You come into the office, sit at your desk and start your computer.
Then you open your mailbox, look if you received some email from your manager checking the advancement on the project, delete a few spams and start the real job.
Innovations require lots of tests using expensive prototypes and equipments.
This is where mechanical simulation comes at stake by providing efficient ways to simulate any automotive part or system with lower cost and less time.
The project you have is very complex and only an engineer with your talent and knowledge may realize the small details that make all the difference between a safe design which complies with the ASME code section VIII part 5 division 2 and a design that will need some review.
After a brief reflexion of the part to be checked first, you import the CAD model produced by your friendly colleague Mike Spencer who took a few hours yesterday to get it right.
This is where the problems start:
The check you have to do is something that seems simple on the paper, but when it comes to simulation, many factors have to be taken in account. If the model has too many parts, the assignment of contacts between the parts will be a nightmare, the meshing will take hours without any assurance that it will succeed and you will have to spend your time building another smaller model to be sure it will work.
You could blame Mike for his CAD model having way too much detail and not being ready for simulation or you could also blame your client for wanting to build such a complex pressure vessel…but is it right to do that?
If you come back to the purpose of engineering, which is to create and design tools and systems to help the world, what is the most important?
Safe Design is the most important
This why engineers built the ASME code which protects millions of people against some critical failure in a pressure vessel that would kill a lot of people (It happened in the past when there was no code).
The only problem is that safety doesn’t come cheap; it comes from a common effort of determined and responsible engineers that are focused on building accurate FEA models, which will lead to accurate results. Those results checked with the code ensure a safe design as well as the safety of those millions of people.
Accurate results able to predict what will happen
Finite Element Analysis is a tool and like any good tool, to get the most out of it, you have to know what you are doing. For example, building mesh elements with a good quality figures in the top skills for an experienced FEA analyst.
Coarse mesh give only an indication about the areas of high stresses, then comes the job to refine in the areas of high stresses to obtain realistic stress values in the right places.
The AB-520 standard set out by ABSA (Alberta Boiler Authority) gives some interesting guidelines to all engineers interested by accuracy of solution.
Adaptive meshing capacity integrated in midas NFX is useful to refine automatically mesh element in areas of high stresses.
What are the tools in midas NFX that will help me to achieve a good mesh quality?
CAD geometry and mesh algorithms used in FEA Software auto-meshers are the main cause of many mesh quality problems. Different algorithms lead to different mesh layouts and Cad model quality itself introduce a big factor of uncertainty in the final mesh layout quality. Very small or duplicated edges and faces are the cause of deformed mesh elements and the ability of the mesher to recognize and correct internally those problems is primordial.
Midas NFX integrates several auto-meshers (Default Tetra mesher, High Speed Tetra mesher, Hybrid Tetra mesher, map-mesher, boundary-layer mesher…) provided by the French Company Distene, recognized as a first rank provider of mesher algorithms.
Parallel multi-core meshing technology integrated in midas NFX harnesses the power of multi-core processors to mesh each part of assembly models simultaneously.
Type of elements used in the model is determinant. Tetrahedral elements integrated in most basic auto-meshers provide a low convergence rate and smaller elements will be required to reach the same level of accuracy than hexahedral mesh.
Automatic map-mesher in midas NFX is great to obtain right away a perfect mesh. Map-mesher is limited to simple solids which could be created by extrusion.
Hybrid auto-mesher used in midas NFX uses a combination of tetra and hexahedral elements linked together with pyramid elements. Hybrid mesher is very efficient in decreasing the number of nodes and elements required in a model by keeping the same accuracy of results.
What can I do when the auto-mesher is not generating proper mesh elements?
If your software only have one auto-mesher and no control on the mesh elements, then you cannot do much.
Proper mesh shapes makes all the difference. If your FEA software cannot generate good Mesh, it’s as good as having no software at all.
If the problem comes from the CAD model, midas NFX provides simplification tools (called also defeaturing) to suppress automatically or manually small or duplicated edges and surfaces.
What is the advantage to have manual meshing features in midas NFX?
What every experimented FEA Analyst knows is that manual meshing tools give them the CHOICE to make the best mesh where and when they need it.
Auto-mesh introduces uncertainty into the model because you cannot simply control the mesh quality in the areas of high stress concentration. Manual meshing solves this problem by providing the possibility to generate perfect mesh elements using simple 2D meshing extruded or revolved into 3D mesh solid elements.
Would you use windows calculator to solve a differential equation?
Engineers need the right tools for their jobs. This is a fact.
If you come back to your project and your complex model, your problem actually lies in the software you are using which is simply not a proper fit for the task. It’s like trying to use windows calculator to solve a differential equation…you would never do that right?
By using a piece of software not appropriate for the job, you are losing a lot of your precious time waiting for the auto-mesher to complete its task, waiting for the solver to give you the results, waiting for the interface to print-out the results you seek. You may even lose a lot of money if the project cannot be completed on time, if you have to pay an external consultant or if you simply lose the project.
Waiting…waiting…waiting, do you really need to wait?
Have you ever realized how the time is going quickly when you are focused on a project that you love? You could spend days to analyse some small detail, just because you know this small detail will make all the difference between the best design is the world and a failure!
