As the use of polymer materials increases, this tool simulates their movements
The Japanese chemical and materials company Asahi Kasei Engineering (AEC) has launched a computer-aided engineering (CAE) solution platform offering apps to predict polymer crash and impact behaviour.
Being able to predict and simulate material behaviour will enhance the product design process, reducing costs and development time. Although resin’s complex mechanical properties can complicate simulation design, it is slowly harnessing the technology needed to make advancements comparable to those made in metal components.
“Simulation-based design technologies for metal components in the mobility and industrial sectors have made significant advancements, enabling much of the experimental work to be replaced by simulations,” said an AEC spokesperson.
“However, when it comes to resin components and fibre-reinforced resin components, the complexity of their mechanical properties—such as distinctive fracture patterns, strain-rate dependency, and anisotropy—makes simulation-based design more challenging,” They added. “We recognise that the technology has not yet advanced to the point where it can significantly reduce the number of physical experiments.”
While the tool may not yet compare to metal advancements, it will allow users to access apps installed in cloud high-performance computing (HPC) to receive technical support for their product design.
One area of support comes from the app “i-LUPE”, which offers accurate polymer material fracture prediction models. This app can anticipate and reproduce possible fractures in a polymer resulting from stretching and deformation.
The CAE solution platform supports this app by providing a mapping tool for anisotropic materials such as fibre-reinforced resins. It converts that data into “i-LUPE” material property lists, which are used as a reference when selecting the optimal material for specific instances.
“We believe that the key feature of our 'CAE solution platform' we recently announced lies in the proprietary applications it includes,” said the AEC spokesperson. “The two applications we recently introduced, 'i-LUPE' and the 'Mapping tool for i-LUPE', are technologies that we believe will make a substantial contribution to addressing the above-mentioned challenges of the industry – allowing precise simulations for components made of resins and fibre-reinforced resins.
The launch of AEC’s CAE solution platform comes during a time when polymer materials are increasingly used in products such as automobiles, and HPC is increasingly used throughout many industries.
