CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

8 March 2012

Implementation Investments

BEIRENS Selects MSC Software's SimXpert to Develop Chimneys that withstand Wind and Earthquakes

MSC Software Corporation announced that BEIRENS, a leading manufacturer of chimneys for district heating, industrial processes and energy generation, has selected SimXpert, MSC Software's multidisciplinary simulation solution.

The company's principal objective is to validate a range of loading scenarios for chimney structures like wind or seismic activities, in compliance with the EUROCODE norm. In addition, BEIRENS plans to utilize MSC Software's solutions to further optimize their products by minimizing weight and production costs, and maximizing stability.

For more than 30 years, BEIRENS has been developing new products and manufacturing techniques to meet customers' changing requirements for improved quality and services with respect to environmental and health questions. Through significant R&D efforts, the company has been able to introduce new innovations into the market, for example the Gigogne chimneys, which combine several concentric flue liners for the evacuation of combustion gases with a minimal number of chimneys.

"The need to be compliant with the new EUROCODE norm, which requires manufacturers to validate a chimney's structure under seismic and wind conditions, was a principal reason for BEIRENS to invest in new simulation tools," explained Benjamin Laurent, responsible for product and project development at BEIRENS. "SimXpert, along with the MSC Nastran solver, allows us to achieve the results required in addressing the complex seismic analysis responses. We found that SimXpert was the best solution for our needs in terms of price and performance."

Engineers at BEIRENS not only use SimXpert for validation of their chimneys and integrated silencers under exceptional loads like earthquakes or explosions, but also to optimize the product structure, especially the behavior of contact parts in assemblies. After becoming trained in the software, they started to automate recurrent tasks like the definition of contact situations in assemblies, using the template functions in SimXpert. CAE expert Aurélien Jeanneton explains the benefits: "Meshing and simulation in SimXpert is significantly faster compared to our old application, and the results are much more accurate. We perform many simulations that we could not before."

"Manufacturing of industrial chimneys is a relatively small but highly competitive market with very strict health and safety regulations," says Kais Bouchiba, Senior VP EMEA at MSC Software. "For an innovative leader like BEIRENS, using the right simulation tools to develop new technologies and validate their compliance creates an important competitive advantage, and we are happy to help."

About BEIRENS

With over 170 employees, BEIRENS designs, manufactures, installs and maintains free standing and self-supporting welded chimneys for district heating, industrial process and energy generation plants. In partnership with the CERIC Laboratory, the company also addresses the needs of the renewable energy sector, offering custom-made installations for biogas and biomass energy production. BEIRENS is part of the French POUJOULAT Group, Europe's leading manufacturer of metal smoke evacuation systems, which employs 1,400 people worldwide and is active in 30 countries.

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