Savings through Idealization of Production Models AVEVA is a world leader in engineering and design software for the marine industry and has many customers in common with MSC Software, so the release of a new interface between our two solutions is good news, both for AVEVA and MSC, and great for many shipbuilders and their design agents. We spoke with Stéphane Neuvéglise, Head of Business Management – Marine Systems at AVEVA, to learn more about the new product and its significance. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is an essential tool in ship design, not only to verify the structural strength of a hull, but also to meet increasingly stringent vibration criteria for qualities such as passenger comfort, environmental noise or the stability of weapons or radar platforms. But the man-hours required for FEA are costly. Worse, tight delivery schedules frequently make it a critical path activity and can require that construction starts before final approval of the analyses by the Classification Society, incurring an element of programme risk. Add to this the highly skilled nature of idealising a hull structure into an efficient mesh for analysis and it’s clear to see the benefits to be gained by streamlining the FEA cycle. PARTNER SHOWCASE MSC Software: Partner Showcase - AVEVA A Solution Shipbuilders Can Rely On Partner Showcase: AVEVA | 1 Key Highlights: Industry Marine Challenge To verify hull structural strength, meet vibration criteria & idealize a hull structure into an efficient mesh for analysis. MSC Software Solutions Patran to create simplified geometry of the original hull structure Benefits • Cost & time savings • Reduction in Programme • Increase in design quality e AVEVA Solution, an MSC Software Community Partner, combines two uniquely powerful concepts, object-centric technology and an information-centric Digital Information Hub. ese support their integrated solutions for both the plant and marine industries and can form a complete technology environment for engineering projects of unlimited size and complexity.
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Savings through Idealization of Production ModelsAVEVA is a world leader in engineering and design software for the marine industry and has many customers in common with MSC Software, so the release of a new interface between our two solutions is good news, both for AVEVA and MSC, and great for many shipbuilders and their design agents. We spoke with Stéphane Neuvéglise, Head of Business Management – Marine Systems at AVEVA, to learn more about the new product and its significance.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is an essential tool in ship design, not only to verify the structural
strength of a hull, but also to meet increasingly stringent vibration criteria for qualities such as passenger comfort, environmental noise or the stability of weapons or radar platforms. But the man-hours required for FEA are costly. Worse, tight delivery schedules frequently make it a critical path activity and can require that construction starts before final approval of the analyses by the Classification Society, incurring an element of programme risk. Add to this the highly skilled nature of idealising a hull structure into an efficient mesh for analysis and it’s clear to see the benefits to be gained by streamlining the FEA cycle.
PARTNER SHOWCASE
MSC Software: Partner Showcase - AVEVA
A Solution Shipbuilders Can Rely On
Partner Showcase: AVEVA | 1
Key Highlights:
IndustryMarine
ChallengeTo verify hull structural strength, meet vibration criteria & idealize a hull structure into an efficient mesh for analysis.
MSC Software SolutionsPatran to create simplified geometry of the original hull structure
Benefits•Cost & time savings
•Reduction in Programme
•Increase in design quality
The AVEVA Solution, an MSC Software Community Partner, combines two uniquely powerful concepts, object-centric technology and an information-centric Digital Information Hub. These support their integrated solutions for both the plant and marine industries and can form a complete technology environment for engineering projects of unlimited size and complexity.
PARTNER SHOWCASE
2 | MSC Software
MSC Software: Partner Showcase - AVEVA
The interface is called AVEVA Hull Finite Element Modeller, and is actually much more than just a file converter; it is a model converter which incorporates a great deal of specialist know-how for idealising real hull structure into an efficient mesh. Mr Neuvéglise explained that hull structural design is a unique discipline, with many rules and principles not found in other steelwork applications. AVEVA’s hull design modules are intelligent and automatically apply specialist marine design practice to the various structural elements as the designer creates or repositions them.
