Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization

Success Stories

As a world market leader for gas springs and hydraulic vibration dampers, Stabilus GmbH is currently developing gas springs with an electromagnetically operated valve for automotive applications. Such a valve actuator is a complex mechatronic system. During system design the several subsystems are modeled separately first and coupled to each other in the next step. This makes complexity and the numerous interactions between the subsystems manageable. Steady state magnetic fields and force-stroke-current characteristics are determined by the finite element software FEMM. The dynamic behavior is modeled in SimulationX. Furthermore, the finite element program COMSOL Multiphysics calculates the transient temperature distribution. This approach is suitable for an in-depth design of the subsystems and their interactions. The multidisciplinary analysis and optimization tool OptiY is used to integrate and automate the several simulation steps. Thus the fundamentals for an automated system design are accomplished. Defining system parameters, given boundary conditions and objective functions in terms of constraints and criteria, the characteristics of the actuator are improved systematically using numerical optimization regarding magnetic forces, power losses and and dynamic behavior. PDF