This paper was produced for the 2019 NAFEMS World Congress in Quebec Canada

Resource Abstract

Co-Simulation in Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE), also known as ‘multiphysics’, has been an exciting and challenging topic for the CAE industry since the 1990s. On the one hand, the world we inhabit clearly has interacting physics disciplines, but on the other hand, software vendors have struggled to grapple with multiphysics simulation coding challenges to deliver usable engineering simulation tools because the best mathematical approaches for each discipline don’t tend to gel well together when combined. Multibody Dynamics (MBD) codes like Adams from MSC Software are being used extensively for industrial grade co-simulations around the world today as a matter of course, and it has open connections to a vast array of commercial and open-source CAE software. Some notable recent innovations are connections to the market leading Discrete Element Modeling software, EDEM, from DEM Solutions, VIRES Virtual Test Drive (VTD) for ADAS and autonomous vehicle drive simulation, and of course MATLAB & SIMULINK for 1D systems and controls modeling. Adams coupled with Marc for non-linear structural mechanics solves extreme load cases for full vehicle simulations, and even wiper blade movements, and door closing effects. Coupling MBD with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) for instance also opens the way for solving unique engineering problems like analyzing side wind impacts on vehicles driving on the highway, and vehicle suspensions running over puddles.



In this paper, two real world use cases are introduced to illustrate how co-simulation toolchains have been leveraged in the automotive and defense industries to address both cutting edge applications and real engineering pain points.