The corporate winners include Admedes Schuessler GmbH for their analyses of an aortic stent, Apollo Offshore Engineering for their design of a floating production storage and offloading unit, and FEAC for their results in testing CERN superconducting accelerator magnets.
As for the academic world, the winners include Moscow State Technical University for their virtual wind turbine simulation to test car emissions and designs, and the Foundation of Cardiac Surgery Development (FCSD) for their simulation of a bicuspid aortic valve condition.
Josh Fredberg, ANSYS VP of Marketing said, "with each passing year, we receive more exciting and innovative entries that push the boundaries of simulation … Submissions to the contest can actually provide valuable insight into some of the most complex engineering design challenges across a wide array of industries to improve products and materials."
To that point, it seems that a more detailed look at some of the winners is in order.
FEAC
FEAC simulation depicts the multiphysics of the Nb3Sn (Cb3Sn) superconductiong accelerator magnet in the CERN Hadron Collider.
The Best-in-class award was passed onto FEAC for their simulation of the Nb3Sn (Cb3Sn) superconductiong accelerator magnet in the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
By replacing the 8.33 T NbTn (CbTn) dipol magnets with 11 T Nb3Sn dipol magnets, additional cryo collimaters could be spaced into the LHC system. This created challenges, however, such as iron saturation, coil magnetization/fabrication, transfer function matching, quench protection, thermal analysis of the coils, rigid mechanical analysis and integration.
By integrating the CAD tools and FEA multiphysics of ANSYS, control of the system remained in one workbench with easy management of files, data and CAD designs.
The design of the parametric model was done in CATIA and transferred into ANSYS DesignModeler for all the necessary modifications. The electromagnetic physics were analyzed using Emag (3D) and ANSYS Maxwell (2D and 3D) for comparison. In Maxwell, the Lorentz forces were determined using a direct linkage between the structural analysis. However, APDL macros were used to determine the Lorentz factors for Emag.
Due to the extreme cryogenic cold of the system (1.9 K), the thermal analysis (2D and 3D) was performed by ANSYS Mechanical and APDL macros.
The results of the FEA were compared to strain gage valves and were seen to have great correlation.
FCSD
FCSD simulation of a 65-year-old male with dilated aorta, bicuspid aortic valve, and a vascular prosthetic. Sheer stresses in the aortic wall are shown.
FCSD made it into the ANSYS hall of fame for their simulation of a 65-year-old male with a dilated aorta, bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), and a vascular prosthetic.
As far as congenital malformations go, BAV conditions are the most common in adults. The malformation is associated with aortic dissection, aortic root dialation and thorasic aortic aneurysms. To increase the health of patients, it is important to estimate the conditions seen to reduce valve malfunctions and aortopathy.
CT scans were used to define the parameters of the computer models. This led to measurements which would otherwise be difficult, or impossible, to determine clinically.
The computer model used fluid structure interactions with flexible walls to simulate the aortic walls and valve leaflets. This helped to analyze the interactions between the leaflets, blood and aortic root.
With ANSYS multiphysics, FCSD determined the flow patterns, stagnation areas, turbulence, wall deformation, sheer stress and turbulence dissipation. The system was analyzed with a Navier-Stokes numerical solution and continuity equations.
The simulation was able to successfully show the effect a dilated aorta would have on the flow distribution, and hemodynamics of the patient with BAV.