Assembly of full-vehicle digital crash models using ANSA techniques

The level of complexity of the full-vehicle digital crash models varies between car manufacturers. Undoubtedly, however, it is very high and the trend is to become higher and higher, due to the fact that the development teams want their models to include even more details. During all these years a standard technique, that has become of common use, is the fragmentation of the full-vehicle model into *INCLUDE files. Each one contains a distinct physical subassembly of the vehicle, which we shall subsequently name module. This technique offers various advantages, but definitely sets a challenging task. That of connecting the modules to each other and assembling them into a full-vehicle model. Using the embedded capabilities of ANSA we have created processes and tools that enable : i) fast and robust intermodular connections represented by various element types, ii) efficient and reliable integrity check of these connections, iii) the assembly of multi-variant modules, iv) inspection of the connection areas in a lightweight view, v) an error-free update of modules’ versions, vi) the overview of the modules participating in the full-vehicle models with aid of graphs, vii) the reusability of already existing models, as the basis for the creation of new ones.