MSC Nastran and AVL Excite Integrate for Powertrain Simulations

MSC Software Corporation offers a new release of MSC Nastran 2018.2. Originally developed for NASA engineers, MSC Nastran is an FEA solver for design and analysis of aerospace and automotive structures. MSC Nastran 2018.2 provides streamlined workflows for powertrain simulations, improved verification options for contact models and enhanced high-performance computing methods for simulation of large, scaled problems.

The new release allows engineers to cover a wider range of design possibilities and examine the noise, vibration and harshness characteristics of transmissions, car engines and powertrain systems through a direct integration between MSC Nastran and AVL Excite.

AVL Excite, a model-based design software for simulation of rigid and flexible powertrains, can now be used with MSC Nastran to increase the accuracy of multi-body simulations by providing a better representation of the flexible components. Similarly, the FEA engineers can benefit from this integration to examine each component with realistic boundary conditions and dynamic loads. Direct export of AVL Excite input (.EXB) files from MSC Nastran makes data transfer much easier and faster, eliminating the need for creating and translating large intermediate files.

The streamlined workflow allows engineers to obtain a full characterization of structural response by leveraging the nonlinear solution of MSC Nastran (SOL 400) to include contact nonlinearities as well as preloaded conditions in their powertrain simulations.  Additionally, MSC Nastran can read back output results from AVL Excite for further dynamic and acoustic analysis of sound radiations generated from internal combustion engines and other components. This technology is also beneficial for vehicle durability simulations, taking advantage of the embedded fatigue capabilities of MSC Nastran to obtain fatigue life and damage responses of components.

Designed to further improve user productivity, the 2018.2 release of MSC Nastran delivers contact verification methods that allow engineers to verify the contact model in early design stages thus reducing the number of design iterations.

From the modeling perspective, dealing with multilevel assemblies that consist of hundreds or thousands of components is a common challenge among FEA engineers. As such it is important to perform a model check to review the initial contacting conditions before running the analysis, especially for contact models that involve curved geometry surfaces or unintentional gaps & overlaps. MSC Nastran has dedicated techniques that move and adjust the position of contacting surfaces at initial steps to capture and correct these issues.

For more info, visit MSC Software.

Sources: Press materials received from the company.