Automated Bolt Connection Generation for
CAE Model Assembly
Berk Yavuz Özberk,
GETRAG FORD Transmissions GmbH
2013 European Altair Technology Conference, Turin, Italy
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 2
Agenda
• Company Profile
• Problem Definition
• Why Automation of Bolt Creation?
• Workflow
• Demonstration of Create Bolt Script
• Summary
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 3
GETRAG worldwide
(12/2
012)
24 locations worldwide in Europe, North America and Asia
14 individual companies
Largest independent supplier of passenger car transmissions worldwide
13.000 employees worldwide
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 4
GETRAG in figures
Some of our Customers
Turnover (in mill. €):
Volumes (in '000 items):
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 5
Problem Definition
Example
Transmission: Powershift MPS6
Parts: Clutch Case, Gear Box, Roll
Restrictor, Engine Mount, Bearing
Plates, Differential
Number of Bolts Required for Static
Analysis: 45
Time Required (without error
checking): 45 x 5 = 225 minutes
Time Required to make one model
run: 450 minutes
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 6
Why Automation of Bolt Creation ?
Save Time
- Model Assembly time is significatly shorter. No need to create pre-tension
surfaces, nodes, boundary conditions and contact surfaces manually
Error Free
- No assembling failures because of human error
Reusability
- - If you have the bolt coordinates of the initial design, you can use them for
later design stages or remeshing and assembling of a transmission
component
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 7
Workflow
Create Bolt GUI
Generates Hypermesh
command file(cmf) for the
selected bolt type
Hypermesh User Button
„Load Bolt“
Loads the generated
command file and sets
STEP Definitions
Hypermesh User Button
„Create Bolt“ Creates the bolt with Pretension surface,
Tied Contact at Thread and
Surface to Surface Contact at Bolt Head
CAE Model
Bolts have already been created
for this Transmission Part ?
no yes
Do it for all bolts
Hypermesh User Button
„Bolts from Coordinates“
Creates all bolts using the
coordinates from previous
bolt generation
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 8
Create Bolt Script GUI
Pre-Tension Force After Selecting the Bolt Type, the
values are generated from Bolt
Database Transmission
Orientation
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 9
Example
Clutch Case and Gearbox
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 10
Demonstration of Bolt Creation
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 11
Bolt Contact Definition
The corresponding Pre-Tension definition and
Contact Surfaces are automatically created
Head Contact
Pre-Tension
Thread Contact
(tied)
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 12
Create Bolt Automatically using Previous
Coordinates
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 13
Input Data for Creating Bolts Automatically
1st to 6th Columns are used for the node coordinates at the bolt head
7th Column – Component Names
8th Column – Coordinate of Node at the thread surface
Hypermesh built-in functions are used to find the corresponding
nodes and elements.
(getclosestnode, *createmark elems 1 "by node“)
© GETRAG FORD Transmissions, March 27th, 2013 M.Sc. Berk Yavuz Özberk 14
Summary
Create Bolt Script saves time in modelling and assembling. One can
save up to 8 hours for single application and design stage.
GETRAG has currently ongoing 10 New Transmission Projects with
many different applications and design stages.
Reduce potential modeling errors
Built-in Hypermesh functions make development easier (like rotation,
transformation, getclosestnode ...)
Power of command.cmf
- Every task in Hypermesh is written into this file
- Do changes in GUI and get the corresponding TCL code
- Use this TCL Code for script development
Thank you for your attention !
15
ManualShift
PowerShift
HybridDrive ExtendedDrive