The use of an Oasys PRIMER model management database during accelerated vehicle development programs such as the 2005 Ford GT

The role of CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) in the automotive vehicle development process continues to grow in importance. CAE has been one of the key enablers in the recent reduction of vehicle development times, as it allows less reliance on time-consuming and costly prototype testing. Impact CAE has been at the forefront of this CAE revolution. Various additional factors continue to place increased demands on the impact CAE team: The increased number of loadcases required to be analyzed (side o impact alone can require analysis of FMVSS214, SINCAP, IIHS, ECER95 barrier, FMVSS201 pole and EuroNCAP pole impacts, as well as additional OEM-specific loadcases) The increased use of a single underbody for multiple vehicles (e.g. a o sedan and a wagon) The need to analyze different vehicle options (e.g. different powertrains o for front impact; an optional sunroof for side impact) The increased detail in today’s models (in terms of the number of o components modeled as well as the number of elements in the model) Analysis is increasingly expected to be the active driver of the vehicle o design process, not just a passive predictor of performance These factors have combined to place increased pressure on CAE engineers to achieve rapid creation of multiple loadcases for multiple vehicle options. This paper describes a process for management of impact CAE models during vehicle development programs. It is based around the Oasys PRIMER model management software. Arup used this process during the development of the 2005 Ford GT (see Figure 1). Arup performed all the structural CAE for the Ford GT, working for Mayflower Vehicle Systems and Ford Motor Company. The design and analysis of this vehicle has been described elsewhere (Reference 1) and is not repeated here. In this paper, the discussion is limited to the use of Oasys PRIMER Databases and Templates.