altair Activate.
The presentation uses a mobile crane model as an example. It will demonstrate the process of translating the engineering models to real-time, creating realistic working scenarios and deploying in immersive simulators for operator in-the-loop testing and system demonstration.
Presentations, Videos
Quadcopters: From System Modeling to Real-Time Simulator
Presenter: John Straetmans, Computer Engineering Student, University of Michigan
This project attempts to build an accurate real-time (RT) drone simulator through the full integration of a 1D functional model of a drone created in Altair Activate®, along with its corresponding geometry, into Unreal Engine via the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) standard. Then, VR, peripheral controllers, and other functionalities were added to the representation. This task was accomplished by modifying the Altair RT Vehicle Package, making it able to handle not just vehicles, but any system model located in an FMU for co-simulation, in this case a quadcopter model.
Once the FMU containing the Altair Activate® drone model was successfully loaded into Unreal Engine, the tools provided by the application allow additional features to be added, such as VR support. By implementing an FMU, together with its geometry, into Unreal Engine, we can visually analyze the dynamics of the system to further verify the drone model and its performance. In the future, this integration process should be facilitated to automatically load any FMU following just a few steps.
Presentations, Videos
Modelica Library for Real-Time Car Simulator
Presenter: Dario Mangoni, Engineering Professor, University of Parma
In the modern car industry, the advent of hybrid and electric vehicle systems is driving radical changes in the car electronics and software, demanding more and more advanced controlling techniques. Self-stopping, self-starting, ultimately self-driving cars are nowadays possible, because of the multitude of sensors, controller units and actuators making the vehicles “smart”. To simplify and make the interaction between the user and the machine more and more intuitive and user-friendly, a much broader and deeper investigation of different use scenario combined with the human interaction and intervention is critical. In this context, higher-detailed vehicle models are required to provide a valid prototyping tool which can be reliably used to test innovative controlling strategies, such as testing with the Man-In-the-Loop.
The Car Real-Time Modelica library proposed here aims at providing a highly valuable tool for the vehicle control system design and test. The key competitive advantages in this approach are in the Maple model-based compiler for supporting high-level of details modeling; the adoption of the Modelica language which allows a transparent and physical approach to the modeling activities and finally the Activate platform which offers real-time capabilities within an environment meant for the signal-based control design. To graphically validate the library results, a visualization framework for realistic real-time simulations that assures high-fidelity scenario in which to test user experience was also realized.
Presentations, Videos
Multi-body Enhancements & Customer Successes
Presenter: Rajiv Rampalli, Sr VP in HyperWorks Core Development team, Altair
Altair’s products for multi-body system simulation (MBS) – MotionView, MotionSolve, and Inspire Motion – form a key component of multi-disciplinary system simulations. In this presentation, we will look back on several achievements this year, in the form of customer successes as well as recent enhancements to these products which significantly extend the depth and breadth of capabilities.
Some of these application examples also involve connections from MBS to other Altair technology or to 3rd-party technology such as to Altair OptiStruct (for flexible bodies and light-weighting) and Altair Activate (for hydraulics) and EDEM (for discrete element modeling of bulk materials).
Presentations, Videos
System Simulation for HVAC
Presenter: Christian Kehrer, Altair [on behalf of Oliver Höfert, Simulation Engineer at Kampmann]
The increasing virtualization of engineering methods is inevitable. This also holds true for the design of systems that take care for the thermal well-being of humans, e.g. in buildings. If it comes to simulation of so-called HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) systems, very often high fidelity approaches like CFD are connected to it. In contrary, this contribution illustrates a 1D modeling approach of a heat exchanger in use of Altair Activate.
The presentation explains the implementation of the NTU (Number of Transfer Units) method in a system simulation environment. This includes a short description of the approach itself as well as its current limits. Based on the implementation of a single cell, differing network configurations for the evaluation of use cases of varying complexity will be shown.
