CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
23 January 2013
Product News
Michigan Engineering Services Increases Value of the HyperWorks Partner Alliance with Addition of High-Frequency NVH Software
Altair'sHyperWorks Partner Alliance (HWPA) today announced a new partner. Michigan Engineering Services (MES) now has made its Energy Finite Element Analysis Solver (EFEA) for noise vibration harshness (NVH) analysis available within the program. EFEA can be used for mid- to high-frequency vibration and acoustic simulations for complex structural-acoustic systems.
"We are delighted that EFEA has joined the HyperWorks Partner Alliance," said Altair Senior Program Manager for Noise, Vibration and Harshness Jianmin Guan. "As a proven finite-element-based technology, it complements HyperWorks' industry-leading NVH simulation and optimization solutions very well and offers our customers outstanding capabilities in dealing with airborne and structure-borne noise problems in the mid and high frequency ranges."
EFEA has many applications and has been applied and validated in naval, automotive and aircraft industries. It is compatible with CAD databases used in the product development process and can be easily integrated within a multi-disciplinary design environment. Being computationally efficient and easy to use, this technology offers a competitive advantage for customers and streamlines structural-acoustic simulations with other analyses during the design process.
"The collaboration between Altair and MES is based on the strong technical foundation of the two companies," said MES Chief Technical Officer Nick Vlahopoulos. "The EFEA solver complements the collective capabilities of the HyperWorks partners by adding the opportunity for customers to conduct mid- to-high-frequency vibro-acoustic analysis using finite elements, a capability that was unavailable within the program until now."
The EFEA method is different from the finite element analysis (FEA) method, because it uses energy- based primary variables instead of pursuing a displacement-based solution. This allows for significant computational efficiency that uses only a small fraction of elements compared to FEA.
One notable benefit of the EFEA method is that the model requires no modal density information. Further, the model retains a direct connection with the physical design through its finite-element-based model, while structural damping and acoustic treatment can be specified on the physical part of the model where it is actually applied. The results offered by EFEA can be visualized by any post-processor, thus the method fits perfectly in any design process for developing efficient noise-mitigation strategies. The EFEA method can also be compared to that of statistical energy analysis (SEA), because they both utilize vibrational and acoustic energy variables.
Released 12 years ago, Altair's original and versatile unit-based licensing system has allowed HyperWorks users to access a growing portfolio of applications while optimizing their investment. Every license is composed of a pool of recyclable HyperWorks units (HWUs), which can be used to access any application within the HyperWorks family.
After seeing the success of the unit-based system, Altair decided to expand the model to third-party companies and allowed them to run their own applications under this unit-based system, a collaboration known as the HyperWorks Partner Alliance. The overall flexibility of these HWUs empowers users and allows them access to the largest and most complete suite of CAE applications available. This licensing model makes the benefits to participating HyperWorks customers infinite, with their return on investment increasing each time a new application is added to the offering. They can access any of the partner programs using the same leased HWUs they are already using to run HyperWorks, all available at no incremental cost or long-term commitment.
To learn more about MES or EFEA, please attend one of the introductory webinars, being held on February 7 at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. EST. Both webinars will be hosted by Altair and presented by MES.
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