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Industrial requirements imply optimizing the development cycle, reducing manufacturing costs and reaching marketable product maturity as fast as possible. The design stage often involves multiple sites and various partners. In this context, the use of computer simulation becomes absolutely necessary to meet industrial needs. Nevertheless, this activity can be effective only if it is integrated correctly in the industrial organization. In the aeronautical and space systems industry, mechanical specifications often require the use of composites reinforced by continuous carbon fibers. The goal of this article is to describe how, on a time frame of nearly twenty years, a series of scientific and technical tasks were carried out in partnership in order to develop, validate and implement Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) flow simulation and cure analysis for high performance composites. The research stage started at the university in 1991.

CAE capabilities have long been used for performing static and dynamic structural analysis during the seat design process. More recently, the soft parts of the seat including foams, trim and suspension have also been modeled with CAE. The purpose of this modeling is to better understand the physical phenomena which are involved in the sitting process, to enhance seat design knowledge, and to replace as much physical testing during the design process with virtual, CAE testing. This paper presents the first part of a multi-phased, both experimental and numerical project. The aim of this first stage is to assess the capabilities of a CAE methodology to predict FMVSS 202a backset. Based on CAD data, a finite element mesh of the seat was built. The mechanical behavior of all parts was characterized through experiments on material samples.

This paper presents the second part of a multi-phased, both experimental and numerical project, devoted to the use of Virtual Prototyping techniques for seat design. The aim of this stage is to assess the capabilities of a CAE methodology to predict some comfort-related mechanical parameters, such as overall hardness and plushness, as a base engineering approach to quantify an occupant perception of both long- and short-term comfort. For hardness, a simple human surrogate (SAE AM50 Buttock Form) is applied on the bottom cushion of a fully trimmed, current production FORD seat, following a load cycle. For initial softness, a round probe is indented at different locations of both backrest and bottom cushions, following loading cycles. The resulting load-deflection curves predicted by numerical simulation are in good agreement with the experimental ones.

Two alternative finite element formulations are described which consider the influence of normal stress components on sheet deformations in Quick Plastic Forming [1]. The new formulations, single field bricks and multi-field shells, were implemented in the forming simulation program PAM-STAMP [2] using a non-linear viscoelastic constitutive relation [3,4]. Simulations of two industrial components indicate that both new elements simulate local necking more accurately than the standard shells which ignore normal stresses. The multi-field shells require slightly more calculation time than the standard shells and significantly less than equivalent brick models.

A fast and fully automated, Cartesian cell dominated projected mesh generation tool, that does not require a water-tight surface mesh and can handle dirty geometry without the need for CAD clean-up, is ideal for generating the fluid (air) domain mesh in the underhood region of an automobile. For simulating radiation and conduction though, it may be essential to model the solid material of the underhood components as well. Thus a multi-domain mesh is required. This paper presents an approach in which a projected mesh generation tool (CFD-VisCART) creates the fluid mesh and communicates with a conventional grid generator (CFD-GEOM), which in turn creates the solid component mesh. This approach thus tries to combine the benefits of the two vastly varying grid generation algorithms and allows the user to achieve a very short turnaround time for the underhood mesh.

The most time-consuming step in an external aerodynamics or underhood CFD process is that of generating a usable mesh from CAD data. Conventional mesh generators require a water-tight surface mesh before they can generate the volume mesh. Typical CAD surface data available for mesh generation is far from satisfactory for volume mesh creation: no node-to-node matching between mating parts, minute gaps, overlapping surfaces, overlapping parts, etc. To clean up this kind of data to a level that can be used for volume mesh creation requires a lot of manual work that could take a couple of weeks or more to accomplish. This paper presents a fast and fully automated, Cartesian cell dominated projected mesh generation algorithm used in CFD-VisCART that eliminates the need for CAD data cleaning, thus shaving off weeks worth of time off the design cycle.

FMVSS 201U, interior head impact performance is required for each new vehicle program. In the laboratory, testing to this requirement includes laying out the target locations, defining additional robustness target points based on targeting variation, positioning the Free Motion Headform (FMH), impacting each location with the headform and measuring HIC values. The tests may involve some conservative strategies and robustness studies to protect for the worst-case scenarios, where an impact might produce the highest HIC(d) within variations of impact conditions. In order to automate the best practices and procedures for both laboratory and CAE, a process automation environment was used to develop the Interior Head Impact Toolkit (IHIT, pronounced as i-hit). The IHIT software addresses several key testing processes and is grouped into four modules.

Process automation is one of the emerging technologies in the field of computer aided engineering (CAE). A majority of the CAE processes involve repetitive steps during the product development and enhancement phases. An effort is being made to improve the engineer's efficiency by automating the repetitive tasks. The objective of the current study is to demonstrate the capabilities of CAE or FE process automation. Using a CAE process authoring and execution environment, a process was developed for the standard neck pendulum certification for the FE Hybrid III 5th percentile female ATD model. Standard pre-processing tasks for the typical neck pendulum certification simulation such as ATD head/neck replacement and positioning, resolving connections, quality checks, boundary and loading conditions, contact definitions, etc. were defined as process steps. Solver execution and post-processing were also made part of the process automation for the review of results and report generation.

In this paper, the distortion analysis in spot welded area of car body - front side member, it is found out that the optimum condition for panel assembly is closely related to the welding sequence, location of clamping system, number, shape and welding force. The distortion resulting from welding sequence is minimized starting from the surroundings of the clamping system and in the way that the value of the welding force is from large to small. The MCP is determined from the positions inducing the minimum distortion in panel through calculating the deformation and reacting force of the panel. The welding force originating from the manufacturing tolerance of assembly is a critical design factor determining the welding sequence and the clamping system that yield minimum distortion in spot welding of body panel.

