At JEC World, Ed Hill spoke to ESI Group about how it utilises its virtual prototyping solution for composite part design and manufacturing.
The ability to design, manufacture and send products or parts to market from scratch – and right first time – is challenging. Consequently, industry has developed various methods of carrying out tests and trials to ensure products and components are fit for purpose and can be produced efficiently.
Because of the diversity of the materials involved, the composites world has a high demand for trials and prototypes of new parts — especially for structural parts where reliability needs to be carefully evaluated to meet regulatory requirements, such as the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) safety tests.
ESI Group is a leading innovator in developing virtual prototyping software and services across industries. In recent years, it has coupled this expertise with virtual reality to create even more complete and accessible computer models for manufacturers; what it calls Immersive Virtual Engineering.
The company provides its software under licence or can act as a consultant for a specific project. Using its extensive knowhow in material physics, it can help products pass certification tests before a physical prototype is built and ensure a product is competitive in its market before it is launched.
Mathilde Chabin is composite product marketing and business development manager at ESI. She says the need to use simulation for composite products has become practically compulsory for manufacturers.
“There are so many possibilities with composite materials, whether it is the textile architecture, the resin, or how the layers of material are organised. That means there are multiple ways of making a part in the ideal way. You could use physical trials, but it would be an endless and very costly task. Our software can replace all these physical prototypes with simulation.”
Dealing with data
Of course, to produce accurate computer models you need to rely on accurate data. Chabin says this is more difficult with composites as there is no existing database of material information as found when dealing with metals such as steels or aluminium, for example.
“Material data is the entry point for any simulation. This means that we must go through material testing, involving test laboratories. It is generally advisable to take this data from new tests, as data from the suppliers themselves can be incomplete.”
ESI typically supports a new customer by offering to guide them in the simulation of a part they already manufacture.
“If we can replicate the part’s behaviour with our software it proves to them the value of simulation.”
When ESI produces virtual prototypes for a particular customer’s project, it begins with the raw data from the fibres and resins.
“First, we need to know the materials they want to use,” Chabin explains. “Then we make initial assumptions about the data based on our experience. This would be what we call a ‘proof of concept’, where we can identify any initial issues in the design.
“If the customer is willing to finance some material testing, we use that data to construct a much more faithful complete virtual prototype, from manufacturing through to the structural behaviour of the part. We can then present to them all the issues detected in simulation and synchronise that with our customer’s own experience.”
ESI’s virtual prototypes not only help its clients learn more about the performance properties of the component’s design, they also enable them to find the ideal manufacturing solution.
“The software enhances the complete process. For example, a design may incorporate too many fibres just to be on the safe side in terms of reliability. We can show through simulation that we can optimise the material usage and still meet the structural requirements.
“Then we work to demonstrate how to minimise the production cycle. For example, with resin transfer moulding (RTM) there are dozens of injection strategies that could work, but we have to identify the one which will lead to the fastest injection time and lowest cost, and still provide the required quality. We can offer the answers without the endless trials, sparing the materials and labour that would be needed if you made a physical model.”
Sector by sector
“We work with companies who produce anything from 500 parts per year to much greater numbers in the aerospace and automotive industries. We are also valuable to companies who simply cannot conduct physical trials, if they’re making parts for defence contracts for instance, because producing a physical model is confidential or just too cost prohibitive. Similarly, in the wind turbine industry, if you want to build a 40m blade, conducting numerous trials is just not practical; and in the nuclear industry it is also not easy to make lots of physical samples.”
Chabin admits that in safety-critical sectors such as aerospace there will always be some form of physical prototype required, but ESI’s software means a huge amount of preliminary design and pre-certification work can be done up to that point.
With the acquisition of a company that specialised in virtual reality (VR) in 2012 ESI introduced VR into its simulations to enable a more immersive experience of the virtual prototype. The solution, ESI IC.IDO, further bridges the gap between virtual and physical prototyping.
“The idea behind Immersive Virtual Engineering is to combine the physical characteristics of materials with virtual reality. This means you can see the whole manufacturing line, integrate the actual physics involved, and experience the final part that is produced.”
ESI also funds R&D projects and collaborates with industry partners and academia to make sure it remains at the forefront of the latest technology and incorporates those methods into its virtual simulations.
This is particularly relevant for the composites industry where new advances in materials and processes and even disruptive technologies, such as additive manufacturing, are having an influence.
“Composites developments are moving very quickly,” Chabin says. “We have to ensure that we stay on top of the latest technology, so we can adapt our tools to new developments.”
She concludes: “We work a lot with material suppliers both from the chemical side and from the fibre side to ensure we have the proper models. We are also involved in development projects in Europe and in the US to make sure we are aware of the upcoming processes and technologies that we will have to simulate. That is how we ensure we always keep pace with innovation.”
