ANSYS, Inc. in the Automotive Industry ANSYS Rigid Body Dynamics

Mechanical systems often contain complex assemblies of interconnected parts undergoing large overall motion. Examples can be found in a wide range of applications including suspension assembles in ground vehicles, robotic manipulators in manufacturing processes and landing gear systems in aircraft. Simulating the motion of these systems by assuming fully flexible parts and then deploying traditional finite elements methods for the solution is computationally expensive, often making design exploration and optimization impractical. For a faster, more efficient solution to this class of problems, ANSYS provides an add-on module for rigid multibody dynamics analysis. With a minimal investment in model setup and computational resources, ANSYS Rigid Dynamics leads to a deep understanding of the motion and stability of mechanical systems earlier in the development cycle, when informed engineering decisions are critical. Then, if more fidelity is required as detailed designs emerge, an ANSYS Rigid Dynamics model can easily be converted to a partially or fully flexible representation, one that is capable of capturing large deformations and material nonlinearities.