Traditional automotive seat development has relied on a series of physical prototypes that are evaluated and refined in an iterative fashion. Costs are managed by sharing prototypes across multiple attributes. To further manage costs, many OEMs and Tier 1s have, over the past decade, started to investigate various levels of virtual prototyping. The change, which represents a dramatic paradigm shift, has been slow to materialize since virtual prototyping has not significantly reduced the required number of physical prototypes. This is related to the fact virtual seat prototyping efforts have been focused on only selected seat attributes - safety / occupant positioning and mechanical comfort are two examples. This requires that physical prototypes still be built for seat attributes like craftsmanship, durability, and thermal comfort.

The comfort assessment of seats in the automotive industry has historically been accomplished by subjective ratings. This approach is expensive and time consuming since it involves multiple prototype seats and numerous people in supporting processes. In order to create a more efficient and robust method, objective metrics must be developed and utilized to establish measurable boundaries for seat performance. Objective measurements already widely accepted, such as IFD (Indentation Force Deflection) or CFD (Compression Force Deflection) [1], have significant shortcomings in defining seat comfort. The most obvious deficiency of these component level tests is that they only deal with a seats' foam rather than the system response. Consequently, these tests fail to take into account significant factors that affect seat comfort such as trim, suspension, attachments and other components.

In order to assess the seating comfort design of a vehicle seat system, a full finite element occupant model, with anatomically precise features and deformable tissues, has been developed. This paper describes the experiments which were performed in order to assess the biofidelic accuracy of this model. First, static pressure distribution measurements, with human volunteers, have been performed. People of different morphological types were asked to sit on a PU foam cushion with various postures, which were captured by photographs and X-Ray measurements. Pressure sensors were used to determine the corresponding pressure distribution patterns. Then, the FE occupant model was used to simulate the same experiments, and the numerical results were compared to the experimental ones.

Occupant head impact simulations on automotive instrument panels (IP) are routinely performed as part of an integrated design process during the course of IP development. Based on the requirements (F/CMVSS, ECE), head impact zones on the IP are first established, which are then used to determine the various “hit” locations to be tested/analyzed. Once critical impact locations are identified, CAE simulations performed which is a repetitive process that involves computing impact angles, positioning the rigid head form with an assigned initial velocity and defining suitable contacts within the finite element model. A commercially available CAE process automation tool was used to automate these steps and generate a head impact simulation model. Once the input model is checked for errors by the automated process, it can be submitted to a solver without any user intervention for analysis and report generation.

The present contribution will present how local micromechanical properties can be used in an industrial way to assess the crash performance of parts made of short fiber reinforced polymers. To this end, local information about the material structure, predicted by a Manufacturing Process Simulation (MPS), is transferred and mapped automatically on the performance composite part model. The homogenization and mapping techniques will be presented for elastic and nonlinear application fields. Short fiber reinforced injected thermoplastics are widely used in the automotive industry in mass production. Reliable prediction of the performance of short fiber reinforced thermoplastics by simulation for statics and crash simulation can be achieved only by accounting for the full manufacturing process coming from process simulation software.

Today, LRI is a proven manufacturing technology for both small and large scale structures (e.g. sailboats) where, in most cases, experience and limited prototype experimentation is sufficient to get a satisfactory design. However, large scale aerospace (and other) structures require reproducible, high quality, defect free parts, with excellent mechanical performance. This requires precise control and knowledge of the preforming (draping and manufacture of the composite fabric preforms), their assembly and the resin infusion. The INFUCOMP project is a multi-disciplinary research project to develop necessary Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools for all stages of the LRI manufacturing process. An ambitious set of developments have been undertaken that build on existing capabilities of leading drape and infusion simulation codes available today. Currently the codes are only accurate for simple drape problems and infusion analysis of RTM parts using matched metal molds.

Electric vehicle makers have largely relied on aluminum to make their cars lighter in hopes of offsetting the weight of the battery pack and reducing overall weight. Distortion of Aluminum welding is a big issue due to Aluminum’s high coefficient of expansion ratios. This paper presents an effective numerical approach to minimize weld-induced distortion in Electrical Vehicle Aluminum assembly structures using welding sequence optimization. A numerical optimization framework based on genetic algorithms and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is developed and implemented. The shrinkage method calibrated using transient approach, is used for the weld sequence optimization to reduce the computation time. The optimization results show that the proposed calibration approach can contribute substantially to reduce distortion by optimizing weld sequences. It enhances final aluminum assembly quality while facilitating and accelerating design and development.

A new artificial intelligence (model order reduction) / finite element coupled approach will be presented for the risk assessment of battery fire during a car crash event. This approach combines standard crash finite element for the main car body with a reduced order model for the battery. Simulation is today used by automotive engineering teams to design lightweight vehicle bodies fulfilling vehicle safety regulations. Legislation is rapidly evolving to accommodate the growing electrical vehicle market share and is considering additional battery safety requirements. The focus is on avoiding internal short circuit due to internal damage within a cell which may result in a fire hazard. Assessing short circuit risk in CAE at the vehicle level is complex as there involves phenomena at different scales. The vehicle deforms on a macroscale level during the impact event.

This paper presents an integrated simulation process which has been performed in order to assess the riding comfort performance of a vehicle seat system virtually. Present methods of seat comfort design rely on the extensive testing of numerous hardware prototypes. In order to overcome the limitations of this expensive and time-consuming process, and to fasten innovation, simulation-based design has to be used to predict the seat comfort performance very early in the seat design process, leading to a drastic reduction in the number of physical prototypes. The accurate prediction of the seat transfer function by numerical simulation requires a complete simulation chain, which takes into account the successive stages determining the final seat behaviour when submitted to vibrations. First the manufacturing stresses inside the cushion, resulting from the trimming process, are computed.