BMW standardizes its FEA.In efforts to improve the crashworthiness Crashworthiness is the ability of a structure to protect its occupants during an impact. This is commonly tested when investigating the safety of vehicles. Depending on the nature of the impact and the vehicle involved, different criteria are used to determine the of its vehicles, BMW BMW in full Bayerische Motoren Werke AG German automaker. Founded as an aircraft engine manufacturer in 1916, the company assumed the name Bayerische Motoren Werke and became known for its high-speed motorcycles in the 1920s. Group is standardizing on finite element analysis Finite element analysis (FEA) is a computer simulation technique used in engineering analysis. It uses a numerical technique called the finite element method (FEM). There are many finite element software packages, both free and proprietary. (FEA (Finite Element Analysis) A mathematical technique for analyzing stress, which breaks down a physical structure into substructures called "finite elements." The finite elements and their interrelationships are converted into equation form and solved mathematically. ) software from ABAQUS, Inc ABAQUS, Inc. is an engineering simulation software (CAE) vendor. Formerly known as Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen, Inc., (HKS), the company was founded in 1978 by Dr. David Hibbitt, Dr. Bengt Karlsson and Dr. . (Providence, RI; www.abaqus.com), a Dassault Systemes company. BMW has been working w software since 1986, when it deployed it for engine development (specifically, according to a paper, "Migration of Crash Simulation Software at BMW," written by four BMW Group researchers and presented at the 2005 ABAQUS Users' Conference, "thermo-mechanical analysis of the creep effects of particular engine components."). Now it has taken it beyond engines to chassis and body-in-white design and all the way to crashworthiness studies. Given BMW's experience with the software, the vehicle manufacturer approached ABAQUS in '98 to discuss the development of crash simulation capabilities, which led to several joint programs. One such program, in 2002, involved taking a 5 Series model, and decomposing it into subsystems and components, which were then used to develop crash models. In 2003, BMW decided to put the software to the test in a pilot production project, which has been running on ABAQUS/Explicit since September 2004. Among the activities undertaken included making sure that the software works with the pre- and post-processing systems used at BMW; collaborating with First Technology Safety Systems to develop FEA crash test dummy
Crash test dummies are full-scale replicas of human beings, weighted and articulated to simulate the behavior of a human body, and instrumented to models; and working with Autoliv to develop airbag modeling capabilities. All of this work has led up to the announcement of the standardization on the software, which was made in late '05. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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