CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
19 April 2010
Implementation Investments
MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT Chooses Altair HyperWorks for the Design of all Mechanical Parts Integrated in the New MCE-5 VCRi Technology
Altair Engineering, Inc. announced that MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT has selected the Altair HyperWorks Suite to design all mechanical parts of the new MCE-5 VCRi technology.
MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT engineers primarily use Altair's HyperMesh, OptiStruct and HyperView solutions to optimize the weight of each component of the new engine, while keeping the stiffness and the stresses within the range of the values required by the MCE-5 VCRi technology. Additionally MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT leveraged the HyperWorks Enabled Community (HWEC) and its HyperWorks licenses to use partner products that address fatigue and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations when needed. Those tools can be used at no additional costs under the flexible Altair licensing system.
The MCE-5 is a VCR technology. It integrates both innovative components that transmit power from the piston to the crankshaft as well as exclusive actuators, which permits the control of the engine compression ratio. While the architecture of the MCE-5 VCRi engine enables it to withstand very high loads, the single components have to endure heavy loads. To use the material efficiently in each component, engineers use HyperWorks to perform sophisticated non-linear simulations to evaluate the stiffness of and the stresses within the components.
MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT engineers also use HyperWorks to redistribute material to increase stiffness, to lower stresses, and to reduce weight. During this development phase, OptiStruct, the optimization solution of HyperWorks, is used to guarantee an optimal distribution of the material.
"The key factors for our decision were the performance of the Altair products and the flexibility of the HyperWorks licensing model," said Vincent Collee, manager, Simulation, Testing & Measurements for MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT. "The Altair offering under the Hyper Works Enabled Community program allows us to gain a huge economical advantage. On the performance side we are especially pleased with the capabilities of OptiStruct, the HyperWorks optimization solution. It is a very efficient tool that enables us to develop components that reach an optimum of material distribution with only a few design iterations."
"We are pleased to see the MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT engineers using a broad bandwidth of our products in the development process of their new engine," said Mauro Guglielminotti, managing director, Altair, France. "HyperWorks offers them one software suite that can be used in every single development phase of their products, especially with the possibilities of the HWEC that also offers partner products, amongst others for fatigue and CFD simulation. The HWEC program completes our offering and gives the MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT engineers exactly what they need to build better products faster and to consolidate software costs."
About MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT
Founded in 2000, MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT is based in Lyon, France, and is developing the MCE-5 variable compression ratio engine which reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 45 percent or more. The MCE-5 engine combines advantages of both diesel and gasoline.
MCE-5 DEVELOPMENT invested more than 45 million Euros to develop the MCE-5 technology, which MCE-5 can be mass produced as of 2016-2017 thanks to a consortium of 12 major internationally recognized European partners. The MCE-5 project is supported and financed by various French and European institutions. It is a successful example of public-private co-financing. Strongly backed by more than 330 French and foreign shareholders, almost one third of the total investment in Research and Development comes from public funding.
About the MCE-5 VCRi Technology
The MCE-5 VCRi is an internal combustion (IC) engine capable of using all the technologies currently available for gasoline engines, such as direct injection, VVTs (Variable Valve Timing) or turbocharging. IC engines have always progressed through the addition of new functions to improve their performance levels or their energy efficiency. MCE-5 proposes an additional decisive function: compression ratio control.
Reduction in fuel consumption is from 20 percent for small vehicles, up to 45 percent for high performance ones. After 13 years of R&D, this technology is now ready to enter into mass-production program, and could be mass-produced at the horizon of 2016-2017.
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