Automotive Consulting & Vehicle Engineering Simulation Solutions

Aerodynamics

• Resolve pressure distribution around the vehicle
• Minimize vehicle drag (to improve fuel economy)
• Assess vehicle handling and stability (side forces, lift)

• High-end turbulence models
• Sophisticated and accurate numerics
• Highly efficient transient solvers
• Mesh-adapt-on-the-fly ability
• Industry-leading parallel scalability

Automotive Acoustics

• Noise propagation for external and internal flows
• Qualify acoustic sources
• Determine dominant frequencies and sound pressure level (SPL)
• Understand effect of modifications to local geometric features on SPL and frequency

• High-end turbulence models
• Highly efficient transient solvers
• Highly accurate numerics
• Built-in acoustics-specific tools
• Industry-fastest turnaround times

Airbag Inflators

• Optimize inflator design from the aspect of gas flow delivery in the airbag
• Gas flow data are input for crash simulations
• Need detailed characterization of the gas flow inside and/or outside the inflator

• Robust explicit solver able to deal with highly compressible, unsteady, flows and propagating pressure waves
• Species transport model

Brakes & Wheels

• Design brakes and wheels that are durable and can sustain variable loads
• Predict stress and fatigue
• Predict local temperature distributions and thermal loads
• Optimize brake venting

• Flow and structural solution from the same CAE vendor
• Easy and seamless transfer of CFD and FEA data between applications

Climate Control System

• Design HVAC system able to provide thermal comfort to passengers over a wide range of driving and ambient conditions
• Deliver appropriate cabin airflow for clearing windshield and windows as required by safety regulations
• Optimize performance of HVAC components

• Hexcore technology for efficient meshing
• Robust and accurate solver regardless of mesh type
• Deicing and defogging models
• Solar load model

Electronics (automotive)

• Design components capable of sustaining harsh operating environments
• Proper thermal management is crucial for reliability and durability
• Accelerated failure mechanism in materials
• Packaging constraints
• Vibrations

• Variety of products targeted for electronics, from full-feature applications to highly application-focused and automated vertical tools
• Easy and seamless transfer of flow and structural data between CFD and FEA

FSI Simulations

• Capture the flow-induced structural deformations (one-way coupling)
• Capture the alterations of the fluid flow due to structural deformations (two-way coupling)

• Both 1-way and 2-way FSI simulations can be performed entirely within the Ansys Workbench environment
• A single environment with a consistent graphical user interface, making it easier to learn and use
• Simulation process completely streamlined
• Automated mesh morphing
• Both CFD and FEA results can be simultaneously post-processed in the Ansys CFX post-processor

Headlights & Lamp Housing

• New polymer materials have lower thermal resilience than glass
• Thermal stresses caused by absorption of emitted light
• Condensation is visible in case of clear panes
• Flow distribution needs to be optimized for proper ventilation

• Complete solution: CFD and FEA
• Choice of several radiation models
• Condensation model
• Material nonlinearity
• Easy mapping of CFD data onto FEA

Underhood Thermal Management

• Predict cooling system performance (e.g. air flow distribution in heat exchangers, top hose temperature, fan-off temperature…)
• Minimize simulation turnaround time while meeting accuracy targets
• Preprocessing: Complexity of the geometry, number of parts (in hundreds), dirty CAD data, etc.

• Powerful pre-processing tools (e.g. TGrid, Ansys ICEM CFD)
• Full suite of physical models (e.g. radiation, buoyancy, shell conduction, fan model, heat exchanger model)
• Robust and accurate numerics via automotive software
• Fully parallelized calculations for fast turnaround
• Fully coupled solution with major 1-D fluid system (e.g. Flowmaster) and engine simulation codes (e.g. GT-Power and WAVE)

Automotive Mechanics

• Analyze the mechanisms of complex assemblies involving many parts
• Determine forces experienced at the joints
• Predict stresses in critical regions
• Rapid modeling of mechanisms and optimizing the design

• Automatic joint detection for complex assemblies
• Quickly switch simulation from fully- rigid to flexible in the same environment

Body in White

• NVH and point mobility analysis of full BIW structures
• Accurately model spot welds
• Crash simulation of structure

• Feature rich surface meshing tools including variable thickness
• Auto creation of spot welds from weld data
• Ability to export the model from static to crash analysis

Hyperelastic Seals

• Predict leakages and failure of seals
• Highly non-linear material and load behavior
• Complex physics involving self-contact

• Ability to model non-linear materials
• Easy to set up self-contact
• Easy to model 2-D as well as 3-D solutions
• Advanced diagnostic tools to help convergence

Fuel Cells

• Channel design that optimizes distribution of oxygen (hydrogen) to the cathode (anode)
• Water management via automotive consulting
• Thermal stresses and cooling plate design
  • Materials
  • High costs
• Property variation
• Space limitations

• Probabilistic design in virtual prototypes
  • Design for Six Sigma
• Minimize costly physical prototypes using analysis based on first principle physics (electrochemistry, fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, structural mechanics)

Battery Packs

• Increase power capability, while avoiding hot spots that cause premature failure
• Insure proper thermal management of the battery pack for performance and reliability
• Battery pack performance impacted by performance of individual cells and modules
• Capture heat transfer of the actual cell or module (case, terminal posts, connectors, interconnects, relief valves, seals, etc.)

• Multiphysics modeling capabilities (electro/thermal, CFD, FEA) all in a single CAE package