Simulation results from Agile Engineering Design System. (Image courtesy of Concepts NREC.)
This software combines computer-aided engineering (CAE) with computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and is targeting users designing turbomachinery.
By combining these two software options, users can optimize a design based on cost, machining and performance.
One of the improvements in this release is pbPost, a tool that offers simplified post-processing. The tool can launch FINE/Turbo (NUMECA’s CFD software for rotating machinery) or import computational fluid dynamics(CFD) results within the AxCent (Concepts’ 3D geometry design software) environment.
The release also includes a recirculating casing treatment to model compressor range extension. This can be used throughout the design cycle from the initial 3D geometry, to mesh generations and the final CFD solution.
As for Concepts’ CAM module, MAX-PAC, the tool aims to simplify the programming of 5-axis machining. The new release can simulate the manufacturing process. This will help engineers ensure that apart will be cut well the first time. The tool also includes new roughing options, plunge milling strategies for hard materials, and options for point and flank milled blades.
Concepts’ fit-for-purpose CAE technology fits in well with industry trends to bring simulations to more users. This effort at democratization can take many forms, from apps to design platforms with similar user interfaces (UIs). However, Concepts is taking a third option with fit-for-purpose CAE that targets a niche, yet lucrative, user market that has had limited access to simulation in the past.
These job-specific CAE tools tend to have UIs that are targeted and designed for their niche users. They use lingo and images that might be cryptic to a general audience but obvious to those within the target fields. This allows those in that space to grow accustomed to using simulation where in the past it may have been thought to be too complex for the task at hand.