NEWS BRIEFS
San Diego, CALIF. — NEC, ESI Group and Nihon ESI announced that the two companies have agreed to cooperate in developing the virtual engine factory system. This system will simulate the entire process of automotive engine constituting from designing, manufacturing, including the motion of the engine. We will develop this system especially for the super computer SX-5 on the basis of the CAE technology developed by ESI Group.
The virtual engine factory system, which will be developed by NEC and ESI Group, will shorten the time for manufacturing and designing engines largely by carrying out the simulation on the supercomputer, instead of real experiments and prototyping. As this system will also allow us to obtain the knowledge about the state of the inner parts of the engine in motion precisely, we will be able to expect to lighten the weight of the engine, improve the performance, and strengthen the durability.
The co-operation involves:
1. Developing the simulation system for the super computer SX – 5, which will simulate the process of the engine manufacturing and designing. This system includes the casting analysis for the engine parts such as the cylinder block, the combustion analysis inside the engine chamber, the dynamic stress analysis of the parts of the engine in motion, the fatigue durability analysis, and the lifetime analysis.
2. Developing the pre and post processor (GUI) for the above mentioned system.
3. The total system will enable to analyze the state of the engine in motion, the mechanical loading, the lifetime and so on. The joint project for the purpose of the validation of this system will be conducted with an automotive company in Japan. After this validation stage, this system will be released within one year from now on.
ESI Group is a pioneer and top leader in the field of the crash simulation software in the world. ESI’s product for the crash simulation has revolutionized the industry and now their share in this field is about 80 percent of Japan domestic automotive industries. NEC has achieved, in introducing high performance computation technology especially in the automotive field, large number of SX – 4, SX – 5 install bases in the world. By co-operating these technical advantages of two companies, the virtual engine factory system will be developed in advance and both of two companies aim at expanding the market together for this field.
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