Presentations, Videos
ROMs For Battery Cooling Systems
Presenter: Stefano Benanti, R&D materials engineer, Hutchinson
Battery cooling (BC) systems are frequently composed of several parallel branches, each leading to and away from a series of cooling plates. As a correct flow distribution in each branch and overall pressure drop are a key requirement from every customer, numerical computation is extremely important from the first stages of each project: the number of components and their dimensions have a relevant impact on the total cost and it is thus necessary to quickly provide results already in the Request for Quotation (RFQ) phase.The 3D computation of such cases, albeit feasible, takes a relevant amount of time and makes it more costly (both in terms of computational power and of necessary software licenses) to quickly provide results. The goal is then to develop a quicker method to provide results and allow for the necessary optimization cycles.
Altair Activate® was chosen by Hutchinson to develop a library of ROMs representing different circuit components through which is possible to create 1D models able to respond quickly and precisely to such demands.
Presentations, Videos
Integrated Systems Simulation from Requirements
Ed Wettlaufer, Technical Manager Mechatronics Group, Altair [on behalf of NAVAIR]
Government solicitations for proposals, or RFPs, for aircraft and airborne systems require preliminary designs with enough fidelity to accurately predict performance, in order to prove the design's ability to meet the Governments performance requirements. Modern high-performance computing provides the leverage to execute previously expensive analyses in areas such as computational fluid dynamics. The results of these high order analyses can be used to populate parameters in 1D systems models which can be easily coupled to medium order models from other disciplines. These capabilities allow the design engineer to rapidly iterate to levels of model maturity and accuracy not achievable years ago, resulting in high levels of confidence in the designs performance predictions in unprecedented time.
Moving forward, Altair engineers will employ Multiphysics and co-simulation to execute the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase (EMD) for one subsystem of the preliminary design developed in the afore mentioned pre-acquisition phase.
Presentations, Videos
Multi-Fidelity E-Motor Drive Solution
Presenters: Ulrich Marl, Key Account Manager for Electric Vehicle Motor-Feedback Systems, Lenord+Bauer & Andy Dyer, MBD Sr Technical Specialist, Altair
This presentation shows a modeling process to quantify the position/speed sensor (e.g, encoder) effects on an e-motor, and corresponding control system for a concept traction motor similar to the Nissan Leaf. The integrated solution of the e-drive is carried in Altair Activate as a system builder, using other Altair solutions e-motor solutions in FluxMotor and Flux to generate data for the e-motor itself, as well as the optimal current values for the Field-Oriented Contoller. The inverter is driven with efficient space vector pulse width modulation. The integrated solution also supports different levels of modeling fidelity for the system components, for example for the e-motor where either direct co-simulation with Flux for detailed finite element analysis or a reduced order model (ROM) using look-up tables. In this way, sensor design parameters can be evaluated within an accurate system of the e-drive to improve performance and efficiency.
Presentations, Videos
Solving Challenges in Electric Motor Design
Presenter: Berker Bilgin, Assistant Professor of Engineering (ECE) at McMaster University and co-founder of Enedym Inc.
Electric motors in general, are made of certain parts, such as the stator, rotor, coils and magnets, and mechanical parts. These parts might look simple and bulky from the outside, however, the highly interrelated relationship between the geometry of these parts, characteristics of materials, and the way the current is controlled, defines the cost, size, efficiency, performance, and lifetime of the motor. In electric motor design, multidisciplinary aspects are highly interrelated. The effect of various parameters on the electromagnetic, thermal, and structural performance should be investigated together to come up with an optimized design. This is possible by developing the platforms where the multidisciplinary aspects are modeled in a software environment, as we are doing with Altair software.
Presentations, Videos
Altair MBD: Celebrating Accomplishments, What's Next
Presenter: Michael Hoffmann, Sr Vice President of Math & Systems, Altair
In this presentation, Michael Hoffmann, Sr Vice President, shares the company’s vision & strategy for Altair’s Math & Systems tools for Model-Based Development – based on providing an open platform tightly connecting 0D to 1D to 3D modeling & simulation. At different stages of their product development cycles, engineers can model and simulate their increasingly complex products as multi-disciplinary systems by using equations, block diagrams, and/or 3D CAD geometry.
His scope includes Altair Compose™, Altair Activate™, Altair Embed™, and Altair MotionSolve™ as well as the multi-body motion capabilities in Altair Inspire™. He also spotlights several recent success stories about customers who have used these technologies to drive innovation through simulation.
