Virtual Prototyping Applications Research Articles

Research and Development of a Large-Scale Axial-Flux Generator for Hydrokinetic Power System

The study demonstrates an application of actual technologies and tools for the development of an axial-flux electricity generator. The specifics of its application—a run-of-river sited power station—predefine some of the design parameters that are close to a wind turbine generator. An extensive study of available solutions is used as a starting point for further concept development. The study aims to provide a viable solution for a large-scale electrical machine. A step-based methodology is defined for concept parameters’ assessment and a feasibility study. It demonstrates the advantages of virtual prototyping when assessing various design parameters such as air gaps, coil thickness, and the number of rotor disks. Several simulations over different virtual prototypes provide sufficient information to elaborate an improved design concept. The major result is a ready-for-detailed design concept, with defined major parameters and studied work behavior for a specific, large structure of an electrical machine. Another important result is the presentation of the application of virtual prototyping in the assessment of large structures, for which physical prototyping is an expensive and time-consuming approach. The application of virtual prototyping at a very early product development stage is an effective way to undertake efficient solutions involving the concept of the product.

Application of Virtual Surgical Planning and Rapid Prototyping in Maxillofacial Trauma Surgery: A Case Series

Application of Virtual Surgical Planning and Rapid Prototyping in Maxillofacial Trauma Surgery: A Case Series

Crack propagation evaluation using virtual prototyping techniques

A methodology for crack propagation using virtual prototyping (VP) is demonstrated. It is based on a classical approach to assess crack propagation, improved with finite element analysis tools. It enables to examine in detail all aspects of crack formation and to evaluate the probability of its occurrence. Performed demonstration is based on Al2O3 substrate laser scribing process and its assessment in direction of possible crack occurrence. Presented study gives basic directions on application of virtual prototyping in crack initiation and propagation prediction. This approach gives the opportunity to monitor various parameters as stresses and to predict influence of various design changes over examined physical process output parameters.

Elastic rail clip design development, based on virtual prototyping

Virtual prototyping technology is a powerful tool when exact design solution is needed, corresponding to various and sometimes controversial requirements. It is used widely for design improvement/optimisation (topology, shape, parametric), based on engineering analysis through numerical techniques (as Finite Element Method) that enables prompt and accurate solutions. Design development approach based on this technology becomes standard for many industries, including railway transport. Presented study is based on an industrial project for design development of elastic rail clip. It is entirely based on virtual prototyping to obtain adequate design solution. Design is required to achieve certain clip rigidity, at certain level of safety (mechanical stress), for certain design space. This is a typical task for design optimisation techniques and performed simulations include 3 design concepts, 11 design variants and more than 2400 parametric configurations to obtain 4 allowable design solutions. The study is a good presentation of virtual prototyping application for industrial purposes.

Heavy-duty transmission gear shift investigation by virtual prototypes

This paper deals with application of virtual prototype to the heavy-duty vehicles gearbox concept. Used methodology was developed and validated on the single stage gearbox concept. Afterwards the virtual prototype was applied to complex gearbox and extended for gear shift. Gear shift has a significant influence on comfort of vehicle and also for its lifetime. The gear shift process has to be fast and smooth as much as possible, which is very difficult. This paper deals with using virtual prototype to see the effect of different gear shift process on the vibration of gearbox. The validation by the experimental approach of gearshift has not been performed yet.

The Simulation Analysis of Virtual Prototype of Hydraulic Shovel

The application of dynamic simulation software ADAMS virtual prototype was carried out on the powerful triangle structure of excavator analysis methods, including environmental Settings; add parts import, motion pair, driving Settings, the simulation calculation and image processing, etc. Application by ADAMS virtual prototype technology to "strong triangle" structure modeling and analysis, the performance of the excavator movement process and intuitive parameters change, for the realization of the excavator laid the foundation of virtual design and dynamic.

Development of a CAD Based Platform for Scorbot-ER Vu Industrial Robot Manipulator

Robots are required to operate at different environmental conditions facing varieties of end-effector to workspace interactions. During design stage, designer needs to verify the robots performance on various test conditions. Physical prototyping although is more desirable, may prove to be expensive and time consuming. Virtual prototyping can be used especially in the conceptual design stage in order to reduce the amount of physical testing that is required. Virtual prototyping of robots dynamic is one of the interesting fields where in the present day tools are used to simulate mechanical systems as a multi-body system with two or more rigid bodies imperfectly joined together having the possibility of relative moment between them. This paper discusses the application of Virtual Prototyping using CAD based software for SCORBOT-ER Vu robot. It is a 5-DOF of vertical articulated robot and all the joints are revolute. Initially, robot manipulator parametric solid models was created in Pro/ENGINEER (Pro/E), Pro/Mechanica was used to simulate the dynamic simulation and working space. Finally the program was tested in the real world, using the real robot.

The Application of Rigid-Flex Coupled Dynamics Simulation in Coal Mining Machine Research and Development

The poor working condition and complex workload of coal mining machine lead to a big risk and a high cost for the test based on physical prototype, while the application of virtual prototype for simulation can acquire a comprehensive assessment of the reliability of product at the design stage. Parameters of working condition were obtained through the coal mine physical and mechanical property testing, and according to the coal-breaking mechanism and numerical analysis theory, the workload calculation and application methods of static and dynamic coal mining machines were analyzed with the examples of plow and shearer. In addition, the load calculation program was written in MATLAB. Based on interface technology, the rigid-flex coupled virtual prototype was established by the adoption of ADAMS, Pro/E and ANSYS, and then the problems in design were found through interference examination and dynamic analysis. The process above provided the basis for optimizing design.

