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Wilson Sporting Goods Co., a leading manufacturer of high-performance sports equipment, was looking to reduce design cycle time and enhance product value in the development of their tennis racquet designs. The company wanted to take advantage of simulation, automation, and optimization technologies to achieve this goal. Wilson Labs, the innovation hub at Wilson, was particularly interested in exploring developments in Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for laminated composites that could be applied to their composite tennis racquet lines. They aimed to accomplish something unique or organic looking in terms of geometry. Until this point, FEA for composites had been almost non-existent in the racquet industry. Recognizing its potential as a better tool for lay-up design and optimization for weight, strength, stiffness, and simplicity, Wilson decided to take a leading role in employing this technology in the industry.

Hyundai MOBIS, a leading producer of core automotive components, was facing challenges in improving the efficiency and reducing the time taken in the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) analysis process. The company uses shielding enclosures to protect against external fields and electromagnetic (EM) leakage from electronic products. However, the integrity of these enclosures was often compromised by apertures and slots used for visibility, ventilation, or access to interior components. These openings allowed exterior electric and magnetic fields to penetrate into the interior space, where they could couple to Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), inducing currents and voltages on interior conductors. Therefore, it was crucial for Hyundai MOBIS to understand the EM shielding effectiveness of shielding enclosures in the presence of these apertures.

Airbus Helicopters' Weight & Balance (W&B) team was faced with the challenge of collecting and analyzing data to predict the weight of a product during the conceptualization phase. The team had to gather relevant and current data from a broad range of stakeholders in a standardized manner. However, this process was proving to be a hurdle, slowing down both the data interrogation and the subsequent decision-making process. The manual data upload system did not allow for the creation of a standardized report that could be updated in real time, either internally by the different product development departments or externally by suppliers. Altair was tasked with creating a solution to these problems.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) was faced with the challenge of designing the country’s first homegrown large passenger aircraft. With the rapid development of science and technology, more airborne radio equipment was being installed in aircrafts, leading to a lot of antennas with a very wide frequency range. However, due to the limited length of the aircraft itself, there was not much space for antenna placement. Antenna pattern distortion caused by the aircraft body and inter-antenna electromagnetic compatibility were the highlighted concerns. During take-off, landing or flight, an aircraft may be irradiated by highpower radio transceiver from ground, air or ships at sea, causing electromagnetic environmental problems. These electromagnetic waves, called high-intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF), can induce electromagnetic fields around airborne equipment or induce high-frequency current on interconnected cables, resulting in function disorder or loss of key/critical equipment, endangering the aircraft’s ability to fly safely and land. Another problem was electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), an interdisciplinary gradually built with the growing complexity of electronic equipments and systems. A comprehensive electromagnetic simulation and analysis tool was urgently needed to eliminate the personnel and equipment hazards caused by electromagnetic radiation fields and to improve the safety and reliability for aircrafts in complex electromagnetic environments.

Ford's battery core team was faced with a challenge when working in tandem with vehicle development. The vehicle electrification engineering teams required a highly detailed CAE model of the battery arrays, including each cell and various packaging configurations considered in the design. This detailed model was necessary to predict the robustness of the battery structure using CAE simulation. However, the detailed model, which could grow to several million elements, needed to be significantly simplified when data was passed to full vehicle teams. The combination of a detailed battery model with the complexity of a full vehicle model significantly slowed the cycle time and hindered the ability to run optimization and design exploration for both teams.

Thales Alenia Space, a European aerospace manufacturer, was keen to explore the potential of additive manufacturing (AM) for its space satellite development programs. The company wanted to investigate the weight-saving potential of AM when combined with design optimization techniques. The challenge was to find a way to use these techniques in conjunction with new manufacturing technology. Thales Alenia Space chose a satellite’s aluminium filter bracket as a test case for the study. The bracket required a unique combination of both structural loads from the components that it supports, as well as thermal loads from the airflow through the filters and the temperature extremes of travelling to space. The primary objective of the study was to use design optimization techniques to reduce the thermal compliance of the bracket, while also optimizing the component for weight and readying the final design for the additive manufacturing process.

