Search Results

Manufacturing processes often produce a large amount of heat, which needs to be pumped out of the factory to maintain thermal stability and comfort. Thermal comfort is essential to maintain a suitable working environment in a factory. It has a strong impact on the health and productivity of workers. In addition, it is mandatory to keep the working environment within specified thermal and relative humidity ranges. Periodic assessments of these thermal parameters is routine in most factories. Inclusion of additional manufacturing equipment or processes can lead to a significant change in the working environment and consequent comfort, this needs to be addressed quickly. Rather than wait to measure these effects it is preferable to develop a reliable simulation method for the proactive study and improvement of thermal comfort levels. A reliable simulation approach is developed in this study for the prediction of thermal comfort in an automotive manufacturing plant.

Roll-over protective structures (ROPS) are safety devices which provide a safe environment for the tractor operator during an accidental rollover. The ROPS must pass either a dynamic or static testing sequence or both in accordance with SAE J2194. These tests examine the performance of ROPS to withstand a sequence of loadings and to see if the clearance zone around the operator station remains intact in the event of an overturn. In order to shorten the time and reduce the cost of new product development, non-linear finite element (FE) analysis is practiced routinely in ROPS design and development. By correlating the simulation with the results obtained from testing a prototype validates the CAE model and its assumptions. The FE analysis follows SAE procedure J2194 for testing the performance of ROPS. The Abaqus version 6.12 finite element software is used in the analysis, which includes the geometric, contact and material nonlinear options.