Presentations, Videos
Internal Noise Simulation/Emulation
Presenters: Rafael Morais Cunha, CAE Engineer in NVH, FCA Group & Frederico Luiz de Carvalho Moura, NVH CAE Leader, FCA Group
To make the driving experience more comfortable for passengers inside a vehicle compartment, in an increasingly shorter development cycle, predictive methods for the acoustic response characterization are used by vehicle engineering teams. The main purpose is to estimate the sound field in the car cabin.
The FCA NVH team identified in Altair tools an excellent opportunity to develop a complete solution for acoustics simulation. Supported by the Altair technical team, new methodology was created to convert frequency domain analysis into actual sound waves. This method was used to study the NVH steady-state acoustic performances. And development is in progress to simulate an acoustic environment to reproduce all vehicle noises in operational condition.
Using this methodology, it’s possible to virtually understand the acoustic behavior of vehicles, helping to make decisions in early design stages which could save design cost, time and also improve the driving experience for passengers.
Presentations, Videos
1D System Simulation Overview
Learn how Activate serves as Altair’s open integration platform for multi-disciplinary system simulation involving mechanical dynamics, controls, hydraulics, thermal effects, electronics, electromagnetics, and more. 1D diagrams can be built using either a signal-based approach or a physical modeling approach based on the Modelica and SPICE standards or both. Hybrid simulations can involve continuous time and discrete events. Models can be linearized for analysis in the frequency domain. Mixed models combining 1D+3D can be constructed and simulated by using the Functional Mockup Interface (FMI) standard. All tools are built-in; no extra-cost add-ons are required.
Webinars
E-motor Design using Multiphysics Optimization
Today, an e-motor cannot be developed just by looking at the motor as an isolated unit; tight requirements concerning the integration into both the complete electric or hybrid drivetrain system and perceived quality must be met. Multi-disciplinary and multiphysics optimization methodologies make it possible to design an e-motor for multiple, completely different design requirements simultaneously, thus avoiding a serial development strategy, where a larger number of design iterations are necessary to fulfill all requirements and unfavorable design compromises need to be accepted.
The project described in this paper is focused on multiphysics design of an e-motor for Porsche AG. Altair’s simulation-driven approach supports the development of e-motors using a series of optimization intensive phases building on each other. This technical paper offers insights on how the advanced drivetrain development team at Porsche AG, together with Altair, has approached the challenge of improving the total design balance in e-motor development.
Customer Stories, Technical Papers
Schneider Electric
An Altair customer for many years, Schneider Electric at first used only Altair Flux; now the company has extended their usage to several more software products in the Altair HyperWorks suite, including solutions such as Activate, MotionSolve, OptiStruct, and others to apply co-simulation in their development processes. Schneider feels their collaboration with Altair is more like a partnership than the standard supplier-OEM relationship.
Customer Stories
Multi-Physics Design and Optimization of a Complex Radar System
Today, most products are complex mechatronic combinations of advanced technologies, mixing electrical parts with controllers and embedded software. To efficiently manage innovative products, organizations are turning to a Model-Based Development approach for concept studies, control design, multi-domain system simulation and optimization. To meet this demand, Altair’s simulation and optimization suite aims to transform design and decision-making throughout product lifecycles with their multi-disciplinary software tools and consultancy services.
Technical Papers
Form Follows Function - thyssenkrupp AG - Reinventing the Elevator Concept
Christian Kehrer presents on behalf of thyssenkrupp Elevator AG.
2017, thyssenkrupp Elevator AG has presented the MULTI concept, the world’s first rope-free elevator. The drive is ensured by a linear electromagnetic motor. To enable an economically feasible operation, it is necessary that the total weight of the lift does not exceed a certain limit. Designing the overall system of the MULTI lift according to this weight specification is one of the major challenge for thyssenkrupp Elevator.
In this presentation, an overview of the partnership between thyssenkrupp Elevator and Altair, the chosen design partner since the early phase of development, will be introduced. Thereby, different aspects of the simulation driven design process will be highlighted, taking into account several tools throughout diverse stages of the development cycle.
