At the 2015 SIMULIA Community Conference, Dassault Systèmes announced that 25 percent of Abaqus users are expanding their simulation capabilities with other tools in the SIMULIA portfolio. It therefore appears that the multiphysics, multi-scale SIMULIA dream is working.

This dream saw more expansion with the announcement of two partnerships. The first with the company Computer Simulation Technology (CST), for their electromagnetics simulation suite. And the second with Brüel and Kjær (B&K), for noise, vibration and harshness (NVH).

“Both of these partnerships [CST and B&K] have aligned with our technology strategy and vision that started 10 years ago when Dassault Systèmes acquired Abaqus with multiphysics and multi-scale,” said Sumanth Kumar, vice president of SIMULIA growth at Dassault Systèmes.

Currently, the SIMULIA portfolio, which has synchronized to a December 2015 release cycle, is focusing on:

Abaqus for CFE and CFD analysis (read more here)
Isight to string CAE tools together into automate workflows
Fe-safe for fatigue analysis
Tosca for optimization

SIMULIA is looking to improve the compatibility of the portfolio with an application-independent 3DEXPERIENCE template and by consolidating parts of Tosca and fe-safe. The aforementioned template will be able to create repeatable workflows without the need of additional programming.

With the expanded power of these simulation tools, it isn’t hard to see why the extended SIMULIA platform is growing in popularity. This popularity will likely grow as SIMULIA follows the trend to fill in the simulation gaps with acquisitions and partnerships. One can only wonder what acquisition Dassault Systèmes and SIMULIA are eyeing next.

Electromagnetics and NVH Comes to SIMULIA

“These two partnerships will be able to fill in our multiphysics portfolio,” explained Kumar. “B&K has capabilities of NVH. This is not just relevant to automotive and transportation. It is also moving to industries from aerospace, industrial equipment and energy.”

The technology from B&K provides the capability to post process and view NVH results. Additionally, it is able to match test data to simulation data. Kumar pointed out that this aligned nicely to Dassault Systèmes’ virtual plus real (V+R) capabilities on 3DEXPERIENCE.

As for CST, Kumar explains that the technology “fills a need of the user community for electromagnetics simulations. This includes low frequency, like induction heating and high frequency capabilities like antennae.”

CST works by solving the Maxwell equations for 3D structures. Frank Demming-Janssen, principal engineer at CST, explained that this is done “over a huge frequency domain from static to optical frequencies. As SIMULIA didn’t have that many EM capabilities yet, we have made this strategic alliance to give users the opportunity of a seamless integrated workflow for EM simulation and mechanical simulations like inductive heating or mechanical deformation of radar dishes.”

Demming-Janssen explains that this multiphysics link can be done as a complete coupled cycle, like when the electromagnetics properties change with temperature, or as a single direction link where you solve first in CST and then export the data into Abaqus.

Kumar confirmed the strategy of the recent partnerships. He said, “The first step for both partnerships is co-simulation capability within the products available today. We will ask the user community over the next few months to use the B&K, and CST technology with the existing products we have. Our long term strategic goal is to have these two partnered products as rich application on top of the 3DEXPERIENCE.”

SIMULIA 2016: 3DEXPERIENCE, Tosca, fe-safe and Isight

Another interesting improvement comes from Dassault Systèmes’ integrating the CAE platform, 3DEXPERIENCE.

The platform allows users to connect CAE tools together and create a template to create a cross-discipline workflow without the need of additional programming or data management.

Kumar said, “The capability of templates isn’t unique to 3DEXPERIENCE. We had these capabilities in CATIA and a similar capability within Abaqus. Many users use Python scripts to make something similar. The unique thing about it is someone that needs to create templates on the 3DEXPERIENCE doesn’t need to know any kind of programing. The 3DEXPERIENCE understands the methods and is able to capture the process. Users of the template can then tweak parameters and publish new simulations across the organization.”

Even outside of the 3DEXPERIENCE, SIMULIA is looking to combine functionalities between their individual tools. Kumar explained, “We are combining Tosca capabilities with fe-safe capabilities. So it’s not about individual capabilities anymore. When we say part of the portfolio, it is not just a marketing message. It truly is a technology message where we are combining technologies.”

As for the growing adoption of the extended SIMULIA portfolio, Dassault Systèmes hopes that expanded packaging will simplify licensing. It is the hope that by making access to these tools simpler, even off the 3DEXPERIENCE, more users will start to experiment with the software.

If you are feeling more adventurous, SIMULIA is looking for Beta testers for the 2016 release. Contact your providers or visit www.3ds.com/slc. Look below for a more complete list of improvements for the SIMULIA 2016 portfolio.

For Abaqus, follow this link.
Isight component updates:
- SOLIDWORKS AI
- SOLIDWORKS 2013-2015
- CATIA R23-R25
- Dymola 2013-2015
- Excel/Word documentation
Tosca updates:
- Optimize multiple Abaqus/CAE models
- Support path-dependent multiple loading of models
- Multiple nonlinear path-dependent loading
- Size optimization of circular beams
Fe-safe updates:
- Populate load definition matrix with calculated PSDs and CSDs for vibration fatigue
- New wizard for loading descriptions that are independent of FEA
- Verity algorithm: fatigue analysis of welds under shear loads