In the extremely competitive and fast-moving world of high-tech devices, consumer demands can seem contradictory. Devices need to be strong enough to withstand the rigors of everyday life, but at the same time, customers also want devices that are lightweight, stylish, affordable and high performance.
These sometimes conflicting requirements necessitate trade-offs, careful balancing and innovative approaches to optimize all the different factors. Structural simulation helps accelerate the design of stronger, more resilient devices. Engineers can perform virtual testing without a physical prototype: drop tests, stress tests, bending tests and water immersion tests can all be replicated in SIMULIA’s simulation tools.
Simulation cuts development time and cost, and allows device designs to be evaluated much earlier in the design process, reducing the risk of problems being discovered late in development or emerging only after the device has entered the market. The innovative designs, faster development cycles, and reputation for quality that simulation promotes, help manufacturers stand out in a crowded market. Simulation can also reduce in-service device failures resulting in lower warranty costs and protection of brand reputation, while helping meet sustainability and “right to repair” targets.
SIMULIA’s high tech simulation solutions enable fast-paced virtual testing before hardware prototyping. Rapid what-if and design of experiments (DoE) simulations allow innovation in shorter time-scales and ultimately lead to a more resilient device with higher consumer ratings.
With the Device Structural Performance industry process, users will be able to:
- Ensure the device meets or exceeds functional specifications under a variety of adverse events and manufacturing variability with best-in-class non-linear structural simulation
- Efficiently explore design space to identify trade-offs and optimal designs. Ensure device meets and exceeds functional and regulatory standards
- Collaborate efficiently with designers and engineers with a model-based approach. Leverage an integrated design and simulation environment for efficient management of product variants and relationships to simulation models and results
- Enable accurate and rapid design iterations through fast scalable solvers with automated meshing and general contact algorithms, reducing device validation time from months to days
Device Structural Performance Workflows
Drop Test
Accidental drops are a fact of life. Consumers expect that their devices will survive minor drops without significant damage such as cracked screens or deformation of the casing. The Drop Test workflow helps improve reliability, reducing or eliminating the need for physical prototypes.
- Best in class explicit time domain solver for drop
- Advanced material models to accurately predict fracture, delamination and failure
- Ability to evaluate accumulated damage over multiple drops
- Explore over 10,000 design variations in time taken for 1 physical test
Device Strength and Stiffness
Device companies today spend a lot of time testing, using physical prototypes when looking for design alternatives to meet target properties such as size, thickness, weight and materials.
Early use of simulation can help:
- Assess the maximum bending force a device can withstand before permanent deformation or internal damage
- Achieve the desired strength and stiffness characteristics
- Reduce weight of the product and fit components with available envelope
- Identify and eliminate late stage design issues and re-work without the need of physical prototypes, thus saving cost and time
Water Immersion
Water resistance is a measure of how much water pressure a device can withstand before its seals leak. This is important for many kinds of devices, but particularly for smartwatches and other fitness trackers that can be worn while swimming and need to be able to withstand being submerged under many meters of water.
The Water Immersion workflow can:
- Virtually validate designs for water resistance / sealing integrity
- Reduce or eliminate physical prototypes, improve quality
- Achieve IP6x certification without the need for expensive, time consuming physical prototype testing
Component Manufacturability
Assembly stresses can cause early failures and weaken a device if they are not accounted for in subsequent simulation workflows. In a simulation, the inputs are the 3D geometries of the device’s various parts, as well as the stresses from component manufacturing and the loads of the bolts, clamps and adhesives that hold the components together. The outputs include the deformation contour, Von Mises stress contour and plastic strain contour. If the stresses exceed the prescribed limits, the problem can easily and quickly be assessed and remedied. Attaching and mounting components inside a case introduces assembly stresses into the system.
