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.
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