Hull Finite Element Modeller takes this one step further by applying intelligence to the idealisation process. It applies default mesh parameters and idealisations which accurately translate the majority of the true design intent at the first pass and allows the structural analyst
to adjust these as necessary to fine tune the mesh, for example to increase mesh density around local ‘hot spots.’ Filtering can be applied to ignore the many small holes and cut-outs characteristic of hull structures, speeding up the subsequent analysis. Once the optimum idealisation has been configured, Hull Finite Element Modeller generates and exports a session file using Patran Command Language (PCL) for execution in Patran. This file contains all the commands required to create simplified geometry of the original hull model, together with material and element property definitions, within a Patran database.
Users commonly run FEA twice; once in the early stages of the design to weed out any major problems and later once the design is sufficiently detailed for a final approval submission. By automating much of the
laborious idealisation work, the new interface saves a lot of cost and time; customers estimate that it can halve the effort required, shaving around 1000 man-hours off a typical project. This is not only a direct economic benefit; it can take FEA off the critical path and bring forward Classification Society submission, reducing the risk of having to rework fabricated hull structure. And because it makes FEA so much easier to perform, it encourages more extensive analysis and optimisation to increase design quality and/or to achieve further hull cost savings.
Mr Neuvéglise was very complimentary about AVEVA’s relationship with MSC, citing the excellent training and support provided to AVEVA’s technologists when developing and validating the new interface. The company had also worked closely with an offshore platform
Hull structure shown in AVEVA Marine
“Now analysts can concentrate on the really interesting and important parts of the work while the software does the heavy lifting for them. They love it!” Stéphane Neuvéglise, AVEVA, an MSC Technology Partner
The same hull structure after idealisation, ready for mesh generation
PARTNER SHOWCASE
Partner Showcase: AVEVA | 3
MSC Software: Partner Showcase - AVEVA
builder, the lead customer for the new Patran interface. Working with selected customers during development helps AVEVA to ensure that its solutions support industry working practices and enables testing on real ‘warts and all’ project data. This focus on practicality has resulted in a solution which delivers power and ease of use for everyday needs, while avoiding the configuration complexities of trying to cater for every possible situation.
“Shipbuilders are very practical people,” said Mr Neuvéglise. ‘They understand the principle of diminishing returns and, above all, they want tools that they can rely on. On several occasions, ideas for minor refinements were rejected by the customer as not justifying the effort or the increased complexity. Simple is good in this industry.’
“Everybody who has used the product has been enthusiastic about it,” Mr Neuvéglise went on. “Shipyard managers appreciate not only the direct savings, but also the reduction it can make in programme risk. Yard capacity is finite and a delay on one project can have a knock-on impact on others. The industry is also suffering from skills shortages in all areas, so this goes some way to mitigating that.”
We wondered whether automating so much of a skilled process would devalue the work of the professional analysts. “Quite the opposite,” said Mr Neuvéglise. “Everybody likes more powerful tools to work with and manually idealising hull structures can be very laborious and repetitive. Now analysts can concentrate on the really interesting and important parts of the work while the software does the heavy lifting for them. They love it!”
With around half the world’s shipbuilders being users of Patran, engineers could come to love AVEVA Hull Finite Element Modeller as well!
For more information about AVEVA, please visit www.aveva.com.
Finally, the same idealised structure transferred into Patran
Patran is the world’s most widely used pre/post-processing software for Finite Element Analysis (FEA), providing solid modeling, meshing, and analysis setup for MSC Nastran, Marc, Abaqus, LS-DYNA, ANSYS, and Pam-Crash.
Designers, engineers, and CAE analysts tasked with creating and analyzing virtual prototypes are faced with a number of tedious, time-wasting tasks. These include CAD geometry translation, geometry cleanup, manual meshing processes, assembly connection definition, and editing of input decks to setup jobs for analysis by various solvers. Pre-processing is still widely considered the most time consuming aspect of CAE, consuming up to 60% of users’ time. Assembling results into reports that can be shared with colleagues and managers is also still a very labor intensive, tedious activity.
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About MSC SoftwareMSC Software is the worldwide leader of multidiscipline simulation solutions that help companies improve quality, save time and reduce costs associated with designing and testing manufactured products. MSC Software works with thousands of companies worldwide to develop better products faster with simulation technology, software, and services. MSC Software is a global company with offices in 20 countries. For additional information about MSC Software’s products and services, please visit www.mscsoftware.com.
