A Business Case for Optimising Designs in Product Development.
Virtual and Real Testing
Engineering Integrity Society
Wednesday, 18 May 2005
Dunton Technical Centre, Ford Motor Company
Basildon
ABSTRACTS
Technology Is Available
Stuart Hillmansen - Imperial College London
The last fifty years, and the last 20 in particular, have seen a huge rise in our capabilities to measure, analyse and model the stresses and strains acting in real components. In many cases this information is used to make durability, lifetime or integrity assessments of collections of components assembled into machines. The components which make up the assembled system of an automobile are a good case in point.
The desirable level of integrity can be assessed if a set of appropriate input data is available for calculations. If data is sparse or scattered, calculations can be based on probabilities of failure. Whilst it is true that experimental determinations of service loads will never be superseded, as experience grows for many components which are based essentially on earlier designs, the amount of expensive testing required can be reduced by data bases, comparisons and, that elusive factor, engineering nouce.
This presentation will explore some of the issues involved in component design for durability, from data collection, load (strain) measurement, and analysis. The availability of new techniques will be emphasised through the use of examples.
The Effect of Residual Strain on Product Life and Manufacture
Dr Peter Blackmore & Dr Janardan Devlukia - Jaguar & LandRover
Residual strains are produced whenever a body undergoes non-uniform plastic deformation. They have a significant effect on the durability performance of structural components and often account for variability seen in component durability both during testing and service. The paper deals with origins of residual strains in manufacturing processes. This is followed by a brief discussion on methods of measurement including a recent development called MAPS. The effect of residual stress on fatigue life improvement of an automotive part via shotpeening is presented as a case study.
Fully Analytic Vehicle Loads and a Virtual Durability Process
Dr John Dakin & Dr Hong Zhu - Ford Motor Company
Road Load Data are required for the product development and durability verification. This presentation is to review the current status and future RLD process. A few recent applications show fully analytic loads process is a key enabler to the durability attributes. In the near future, fully analytic vehicle models should be capable of deriving loads, stresses, and fatigue life.
The Future for Lab Simulation (What is the important future role for rig testing?)
John Goode &
Liam Carter - Ford Motor Company
The presentation aims to show that physical testing will still have a important role to play in future product validation. The need for physical testing will be demonstrated by practical examples of tests that are currently carried out in the Ford durability lab. There are many ways in which a product can degrade or fail that are difficult to accurately predict with CAE analysis. Examples will be given of tests that can expose product weakness that would have otherwise been difficult to find with CAE analysis alone. There will also be examples of how the physical test process is used to support CAE analysis by firstly supplying physical data to create the models and later to physically validate the results given by the models.
Theory is for Losers!!
(Keeping your feet on the ground whilst applying all these technologies)
Damian Harty - Prodrive
Simulation offers attractive advantages for modern product design, under pressure from time-to-market and quality. It is easy to fall into the "paralysis of analysis", where no simulation work can be considered without extensive detail in pursuit of accuracy. To those in development circles, the extensive time spent on analytical exercises with sometimes questionable results can look like a preposterous waste of a company's precious resources - their rallying cry is "Theory is for Losers!" This paper suggests that this is not the case - but that to extract value from analytical work, practitioners must understand the question otherwise they won't recognise the answer.