Recently, the team and I spoke with Digital Manufacturing Report to discuss the ways manufacturers’ growing reliance on CAE is challenging the industry to continue to evolve its software offerings. Driving factors like innovations in HPC and cloud technology are paving the way for technology advancements that enable manufacturers to solve more complex problems and deliver better usability across the enterprise. We discussed how the recent release of HyperWorks 12.0 addresses this evolution in “Altair Takes HyperWorks to the Cloud.”

Here’s an excerpt: 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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An old MG advertising slogan that dates back around 80 years, “Safety Fast,” can very well be applied to the work that Advanced Design Engineering Systems Solutions AG (ADESS) has performed for another storied British sports car marque, LOTUS. ADESS used Altair’s HyperWorks Suite in the development of the LMP2 LOTUS T128 car, primarily to perform virtual crash tests of the front structure. Read More

Various articles have appeared recently on the current global shortage of aerospace engineers.  One such article in Industry Week outlines how this is particularly difficult for the aerospace suppliers who don’t have OEM name recognition to attract talent.

With all of the new airplane programs throughout the world, this indeed does pose a challenge. Altair is poised to help address this challenge by continuing to assist the aerospace engineering community in finding new efficiencies in designing and analyzing aerospace systems.  Read More

Recently I was on a panel at the CIMdata Simulation & Analysis Council Workshop in Cincinnati. I was asked about Simulation Governance (managing simulation as a strategic competence) and specifically how to raise management’s awareness of the importance of simulation. Something that I’d discussed with the moderator Keith Meintjes in the past is the idea of the maturity model for simulation, which could offer a path to C-suite recognition. My answer offered a description of how that might work. Read More