In 2012, a growing number of industries discovered new ways to use simulation to improve their designs, safety, performance and sustainability. While the automotive sector continued to increase its reliance on simulation to make vehicles lighter and more fuel-efficient, engineers and designers found ways that simulation could save weight, costs and lives in everything from cruise ships to airliners.

We touched on these emerging trends throughout the year, and here are the top five trend-related posts that I believe demonstrate the future of simulation in our products and our lives: Read More

This post was taken from Altair Enlighten and contributed by my colleague, Giuseppe Resta, Manager, Global Automotive at Altair Engineering.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that passenger safety and vehicle crashworthiness were the battleground where automakers differentiated their products. Now, as many OEMs have created product development systems that rely on a CAE-driven strategy to deliver excellent passive safety performance, it appears to have taken a backseat to miles-per-gallon. Almost every car commercial touts greater fuel efficiency and seeks to validate the manufacturer’s environmental credentials.

Both safety and gas mileage advances have been pushed by regulation and pulled by consumer demand. Now that the United States has set the 54.5 mpg Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standard for 2025 and lower CO₂ emissions have been mandated in Europe, we are entering a new era of increased challenge that could lead to significant change in the way cars are designed and constructed. OEMs and suppliers are reviewing every component and considering the technologies available to meet these new demanding standards, including investment in engineered plastic and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) that offer high stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios.

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I was chatting recently with fellow Altair blogger Bob Yancey about the use of the word composites. Yancey will often write about the application of high-end laminate constructions for aerospace applications. While this is a similar type of composite to those used by our racecar customers, such as Dallara, most automotive composites are perhaps better described as engineered plastics. The engineered part of that name is important, as not all plastics are composites; that soda bottle you drank from earlier was just plastic.

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This week I’m preparing to attend the HyperWorks Technology Conference (HTC) in Pune, India. This is part of the 2011 Global HTC Series. The events so far in Tokyo, Japan and Orlando, Florida have been well attended and have included some great customer presentations in addition to excellent keynotes. India will be no exception with, among others, Charlie Loh from Jaguar Land Rover addressing the “Journey from Physical to Virtual Verification” and Suresh Nandagopal, President, Autoliv India providing a “Safety Outlook for Automotive”.
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This week we finished a set of 5 automotive industry webinars that showcased some technologies and methods to assist in the constant fight to reduce cost and timing while exciting consumers with innovative, better performing products.

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