The automotive industry faces many challenges, including competition to bring products to market as quickly as possible, increased customer demands, and more stringent safety and efficiency guidelines. MotionPort possesses the knowledge and technology to use simulation to help with these demands.

RELATED PRODUCTS

Flexible Body Modeling:

Mechatronics:

Belt, Chain, and Gear Modeling:

Fluid Interaction with Multibody Dynamics Model:

Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic Analysis for Pistons and Bearings:

  • RecurDyn/EHD (Elasto-Hydro-Dynamic)

Suspension and Durability Analysis:

  • RecurDyn/TSG (Time Signal Generator)
Research Success Stories
Commercial Success Stories

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COMMERCIAL SUCCESS STORIES

Case Study – RecurDyn Simulations Guide Engineers to Improved CV Joint Boot Designs

The Mistequay Group, a manufacturer of Constant Velocity (CV) joints had a client request a half-shaft that could operate at an increased transmission angle, but the existing boot for the CV joint was already at its operating limit, exhibiting reduced product life at higher transmission angles. Traditional Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was not sufficient for modeling the flexible CV boot in motion because it undergoes complex nonlinear deformation during the combined rotation and bending of the CV joint, and it also makes contact with itself and potentially other half-shaft components during the motion. Because of this, the manufacturer contacted MotionPort to apply the best available technology to understand boot behavior and to provide a solution.

MotionPort used RecurDyn (with the FFlex module) to model the existing flexible boot as well as multiple new designs, performing the following steps:

  • Created a MFBD model that consists of a rigid CV joint model and a flexible boot.
  • Configured the boot into its installation position with respect to the bell and driveshaft.
  • Defined flexible body contacts between the folds of the boots and other locations (including Self-contact).
  • Ran the simulations through transmission angles and rotational speeds of interest.

Customer benefits realized:

  • RecurDyn could correctly recreate the behavior of the existing design (see images/animations below).
  • The new boot design does not exhibit the problematic dimpling effect found in the existing design (see images/animations below).
  • Simulation results provided additional guidance for further design improvements for the new boot.

The images and videos below demonstrate the high fidelity of the simulations (shown is the previously existing boot design).

Figure 1: RecurDyn correctly validated the number of collapsed folds.

Figure 2: RecurDyn correctly validated the formation of dimples. Animations of the boot gave the engineers insight into the dynamic formation of these dimples.

Video 1: RecurDyn correctly captures the overall shape of the flexible boot as the CV joint bends and rotates.

Video 2: RecurDyn captures with high fidelity the problematic dimpling effect seen on several folds.

Video 3: RecurDyn displays stress contour plots within the boot to help identify areas of high stress.

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New Validated Approach for Advanced Design of Powertrain

Dana Incorporated is a valued automotive powertrain supplier because of the capabilities and value of their products. The Advanced Methods group at the Dana Technical Center looked for innovative technology that can be used in the engineering and design process for their products. In 2015, they evaluated the ability of Particleworks to predict the accumulation of oil on the surface of a rotating component within one of their axle assemblies.

Particleworks is able to predict the oil accumulation on the spinning wheel on the right side of the axle assembly (top images are the side view, bottom images are the top view), matching quite well the behavior in the actual physical test.

Click hear to view the full report.

Corelation of oil accumulation on surface of a rotating wheel. ‘Spicer Axle’ courtesy of Dana Incorporated.

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Case Study – RecurDyn in Automotive (Gears)

An automotive supplier needed to simulate the meshing of two gears. It is a challenging contact modeling problem because of the detailed geometry of the gear teeth. The supplier want to consider two values of the fillet radius for the gear teeth, two backlash spacing values, two magnitudes for the actuator force, and two sets of initial velocities.

Even with an incomplete set of model data, the RecurDyn results for the various design configurations showed trends that agreed with observed trends for the product that had been learned over many years. The supplier was confident that RecurDyn could model their product with the proper level of fidelity.

The engineers were surprised at the RecurDyn results because they had experience with another Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) software. That background caused them to think that it was not possible to model complex gear contact. They are very happy with RecurDyn and are looking forward to using in on their next design program.

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