Presentations, Videos
Aspects of Heterogeneous System Models in Industrial Applications
Presentation by Robert Höpler, Founder of SysOpt GmbH.
Heterogeneity can be present on various stages in system modelling and simulation. A system model is often called ‘multi-domain’, when different technical domains are present, such as hydraulics, mechanics, and control. When it comes to simulation this is just the surface of this domain level. Various mathematical and modelling formalisms can lie underneath which lead to different mathematical equations of motion, numerical properties, and computational complexity. On a specification level we see the choice between different modelling formalisms and modelling languages, libraries, coding styles, and authoring tools. Often there is a need to mix these. Decisions taken here strongly influence expressiveness of the models and ability for code generation and deeply impact software engineering topics such as development processes and exchange of models. Multi-domain approaches such as Modelica try to reconcile some these sources of heterogeneity. On an executional level we find classical desktop system simulation but more complex settings such as co-simulation, parallelization, real-time systems, and optimization which constrain numerical stability and precision and simulation speed. There might be an intricate feedback to the specification level, e.g., when modelling for specific solvers. Efforts like the Functional Mockup Interface (FMI) address some of these aspects and focus on interfacing and exchange of executional models. Prevalent system simulation tools are usually mature and controllable – as long as one stays within the desired scope of the tool. Following some examples we show how practical considerations influence design decisions and the choice of tooling.
Presentations, Videos
Simulation of a Gas Turbine and Generator System Under Steady State and Transient Conditions using Altair Activate
Presentation by Tomas Suguinoshita Quirino, GT2 Tecnologia.
This work presents the strategy created by GT2 Tecnologia to simulate the dynamics of a system comprised by a gas turbine coupled with an electrical generator, which is a typical schema for thermoelectrical powerplants. The mathematical models of the gas turbine and the generator are based on physical principles, such as mass and energy conservation, as well as on correlations from the literature, including heat transfer coefficients and tables of thermodynamic properties. The models have been developed and tested in native languages (Fortran 90 and C++) and their integration with Altair Activate is achieved through the Custom C Block functionality. The system is first tested in Activate in a base load scenario, being then subjected to load changes. This work discusses the test results and shows the advantages of using sT Activate in the simulation of thermal and electrical phenomena.
Presentations, Videos
Fast and Reliable Software Interfaces to Speed up the Design of Electric Motors
Presentation by Luigi Rizzi, Technical Director at SPIN Applicazioni Magnetiche.
The car industry is undergoing an unprecedented shift, between electrification, car sharing and autonomous drive. Car makers are going to roll out several zero-emission models in the next few years and their engineering departments are going to face new challenges. Engineering methodologies and good-design practices related to the well-known internal combustion engine must be reviewed and adapted to the electric propulsion system, considering multi-physic analyses in order to cover the various aspects of the vehicle performance. In this presentation a fast and reliable solution for the design of electric motors is shown.
A powerful software interface has been prepared in order to help the engineers to setup the model, define targets and boundary conditions, include multi-disciplinary verifications and collect analyses results. Using this tool, designers can easily and quickly perform electromagnetic analysis with the Altair software for electromagnetics, Flux, verify the performance in terms of delivered power, torque, losses and efficiency, check the thermal behaviour by means of equivalent thermal networks built in Activate and at the same time verify the stress levels and the NVH performance with OptiStruct, in order to define the early stage details of the product development. Activate plays a key role to speed-up the analysis because allows to obtain fast and accurate thermal information reducing the time usually required to simulate this domain.
Presentations, Videos
Virtual Tryout - Digitalization for an Efficient Commissioning of Forming Tools
Presentation by Dr. Lars Penter, Head of Machine Technology at University of Dresden.
The life cycle of a forming tool consists of five major phases. It starts with the process and tool design followed by its assembly, the ramp-up and serial as well as spare part production. Due to every increasing system complexities, various simulation tools accompany today’s tool life cycle. A popular term in the current world of production is the “Digital twin”. It is a simulation model, which contains at least two sub-models of different physical disciplines, connects different time scales and regularly synchronizes data with the real system. Such a model must be a highly accurate white box model.The presentation will address the generation of a virtual twin on the example of the virtual try-out of forming tools. The simulation model employs RADIOSS (for forming process simulation), MotionSolve (for multi-body simulation of machine mechanics) or Activate (for more complex multi-domain modelling of mechanics, hydraulics and electrical components). Currently, the digital twin allows for computing the interactions between forming process and die cushion. This enables the calculation of correlations between die-cushion cylinder forces and flange draw-in. The presentation shows how optimizing these cylinder forces in HyperStudy benefits the final part quality and shortens real tool try-out time.
