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Better Together: Integrated 1D/3D Simulation with NX CAE & Simcenter Amesim

By Amy Reyes

This year at the Siemens CAE & Test Symposium (formerly the Siemens CAE Symposium) you can learn about our complete NX CAE product suite along with Simcenter system simulation solutions, 3D simulation and testing solutions. In honor of the CAE & Test Symposium debut later this month, this week I’m going to discuss integration between NX CAE and Simcenter Amesim.

You can read my previous post on how you can achieve simulation-driven design faster with integrated 1D and 3D simulation. Now let’s look at how Simcenter Amesim 1D simulation helps automotive engineers manage energy in cars and discover how it complements NX CAE 3D simulation with regard to closed-loop systems driven simulation

Consumer demand and government regulations drive automotive manufacturers to continuously reduce vehicle emissions and improve fuel economy. Given the rising cost of oil and the threat of global warming, it’s no wonder there’s a push for cleaner, more fuel efficient cars.

Automotive manufacturers GM, Ford and Chrysler have all stated that Simcenter’ capabilities for vehicle thermal system analysis are essential to meet future fuel economy standards, according to CIMData.

But fuel economy is just one aspect of energy management in a car. “It’s quite easy to improve fuel economy. The challenge is to keep the same thermal comfort, drivability, NVH,” says Benoit Honel, senior product manager for Simcenter Amesim and expert in thermal management. “When you improve fuel economy, it affects all of these things. You have to balance these changes,” Benoit adds.

LMS Amesim vehicle simulation automotive.jpgAmesim accomplishes multi-attribute balancing by allowing engineers to analyze various types of simulations in the same environment.

“You have energy in different domains of physics: mechanical, thermal, hydraulic in some cases, and electrical,” Benoit explains. A car comprises subsystems that use these various types of energy. As vehicle complexity increases, so too does the number of subsystems. In the end, they must all function together as one, which is where Imagine.Lab comes in. “We can put all these subsystems together. That is a key aspect to our software,” Benoit says.

Since simulation models in Amesim can be used in early concepting when there is not yet a detailed 3D design available, validation can occur sooner and simulation drives the design process. As the system architecture matures, the insights generated with 1D Amesim simulations help define the correct inputs and parameters for 3D NX CAE simulations.  Co-simulations using both 1D and 3D representations can help engineers use the right level of model fidelity to understand and optimize complete system behavior.

Amesim’s 1D simulation coupled with the powerful 3D simulation capabilities of NX CAE and tools such as Synchronous Technology, which makes changing designs fast and simple, gives you the power to improve products while shortening development time.  

If you’re interested in learning more about the power of integrated solutions with NX CAE, there’s still time to register and attend the Siemens CAE & Test Symposium in Long Beach, California October 22-23!

This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/simcenter/better-together-integrated-1d-3d-simulation-with-nx-cae-simcenter-amesim/