Bremar Automotion, an engineering design company based in Melbourne, Australia, was faced with the challenge of confirming the accuracy of their computer modeling with physical testing of a full-size roll cage. This was a prerequisite to gain accreditation by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) and the Federation Internationale de’l Automobile (FIA). The roll cage, a crucial safety feature in any racecar, is designed to protect the driver in the event of an accident, particularly one that involves rollover of the vehicle. In many vehicles, the roll cage also forms the main structure of the chassis and they can often be a complex compromise between stiffness, safety, weight, and cost. As part of their accreditation process, Bremar Automotion was required to construct and test a full-size roll cage by applying the FIA’s specified roll cage loads to the structure. Destructive testing was required to confirm the accuracy of their computer modeling and to demonstrate competency to the FIA.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) was faced with the challenge of reducing energy consumption while maintaining performance in their new Supercomputer Unit 4, a Cray® XC40™ system. This system, equipped with over a hundred thousand computing cores, runs quadrillions of computing jobs every second, which consumes a great deal of energy and causes high heat. To balance operations, it was essential to keep the National Center for Meteorological Supercomputer (NCMS) at a cool and constant temperature. However, the increased energy consumption required for Supercomputer Unit 4 put a significant burden on the air conditioning (A/C) system operations. KMA needed to determine the requirements for dealing with the additional energy consumption and cooling needs.

The C2000 MCU group at Texas Instruments (TI), a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company, was faced with the challenge of characterizing their new software product, InstaSPIN™. This software enables designers to identify, tune, and fully control any type of three-phase, variable speed, sensorless, synchronous or asynchronous motor control system. It uses TI’s new software encoder, a sensorless observer called FAST™ (Flux, Angle, Speed and Torque), which is embedded in the read-only-memory (ROM) of Piccolo devices. Dave Wilson, Senior Motor Systems Engineer with The C2000 Group, was tasked with characterizing the FAST™ observer and developing a datasheet for it. However, the process was slow and tedious due to output variances over time and temperature changes, and it required constant recalibration. Moreover, the hardware he was using was not adequately equipped to test the FAST software.

The École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) Team Rafale, a group of aerospace engineers, faculty members, and students, faced the challenge of designing, building, and racing a C-Class catamaran for the 'Little America’s Cup'. The rules of the competition stipulated that the catamaran had to be less than 25ft long, with a maximum width of 14ft, and less than 300sq ft. sail area. This presented a significant challenge as the catamaran needed to be built in less than 18 months. The hydrofoils, despite being less than two square feet in surface area, needed to be able to lift the entire boat and its two-man crew out of the water. The 30ft mast at the heart of the rigid wingsail carries almost 4000 lb. of compression while weighing less than 30lbs. The team needed to drive innovation and use the best materials possible to meet these requirements.

The Cal Poly Pomona Formula SAE (CPPFSAE) team, a student-run team participating in the Formula SAE® contests, faced a significant challenge in their quest to be among the best in the competition. Each year, the team sought to apply new materials and technologies to improve their race cars. However, the introduction of new materials such as composites created new requirements and design and development challenges. The team's goal was to leverage the advantages of each material, such as lightweight design or stiffness potential, but each material had to be designed individually. A specific challenge arose when the team decided to design and optimize a new wheel shell. They needed a software tool that would allow them to create a composite laminate design. They encountered difficulties in getting the carbon fiber laminate prepreg to conform to their mold, which they attempted to solve by increasing the number of debulking cycles and switching to hot debulk. A post machining process on the wheel was also necessary.

The architecture industry is witnessing a trend of taller and more elaborate buildings, with the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, standing at 828 meters. This height brings unique challenges, particularly in transporting people from the ground floor to the top efficiently. Traditional elevator systems, which operate via cable systems located at the top floor of the building, offer a maximum ride height of up to 400 meters, just half the distance of the world’s tallest building. This necessitates passengers to ride two or more elevators to reach the top level. ThyssenKrupp Elevator, a leading elevator company, developed an elevator that uses electro-magnetic drives attached to the cabin frame, eliminating the need for roof-mounted cables and allowing the elevator to travel the full 800-meter distance. However, this new system could not carry as much weight as a traditional elevator. The challenge was to ensure the new design was as lightweight as possible to maximize the loading capacity of the cabins.

