Thunk! - Wip - ABAQUS suite of module software from Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen

Automotive Design & Production, Nov, 2002 by Gary S. Vasilash

While we are fairly confident you are not involved in the engineering of cell phones, we recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Mark W. Bohm, general manager of Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen's Michigan office (HKS is headquartered in Pawtucket, RI; Bohm is in Plymouth, MI), about finite element analysis (FEA) in general and ABAQUS, the product shown here, in particular. Briefly, ABAQUS is a suite of modules that can be used to model not only linear elastic response, but also stress and deformation of various materials (not only metals, but rubber and polymers, too), heat transfer, and other characteristics. The software can handle big models, such as entire engines for purposes of predicting durability or suspension systems and the results of hitting a pothole (known, in the parlance of FEA, as "an abusive durability loading condition"). In the accompanying image, the analysis is of nonlinear response resulting from a drop test (On the left, there is the phone assembly, imported in its native f ormat; the cent graph shows the kinetic energy generated over time; the right window shows peak stress values of the phone.) One of the advantages that Bohm claims for ABAQUS is that it provides breadth of capability, which can result in greater productivity from Individual engineers (i.e., there's not likely to be a need to pass a model on to someone else to perform additional analysis).

But one of the more interesting points he raised was the following: In traditional development programs, structures undergo physical tests. They're just part of the routine and consequently routinely budgeted for in the program. But while CAE can provide advantages in that it can reduce the amount of necessary physical testing (to say nothing of providing faster results), in some organizations, CAE is treated differently than physical testing: it is an additional cost, not part of the development program. Consequently, when people are looking for places to trim costs, CAE may go, its apparent advantages notwithstanding.

The strength of math modeling should undoubtedly go well beyond the design and machine programming stages. The engineering in the middle matters, too.--GSV

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