SimScale
Canvas Category Software : Engineering : Simulation
SimScale is the world’s first production-ready SaaS application for engineering simulation! We dream of a future where engineers are able to optimize their designs better and faster. We want to be the destination for designers across the globe, by providing a cloud-based simulation tool, educational hub, and collaborative community of innovators. Learn more about SimScale.
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Vibration in Rotating Machinery: Analysis & Solutions
Unmanaged vibration introduces risks like mechanical wear, increased maintenance costs, and safety hazards for operators. Over time, this can result in machine downtime, loss of productivity, and higher operational costs. Addressing vibration early in the design phase or through continuous monitoring and vibration simulation helps maintain the reliability and performance of rotating machinery.
Hazleton Pumps, a manufacturer of heavy-duty pumps and pump systems, faced vibrational problems with one of their large, installed pumps weighing approximately 9 tons and operating at 800 RPM. Despite attempts to manually stabilize the pump with clamps, the vibration persisted, prompting the company to hire independent engineers. The engineers recommended significant modifications, including adding 500 kg of steel reinforcements, adjusting the subframe, and redesigning the bearing-to-shaft assembly, with an estimated cost of $40,000 per pump.
Instead, Hazleton turned to SimScale’s structural analysis tools to conduct a detailed multi-body modal analysis on the entire pump assembly. The simulation revealed that the eigenfrequency of the structure was around 780 RPM, meaning the pump was operating dangerously close to this resonance frequency. Equipped with this insight, Hazleton modified their operational procedures to avoid running the pump below 950 RPM, thus avoiding resonance-induced vibrations. They also implemented more cost-effective solutions, such as adding square tubing to the subframe, dramatically reducing costs compared to the original recommendations.
3 Generations of Simulation: The Evolution of Engineering Simulation Tools
Engineering simulation tools have undergone significant transformations over recent decades. From the early days of locally installed, dedicated expert simulation tools to the integration of these tools within CAD systems, and now to the latest generation where online simulation platforms serve as the backbone of engineering operations, the evolution is marked by increased accessibility, efficiency, and strategic value.
With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and its convergence with simulation, a new generation of simulation could be knocking on the door: the generation of AI Simulation. By incorporating AI-driven insights and functionalities, AI simulation’s core strength is its capacity to speed up and improve the simulation process, making it more efficient, intuitive, and accessible for engineers and designers throughout the design cycle.
How Cloud-Native CAE Simulation Boosts Growth & Savings
From CFD analyses of aerodynamics, turbomachinery, and urban microclimates to FEA simulations of structural mechanics in automotive and consumer products, all the way to thermal analyses for indoor environments and electronics cooling, the applications for engineering simulation are numerous and can involve multiple physics. In this article, we dive into cloud simulation and CAE and find out how it strategically impacts business growth and helps optimize financial resources, enabling sustainable growth and profitability while minimizing risks. We explore in numbers how various companies from different industries have benefited from SimScale’s cloud-native simulation platform and how you can, too.
One example is ITW, a global design and engineering firm and a leading global supplier of auto parts. Using SimScale, ITW engineers conducted nonlinear static simulation and analysis to accelerate the development of plastic automotive fastening components, allowing them to minimize the insertion force of their fasteners by up to 85% while saving 10% of their R&D costs.
Simplify Your Thermal Simulation With Immersed Boundary Method
However, common bottlenecks to simulation have been CAD preparation and the numerical discretization of that model (meshing). Both consume time and manual intervention. The advent of advanced physics solvers and novel meshing techniques, such as the immersed boundary method, means that engineers spend less time making their CAD models simulation-ready and more time on insight-driven design. Skipping the time-intensive CAD preparation also opens up the possibility of doing simulations very early when some components are still in the draft stage and comparing many variants that otherwise would have required repeated CAD simplification efforts.
The Immersed Boundary method addresses the core of this dilemma. It completely removes the CAD preparation or reduces it to a few minutes at most. At the same time, the physics-driven meshing avoids high mesh resolutions on detailed CAD features that are insignificant to the system’s thermal behavior. Yet, it resolves physically relevant regions like power sources or flow channels to the level the user requires. This level might differ significantly based on the current simulation intent.
Simulating and Optimizing an Electric Vehicle Battery Cold Plate
The efficient and accurate cooling of an electric vehicle battery cold plate is critical to ensure their optimum performance, battery reliability, and lifecycle return on investment. High development costs can be mitigated with access to fast and accurate simulation insights using engineering simulation in the cloud. For example, additional R&D, prototyping, and machining costs are reduced by arriving at an optimized and less complex design, earlier in the design cycle.
This article presents a design and simulation study of battery cold plate technology for electric vehicles. Engineering simulation is used to perform a fully-coupled conjugate heat transfer analysis of a cold plate for dynamic thermal management. Furthermore, using an advanced Subsonic CFD solver, a design study is performed for evaluating pressure-flow characteristics across the cold plate flow channel. Parallel simulations in the cloud are used for scenario analysis both for geometric variants and multiple coolant flow rates. In this sample case, our simulation workflows show users how to set up and run a complete heat transfer and flow analysis of a cold plate, including pressure drop and temperature at various coolant flow rates. Engineers can follow this example to learn how to quickly complete a parametric design study in SimScale and answer key design questions.
Nonlinear Static Analysis: Snap-Fit Assembly
Cloud-native engineering simulation enables engineers to test the structural performance and structural integrity of their designs earlier and with accuracy. Advanced solvers that account for thermal and structural behavior can be accessed to provide robust assessments of deformation, stresses, and other design critical output quantities. In this article, we analyze the structural performance and integrity of a casing snap-fit assembly using cloud-native nonlinear static analysis. The focus of this analysis was to detect the peak stress regions, and therefore better understand the likelihood of permanent deformations. After analyzing the structural behavior, the design goal was to ensure safe snap operations, while minimizing the material yielding.
Using Ventilation Simulation to Increase the Performance of HVAC Systems
For the first time, HVAC engineers are able to explore the full design space for HVAC product designs, not just at the component level but the spatial (room) level where the products are installed. This reduces cost and time by avoiding the trial-and-error characteristics typically seen in physical prototyping.
SimScale raises €25M for its SaaS engineering simulation platform from Insight Partners, Draper Esprit, others
David Heiny, co-founder and CEO of SimScale, explains, “Our vision is to make engineering simulation a standard tool in every engineer’s tool kit, and accessible early in the design stage, throughout the entire R&D cycle, and across teams, applications and industries. With hundreds of thousands of users and millions of simulation jobs carried out, we’ve made significant progress towards it in recent years.”
However, Heiny continues, “there are still entire industry sectors that we haven’t started addressing yet, and billions of dollars in CAE market value left untapped. This additional investment allows us to double-down on our strategy and accelerate our pace at which we extend SimScale’s offering.”