Sigma Connectivity, a leading development service organization based in Sweden, was faced with the challenge of handling various simulation disciplines such as bending, torsion, connector stability impact, and thermal heating. The development of connectivity solutions required a diverse set of application areas to be investigated. Products such as mobile phones had to pass certain tests regarding these factors. Instead of building expensive prototypes for physical testing, Sigma Connectivity aimed to save time and costs by creating a virtual prototype and using simulation early in the product development process. However, to address all needed simulation disciplines, the company had to invest in software solutions, which often came from different software vendors. This led to increased licensing efforts and costs. Sigma Connectivity sought to decrease the number of software vendors while at least keeping or ideally increasing their ability to address the needed simulation disciplines.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, a leading research university in biomedical sciences and bioengineering, was tasked with developing highly detailed, finite-element human body models for vehicle crash simulation. The Center of Injury Biomechanics (CIB) at the university was to investigate injury mechanisms following trauma resulting from vehicle crashes to develop a greater understanding of human tolerance to injury and to engineer enhanced safety countermeasures. The challenge was to mathematically quantify fundamental human body organs, skeletal members, and body extremities that are subject to trauma. The resulting medical image data had to accurately represent a range of vehicle occupants: adults (male & female), children (3-6 years old), and infants. The human body data then had to be discretized to generate accurate finite element (FE) models of the varied human body systems. These models then had to be integrated to formulate a model of the entire human body, which then had to be validated in vehicle crashworthiness simulations with occupant and pedestrian impact conditions.

The Form Finding Lab at Princeton University was faced with the challenge of designing expressive structures that can safely be employed in seismic areas. The focus was on shell structures, which are thin, curved, and typically large span structures made out of a wide range of materials ranging from steel and glass, to concrete and even bricks or mud. These structures have empirically shown their excellent performance during earthquakes, as exemplified by the undamaged survival of the shells by the acclaimed shell builder Félix Candela during the great 1985 Mexico City earthquake. However, powerful computational tools were needed to analyze the behavior of these structures under earthquake loading. The researchers needed to investigate the effects of a shell’s shape on a buildings’ performance during an earthquake and to simulate the influence of thickness variations on the response due to shaking caused by the earthquake.

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) was faced with the challenge of developing finite-element human body models that account for the effects of age, gender, and obesity on injury risk in vehicle crashes. The existing injury assessment tools, including finite-element human models, did not account for different body shape and composition variations among the population. This was a significant issue as analysis of crash injury databases by UMTRI showed that occupant characteristics, such as age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) significantly affect the risks for thoracic and lower extremity injuries in vehicle crashes. The challenge was to broaden vehicle crash protection to encompass all vehicle occupants by developing detailed, parametric-based finite element human body models that represent a wide range of human attributes.

The aerospace industry is constantly seeking ways to reduce aircraft weight for improved performance and reduced fuel costs. SOGECLAIR aerospace, a major supplier for the aerospace industry, was faced with the challenge of finding a new development and manufacturing approach to reduce weight while ensuring safety. They were particularly interested in exploring a new concept for an engine pylon, a critical component that holds an aircraft engine to the wing or fuselage. The challenge was to create a design that would not only reduce weight but also maintain the part’s stiffness and reduce the overall number of system parts, leading to reduced assembly time.

The challenge faced by NuVasive Inc., a medical device company specializing in the surgical treatment of spine disorders, was to predict how a device will perform while ensuring they are safe and effective, before a single prototype is built. The company wanted to leverage computational modeling and simulation to eliminate bad ideas and refine the good ones long before they leave the drawing board. The objective of this project was to take anatomic geometry obtained from a CT scan and develop a finite element model that could evaluate the biomechanical stability of different interbody cage footprints that is typically performed using cadaveric testing. Since bone geometry is unique to each individual, and bones are not symmetric, a manual hexahedral (HEXA) meshing approach needed to be established in order to build models with a repeatable process.

