automated design testing procedures using software simulation tools

7/27/2019 Automated Design Testing Procedures Using Software Simulation Tools

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Automated Design Tesng Procedures

Using Soware Simulaon Tools

www.integratedso.com


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INTEGRATED Engineering Soware

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ContentExecuve Summary .......................................................................................................................................3

The Challenges ..............................................................................................................................................3

Parametrics and Scripng .............................................................................................................................5

Parametrics ...............................................................................................................................................6

Scripng ................................................................................................................................................... 6

Scripng Examples ....................................................................................................................................... 8

#1 -Halbach Array Run from Excel ...........................................................................................................8

#2 -Stand Alone Insulator Design Program ..............................................................................................8

#3 -Feedback Loop for Opmizaon ........................................................................................................9

Summary .....................................................................................................................................................13

About INTEGRATED Engineering Soware .................................................................................................13


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Executive SummaryAs simulaon soware has become widespread, there are some common complaints from designers willing to

opmize the way they use the soware. Many complain about how me intensive the simulaon can be for the

user, even for repeve aspects of the work. In the process of simulaon related to design there will typically

be a number of model variaons to be tried, and me is also required to analyze all desired iteraons of a

design, in order to decide which one is opmal.

Another problem with this is that anything that becomes tedious for the user becomes prone to input errors.

Other common complaints involve training issues: how widely useful is the soware within an organizaon?

What about intermient use, only a few mes a year depending on the cycle of the work? How much me is

spent on training and retraining people who make occasional use of the soware?

Professional simulaon soware should address these issues. Lack of features that address these problems, or

lack of knowledge of those features, slows down the work and eecvely adds a lot of cost to the use of

simulaon tools.

This white paper will explain and provide examples of two common methods for automang aspects of the

design process: parametrics and scripng.

The Challenges

Simulaon soware has become a standard tool for engineering design. Simulaon not only provides design

insight, which helps with strategic decision making, but it also reduces the number of physical prototypes

required to be condent of a devices performance which leads to faster and less expensive development.

As simulaon soware has become widespread, there are some common complaints from people looking for

alternaves to the tool they are presently using. Many of these complaints involve how me intensive the

simulaon can be for the user, even for repeve aspects of the work. In the process of simulaon related to

design there is a number of model variaons that are usually tried, such as:

Sizes, shapes and posions of parts

Applied voltage

Various materials

Tolerance tesng (determine the eects of small machining variaons or changes in material properes,

etc.)


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An electric simulaon will generally need a variety of performance related outputs for each of these, such as:

Maximum elds locaons/distribuons relave to breakdown values for the materials

Analysis for potenal corona or paral discharge incepon

Capacitance values

Electric forces

EMC/EMI criteria may need assessment

It may also need to output informaon that relates to other analysis (e.g. thermal, mechanical stability, etc.).

Finally, each scenario should be readily assessed for materials cost, ease of manufacturing, and others.

Suppose a simulaon is expected to take 50 hours to analyze all desired iteraons of a design, to then decide

which one is opmal. You could start it on Friday when you leave work and have the answer when you come

back Monday morning. So this is no real problem. However, add to that any inial setup me the user needs to

put in. Next, add some me for evaluaon of each scenario, decision making about what to try next, and some

setup-restarng me. Now the process has become much more costly. It only eecvely runs during working

hours for an 8 hour day that means 6 working days to get the answer. Plus, whoever is running the simulaon

is dedicang his/her me and is mentally distracted from other work for that 6 day period. Another problem

with this system is that anything that becomes tedious for the user becomes prone to input errors.

Then there is another common complaint, involve training issues: how widely useful is the soware within an

organizaon? What about intermient use? It is very common that a given user will run a specic simulaon

soware only a few mes a year depending on the cycle of their work. So how much me is spent on training

and retraining people who make occasional use of the soware?

Professional simulaon soware should address these issues. Lack of features to address these problems, or

lack of knowledge of the features, slows down the work and eecvely increases the cost to the use of

simulaon tools.

This white paper will explain and provide examples of two common methods for automang aspects of the

design process: parametrics and scripng.


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Parametrics and ScriptingParametrics

Parametrics refers to describing the components of a model according to parameters. A generic example of a

block with a bore is shown below, rst lisng the obvious parameters of the block in isolaon.

Consider that the block will be part of some model assembly, so absolute posion and orientaon are also

normally required parameters.

For CAD solid modeling, the approach of parametric geometry has been dominant for many years. This

enables very easy experimentaon with geometry once it has been created. However, this comes at the price

of creang and working within the constraints that the parametrics comes along with. For that reason, acompeng direct geometry approach is gaining wider acceptance because of the greater model exibility.