Why would you focus and spending time on something which will not work? We are all working to realize the best of what we can do, because you know it will work and that every problem can be sorted out if you focus strongly on it.
We are all spending time on some insignificant details that make our job unproductive and inefficient.
Did it happen to you to wait for hours that a meshing process completes to finally see that you did a modelling mistake and you have to do it again?
Did you ever had to make a sub-model because your software is not handling models over 300,000 elements?
Midas NFX meshes a model of 1.3 million elements of 2nd order in 54seconds using multi-core.
If one of your part fails to mesh, you’ll only have to modify and remesh this one part only.
If you don’t believe it, just check out again the video:
Time is limited for every human, you can only try to save it, but you will never extend it
Time is limited for everyone, and saving only 30min per/day will transform into saving 3 hours and half /week and, you got it… 1277 hours/year that's a total of 53 days…
Think about what you could be doing in those 53 days! Stay with your family longer or go on a trip around the world… So what is the value of few hundreds or even few thousands of dollars against precious hours you can save?
Every software is an investment for you and for the future of your company.
MIDAS IT makes efficient and accurate solutions, for engineer who know they can make the difference
When Mr. Lee Hyeongwoo, CEO of MIDAS IT, started to develop midas GEN himself in 1989, he saw the potential and impact simulation software for structural analysis can have on the world. The structural engineers at that time in South Korea where still working with hand calculations which resulted in tremendous pain in the industry. Now, midas GEN is number one for structural analysis in Asia and a lot of other countries and many impressive structures like the Burj Khalifa in the UAE and the Beijing Olympic stadium from China proves that engineers got the tools that they needed to make the world better.
Midas IT CEO Hyeongwoo Lee in Busan UniversityMidas IT CEO Hyeongwoo Lee showing Midas IT famous project applications to Korean Television KBS1Midas IT Worldwide Project Applications
Hyeongwoo Lee and Midas IT are now famous with the Korean television show "Hidden Champion" which explains the explosive growth of the company during the past years to become one of the leaders of FEA simulation softwares.
Midas IT Global International Network
Reduce Product Development Lead Time With Midas NFX
Industrial Pump Manufacturer | Hyosung Good Springs
Since 1962, Hyosung Goodsprings (HGS) has designed and manufactured centrifugal pumps used in the oil and gas industry. Not content with being South Koreas largest producer of pumps, HGS wanted to establish themselves as the first choice supplier of quality industrial pumps for the global energy industry.
Due to a rapidly growing international customer base, HGS quickly realized that they needed to address the challenges associated with competing in the global marketplace. Mr. Yeongsu So, the director of research and development at HGS, was tasked with finding a CAE solution that would not only act to immediately decrease the product design cycle but would continue to be used as an integral part of HGSs development process.
Although HGS used CAE analysis since 2010, Mr. So noted some inefficiencies with their use that were hampering productivity.
Our existing CAE tools were difficult to learn for new users and the analysis quality was highly dependent on the engineers experience with the particular software. We needed a software package that was easier to learn without sacrificing analysis features. We were only using CAE to validate final designs, and we believed we should be able to use CAE at an earlier stage of development for guidance allowing us to converge on a superior design in less time. We also needed a solution that would allow our engineering teams to easily incorporate cost reduction features into their designs, which is particularly relevant due to raw material costs increasing globally, explains So.
Mr. Yeongsu So, the director of research and development at HGS
Mr. Jongbeom Kim, a senior research and development engineer at HGS explains; Our pumps are required to operate at high pressures and speeds. We needed to perform various analysis on our designs to be certain that they would perform optimally while meeting strict standards for safety. We needed a solution that would allow us to perform these critical analysis tasks in less time.
Having requirements clearly in mind, HGS began evaluation of Midas NFX. Within a very short time it became clear that Midas NFX was the solution that HGS had been looking for. The software interface was easier to learn and use the old software, enabling them to integrate NFX into the design pipeline more quickly. NFXs solving speed is particularly impressive, which allows HGS to make more efficient use of computing resources since computing resources are freed up more quickly to run other design related tasks.
Before using NFX, HGS had to rely on consultants outside of the company for projects requiring advanced analysis. Now HGS engineers are able to perform simulations at each stage of development, resulting in increased flexibility in the design process. Quality feedback to even complex problems can be performed in house, leading to a more streamlined development process with less wait.
Mr Kim continues; We have been very happy with the high level of technical support and training resources that Midas made available to us prior to, and perhaps more importantly, after the sale. Moving forward, we plan to train our entire engineering staff on NFX, and expect to significantly reduce our development lead time on several active projects. Pump manufacturing is a highly competitive industry, and there is no question that we must take the appropriate technology decisions now to be well positioned in the future to stay relevant in our market. Using Midas NFX in our design operations is already paying short term dividends, and we're confident that it will help us to achieve our long term goals.
Since 1962, Hyosung Goodsprings (HGS) has designed and manufactured centrifugal pumps used in the oil and gas industry. Not content with being South Koreas largest producer of pumps, HGS wanted to establish themselves as the first choice supplier of quality industrial pumps for the global energy industry.
