A Visual Tour Through the Latest Simcenter 3D

Simcenter 3D is Siemens' simulation portfolio that lets users do 1D simulation, finite element analysis (FEA), computation fluid dynamics (CFD) and Multiphysics, as well as perform testing and data management.

Simcenter 3D, a product within the Simcenter portfolio, is a "unified, scalable, open and extensible environment" for performing traditional simulation for finite element analysis and multibody dynamics. Simcenter links to design data, allows geometry editing, associative simulation modeling and multidiscipline solutions. Simcenter 3D handles many different types of problems, including structural, acoustics, flow, thermal, motion, electromagnetics, composites and additive manufacturing process. Users can also do design space exploration. The latest release of Simcenter 3D introduces several enhancements.

Rotating Masses

Simcenter 3D rotor dynamics simulation was previously linear, but Simcenter 3D 2020.1 adds nonlinear connection elements.

Simcenter 3D improves rotor dynamics simulation and is now able to find minimum rotational unbalance and unnecessary external forces in aircraft engines, gas turbines, automotive engines, industrial equipment and in electronics, such as hard drives spinning at high angular velocity. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

NVH Composer Block Interface

A new noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) composer in Simcenter 3D provides a 2D network diagram that defines the full vehicle assembly as blocks (representing subassemblies) with connections between them. This will allow for full vehicle FEA models made from subassemblies such as automotive body-in-white, door, suspension and more.

A new NVH composer provides a simplified interface to interactively define the full vehicle assembly layout as a 2D network diagram and automates the creation of a ready-to-run full vehicle FE model. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Flutter Simulation

The flutter of wings in an aircraft is an unstable oscillation caused by fluid structural interaction (FSI). It can bring the plane down. With this release of Simcenter 3D, users can perform aeroelastic flutter analysis using Simcenter Nastran. With Simcenter 3D, you can add Mach number, altitude and other parameters—or use International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) definition parameters to determine them—to the simulation model to perform a flutter analysis. The analysis model is associative to the design geometry and will update automatically with any geometry change so that users can see how geometry changes will affect results.

Physical structure of a wing. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Deflection of a wing. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Simcenter 3D adds aeroelastic flutter analysis using the Simcenter Nastran solver to find the critical air speeds of an aircraft and to define its flight envelope. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Two-Way Fluid Structure Interaction

Fluid flow interaction, where fluid flow affects a structural component, such as flow over a wing, was typically a one-way approach. The flow would distort the wing. When this occurs, the analyst has to realize that the distorted wing would have a different airflow and would then have to run the simulation again with the distorted wing and the new airflow. The process would need to be repeated until the distortions became marginal. It was an iterative process. With Simcenter 3D 2020.1, the results of the fluid and structures simulations are fed back to each other so the process, once started, iterates on its own automatically.

Simcenter 3D now handles multiphysics analysis of two-way fluid structure interaction (FSI) with a single solution of structural and fluid flow, launching a two-way coupled solution. FSI shown here is air flowing over a wing causing lift that deforms the wing, which then changes the flow field around the wing. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Another example of fluid structure interaction, this time in a valve. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Fluid structure interaction over an automobile headlamp. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Modeling Acoustics with Rays

High frequency acoustics modeling using boundary elements or finite elements produces a lot of elements, making the method impractical for large assemblies. This version of Simcenter 3D introduces modeling high frequency acoustics with rays, as if they were rays of light, which is a more economical use of computer resources.

Simcenter 3D adds a “ray” acoustics solution that treats high frequency sound as if it were a ray of light so that it can simulate large geometries and higher frequencies for applications like exterior ramp noise, interior cabin noise for aircraft, or automotive parking sensor pulse simulations. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Design Space Exploration with Margins of Safety

Letting the computer generate designs can produce hundreds—even thousands—of variations. That can be too many to look through. The new version of Simcenter 3D shows the minimum margin of safety in each variation, allowing design variations to be ranked by a single number, rather than by evaluating shapes that are too similar to each other.

Simcenter 3D Design Space Exploration can be used with Simcenter 3D Margin of Safety to determine margin of safety for each design variation. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Motion Parameters

New motion parameter tables in Simcenter 3D means you don’t have to apply parameters at each step. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Correlating Test and Simulation

By integrating data management, Simcenter 3D can correlate testing and analysis. Pretest planning with the model in Simcenter 3D will help engineers in determining the best location for sensors and exciters on their physical models.

Test and analysis correlation help in determining optimum locations for sensors and exciters on a physical test model. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)

Determining operating forces at connections or attachments is important for transfer path analysis (TPA). Test teams can capture these forces through measurement and share the data with analysts. Simcenter 3D can compute loads to be used for NVH analyses from the physical test measurements, which helps ensure the proper loading data.

The Abaqus Connection

Cyclic symmetry simulation, which is used for structural modeling of rotating systems such as for blades and disks in turbine engine systems, has been supported by Simcenter Nastran solver. With this release, Simcenter 3D adds support for cyclic symmetry with a connection to the Abaqus solver environment. In addition to being able to set up the cyclic boundary conditions in the preprocessing steps, users can post-process an Abaqus ODB file to plot contour and animation results for a single sector or any number of sectors.

Simcenter 3D now extends support for cyclic symmetry to the Abaqus solver environment. Users can take advantage of Simcenter 3D’s pre-/post-capabilities for faster CAE processes, even for Abaqus solutions. (Image courtesy of Siemens.)