The presentations presented by SACMI Imola at 32st International CAE Conference that was held at Parma in October on 17th and 18th can be download in the Presentations and Proceedings 2016.

A CAD-MESH mixed approach to enhance shape optimization capabilities

In this presentation a different approach to mix the goods of both the techniques and overtake their limitations is proposed together with its application. The proposed methodology is based on the main idea that the optimization is a mesh-based optimization driven by a parametric geometry. ModeFrontier potentialities are exploited to manage the optimization loop while RBF Morph is used to perform mesh morphing. Thanks to the proposed methodology different shapes can be obtained and analyzed according to internal procedures in order to speed up the design selection process.

Structural optimization of heavy section ductile iron components. How the integration and optimization of casting process can improve their design.

In this work  three different design scenarios based on three different optimization workflows applied to a ductile iron casting are analysed and compared. In the first scenario we performed a structural optimization without considering local mechanical properties. In the second one the local mechanical properties are introduced in the optimization loop and used to calculate the component reliability. The local mechanical properties are estimated using casting simulation and the component is optimized by taking them into account. In the third scenario the structural and process optimization are fully coupled: the casting process is optimized in the “virtual foundry” to reach and improve the structural target. The more integrated approach does not only reduce the total cost and increase the quality level of the component, but, implementing casting optimization, the manufacturing process cost are reduced as well since it’s focused on the designer’s needs.