Design and support

Design

We provide all activities related to prototype design, prototype drawing and production documentation for both low volume and mass volume production. Our designers work on projects for:

• Automotive
• Footwear Industry
• Aeronautical
• Areas of the Civil engineering industry

We are able to provide complete products and temporary or permanent placement of our experts at a customer's site.

Personnel contracting

We offer personnel support directly on the customer's premises to carry out project activities in the fields of CFD and FEM simulations, development of computational models and other activities during product development. Based on contractor agreements, we are ready to provide required number of appropriately trained experts for both short-term and long-term stay at the customer. Typical customer requirements for contractors are: CFD analyst, FEM analyst, mesher (CFD / FEM), an analyst for thermodynamic calculations, an analyst for the thermo-mechanical calculations and so on.

Risk analysis

Integral part of our activities is the development of risk analysis and FMEA documents as required.

Risk analysis - the risk usually doesn't exists in isolation, but it is a combination of risks that may eventually present a threat to the subject. It is necessary to evaluate risks in terms of their possible impact and likelihood of occurrence (including combinations thereof) and focus on key risk areas and suggest countermeasures.

FMEA - The focus of this method lays already in the process of developing a new product, when we define all possible defects (including the manufacturing process), these defects will be assessed in terms of possible impact and likelihood of occurrence and according to the Pareto principle we focus on the most significant ones and in advance propose countermeasures.

Numerical model preparation

CAD data at the construction output include many, for the CFD and FEM analysis often unnecessary, respectively unimportant details. For preparation of meshes it is therefore appropriate to separate only data important for the analysis and prepare simplified geometry of the computational model.
Separation of the necessary data and model preparation is done in software ANSA (BETA CAE Systems S.A.). The input data for models preparation are required in data format, which represents output of most modelers :

• iges, igs
• step, stp
• vda, vdafs
• ansa

Numerical model preparation for CFD / FEM

Since good results of CFD / FEM analysis strongly depend on the quality of meshes, it is necessary to create correct mesh on the pre-geometry model.

With regard to the computation type we create CFD / FEM meshes of specific size, structure and elements quality. Our capacity allows us to create meshes up to the size of 80 million volume cells. We can create meshes for both stationary calculations, as well as for non-stationary calculations and moving meshes.

As a traditional tool for creating structured, unstructured hybrid surface, volume and moving meshes we use ANSA, TGrid and GAMBIT software, in which we are ready to prepare meshes for your numerical simulations.

Flow analyses

Internal aerodynamics

In the area of internal aerodynamics we concentrate on the flow of gases and liquids in confined spaces. In general cases, it is necessary to solve problems with medium compressibility, viscosity, turbulent behavior and other nonlinearities, which ranks the area to difficult subjects, not just to engineering applications. The aim of our optimization is usually to find a suitable channel shape for optimal gas flow, in order to meet defined requirements such as minimum pressure loss, maximizing the flow etc. We also provide optimization of flow in the space within motor vehicles with the aim of more efficient cooling and we suggest shapes of exhaust grilles in ventilation circuits of cars.

Simulations with phase changes

Condensation

We perform simulations focused on air moisture management. Its utilization can be found wherever it is necessary to achieve certain air quality, such as the residential rooms or passenger room of cars. We can assess the risk of condensation and thereby prevent damage associated with its elimination.

Defrosting

Clear view from a car is essential for safe driving of any motor vehicle. Thanks to 3D CFD calculations can we are able to simulate the process of windows defrosting in a time period. Based on the results we are able to design appropriate amount and direction of air from the blowers and provide the driver with clear view in the shortest possible time.

Hot liquids and boiling

Boiling of liquids in closed systems can very negatively affect the strength and durability of technical structures and their corrosion. Uneven heat flow causes formation of thermo-galvanic cells and causes corrosion, especially where heat transfer causes a change between liquid and gas. By controlling the geometry of liquid channels with the aim to ensure adequate cooling, we can identify areas at risk of local liquid boiling.

Soiling / Dusting

Multiphase computational models allow tracing the movement of small particles such as dust or water drops in the air. These calculations are widely used for example in the design of particle separators and defining the rate of filter chokes.

External aerodynamics

In the field of external aerodynamics mainly concentrate on computations of drag and lift forces acting on a body in the airflow, which supplement, or often even completely replace the experiments in aerodynamic tunnels. Greatest importance of this discipline is in the automotive and aircraft industry, but its application can be found also in construction industry. Optimization of shapes from aerodynamic perspective goes hand in hand with the trend of reducing energy losses of vehicles and thus lowering the environmental impact.

