CAD and CAE Outsourcing

Benefits of CAE

Products can be tested physically or virtually. Physical testing requires building a prototype and testing either in a rig that represents real world application conditions or in a vehicle. Whilst physical testing can give you the truest feedback it can be incredibly time consuming and expensive.

Testing the component or assembly virtually using Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools can reduce the cost and time of your validation considerably. The accuracy of CAE tools and techniques has improved significantly over the last ten years and specialist tools have been developed to model specific products, physics or attributes.

Further whereas physical testing will only tell you that a component will fail simulation is able to help you understand why it has failed. This is because during postprocessing you can get information about any parameter value at any part of the component and at any moment in time (if performing a transient analysis). This allows the engineer to see how and why a problem such as high stress has developed.

Benefits of Outsourcing CAE

Building and maintaining a full CAE capability in-house can be expensive precisely because the discipline has become so specialised. Several types of software are typically required to cover each of the physics (e.g. 1D and 3D CFD, linear and non-linear FEA, multi-body dynamics, fatigue, chemical reactions); products (e.g. head and block, crankshaft, pistons and rings; manifolds, turbochargers; catalysts); and attributes (e.g. Weight reduction, performance, emissions, NVH). Each software can be expensive in its own right. On top of that is the expense of hiring and training each of the engineering specialists.

A solution to this is to outsource some or all of the CAE activities to a company that already has all of the tools and techniques required. This allows the client to focus irs resources on developing and reinforcing its core competencies. For more on the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing CAE click here.

Caepro Advantages

At Caepro we have a comprehensive set of software tools and procedures for simulating the performance of each component, both in isolation and as an assembly, to optimise their performance in each attribute whilst ensuring we minimise any negative impact of its performance in others. Analysis areas covered include:

• Stress and stiffness
• Fatigue
• Impact
• Modal and acoustics
• Multi-Body Dynamics
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Combustion and emissions
• Thermal and aerodynamics
• 1D Performance simulation

Our deep product and attribute knowledge allows us to provide powerful insights on the analysis results and valuable recommendations for design improvements quickly and cost-effectively.

Attribute knowledge means knowing which variables will increase or decrease the level of the attribute of concern and also how that might negatively affect another attribute. This is why when performing a weight reduction exercise on an engine cylinder block for example, as well as performing stress analysis to ensure that the factors of safety are adequate we can also perform stiffness analysis or a full NVH simulation to identify if there may be any impact on noise and vibration.

Product and application knowledge means knowing what design recommendations are feasible or practical from a user, service and manufacturing perspective. It is also essential in being able to determine what will be appropriate boundary and load conditions for the simulation. Getting these conditions wrong will lead to either an over-engineered product which is too heavy or expensive or a under-engineered product which will fail in use leading to warranty issues.

It is important to note that although at Caepro we are big proponents of simulation we will not automatically recommend using CAE to solve a problem if we believe there is a better alternative (cheaper, quicker, more accurate) such as testing or a simple design review.