Impact of COVID – 19 & how it accelerated the adoption of disruptive technologies

Posted on April 22, 2021January 6, 2025 by Goutham S R

The lockdown, necessitated by the spread of COVID-19 pandemic was beyond imagination. It made majority of the people restrict themselves to their houses. The traditional way of functioning in offices and organizations came to an abrupt halt. The important question in this situation was how to manage work and how to make sure business continues.

The pandemic and the eventual lockdown paved way for new technologies and new normal which had to be adopted. It is during this critical situation, many of the business firms started looking at cloud-based solutions as an alternative instead of traditional on-premise solutions which required physical presence of personnel at office premises to perform the assigned tasks.

The pandemic, in fact, accelerated companies in India to quickly adopt cloud-based solutions irrespective of their scale (be it medium or large enterprise). In some cases, companies adopted stage-wise and requirement-based cloud adoption and in other cases, they adopted cloud solutions fully.

According to one survey, more than 60% of Indian organisations plan to leverage cloud platforms for digital innovations as the firms re-strategize their IT infrastructure. Even though cloud was adopted by some organizations much before the pandemic, the current situation accelerated their transition towards cloud solutions – Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS).

Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE on Cloud solutions provide a complete suite of industry leading solutions in turning various innovative ideas into reality in the areas of design, engineering, manufacturing, production, simulation, governance and collaboration.

The platform helps in connecting all the stakeholders of the organisation. Employees can access applications such as CATIA, SIMULIA, ENOVIA and DELMIA on the cloud and get the right data to work on as the platform provides access to the latest and updated data.

Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE is the business solutions platform which enables companies to connect with their suppliers, customers as well as internal teams. This makes the feedback process from customers, work status updates by suppliers and internal teams quicker.

Will data security be compromised after adoption of cloud solutions?

Many companies are reluctant to deploy cloud-based solutions because of data security issues. To address this issue, the security processes of 3DEXPERIENCE on Cloud platform follows industry standards such as:

ISO 2700x standards and in particular Implementation Guide ISO 27002
NIST 800 series
OWASP methodologies
CobIT framework

Will moving to cloud-based solutions increase my ROI?

Adoption of cloud-based solutions will drastically reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Reduced TCO implies greater ROI. The below infographic shows how an organization can reduce costs by moving to cloud-based solutions.

These benefits and security standards and the current pandemic situation make Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform as the most secure and desirable platform by organizations.

How to Ensure Uninterrupted Analysis in Abaqus by using Restart Analysis?

Posted on April 22, 2021January 6, 2025 by Shwetha S

The one aspect which is the most desirable while performing an analysis is that it should complete without any errors or interruptions. However, this is not the case. While performing any analysis, there are several interruptions more often than not like large memory, machine crash etc. To rectify these errors and minimize interruptions, there is a concept called Restart Analysis in ABAQUS.

Restart Analysis in ABAQUS helps to continue the previous analysis by the help of restart file. Any type of analysis can be restarted which is terminated at any particular level.

The following points need to be considered to restart an analysis in ABAQUS:

The user should plan initially and need to request restart output before the running the previous analysis
This request will generate .res file in work directory. Restart file allows previous analysiswith a new analysis.
Model used during the Restart Analysis should be same as previous analysis. Any modification with respect to geometry, mesh, material, loads, etc is not recommended.
Each step of the Restart Analysis reads the old file data which is available in the .res file and writes a new one.
All the loads and boundary conditions from the previous analysis remain unchanged in Restart Analysis as well.
If ABAQUS restarts the analysis from an unfinished step, it will try to finish that step first and then the remaining steps to complete the Restart Analysis.

To run Restart Analysis in ABAQUS, the following steps need to be followed:

Request restart output before running the previous analysis. Switch to step module, choose the Output Request in the main menu and select Restart Output. Enter “1” under the frequency for requesting the restart file in Step 1. If there are multiple steps, the file can be requested by entering the same inputs.

After pre-processing the model, job should be edited as “Job1” with analysis type as “Full analysis”. This run will generate .res file in the work directory which will be used for Restart Analysis.

To start Restart Analysis, right click on Model and select Edit Model Attributes. The job name of previous analysis needs to be entered and the exact step name from which the analysis needs to be restarted (terminated step name).

Create a step to run the Restart Analysis. Here, Step 2 is created and is used in Restart Analysis in ABAQUS by taking data from the previous job.

Run Restart Analysis by creating a new job and choose the job type as “Restart Analysis”. The analysis will continue from the termination point of previous analysis.

