01/25/2011

DELMIA and CATIA Used to Produce Winning Vehicle

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – January 25, 2010 – Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that collaborative design with Dassault Systèmes solutions contributed to the Global Formula Racing team from Oregon State University and its partner, Duale Hochschule Baden Württenberg-Ravensburg in Germany, experiencing its most successful Formula SAE season, winning 25 first place event finishes and three first place overall finishes out of six competitions. DELMIA digital manufacturing tools were used to create ergonomic simulations that verified cockpit fit and controls reachability. Student teams from both universities designed everything in CATIA based upon one large CAD model from a single database that the entire team could access.

“A lot of universities have done distributed design, but nothing has been done at the complexity of a FormulaSAE/Formula Student (FSAE/FS) vehicle,” said Robert Paasch, OSU Boeing Professor of Mechanical Engineering Design. “We attribute much of our achievements to DELMIA and CATIA with anticipation of the 2010-11 season producing an even more successful vehicle.”

The students used DELMIA to run assembly simulations to ensure that their final body design would not interfere in the ability to service the engine. Design, manufacturing and testing occurred at both schools with the final design used to manufacture two identical cars – one at the OSU campus and one in Friedrichshafen Germany.

Playing an exceptionally critical role in the carbon fiber monocoque chassis design was the surfacing and finite element analysis capability of the CATIA Composites workbench. With the ability to predict structural properties, the student team was able to optimize the stiffness, strength and aerodynamics of its vehicle body. Complex surfaces and layups were created by varying thicknesses of the core material, designing different orientation of the layers as well using different core materials at different structural points of the vehicle body.  

The two universities began their original collaboration in 2007 with the 2009-10 season being the first time ever that a global student team has jointly shared their physical and intellectual resources for the development of a common FSAE/FS vehicle. The team, which consisted of 25 students from Oregon State and 40 students from Duale Hochschule, was split into design groups with responsibility for a particular area of the vehicle, such as the suspension or chassis. All design groups consisted of students collaborating from both universities with CATIA serving as the common language.

“This is the largest, most complex university level project in the world,” said Roy Smolky, worldwide academic sales operations, Dassault Systèmes. “It is exciting to be part of it and see how the application of our tool set gains a competitive advantage for this team.”

For this project, much of the communication was accomplished via email, live chat, Skype and Google docs.  Added Professor Paasch, “Our hope is that by the 2011-12 season we will be working in the DS V6 platform, providing the ability to share all data via the web in real time, taking our collaborative efforts to the next level.”

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About Formula SAE

Formula SAE® is a student design competition organized by SAE International (formerly Society of Automotive Engineers based upon the concept that a manufacturing company has contracted a design team to develop a small Formula-style race car. The prototype race car is to be evaluated for its potential as a production item. The target marketing group for the race car is the non-professional weekend autocross racer. Each student team designs, builds and tests a prototype based on a series of rules whose purpose is both to ensure onsite event operations and promote clever problem solving. Formula SAE takes students out of the classroom and allows them to apply textbook theories to real work experiences. http://students.sae.org/competitions/formulaseries/

About Oregon State University

OSU is one of only two U.S. universities designated a land-, sea-, space- and sun-grant institution. OSU is also Oregon’s only university designated in the Carnegie Foundation’s top tier for research institutions, garnering more than 60 percent of the total federal and private research funding in the Oregon University System. Its nearly 24,000 students come from all 50 states and more than 90 countries. OSU programs touch every county within Oregon, and its faculty teach and conduct research on issues of national and global importance. Learn more at http://oregonstate.edu/.

About OSU College of Engineering

The OSU College of Engineering is among the nation¹s largest and most productive engineering programs, with nearly 4,000 graduate and undergraduate students and annual research contracts and grants totaling almost $37 million in the most recent fiscal year. The college emphasizes highly collaborative research that solves global problems, spins out new companies and produces opportunity for students through hands-on learning. Learn more at http://engr.oregonstate.edu/.

About Duale Hochschule Baden Württenberg-Ravensburg

The Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg) has more than 25,000 students and is the first university in Germany to integrate academic studies and work experience. The key feature of dual, practice-oriented degree programs is alternating three-month phases, with students learning theory at the university and receiving practical training from an enterprise or social institution. The students have an employment contract, and throughout the entire period, they receive a monthly salary and have the insurance status of employees. The Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University - Ravensburg (DHBW-RV) has about 2,700 students and offers a broad spectrum of bachelor degree programs in the fields of business and engineering. All the degree programs are worth 210 ECTS credits and count as intensive programs. Learn more at www.dhbw-ravensburg.de

About Dassault Systèmes

As a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systèmes brings value to more than 115,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes applications provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling. The Dassault Systèmes portfolio consists of CATIA for designing the virtual product - SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design - DELMIA for virtual production - SIMULIA for virtual testing - ENOVIA for global collaborative lifecycle management, and 3DVIA for online 3D lifelike experiences.  For more information, visit http://www.3ds.com.

CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA, SIMULIA, SolidWorks and 3D VIA are registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.