Simulation Based Design, a Necessity for Advanced Design and Requirement for CAE Tools

抄録

This paper presents simulation based design (SBD), which is an indispensable technique, particularly for emerging advanced machine developments. This makes the support of SBD a requirement for Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) tools.

While experience plays a crucial role in conventional CAE, in SBD, the design is created solely via simulations to achieve a highly optimal design with high reliability. SBD primarily relies on large scale optimizations with a vast design space and on solving large scale problems for virtual prototyping. Both require high computation power, however large computations result in better designs. Therefore, an SBD tool is expected to motivate and inspire users to aggressively use the latest computational power, instead of minimizing simulations.

Unlike conventional CAE, SBD workflow is not a simple waterfall type, instead, it adopts a multi-perspective iterative process to effectively improve the design. The workflow in practice is primarily dictated by the tool. If the necessary functions are divided into multiple tools, the workflow will also be divided, which negatively affects iterations. The tool is expected to integrate the functions into one environment and encourage users to perform an adequate number of iterations in multi-perspective studies.

The implementation of SBD is demonstrated via practical examples, and the expected functionality of an SBD tool is discussed.