Time to Design and Innovate!
Product Designing has been at the core of the companies and startups ever since the term came into existence. Over the years, product designers have been working on the physical prototypes of the product and making changes in the design process during test trials. But suggesting modifications during test time and subsequently making changes was a very cumbersome and costly process for them until engineering simulation entered into the scene. Today, companies use a range of simulation software tools to carry out the process of product designing efficiently before conducting test trials. Several digital models of the product are now put into virtual prototyping environments for designing and testing. Product designing subjects such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics have never been a part of the college syllabus, triggering a sense of discomfort among concerned people. But now, product designers don’t need to worry about Newton’s equations or Bernoulli’s principle, all thanks to engineering simulation! They just need to focus on how several factors affect their design geometry to get it in the right ballpark. Let’s get familiar ourselves with engineering simulation more and how different industries are employing it for product designing.
Product Design Simulation, what is it?
Have you heard of Computer-Aided Designs (CAD)? If yes, then you can consider engineering simulation as a generic term for CAD. Design Simulation is also defined as a process of verifying and validating the intended functions of a product under development as well as assisting in its manufacturing.
Design Simulation models are a set of mathematical equations that represent a product’s behaviour in the physical domain of interest. A number of product analysis steps can be performed using design simulation software in terms of acoustics, thermal dynamics, structural behaviour, fuel economy, crash-worthiness, etc.
How to guide product designing using engineering simulation?
#1 Virtual Testing and Validation
You can perform a wide range of analyses using design simulation to test your product under different operational and environmental conditions. Everything is getting smart so why not you? Engineering Simulation helps in the targeted implementation of design alternatives during the development process itself.
#2 Product Manufacturing
Virtual manufacturing is trending nowadays. Manufacturing industries use simulation software for several tasks such as stamping, forming, and machining. Traditional stress manufacturing has taken a back seat today because engineering simulation has emerged as a commercially successful tool to determine a design’s manufacturability.
Engineering Simulation Assisting Product Designers
Engineers are now turning their heads towards simulation early in the product design cycle and concept development. Product design finalizing takes multiple iterations and simulation software tools have proved very effective in carrying out these iterations just in a snap of fingers. With the integration of CAD and product analysis, product designers can now test ideas, adjust designs, verify track, minimize flaws, and explore design variants quickly.
Industrial benefits of Design Simulation:
- Evaluating the functional performance of a product easily.
- Balancing different functional aspects at the development stage.
- Reducing cost and increasing design efficiency.
- Providing manufacturability insights.
- Leveraging attribute-specific models for product refinement.
- Scrutinizing designs (otherwise hard to perform on physical prototypes).
Who is using Design Simulation Tools?
A curated list of industries employing engineering simulation for product designing:
- Automotive
- Aerospace
- Marine Engineering
- Construction
- Medical Prosthetics
- Animation
- Advertising
In a Nutshell
Design Simulation is an emerging field with an array of possibilities and opportunities. Gone are the days when companies had to work on a product’s physical prototypes to see how their product would perform in the real market. Now, this process has been simplified using simulation software tools with a significant reduction in time and cost both. That’s it for now. We will see you again with more such stuff. Stay tuned!
Tech Stack
VLSI, MATLAB, C++, SimPy, C#, Elixir, Smalltalk.