When complex analyses with large models are being run, they require more time to complete and often there are chances it might terminate at some particular step. It is efficient and recommended to use Restart Analysis in such type of problems because if the analysis terminates at a particular step, the whole analysis need not be run again. By using Restart Analysis, time and cost can be saved by restarting the analysis from the termination point.

How 3DEXPERIENCE On Cloud Adoption Helps Maintain Digital Continuity in Organizations

Posted on March 30, 2021January 6, 2025 by Lakshmi Narayana

“Cloud” has been the buzzword for the past few years. Many companies have identified the upcoming business needs and challenges and have adapted by shifting to On-Cloud solutions. Decision makers need to be always connected digitally with the respective stakeholders.

The main conundrum now is that how can design and manufacturing be connected through cloud. Based on interactions with customers, some of the challenges perceived by them are listed below:

How can digital continuity be maintained from RFQ to marketing and sales?
How to connect service providers and respective stakeholders all the time by maintaining the same data connectivity?
How to perform design, reviews, manage projects, conduct live digital meetings and so on?

Below are the 10 ways how the adoption of 3DEXPERIENCE On Cloud from Dassault Systèmes has helped customers tackle these challenges and maintain the digital continuity.

3DEXPERIENCE On Cloud provides a holistic real-time visibility of business to all stakeholders connecting people, ideas, data and solutions in a single collaborative and interactive environment.
Cloud enables everyone involved in the project to interact, imagine, design, simulate and deliver.
With the help of Cloud, collecting, importing and sharing project data can be done immediately to the respective team. Data can be stored in 3DSpace, a centralized server of Dassault Systèmes maintained by Amazon Web Services.
Assigning and managing tasks or projects between different stakeholders and tracking the projects through web can be done by Cloud.
Design reviews can be done on the fly irrespective of the location.
Using Market Place and Part Supply accessibility, order can be sent to the certified suppliers or vendors.
The Cloud solution is cost effective and provides immediate access to users.
Cloud is adaptable, flexible and scalable with automatic updates.
It enables faster collaboration by enabling accessibility anywhere, anytime and on any device.
It is secure with protected environment.

The cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides access to a growing portfolio of solutions that work together seamlessly. Some of them are discussed below in detail:

Collaborative Business Innovator

Express innovative and creative ideas with communities seamlessly.
Digital connect with live dashboards assists in collaboration.
Can sketch and share ideas on the fly with the help of this solution.
Instant contribution makes the discussion more interactive and expedites decision making.

Project Planner

Collaborative project planning with real time KPI monitoring.
Assign tasks to the respective users with deadlines and tracking the same with seamless integration.
Project planner dashboard can be accessed through mobiles, iPad and PCs anywhere anytime.

3D Innovator

Can do web based parametric design which helps to design anywhere, anytime and on any device.
Design and assemble parts, design guidance for topology, non-parametric optimization and accesibility to marketplace to 3D print the components.
Can manage complete PLM which improves efficiency, quality, productivity and innovation

Lean Team Player

Manufacturing teams can conduct digital meetings, track with the inbuilt lean principles with virtual models, process and resources

How does Adoption of CATIA 3D Master benefit Design and Manufacturing Companies?

Posted on March 30, 2021January 6, 2025 by Goutham S R

The emerging trends in the market and the progression towards Industry 4.0 indicate an increased need for “Model Based Definition” (MBD) or 3D GD&T in design and manufacturing companies.

GD&T is used by engineers in drawings to convey design details to manufacturing teams.

With the increased adoption of Model Based Definition, engineers now place GD&T directly into 3D models instead of generating in 2D drawings. This would make 3D geometry as a “Single Source of Design Information”.

CATIA 3D Master (FTA) allows the designer to create GD&T for designed parts as well as for assemblies.

Once the FTA is done, the same data can be shared to manufacturing teams so that they can directly access the design data along with GD&T eliminating the need for traditional drawing sheets.

Evolution of the Design Process:

The design process has undergone a transformation over the past 50 years. The below infographic shows the evolution of the design process from 1970 to the present day.

Advantages of CATIA 3D Master (FTA):

There are many advantages in using CATIA 3D Master as compared to creating GD&T in 2D drawing sheets. Some of them are listed below:

Eliminates the effort to generate and update 2D documents according to the 3D geometry definitions
Can re-use the design from previous projects quickly
FTA implementation can eliminate the time taken to create the drawings
Since CATIA 3D Master acts as a “Single Source of Truth”, the latest version of the data is always available
Helps to increase the quality of manufactured products
Ensures compliance to international standards
Leads to better communication since the work flow is entirely 3D based
Reduces drafting time, supports paperless design and increases the collaboration with customers and suppliers

Adopting and implementing CATIA 3D Master (FTA) ensures companies to reduce design time and that the products reach the market quickly.