Grey-box modeling of a motorcycle shock absorber for virtual prototyping applications

There is an increasing use of virtual prototyping tools in the motorcycle industry, aimed at reducing the development time of new models and speeding up performance optimization, by providing the designer with an in-laboratory virtual test track. Virtual prototyping software are multibody simulation software, which require the availability of models of all the vehicle components. The choice of the model is then of paramount importance, since it heavily affects the accuracy and reliability of the simulation results. Conventional models (like linear models) are often inadequate to describe the behavior of complex nonlinear components, so that it is necessary to appeal to different modeling approaches. This is actually the case when dealing with motorcycle suspension systems, given that their most critical part, the shock absorber, exhibits nonlinear and time-variant behavior. In this paper, a grey-box model of a racing motorcycle mono-tube shock absorber is proposed, which consists of a nonlinear parametric model and a black-box, neural-network-based model. The absorber model has been implemented in a numerical simulation environment, and validated against experimental test data. The results of the validation show that the model is able to reproduce the real behavior of the shock absorber with an accuracy that matches or even beats that of other models previously presented in the literature. The interfacing of the proposed model to the ADAMS virtual prototyping environment is also discussed.

A virtual motorcycle driver for closed-loop simulation

The development of a motorcycle driver for virtual prototyping applications is discussed. The driver is delivered with a commercial multibody code as a tool for performing closed-loop maneuvers with virtual motorcycle models. The closed-loop controller is developed with a qualitative analysis of how a human rider controls a motorcycle. The analysis concerns handling and maneuverability, which are relevant for real and virtual vehicle performance evaluation. A motorcycle model for control design and a controller structure are developed. The model is based on a mathematical representation of common-sense rules of motorcycle riding. The virtual rider is then tested in various operating conditions to assess whether the control requirements are achieved. Criteria for evaluating driver models are briefly discussed

A network architecture supporting consistent rich behavior in collaborative interactive applications

Network architectures for collaborative virtual reality have traditionally been dominated by client-server and peer-to-peer approaches, with peer-to-peer strategies typically being favored where minimizing latency is a priority, and client-server where consistency is key. With increasingly sophisticated behavior models and the demand for better support for haptics, we argue that neither approach provides sufficient support for these scenarios and, thus, a hybrid architecture is required. We discuss the relative performance of different distribution strategies in the face of real network conditions and illustrate the problems they face. Finally, we present an architecture that successfully meets many of these challenges and demonstrate its use in a distributed virtual prototyping application which supports simultaneous collaboration for assembly, maintenance, and training applications utilizing haptics.

Emerging technologies in ANC at VAL-Virginia Tech

This presentation will overview the development and application of three new active noise control technologies at VAL-Virginia Tech. Distributed Active Vibration Absorbers (DAVAs) consist of large area spring elements with embedded active elements and covered with a dynamic mass layer. Development of conformal DAVAs and their application to noise control in aircraft and launch vehicle fairings will be overviewed. New work in applying active control techniques to developing virtual acoustic systems and its application to virtual prototyping and virtual reality applications will be discussed. The development a modular, compact active noise control duct which utilizes very small active sources, transducers and a cost effective controller to reducing the total radiated sound from small fans will be presented. The application of the modular ANC duct to a small computer cooling fan will be presented.

Choosing good distance metrics and local planners for probabilistic roadmap methods

This paper presents a comparative evaluation of different distance metrics and local planners within the context of probabilistic roadmap methods for planning the motion of rigid objects in three-dimensional workspaces. The study concentrates on cluttered three-dimensional workspaces typical of, for example, virtual prototyping applications such as maintainability studies in mechanical CAD designs. Our results include recommendations for selecting appropriate combinations of distance metrics and local planners for such applications. Our study of distance metrics shows that the importance of the translational distance increases relative to the rotational distance as the environment becomes more crowded. We find that each local planner makes some connections that none of the others does-indicating that better connected roadmaps will be constructed using multiple local planners. We propose a new local planning method we call rotate-at-s that often outperforms the common straight-line in C-space method in crowded environments.

WebShaman

We present WebShaman, a virtual prototyping application which shows how the work of electronics and telecommunications product designers can be supported using the World Wide Web. We describe a concept design session where two or more electronics product designers and their customers work on a design object such as a future mobile telephone. WebShaman demonstrates the computer support of synchronous product concept design over the WWW. The system represents the design object as a three-dimensional virtual prototype, which can be shown and manipulated in an information space accessible to all participants. Distributed simulation of the device can be used to mediate the designers' understanding of the prototype's functionality. To facilitate this, we use a technique called "smart virtual prototyping". It allows the users to add functionality and simulation to virtual prototypes and to use them in a collaborative fashion. We will first present the background of our work and then the application architecture and its use.

The application of virtual prototyping in the development of complex aerospace products

Highlights that the application of virtual prototyping to the development of complex aerospace products has brought about a revolution in the way that such products are introduced into production. Deals with implications of the introduction of virtual prototyping to a highly competitive high‐technology global industry. Points out that the benefits of this engineering innovation are not limited to the aerospace sector, however, and the lessons learned can be equally applied in other design and manufacturing activities. Describes the development and application of a comprehensive virtual prototyping initiative applied to the mechanical design and manufacture domain at British Aerospace Defence Dynamics, and the extent to which it has affected working practice. Introduces aspects of the existing research collaboration programme, and identifies potential areas for future research.