How TOSCA Optimization Software Can Improve Your Product Development Process

Previously, we discussed the importance of selecting the right VAR for providing you with SIMULIA brand products, such as Abaqus, in order to develop products faster and at lower cost. If you are interested in further reducing costs, getting products to market faster, and potentially lowering your warranty liability, consider using Dassault Systemes’ topology optimization software, TOSCA.

Product development the “old-fashioned way” is done through a process of building, testing, evaluating and redesigning, and then repeating those 4 steps over and over – until the product looks and performs adequately. This method can be very time consuming and expensive, which is why simulation software such as Abaqus was developed. Engineers using Abaqus are able to simulate performance virtually, and do not have to build and test as many prototypes, saving time and money.

Topology optimization software further accelerates the product development cycle by producing an optimized design the first time, based on the given design space, objectives and constraints. Tosca begins with the maximum allowable design space, runs a FEA simulation for stress or fatigue to determine the weak points of a design, then “removes” extraneous material. Next, TOSCA repeats this process until the objectives (for example, 50% reduction of volume) and constraints (for example, manufacturing constraint for castings) have been met. The resulting geometry is a design proposal for an optimized design.

TOSCA optimization software reduces development time and costs more so than traditional CAE software alone by automating and accelerating the design-simulate-evaluate loop. Engineers utilizing it then must build only one or even no prototypes, automatically shortening the product design process and eliminating significant costs.

As a designed driver of Abaqus, Tosca has a number of advantages. Tosca is an open system and seamlessly integrates with leading FEA solvers and exports design results to CAD systems with Splines or STL data. Its engineering benefits include:

• Increasing a design’s durability
• Increasing its natural frequencies
• Reducing material and weight/minimizing mass
• Reducing stress concentration

SIMULIA’s TOSCA product offers both structural and fluid engineering capabilities. TOSCA Structural accomplishes linear and nonlinear structural optimization for stress, durability, NVH, as well as for topology, shape, bead, sizing, and morphing.

Specifically, some of the benefits of TOSCA Structural include:

• • Bead optimization for increased stiffness and reduced vibration noise: adding ribs or extending sheet metal to improve the static and dynamic properties of sheet metal shell structures.
  • Shape optimization for homogenized stress by automatic modification of the surface geometry.
  • Sizing optimization of complex shell element structures for stiffness or dynamics.

TOSCA Fluid optimizes for reduced pressure drop and improved flow uniformity, in order to improve flow efficiency. A single CFD solver run is sufficient for optimization in TOSCA Fluid.

If you would like to learn more about how TOSCA or other Simulia-brand products can help your business lower its costs and get products to market faster, please contact CATI.