Train collisions, though not common, can have devastating impacts, especially on the often unprotected rail engineer. The interior of the front rail car is built to withstand a moderate to severe impact, but the engineer console is virtually unprotected, leaving the engineer vulnerable to potentially life-threatening impact injuries. Sharma & Associates (SA), a provider of engineering solutions to the railroad industry, initiated research into creating an Engineer Protection System (EPS) concept. However, SA was not familiar with the necessary safety requirements, available systems, or overall performance tuning of impact environments and needed a partner to help develop the new system. The EPS had to meet specific criteria: it could not be triggered by the engineer and could not interfere with the engineer exiting the control car.

The Integrative Simulations & Computational Fluids Lab researchers at the School for Engineering of Matter Transport and Energy (SEMTE) at Arizona State University (ASU) were faced with the challenge of using the commercial code HyperMesh as a general preprocessor to mesh complex geometries for use with the spectral element CFD code Nek5000. The Nek5000 code requires 3D hexahedral elements, which posed a difficulty as most CFD tools use tetrahedral meshes that are easier to generate for conventional geometries. The researchers wanted to benefit from the rich functionality of advanced meshing tools like HyperMesh, capable of producing high-quality hexahedral meshes, while using the Nek5000 solver code. Before the project started, the researchers had no general process for meshing in place. Most of the meshing was handled with custom-made tools that were developed 15-20 years ago and have seen minimal updates since that time. Other users created their own meshing tool for specific problems in software such as MatLab.

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project, led by the SKA Organization from Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK, aims to challenge Einstein’s seminal theory of relativity, study the formation of the first stars and galaxies, explore dark energy and vast magnetic fields in the cosmos, and answer the age-old question, 'Are we alone in the Universe?' The SKA will be a collection of various types of antennas, including large dish reflectors and aperture antennas, spread over large distances and working together as an interferometric array. The SKA will be 10,000 times faster and 50 times more sensitive than any existing radio telescope. However, the proximity of adjacent antennas and other systems can result in unwanted inter-coupling, even from low-level emissions, due to currents on cables. This inter-coupling needs to be minimized, which requires identifying the coupling mechanisms and applying measures to improve isolation. On-site radio frequency (RF) coupling investigations are required, but they can only be done after installation. During the design, planning, and installation stages, characterization of the electromagnetic (EM) environment has to be done on scale models and through simulations.

Gestamp, a global chassis component supplier, was faced with the challenge of reducing the mass and increasing the durability of a rear twist beam (RTB) suspension system. The RTB design is a complex task that requires careful consideration of elastokinematic performance in addition to meeting stiffness and durability targets. The design of experiments (DOE) and optimisation methods were being used to explore the available design space and minimise the mass of a low cost RTB design. The durability requirement was identified as one of the main mass drivers for this type of RTB design. The design of a “U Section” RTB typically requires consideration of several interlinked targets, including Roll Stiffness and Roll Steer, which are strongly influenced by the shape, position and gauge of the torsion element.

3D Systems, a pioneer in 3D printing technology, was approached by the Cooper Hewitt – Smithsonian Design Museum in New York to participate in an exhibit highlighting innovative software and new manufacturing methods. The challenge was to design and 3D print a structurally sound, lightweight skateboard, a product that has remained largely unchanged for many years. The team at 3D Systems aimed to revolutionize the way a skateboard is designed and produced, with the goal of creating a skateboard lighter than others on the market.

Dorel Juvenile, a market leader in child safety in cars, was tasked with the development of a new child seat, the Maxi-Cosi 2wayPearl. The challenge was to redesign a two-way facing safety child seat that could withstand increased loads, fit into a reduced packaging space, and meet the new European I-size safety requirements. The project's initial goal was to modify the existing Maxi-Cosi FamilyFix seat base to add rearward-facing functionality. The increased loads due to the two-way functionality and the reduced and modified packaging space for the seat base presented significant engineering challenges. The more forward position of the support leg required major structural changes. The introduction of a new European wide standard for child safety seats – the I-size regulation – during the course of the project added another layer of complexity, necessitating an almost complete redesign of the seat base.