Presentations, Videos
Multi-disciplinary System Simulation for Model-Based Development
Customers share their success stories illustrating how Altair Model-Based Development technology, and especially Altair Activate™, help them design better products faster. These customers give special attention to simulating multi-disciplinary performance aspects of their products as a system-of-systems. Given the complexity of today’s smart products, this often involves a combination of mechanical, electrical & electronic, and/or software aspects – and thus leverages both 1D and 3D models simulated together.
Presentations recorded at the 2018 Global ATC in Paris, France on October 18, 2018.
Presentations, Videos
Transient Analysis of Switched-Reluctance Motor Drive by FE Model Co-Simulation
Presentation by Lino Di Leonardo, University of L'Aquila.
This presentation showcases an analysis technique of electric motor drive based on transient simulation tools and embedded finite element motor modeling (co-simulation). A couple of software tools, Altair Flux and Activate, are employed suitably interfaced each other. The first one allows the computation of the motor electromagnetic behavior using a finite element model, while the second one allows the dynamic simulation of the control and feeding converter. The interacting use of these tools allows a detailed prediction of the motor transient behavior under a given control strategy and drive scheme. As test case a multi-phase Switched Reluctance motor for aerospace application is considered.
The results demonstrate that the co-simulation procedure allows taking into account not negligible phenomena, such as dynamic torque ripple, usually not considered in similar studies. Hence, co-simulation analysis represents a significant step for the integrate design of the motor and control, as well as a meaningful tool for electrical drives education.
Presentations, Videos
EV Thermal Analysis: 1D and 3D Model Integration for Cockpit and Batteries
Presentation by Massimiliana Carello, from Beond & Politecnico di Torino.
Nowadays automotive climate control systems are evolving at a rapid pace to meet the overall vehicle requirements. System evaluation is one of the major requests currently faced by the automotive manufacturers and their suppliers. Thermal comfort, convenience and range are equally important user expectations, even if they may represent “opposed” performance for a modern EV, especially in an urban driving cycle.
In this framework, to achieve the expected targets and limiting the time-to-market and costs, a complete vehicle thermal model is to be developed to evaluate the cockpit thermal request for occupants' comfort at different ambient temperatures as well as solar radiation. Furthermore, the battery thermal management is to be investigated, to avoid cells damages and deterioration. The aim of this technical presentation is to highlight the integration capabilities of a lumped parameters model (1D) developed with Altair Activate for fast simulations and a CFD model (3D) of the battery liquid cooling system developed in AcuSolve. The Models realized are validated using experimental data.
Presentations, Videos
Mabe
Mabe is a Mexico-based international appliance company designing, producing and distributing a wide spectrum of home appliances such as washing machines, dryers, cooking ranges, refrigerators, air-conditioners, microwaves, etc. Altair technology has enabled Mabe to increase the capacity of their washing machines by 35%, and the spin speed by 24% while reducing the cost per cubic foot by 10%.
Customer Stories
Thermal Analysis of Electrical Equipment A review and comparison of different methods
Nowadays, it is more and more difficult to design electro-technique devices without having a look at thermal stress. In more and more applications (more electric vehicles, more electric aircrafts, …) designers need to reduce weight, cost, increase efficiency, and keep the same security factor. One possibility is to increase current for the same device, needing to check how to draw away the heat. This is why the classical approximations need to be cross checked with complementary analysis. These new tools have to be rapid and accurate in order to run parametric and even optimization analysis. There is also a need for fast model in order to check robustness versus driving cycles. The goal in this article is to review rapidly the different methods available, depending on the accuracy required and the solving speed.
The method includes equivalent thermal circuits, Finite elements methods and CFD analysis.
Articles
