Accupak/VE data entry improvements make event simulation preprocessing easier

Citation

(1998), "Accupak/VE data entry improvements make event simulation preprocessing easier", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 70 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1998.12770baf.012

Accupak/VE data entry improvements make event simulation preprocessing easier

Software solutions for aerospace

Accupak/VE data entry improvements make event simulation preprocessing easier

Algor, Inc., maker of mechanical engineering software, has enhanced the EASY menu of its Accupak/VE event simulation software. The enhanced EASY menu enables users automatically to set the control parameters required for an event simulation based on engineering considerations without having to know the underlying mathematics.

Accupak/VE is believed to be the first software to combine kinematics, rigid/flexible body motion and non-linear stress analysis. Algor informs us that because Accupak/VE does in one program what previously required software from two or more vendors, mechanical engineers can use it to analyse the designs of parts and products faster, more easily and more accurately.

"Accupak/VE's new EASY menu reduces the time an engineer spends preprocessing and the amount of knowledge an engineer needs to have about the underpinnings of nonlinear software," said Michael L. Bussler, president of Pittsburgh-based Algor. "With the EASY menu, the engineer is prompted to select just the specific kind of event to be simulated ­ much faster than setting many parameters which would require knowledge of advanced nonlinear analysis to understand. All of the parameters needed for the analysis are set automatically by intelligence built into the software."

"The enhanced EASY menu eliminates having to understand the complexities of nonlinear software," said Bussler. "Setting up an event simulation is now easier than ever. Just select the type of physical behaviour anticipated and Accupak/VE automatically sets the control parameters for such nonlinear software procedures as element integration order and type of Lagrangian element formulation."

A single click on the EASY menu takes the user to a list of the kinds of events to be simulated. The list includes:

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  Linear static solution and dynamic response.

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  Large or small strain static/steady-state solution.

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  Large or small strain event simulation, with or without motion.

Accupak/VE is the first product of Algor's new series of "virtual engineering" software called MECH/VE and MECH/MVE. The MECH/MVE series, which now is shipping, adds multi-physics processing capabilities. "Our goal is to enable engineers to see everything on the computer screen that was once confined to numbers," said Bussler.

One advantage event simulation claims over traditional linear static stress analysis is that it reduces the need to do elaborate hand calculations or run expensive experiments to obtain data for calculating the forces. With event simulation, an event is displayed on the computer monitor as an animated sequence.

"Accupak/VE actually shows the part bending, breaking or contacting in a critical or unexpected location," said Bussler.

Details from Algor, Inc., USA. Tel: +1 412 967 2700; Fax: +1 412 967 2781; E-mail: info@algor.com; web site: www.algor.com.