Search Results

Accelerating product development cycles and incentives to reduce costs in product development are strong motivators to move to virtual development and validation processes. Challenges to moving to a virtual paradigm include a wealth of historical data and context for hardware tests, uncertainty over dependencies, and a lack of a clear path of transition to virtual methods. In this paper we will discuss approaches to understanding the value created by hardware tests and aligning that value to virtual processes. We will also discuss the need for a virtual context to be added to SAE J1739 [1] (DFMEA detection criteria), and how to create paths to maximize the value of virtual assessments. Finally, we will also discuss the cultural and organizational changes required to support.

The effects of strain-rate and element mesh size on the numerical simulation of an automotive component impacted by a mass dropped from an instrumented drop tower was investigated. For this study, an analysis of a simple steel rail hat-section impacted by a mass moving at an initial velocity of 28Mph was performed using the explicit finite element code Radioss. Three constitutive material models: Elasto-Plastic (without strain rate), Johnson-Cook, and Zerilli-Armstrong were used to characterize the material properties for mild and high strength steel. Results obtained from the numerical analyses were compared to the experimental data for the maximum crush, final deformation shape, average crush force and the force-deflection curve. The results from this study indicate that the mechanical response of steel can be captured utilizing a constitutive material model which accounts for strain rate effect coupled with an average mesh size of 6 to 9mm.