Regardless of how a geometry is generated, the ability to manipulate its parameters is important to the

automaon of simulaon. One way is by the built-in parametric ulies within a given soware package. For

example, here is a descripon of a two loop parametric set up in the electric program COULOMB for the above

geometry one parameter moving the hole locaon, the other moving the boom surface. Note that this

parametric works with the exisng geometry; for this reason, whether it was created by a direct or parametric

method is irrelevant.

Parameters of the block in isolaon:

Length

Width

Thickness

Hole center

Hole radius

Hole depth

Material


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The parametric will analyze 28 (4x7) combinaons of hole locaon and plate thickness and for each one present

a plot of streamlines o the boom surface and value of the electric eld at a given locaon. Once the

parametric analysis is completed, the results can be summarized in various ways. For example, the streamline

plots can be examined individually, or run as an animaon.

The eld at point lls a data table which can be ploed in families of curves, such as the 4 curves below showing

the eect of moving the boom plate, for each of the 4 hole posions.


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For cases where the required outputs are known in advance, and all the combinaons of parameters to be

studied are also known in advance, a parametric feature tends to be the fastest way for a user to nish up

analysis aer creang the base model.

While parametrics are very powerful and easy when appropriate, there are many cases where:

The number of parametric permutaons is too large and the variaons thus need to be controlled by

acvely making decisions based on results obtained during the analysis. A couple of examples would be

intelligent opmizaon and coupled analysis -such as moon of a part where the eld (hence force) is

changing as the part moves.

The desired variaons are dicult or impossible to conceive as parameters (e.g. comparing results for

square and circular parts).

Running analysis should be accessible to people who are non-experts with the soware.

Scripng

When parametrics are not praccal, for more inial setup me a much more versale automated analysis using

scripts can be developed. The most essenal feature of scripng is that soware funcons (draw a line, sweep

a line to create a surface, apply voltage to a surface, inquire the eld at a point) can be wrien in a le which

then performs them in sequence. A powerful scripng environment must enable the use of variables, looping,

etc. Scripng might be done internally or externally:

1. Internal Scripng:

If the program itself enables the user to write and call the script without using any other soware that

makes the soware appear more powerful because it is self-contained. However, it does not fundamentally

add anything compared to external scripts and forces the user to learn and use the programming

environment created for the scripts.

2. External Scripng:

If external soware can run scripts/batch which invoke the funcons of the simulaon soware, then the

user is able to pick their preferred environment and write/run their scripts from there, with the simulaon

soware largely hidden from the user. For example, all the parameters of a script might be specied in an

Excel spreadsheet containing a macro which will run the simulaon when executed.


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External scripng also enables co-simulaon such as coupling a mechanical moon simulaon with a magnec

eld/force simulaon. In many cases, strengths of other programs can be used to make the simulaon soware

more powerful. For example, if Matlab scripts are used to run the simulaon then using the Matlab

Opmizaon Toolbox might greatly streamline the whole process.

Scripts can serve a multude of purposes. The next secon illustrates three examples.

Scripng Examples

(The following examples are scripts that are provided with INTEGRATED Engineering Soware programs.)

#1 -Halbach Array Run from Excel

The Excel spreadsheet shown below is the interface to a tool for automacally generang a Halbach array

according to some 7 selected parameters.


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When the [Run] buon is clicked, a macro is invoked which reads the data into VBA within Excel and sets up the

model by invoking appropriate commands for INTEGRATEDs 3D magnec programs. For example, the lines of

code below set the analysis as stac, run the solver, and then loop though posions along the y-axis inquiring

the eld and pung y and B values into the spreadsheet:

Note that INTEGRATED funcons are shown in red above and are called by Excel as IES.{functon}

When the script has run, the data secon is lled in and the plot is displayed.

Notes:

In order to run the script, which shows B along the axis for a proposed set of Halbach array parameters, you

do not have to see an INTEGRATED program at all.

A user trying to come up with parameters for desired shape of B along the axis can keep eding parameters

and clicking[Run].

The user should know about Halbach arrays, but doesnt need to know anything about INTEGRATED

soware. Only the person wring the script needs to know about the simulaon soware.

The person wring the script can decide what parameters to include, what outputs to show and could

include looping or feedback for opmizaon at their discreon.

ret = IES.Physics_SetStacMode()

ret = IES.Soluon_RunSolver(iErr)

For i = 0 To 12 * (Number + 4)

y1 = -Width * (Number + 4) / 2 + i * Width / 12

ret = IES.Analysis_GetMagnecField(0, y1, 0, Bxr, Bxi, Byr, Byi, Bzr, Bzi, iErr)

rowNumber = CStr(13 + i)

Worksheets("General").Range("A" + rowNumber).Value = y1

Worksheets("General").Range("B" + rowNumber).Value = Bzr

Next i


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#2 -Stand Alone Insulator Design Program

The program shown below has similar goals as the previous Halbach array example. It is a tool for designing a

specic insulator with a number of design parameters available to the user. Like in the previous model, only the

person creang the program needs to understand ELECTRO. The user just needs to understand the specic tool

and what it is telling them about a proposed set of parameters. This program has more history tracking

features than the Halbach array example. However, the key dierence is that instead of being a macro run from

within Excel this example is a stand alone program created using C# within MS Developers Studio.