The challenge was to assess the capability of a ship's rudder assembly to withstand the shock loading following a nearby blast event. This was a critical task as the engineers in the Marine, Shipbuilding, and Offshore industries face many design challenges including physical space constraints, extreme weather conditions, deep water and remote locations. These constraints create an extreme environment for the engineer to develop a sound, reliable and safe operating platform. Prior to the installation of a modified design of a ship's steering gear, it was required to assess the capability of the rudder assembly to withstand the shock loading following a nearby blast event.

FIAT, one of the world’s largest vehicle manufacturers, faced a significant challenge in accurately simulating and eliminating squeak and rattle noise in their passenger cars. These noises, which occur when two parts of an assembly are in relative motion due to a specific excitation load, were often interpreted by customers as a lack of quality in the product. Previously, FIAT had only been able to study the potential for these noises by testing physical components produced using near-final designs. If any noise issues were discovered, the team could only apply quick fixes, which were often time-consuming and costly. FIAT’s NVH (Noise, Vibration, and Harshness) Department wanted to explore the potential of studying squeak and rattle during the virtual design stage, using a simulation-based methodology that could be implemented inside a tool around which they could build a new design process.

Baker Hughes, a leading supplier of oilfield services, products, technology, and systems, faced a significant challenge in validating an advanced oil well liner. The company's customers operate in a challenging market, drilling offshore in deep water and arctic regions, perfecting shale and hydraulic fracturing techniques, and consistently complying with strict environmental and safety regulations. They also have to manage technological challenges such as ever-deeper wells, extreme pressures and temperatures, and unconventional geological variations. Product reliability, safety, speed to market, and cost control are all vital to the industry’s success. To remain competitive, oil and gas service companies must ensure that the right products are built reliably and meet customer expectations ahead of those from competitors. The challenge of creating a cost-effective, safe, and reliable expandable liner hanger required the use of simulation throughout the product development process.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at Brigham Young University (BYU) was faced with the challenge of reworking an advanced engineering design course, ME 471, which had been taught for over 30 years. The course, which consisted of classroom and laboratory components, emphasized theoretical concepts and practical CAE skills. The objective for reworking the course was to add the ability to network design projects so that term projects could be completed collaboratively by teams from various global engineering universities. The main challenge in course networking was to globalize the student learning experience by adding intercultural competency requirements. These included providing experience with working in or directing a team of ethnic or cultural diversity, understanding cultural influences on product design and manufacturing, and comprehending how cultural differences affect how engineering tasks are performed.

The University of Nottingham, a world-class institution, is home to over 43,000 students and more than 100 research groups. The University's high-performance computing (HPC) facility supports research in various fields such as Science, Medicine, and Engineering. However, the University faced a challenge in managing the diverse computational workload efficiently. The HPC Service Manager, Dr. Colin Bannister, was keen on maximizing the benefits from the University's investment in HPC equipment. The University needed a powerful, flexible workload management suite that could ensure efficiency, usability, and performance. The desired system should enable efficient scheduling of computational workload, monitor and analyze workload, provide an easy-to-use interface, and produce straightforward management reports.

The production of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) components in high volume and economically is a significant challenge due to complex design shapes and primarily manual manufacturing processes. This has limited the production of fiber composite materials to small series or single products. Despite the desirable properties of CFRP components, such as their lightweight potential and excellent mechanical properties, their complex design and cost-intensive manufacturing processes have been a disadvantage. The Fiber Patch Preforming (FPP) method, developed under the leadership of Airbus Group Innovations, enabled the automated production of composite preforms from a software lay-up plan. However, the next challenge was creating a manufacturing facility suitable for mass production and efficient processing of the fiber patches. This led to the SOWEMA research project, which aimed to develop a flexible and fully automated manufacturing process using the FPP method.