The Traditional Approach

Traditionally an engineer would start with designing a basic concept in 3D CAD or any dedicated standalone Finite Element Analysis software, and create his first analysis. After this first analysis he would judge how the product behaves and determines if the design can be optimized. In order to have this judgement, the engineer should have a clear view on the design specifications of the product. Therefore the person needs to define upfront what type of values would cause the design to fail from the original definitions. For example, maximum allowable stress, maximum strain, maximum displacement, minimum volume, minimum Eigen frequency, etc.

When the results of the initial analysis allow a further optimization, the engineer can change some parameters of his initial design and run the analysis again to see if he is closer to his target for the optimization. This is the manual approach , also known as iterative optimization loops (trial and error).

Parameter-based optimization

Since the development of parameter based optimization software, the traditional approach has been automated where the trial and error loops are done for you in an automatic way. This means that you can create highly complex systems with a lot of parameters which take a lot of time to solve because of the numerous possible solutions. Whenever large sets of data are created and the possible solutions are huge, another challenge is introduced: “how to pick the best solution from all these possibilities?”. This is where the better parameter-based optimization software will stand out of the field.

Powerful parameter-based optimization software will provide you with advanced techniques such as optimization, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), approximations, and Design of Experiments (DOE), which let you thoroughly explore the design space. Advanced, interactive post processing tools allow you to see the design space from multiple points of view. Design trade-offs and the relationships between parameters and results are easily understood and assessed, leading to the best possible design decisions.

Categories of parameters include: gauge, shape, sections, spot weld pitch, seam-weldspacing, adhesive length, topology (member repositioning), features (number of holes, ribs, bulkheads, crush-initiators etc. in a given space) and general parameters.

Regular FE/CFD models can be converted to intelligent parametric FE/CFD models. The parameters can be exercised as one-time execution or linked to Design of Experiments (DOE) and Multi-Disciplinary Optimization (MDO) schemes.

Multiple runnable CAE models (literally hundreds of them) can be generated automatically by exercising the parametric CAE models.

The different type of design parameters

1. Shape parameter
2. Structural (gauge / material) parameter
3. Feature parameter
4. Macro parameter
5. Topology parameter
6. General text parameter

Application areas

• Creation of multiple holes in a given zone.
• Creation of multiple crush initiators in a given zone.
• Creation of multiple ribs in a given zone.
• Automatic remeshing after design generation.
• Smoothing and quality improvement after design generation.