A schematic diagram of crazes. (Graphic: Business Wire)
Automotive engineers can use AEC’s downloadable apps to predict crash and impact behavior of polymer materials.
NEW YORK, TOKYO, and DÜSSELDORF— A cloud-based computer aided engineering (CAE) platform recently introduced by technical polymers manufacturer Asahi Kasei Engineering Corp. (AEC) offers “highly precise apps to predict crash and impact behavior of polymers,” according to a release from AEC, a subsidiary of Asahi Kasei.
As polymer materials are increasingly used in automobiles and other products, the precise simulation of material behavior can help enhance product designs. It can also significantly reduce the costs and time required for material and application development. Various industries have also increasingly used cloud-based high-performance computing (HPC) in recent years.
A conceptual diagram of the mapping tool for i-LUPE. (Graphic: Business Wire)
As a result, the on-demand use of computer aided engineering (CAE) software, installed in cloud HPC as software-as-a-service, is becoming more common in the material development process, according to the release.
Asahi Kasei said in the release that it has “provided comprehensive, high precision support for its customers’ product design and development through CAE technical service focused on engineering plastics.” Asahi Kasei Engineering Corp. is leveraging this expertise to further extend its CAE-related service by launching the cloud-based CAE Solution Platform, offering various apps that can be easily downloaded and used by customers worldwide.
According to AEC, the apps offered on the platform include the downloadable, polymer material fracture prediction model i-LUPE, which the company described as “highly accurate.”
Microscopically, amorphous polymer materials have a structure in which molecular chains are intricately entangled. When an impact or other force is applied to this material, causing significant deformation, the molecular chains are stretched. This results in the formation of voids and fibrils (bundles of molecular chains). When these so-called crazes grow, the polymer material fractures, the release said.
By focusing on crazes, i-LUPE is said to accurately predict and reproduce possible fractures in the polymer.
As a supporting app to i-LUPE, the CAE solution platform offers an on-demand mapping tool specifically focused on anisotropic materials, such as fiber-reinforced resins. The tool converts fiber orientation data into i-LUPE material property lists, which are used as reference for selecting the optimal material for specific applications. This enables an accurate visual representation of deformation behavior of fiber-reinforced resins, according to AEC.