Advanced Optimization Tools that Make Innovation Possible

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What kind of car will we be driving in 10 years? Autonomous? Electric? Fuel cell powered? Levitating?

Who knows but innovation will certainly change our ride. That’s where SOLIDWORKS comes in. SOLIDWORKS optimization tools drive continuous improvement, allowing us to find solutions that make products stronger, lighter, faster, cheaper.

So what can you optimize with SOLIDWORKS tools? The answer is amazing: Mass, Volume, Center of Mass, Dimensions, Material, Surface Area, Force, Temperature, Frequencies, Pressure, Velocity, Acceleration, Pressure Drop, Flow Rate, Cost, Stress, Strain, Factor of Safety, and more!

As an example, let’s say we are designing a wind turbine and we want to minimize the mass to save cost while adhering to safety design requirements. We want to determine the optimum combination of tower height and length of blade subject to design standards where the tower can withstand sustained winds of 80 miles and a safety factor of 2X. SOLIDWORKS can accomplish all of this.

First, we set up a fluid analysis using SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation to apply the 80 miles per hour wind load.  Then we import the pressure calculations from Flow Simulation into SOLIDWORKS Simulation to solve for factor of safety and blade deformation. Then, using Parametric Optimization, SOLIDWORKS cycles through an unlimited number of scenarios to solve for the optimum combination of tower height and blade length given the constraints. With this capability, designers perform in minutes what otherwise took days.

And best of all, Parametric Optimization is included in all licenses of SOLIDWORKS, Flow Simulation and some licenses of Simulation. To see how we set up the wind turbine example or to find out about more Optimization techniques, we invite you to watch this short video:

 

Mai Doan

Mai DOAN is a Product Portfolio Manager for SOLIDWORKS Simulation. She has 20 years of experience in Simulation and Design. Prior to joining SOLIDWORKS in 2014 as a Territory Technical Manager, Mai worked as a Senior Application Engineer for ANSYS with expertise in Finite Element Analysis for more than 8 years. Before that, she developed her real world experience by designing mobile devices with an emphasis on Simulation for High Tech companies such as Siemens and Novatel Wireless. She holds Bachelor and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering, and speaks English, French & Vietnamese fluently.