CAE Process Workflow Management of an Automotive Simulation Scenario 2014-01-0297

The growing complexity of simulation and analysis for new products has created new challenges in improving CAE productivity and effectiveness. The information required for down-streaming CAE processes is often unavailable, untraceable, outdated or susceptive to human errors and the information of previous best practices is not usually captured as applicable knowledge for future use. Additionally, the CAE cycle is a collaborative process involving not only data but also human and non-human resources, rendering a solution with a holistic approach essential.

This work describes how these challenges are addressed by the Simulation Process, Data and Resources Management (SPDRM) system. A real-case industry scenario is used to demonstrate how CAE data and activities can be associated with the available resources, while defining and handling workflows in a common environment. This scenario discusses a CAE analysis process, validated by a renowned automotive OEM.

The process workflow consists of the simulation setup, the post-processing of results and the reporting phase. During the process, data and meta-data are streamed to the right resources, whilst a workflow process network and its progress are visually available.

As resulted by the deployment of the automotive simulation scenario and validated by the OEM industry, the proposed framework proves to have a positive effect, on the development of a methodological referential, and on the implementation of a collaborative platform for multi-users and multi-engineering tasks in CAE workflow processes. Moreover, the importance of introducing an integrated tool that addresses the CAE management problems and improves the sharing of knowledge is highlighted.