How can a startup thrive in the market?

Posted on March 29, 2021January 6, 2025 by Lakshmi Narayana

Startups come up with new designs and inventions. However, qualifying them as a viable product in a short period of time and preparing them for production and commercialization has many challenges.

Some of the challenges could be:

Design finalization and approvals as per industrial standards
Prioritizing consumer experience
Overcoming expensive physical validations
Achieving the first-mover advantage
Getting stabilized in the market while competing with big players

The above challenges can be addressed by a few ways. They are explained below:

Startups get lot of support from the government for developing Electric Vehicles, Drones and UAVs. They should approach the right people, utilize, validate and adopt the right digital solutions at the right time to address the market demands.
Adopting cloud technology is one solution which gives flexibility to the stakeholders to connect from wherever they are.
Adopting model-based design solutions where design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, purchase and finance are on the same platform which will reduce the time-to-market by eliminating all non-value-added tasks.
From market study, concept design digital definition, digital Validation, process planning, product development to customer experience, it is difficult to adopt different applications by a startup and deliver the product to the market on time. To simplify and expedite the process, Industry Solutions Experience and Industry Process Experience can be opted as per startup requirements which are available in 3DEXPERIENCE platform. With this combination, design, engineering, manufacturing, governance and marketing solutions are available on a single platform with cloud environment

Industry Solutions Experience and Industry Process Experience are beneficial to startups. They are explained below by taking the examples of EV and Aero-related startups:

There are few of the Industry Process Experience as a package like ELECTRO MOBILITY ACCELERATOR for the EV startups. The complete workflow is given below:

Over 50 percent of programs in Aero-related startups (UAVs, drones) miss their deadlines. Programs are often delayed due to issues being discovered during the manufacturing process that could have been prevented in the design phase. To significantly increase competitive advantage, startups can opt for Co-Design to Target solution under Mechatronics Systems Engineering or Component Functional Generative Design for Additive Manufacturing.

Composite Structure Investigation using ABAQUS Finite Element Solver

Posted on March 29, 2021January 6, 2025 by Varun Sharma

Introduction

Composite materials are less expensive and stronger in nature in comparison to conventional materials. They are formed from two or more constituent materials which are different in physical, mechanical and chemical properties. By nature, they are light in weight and extensively employed in spacecrafts, aircrafts, buildings, bridges, racing cars, bathtubs etc.

From a macroscopic point of view, composite materials are anisotropic in nature and require special tools such as numerical tool (FEM) and analytical method or mathematical tool to get insights when under failure, shock, impact or repeated cyclic stresses.

Keeping in mind the complexity and material orientation, this article captures the three-dimensional behavior of composite materials.

Geometry and Meshing

A solid homogenous part is created with internal partition and defined using offset options. Inside the solid homogenous part, a set of matrices are created.

For meshing, 8-node linear brick, reduced integration and hourglass control (C3D8R) were applied as shown in Fig 1.

Material

Elastic properties under engineering constant are defined during material assignment.

Material, name = “Composite Materials”

Elastic, type = ENGINEERING CONSTANTS

150000, 9000, 9000, 0.34, 0.34, 0.4, 5000, 5000, 5000

Loading and Boundary Conditions

The simulation is performed under static conditions. During the first step, composite structure remains at static conditions. Both sections internally and externally are under static conditions. During the second step, one side of the structure remains under ENCASTRE conditions (U1-U2-U3-UR1-UR2-UR3 = 0). The second side is experiencing a displacement of -5 mm in Z – direction to generate the stress wave propagation as shown in Fig 2. The holistic idea is to see how internal stress is propagating within the structure.

The complete analysis (Pre + Post + Solver) is simulated in ABAQUS/ CAE code.

Results and Visualization

Stress distribution within the internal and external structure is calculated using path feature. Internal matrix experiences slightly lesser tensile stress when compared to external structure under Encastre conditions. Internal matrix which is close to Encastre conditions experiences higher compressive stress.

Mises stress components at integration points

Mises stress components at integration points in S33 direction

Conclusion

The behavior of composite materials is studied using ABAQUS FEM Code. The main objective is to see how the stresses are distributed within the structure (Matrix). ABAQUS helps in predicting the behavior of composite materials subjected to displacement. The approach mentioned in this article can be used in a more complex way by varying the internal matrix dimensions. The matrix can be placed in dissimilar alignment also.

ABAQUS offers higher degree of autonomy in pre- and post-processing. It helps in gaining insights when composite materials are subjected to different conditions.

Category: Blog