CAE Engineering Analysis Systems - Computer-Aided Engineering

Computer-Aided Engineering is software designed for calculating, analyzing and simulating physical processes in solving engineering problems. These systems are in demand in the aircraft industry, rocket engineering, mechanical engineering, energy, the industry of new materials, the construction of large infrastructure facilities, etc. They allow using calculated methods to model the "behavior" of industrial products in real operating conditions.

History

CAEs are inextricably linked CAD to and. CAM The development of these software products went in parallel. In the early 80s of the XX century, the first CADCAM users//CAE used graphics terminals for work, which were components of mainframes IBM and Control Data. The main suppliers of hardware and//or CAE software CADCAM were Applicon, Auto-Trol Technology, Calma, Computervision and Intergraph. Since the mainframes of that time were imperfect, there were certain difficulties. The interactive mode of operation was practically unavailable due to the heavy load on the central one. processor The cost of one//CAE CADCAM system was about $90,000. With the development of progress, the hardware platforms//CAE CADCAM systems have switched from mainframe to personal computers. This was due to lower cost and higher PC performance compared to mainframes. The price of//CAE naturally decreased to CADCAM$20,000. PC-based workstations were created for, which CAD supported the IBM PC or Motorola architecture. In the mid-80s, microprocessor architectures appeared with a truncated instruction set (Reduced RISC Instruction Set Computing). Based on them, more productive workstations based on the operating system were developed. Since the mid-90s, system Unix competition/was made up RISCUnix of technologies developed by the company based on Intel operating systems and. MS Windows NT Currently, the MS Windows 2000 cost of//CAE systems CADCAM has decreased to no more than $10,000.

Classification

• Fully functional engineering analysis systems with powerful tools, large type repositories for finite element grids, and all kinds of physical processes. They provide their own geometry modeling tools. In addition, there is the possibility of imports through industrial standards Parasolid,. ACIS Fully functional CAE systems are not associated with. CAD Therefore, if you need to change the geometry during the calculation process, you will have to re-import the geometry and enter data for the calculation. The most famous such systems are considered, and. ANSYS/Multiphysics AI*NASTRAN MSC.NASTRAN
• Engineering analysis systems built into heavy CAD have significantly less powerful analysis tools, but they are associated with geometry, so they track model changes. The design data is structured and integrated into the overall heavy CAD design system. These include Pro/MECHANICA for Pro/ENGINEER, Unigraphics NX CAE for Unigraphics NX, Extended Digital Validation (CAE) for I-deas, Catia CAE for CATIA;
• Mid-level engineering analysis systems do not have powerful calculation capabilities and store data in their own formats. Some of them include an embedded interface in CAD systems, others read geometry from CAD. The first include COSMOS/Works, COSMOS/Motion, COSMOS/FloWorks for SolidWorks 3D design environment, and the second  - visualNastran, Procision.

CAE capabilities

With the help of CAE, it is possible to carry out:

• Strength analysis of components and assemblies based on finite element method;
• Thermal and hydrodynamic analysis;
• Kinematic studies;
• Modeling of processes such as injection molding;
• Optimize products or processes.

Stages of CAE operation

• Preprocessing  - Determine the characteristics of the model and the environmental factors that will affect it;
• Analysis and decision-making;
• Processing results.

Application Industries

SAE is most popular in the following industries: machine building and machine tools, defense and aerospace, energy, shipbuilding, semiconductor production, telecommunications, chemical, pharmaceutical and medical industries, construction, production of heating, air conditioning, ventilation.

Experience with CAE in the automotive industry

The advantage of CAE systems is that automakers can conduct computer testing of models being developed. This allows you to focus maximum attention on improving the safety, comfort and durability of cars, without spending financial resources. Passenger safety in collisions can be assessed with software products such as RADIOSS, LS-DYNA, PAM-CRASH.

Main directions in the development of CAE

In the process of development of CAE, developers strive to increase their capabilities and expand the areas of implementation. The objectives are as follows:

• Improvement of methods for solving interdisciplinary modeling problems;
• Development of new platforms for integration of various CAE systems, as well as for integration of CAE systems into PLM solutions;
• Improving the interoperability of CAE and CAD systems;
• Improvement of methods of calculation grids construction, description of boundary conditions, parallel calculation, etc.;
• Improve the characteristics of models that are used to describe the properties of materials;
• Optimize CAE systems for computer platforms with 64-bit and multi-core processors, thereby improving the conditions for modeling complex designs with a large number of degrees of freedom.

Global Market

According to the forecast of TechNavio (spring 2013), the CAE market in the next five years will grow annually by 11.18% and by 2016 will reach $3.4 billion. This growth is due to a number of factors, the main of which is the need to accelerate the release of products to the market. And the main brake, as in the case of CAD, is the growing popularity of open source systems, due to the high cost of licenses for commercial CAE systems.

Of the geographical regions, North America became the largest in terms of CAE demand in 2012, and the Asia-Pacific region, in which industry is actively developing, took the first place in terms of growth rates.

CAE systems were most widely used in automotive and aircraft engineering, electrical and electronics, heavy engineering and the defense industry. The highest growth in CAE demand is expected in the automotive industry, and the smallest in heavy engineering.

Leading positions in the CAE market are occupied by Ansys, MSC Software, Dassault Systemes, CD-adapco Group and LMS International. In addition to them, many smaller companies work in this area, but the number of firms focused only on CAE is declining, as they are bought by larger players for the sake of their technologies.

In a comment, analysts from TechNavio noted that some large global CAE and PLM suppliers have begun promoting 'globalized' licenses that allow customers who bought them to use CAE systems anywhere in the world and seek support services from a supplier's office in any country. This allows vendors to eliminate the difference in the cost of their products in different countries and sell them at the same price around the world. Analysts expect that more CAE and PLM suppliers will adopt this approach, and then there will be significant changes in the market in terms of vendor pricing policy.

CAE Solution Vendors

ADINA R&D, Inc.

ALGOR, Inc.

Altair Engineering

Ansoft

ANSYS, Inc.

Blue Ridge Numerics, Inc.

CD-adapco

COMSOL, Inc.

Dassalt Systems

ESI Group

EXA

Flomerics

LMS International

Livermore Software Technology Corporation

Moldflow

MSC Software Corporation

Numerica

Optics

PTC

UGS

Links

• CAE Vendors
• Computer Engineering Technology Center
• CAD and Graphics Log