With the support of Innovate UK, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) are leading a 3 year collaborative research project titled ULTRAN (Ultra Lightweight TRansmission and Driveline), with the aim of developing complimentary lightweight technologies in order to provide a step-change in powertrain weight. Through the use of next generation materials, novel manufacturing processes and the latest computer-aided analysis techniques, the consortium aims to deliver an optimised passenger car powertrain which is ultra-lightweight, whilst also meeting strict stiffness, strength and NVH criteria.

One of the tasks within the ULTRAN project is to explore new Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) techniques which will allow multi-disciplinary optimisation of components within the powertrain. Utilising GRM’s background in advanced simulation and optimisation, as well as the latest developments in the finite element code VR&D GENESIS, an advanced optimisation methodology was developed that allows simulataneous optimisation for stiffness, strength and NVH loadcases.

 

VR&D Genesis offers the most complete suite of optimisation tools to the structural engineer. In recent years the topology optimisation capabilities have seen significant developments which allows more complex problems to be tackled with optimisation. With the release of VR&D Genesis v14.0 (Jan 2014), support for stress constraints on the design space was added, which allowed the inclusion of strength loadcases in multi-stribute optimisation problems.

This presentation will discuss the updates in VR&D GENESIS that have allowed the multi-disciplinary optimisation approach to be developed, as well as showcasing the process in action when applied specifically to components within the powertrain.

You can see this presentation at The Advanced Engineering Show 2016 at 1pm on 3rd November