HyperWorks Streamlines the Rail Industry
The rail industry needs to develop robust, and aerodynamic rail car designs that provide comfort and safety to the passengers. To succeed in this task, the rail industry must exploit the full potential of CAE as early as possible in the process to predict performance and cost to support decision making, as well as to accurately verify designs to meet requirements.
Altair HyperWorks provides the best-in-class simulation tools to the rail industry for:
- Efficient and Advanced Modeling
- Robust Structural Analysis
- Crash and Safety Analysis
- Electromagnetic Analysis
- Passenger Comfort Design
- Optimized and Robust Design
CAE tools like HyperMesh, HyperView, OptiStruct, FEKO, and RADIOSS are becoming the new standard bringing rail simulation to the next generation.
“HyperWorks has helped us reduce simulation development times substantially while ensuring we have quality models for analysis and also offers further expansion areas for optimizing, multi-body dynamics and crash simulation.”
S.Mani
Executive Director-Motive Power
RDSO
View Case Study
Gallery
Structural design and optimization at Stadler Rail
Safety systems for crash protection of the train crew (Courtesy of Sharma Associates Inc.)
American Railcar Industries design with HyperWorks products (Courtesy of American Railcar Industries)
Stress analysis of a Stadler locomotive (Courtesy of Stadler Rail)
ALSTOM passive train safety system design (Courtesy of ALSTOM Transport)
Nippon Sharyo uses AcuSolve to improve cabin comfort (Courtesy of Nippon Sharyo)
<
>
Efficient FE Modeling
Modeling of complete Car Bodies
Rail engineers must efficiently go from CAD models to FEA models. HyperMesh and HyperView offer next generation modeling and visualization tools, gaining wide acceptance in the rail CAE community. They provide engineers a modern and efficient platforms for processing FE models:
- Direct interfaces to all major CAD packages including CATIA, NX, SolidWorks, Pro-Engineer and more
- Powerful geometry clean-up and meshing technology typically allowing more than 50% time savings in the generation of FE models compared to legacy tools
- Mid-surfacing to go from thin-solid CAD models to shell FEA models in a highly automated manner
- Advanced Solid Meshing tools that can create high quality hex and tet element models for bogies and wheels
- Connectors Technology to efficiently model welds and bolts
- Multi-solver environment: a single common CAE environment able to interface to all main solvers, including RADIOSS and OptiStruct as well as third parties (Nastran, Abaqus, Ansys, Dyna)
- Full and easy FE model parameterization to update models following CAD changes or to quickly investigate variants and trade-offs
Structural Analysis
Stress, Mechanism and Vulnerability Simulation
Altair HyperWorks offers outstanding solvers for a wide variety of simulation disciplines within the Rail sector:
- Stress Analysis: Environment for detailed stress analysis with OptiStruct
- Dynamic simulation for vulnerability and composite design: RADIOSS is the preferred solution for performing dynamic simulations for crash of metallic and composite structures
- Mechanism simulation: MotionSolve is a powerful product for full dynamic simulation, including those with flexible bodies
- Occupant Simulation: Detailed occupant simulation using certified occupant models and seat models for crash and impact simulations
For all your simulation needs, Altair has the answer for fast, accurate and reliable physics simulation.
Electromagnetic Analysis
Altair is a leading provider of electromagnetic analysis tools
The rail industry relies on electromagnetic signaling for their safe operation and to perform tasks critical to their missions. FEKO is a comprehensive electromagnetics code to:
- Optimize the antenna placement with fast and efficient numerical methods
- Analyze pattern distortion of antennas due to shielding and blockage of adjacent structures
- Design efficient cabling, cable coupling, and shielding systems
- Modeling the effect of structures on mobile phone signals from passengers
- Study the radiation hazard exposure level
- Study of interference between devices
- Lightning strike analysis and induced effects on cables, circuits and antennas
- Analysis of high power interference due to external sources
Passenger Comfort Design
Competition in the rail industry requires constant innovation to make the passenger experience more pleasant and convenient. Altair's simulation environment allows for simulations that provide engineers the tools they need to design better and safer passenger cabins:
Optimized and Robust Design
Altair has been a leader in developing and applying optimization methods to improve designs. OptiStruct and HyperStudy are powerful tools to develop designs that meet performance requirements while handling the trade-offs in an automated manner. Example applications are as follows:
- Car Bodies – optimization of structure for safety, acoustics, weight, and cost
- Bogies – optimization for durability, acoustics, assembly, and performance
- Seats – optimization for safety, weight, and comfort
- Pantograph – optimization for robustness, impact, and transmission efficiency
