Dynamic Search Domain for Crash Simulation Contact Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current computer-aided engineering (CAE) simulations for automobile crashworthiness face inefficiencies in contact management due to large FEA models, leading to increased computing time and impractical simulation execution, especially when debris fragments interact and require extensive search domain resizing.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a dynamically-positioned search domain within a time-marching numerical simulation, where the search domain is automatically repositioned to align with the moving and rotating automobile model, excluding debris outside the domain from further contact detection and deletion from calculations, thereby maintaining constant physical characteristics and reducing computational costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the search domain is continuously resized to contain all debris fragments, then contact detection completeness is improved, but computing time and resource requirements increase disproportionately
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts debris fragments that have moved outside the main structure from the contact detection process. Once debris leaves the dynamically-positioned search domain, it is excluded from further contact calculations, effectively removing it from the computational burden while maintaining accuracy for relevant contacts.
Solution Approach 2:
The search domain is made dynamic by automatically repositioning it to align with the moving and rotating automobile model at each solution cycle. This dynamic adjustment allows the domain to track the main structure without continuously expanding to cover all debris, maintaining contact detection reliability while controlling computational cost.
2Measurement precision
If more comprehensive contact tracking is performed for all debris, then simulation accuracy is improved, but device complexity and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by focusing computational resources on the region where contacts are most relevant - near the main automobile structure. The dynamically-positioned search domain concentrates calculation effort where it matters most, rather than uniformly processing all debris throughout the entire simulation space.
Solution Approach 2:
The simulation space is segmented into a focused search domain and the rest of the space. Only elements within the search domain undergo contact detection, while debris outside this segmented region is excluded from further calculations, reducing computational complexity while preserving accuracy for critical contacts.
3Reliability
If the search domain is made large enough to cover all potential contact areas, then contact detection reliability is improved, but productivity and simulation efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The search domain dynamically adapts its position to follow the automobile model throughout the simulation. This dynamic repositioning allows the domain to maintain appropriate coverage of contact areas without requiring a statically large domain that would unnecessarily increase computational workload and reduce simulation efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
First model representing a fixed barrier and second model representing an automobile to be improved according to crashworthiness criteria are received in a computer system. Time-marching simulation of an impact event between the first and the second models is conducted. Based on user-specified parameters, a search domain representing three-dimensional space of interest for detecting contacts between first and second objects is established. At each solution cycle, search domain is automatically repositioned without any user interaction, to align with a local coordinate system affixed to the second computerized model that moves and rotates in response to detected contacts. Numerically-calculated structural behaviors obtained in the simulation include effects from detected contacts within the search domain. Any finite element having broken free from the FEA model and being located outside of the search domain is excluded from further detection of contacts and deleted from the calculation in the simulation.