Simulation in the Automotive Industry

Already 90 % of all innovations in vehicles involve electronic systems – with a growing tendency. What do your development engineers contribute to ensure proper functionality of your products? What is your development approach? How can you further improve quality and the development process? How do you counter hazards and risks? The ISO standard 26262 does not suffice today’s methods in product and quality management. We have the necessary experience from many different projects and know our way around finding the right solution for you. 

How can I quickly simulate thermal loads in electric and hybrid vehicles without having to perform tedious and time-consuming series of measurements? Batteries in electrified vehicles heat up when they are charged quickly or when their power output is high, which can damage them. This places new demands on cooling and heating concepts in the field of e-mobility. With the help of SimulationX, the suitability of a thermal management concept can be tested in just a few minutes and a thermal management system for the entire vehicle can be simulated, including the battery, the power electronics and the electric motor. This allows the number of different cooling circuits to be reduced, weight and costs to be saved and additional space in the vehicle to be gained.

What is the optimum capacity and performance of my battery in terms of costs, installation space, range and service life? The highly dynamic power flow of the electric drive and recuperation place high demands on the energy supply. Cooling the battery (or heating at low temperatures) also has a major influence on its performance and service life. With the help of the SimulationX Vehicle Drives (Energy and Controls) libraries, Electric Energy Storage and our Thermodynamics libraries, you will get meaningful answers to these questions.

Since in electric vehicles - apart from hybrid models - the combustion engine as a main source of excitation for vibrations and noises is omitted, disturbing noises in other parts of the drive train (e.g. in the transmission) become more noticeable. Vibrations in the powertrain cause undesired noises in the interior of the vehicle and its surroundings due to excitation, e.g. of the transmission housing, the chassis or the bodywork. In combination with specialized simulation solutions from ESI (including FE [Finite Element] and BE [Boundary Element] methods), SimulationX is an important link in a continuous simulation chain from excitation to sound radiation.