This sample provides a template for creang substanal third party tools for dedicated design purposes.

#3 -Feedback Loop for Opmizaon

For this example, supposed that it is necessary to achieve a uniform eld of 500 gauss in the center (along the

black line below) of the gap between two magnet pole faces and the only free parameter is the shape of the

poles.


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The inial analysis shows the following B eld distribuon along the line:

One could divide the pole faces to have mulple control points, then set up a several nested parameters which

shi them up and down, and compute the B eld distribuon for each, then select the most uniform near 500

Gauss result. That is a safe and easy way to setup analysis, but it will generate a huge number of scenarios to

run and examine. An alternave is to make a script that has some feedback so that it adjusts the control points

based on the current B eld plot. A simple feedback loop was setup in Excel to do this for 6 control points. Each

me a [Run]buon is clicked the B eld at 6 points along the center is computed and displayed in the table,

then the 6 control points are shied slightly based on the result. Each result is shown one row further down in

the spreadsheet and one of the sample points is used to update a B versus iteraon number plot:


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Note that the feedback accomplishes the goal very nicely for the 6 sampling points. However, when you plot

the B eld for the nal result you see that it oscillates about the so good values obtained right at those points

(red curve below):

Comparing the red curve with the original black curve the design goal is met much more closely. If this is sll

not good enough then other parameters will need to be considered as well. The nal shape of the pole faces is:

Note how much straighter the ux lines are near the region of interest, as compared to the inial result.


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SummarySome examples were presented to illustrate how parametrics and scripng can be used to automate simulaonfor design purposes. Parametrics are shown to be easy to setup and run for those cases readily described in

parametric terms, but for projects that warrant the extra setup me, scripng provides a lot more power and

especially when the script runs external to the simulaon soware.

About INTEGRATED Engineering SoftwareSince 1984, INTEGRATED has oered an innovave, world-class suite of complete soluons for engineering and

scienc designs involving mulple disciplines -creang simulaon soware programs that analyze a full

spectrum of physical problems. INTEGRATED Engineering Soware is a leading developer of hybrid simulaon

tools for electromagnec, thermal and parcle trajectory analysis. We provide a complete line of fully

integrated 2 and 3 dimensional simulaon soware.

In many cases, it is a combinaon of variables that aects models rather than just the electromagnec or

parcle trajectory eld. When such a combinaon of factors is involved, thermal and power systems design

analysis is also required. As the name of our company suggests, all our programs are seamlessly integrated,

starng from a concept, through entry of the geometry and physics of the problem, to the selecon of type of

solver and the problem's soluon. Once the problem has been solved, a vast number of parameters can becalculated or the eld quanes displayed.

At no extra cost, all our soware packages include:

Choice of solvers:Boundary Element Method (BEM), Finite Element Method (FEM) Finite Dierence Time

Domain (FDTD) get the right answer and independent vericaon.

Choice of opmizaon tools: Parametric Analysisfor those who need fast and easy opmizaon with a

short learning curve.APIandScripnggive more power to advanced users.

Built-in material libraries:Customize and create your own library for easy access to the materials.

Integraon with MATLAB:Users MATLAB code les can include funcon calls to the INTEGRATED API to

build geometry, assign physical parameters, solve, and obtain results.

Parallelizaon:When used on64 bit computers permits full ulizaon of available RAM to dramacally

increase speed of soluon and post-processing.

Our soware comes complete and ready to use. No need to purchase addional modules or opons; all

programs are fully funconal CAE tools.
http://www.integratedsoft.com/Technology/Optimization-Parametricshttp://www.integratedsoft.com/Technology/Optimization-Parametricshttp://www.integratedsoft.com/Technology/APIhttp://www.integratedsoft.com/Technology/APIhttp://www.integratedsoft.com/Technology/Optimization-Parametrics/Scriptinghttp://www.integratedsoft.com/Technology/Optimization-Parametrics/Scriptinghttp://www.integratedsoft.com/Technology/Optimization-Parametrics/Scriptinghttp://www.integratedsoft.com/Technology/APIhttp://www.integratedsoft.com/Technology/Optimization-Parametrics


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Contact us for an evaluationSend us your model, whatever the level of complexity. We will show you how to get results from your exact

design no packaged demos.

Contact us for an evaluaon and start improving producvity today. A live demo is also available.

Phone: +1.204.632.5636

Fax: +1.204.633.7780

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.integratedso.com

automated design testing procedures using software simulation tools

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