Altair today announced that GeonX S.A. has joined the Altair Partner Alliance (APA), bringing access to Virfac®, a welding simulation software, to HyperWorks® users. Virfac provides quality predictions for manufactured parts with the ability to improve product lifespan and design before any prototype is required.
Virfac is capable of predicting residual distortions encountered by a part during the manufacturing process as well as residual stresses to help calculate the in-service fatigue life of the part. It is particularly suited for high fidelity results on complex industrial applications and ensures manufactured part quality by predicting material transformations during the process as well as the final manufactured component.
"Virfac is a new type of technology in the HyperWorks offering, and I believe this will help us identify many different ways to collaborate," said Laurent D'Alvise, CEO of GeonX. "GeonX is really looking forward to exploring the possibilities of the partnership with Altair."
Several solvers are employed by Virfac as computing engines, all dependent on the accuracy level and physics necessary for a particular model, which help the software address a wide range of problems. The main computing engine applied by Virfac is Morfeo, a massively parallel finite element (FE) solver capable of non-linear thermo-mechanical-metallurgical detailed modelling of manufacturing processes. Morfeo performs simulations of various manufacturing processes on high performance computing systems. This connection helps Virfac perform advanced simulation of welding processes including fusion welding, friction stir and inertia friction welding, as well as creating the capability to mimic results of various heat treatment, surface treatment, additive manufacturing and damage tolerance based on the XFEM technology.
"Through its advanced multi-physics, Virfac is able to capture extremely important phenomena in manufacturing processes," said Subir Roy, Senior Director of Industry Solutions at Altair. "Simulating residual stresses and distortions in welding and heat treatment bridges the gap between physical and virtual reality. Altair is eager to bring this technology to its users involved in solving complex manufacturing problems via simulation."
Virfac is applicable across many industries, including automotive, aerospace, heavy industry, shipbuilding and energy, helping predict and solve challenges encountered in the welding and manufacturing processes.