Acoustics

Flow of liquids and gases in industrial applications is often accompanied by the emergence of unwanted noise. This is caused by slight pressure pulsations in the liquid, which usually bear several

• Noise generation and propagation due to the external flow (buffeting by opening side and roof car windows)
• Noise generation and propagation due to the external flow (whistling sound caused by external flow around narrow joints)
• Noise generated due to gas intake, for example to radial compressor
• Noise generated at liquid outlet through a nozzle

Thermodynamics analyses

Cooling / Heating / Radiation

Proper heat dissipation from heat-stressed components increases their reliability. Thanks to 3D CFD calculations we are able to evaluate the sufficiency of the total exhausted heat and also the risk of local boiling. For cooling systems, we are able to design or optimize heat exchangers, while ensuring their proper supply with cooling medium. In the context of increasing demands for efficiency and economy of all the systems we also deal with the use of waste heat.

Thermal radiation plays an important role, especially in cases of higher temperatures of radiating objects. The radiation occurs not only between the surfaces of solids, but depending on the contents of radiating particles or particles radiating through its volume also in gases. In the field of radiation we most commonly solve :

• Heating resulting in sun radiation (for example heating of passenger space in cars, heating in buildings)
• Heating / cooling of surfaces through radiation (also in connection with convection and conduction)
• Exhaust gas radiation during flow and burning (for example radiation of combustion gases in turbochargers)
• Sun radiation through windows in various HVAC applications

In-cylinder flow of combustion engines, turbines and turbochargers

Through optimization of flow in the combustion engines can be achieved a better filling of the cylinder or more efficient fuel combustion. Using non-stationary calculations we are able to perform in-cylinder shapes optimization of piston heads or valve seats, and thus reveal the hidden performance potential of the engine. Likewise we are able to suggest a more efficient flow through turbocharger and determine pressure on turbine vanes.

FEM analyses

Many practical problems is of a multidisciplinary nature, when interaction of fluid and structural mechanics occurs. This interaction is realized by forceful action of the current field (flow pattern) on structural component and heat transfer from the current field to structural parts. In the FEM calculations, we solve current field exposure to changes in stressed structural components, and also the problematic of fatigue life. For validation we use experiments and contact and optical measurements that we perform at high temperatures up to 1200 ° C.

Thermo-mechanical analyses

We provide services in the field of design and development of components. Based on our knowledge of the distribution of temperature fields in a body we solve elasto-plastic analyses with the aim to identify critical points in structures. Analyses may also include the influence of creep impact, which will result in rendering the number of cycles to crack initiation in low cycle and high cycle fatigue. We also create a methodology for evaluation of plasticity and validate the use of contact and non-contact measurements.

• Static and dynamic analyses of structure distortion due to thermal pulsation
• Transient thermal analyses to determine critical spots
• Creep analysis
• Combined elasto-plastic analyses incl. impact of creep
• Plastic creep simulation (Thermal Ratcheting)
• Optimization of components to eliminate thermal stress
• Static and dynamic analyses of structure components from metal, ceramics and composite materials
• Fluid structure interaction (FSI) simulation
• Optimization of shape, weight, strength and deflection
• Stress-strain analysis with use of hyper-elastic models (elastomers, plastics, soft tissues)
• Measurement of material characteristics and evaluation of parameters of material models (Mooney-Rivlin, Ogden …)
• Analysis of residual stress in a body and converting the measurements to the actual stress and strain on the general objects considering plasticity

Fatigue and fracture mechanics

We provide calculations in the field of fatigue and fracture mechanics. We deal with methods of evaluating thermal fatigue and elimination of costs necessary to obtain parameters describing the fatigue model. For the experimental design of fatigue models parameter identification we use DOE methods in combination with accelerated testing. For validation we utilize non-contact optical methods of image analysis.

IT technical applications

In the field of IT, we specialize in software development for:

• Measurement of electrical/mechanical quantities based on signal and image processing.
• Engineering data processing, visualization, evaluation and results interpretation.
• Engineering calculations of mechanics, thermodynamics and fluid flow.
• Rotordynamic calculations.

In all the areas listed above, we rely on our own know-how using the latest tools. We use our own embedded measurement solutions, custom applications for tablets, latest statistical methods, data processing and calculations on clusters and graphics cards. All these applications are verified by experiments and constantly improved in cooperation with our customers.