Actran 19: Expanding Vibro-Acoustic Simulation Possibilities, and Democratizing Fan Noise Aero-Acoustic Analysis
NEWPORT BEACH, CA—(Business Wire - November 21, 2018) - Free Field Technologies (FFT), an MSC Software company, that celebrated last month its 20 years anniversary, today announced the release of Actran 19. This new version makes a significant breakthrough in enabling engineers to address their noise related design challenges better and faster with more effective acoustic, vibro-acoustic and aero-acoustic simulations.
Release Highlights:
High Frequency Vibro-Acoustics - With this new revision, FFT brings to the market a brand new Actran SEA module based on the Virtual Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) principles. This module enables “SEA from FEA” for coupled vibro-acoustic problems, meaning that the simulation of large systems at mid & high frequencies uses as inputs existing (low frequency) finite element models from MSC Nastran.
Leverage on existing finite element models to build your SEA system with Actran 19 SEA module.
Fan-Noise –Aero-acoustic simulations of fans benefit from a blade design generator coupled with a potential flow solution to evaluate pressure distributions around fan blades. Combined with the possibility to use the results of inexpensive steady CFD calculations, fan designers are then able to evaluate the tonal noise from their fan designs very early in the development cycle.
In Actran 19, combine blade design generator with inexpensive steady CFD calculations for tonal noise prediction.
Full Vehicle Acoustics – The simulation of the effect of trim packages on the acoustic response of vehicles are significantly enhanced. First, the Reduced Impedance approach becomes available in direct frequency responses, which opens the door to simulate more phenomena’s and propagation paths. Second, the enhancement of automatic meshing for trim packages drastically accelerates the workflow by removing the need to mesh the complex sound packages. Finally, the export of trim models from Actran VI to MSC Nastran PEM simplifies the setup of trimmed body models in MSC Nastran.
Democratization – A new framework for developing user defined wizards is now available, allowing to build a vertical for any given type of simulation. The purpose of a wizard is to guide the user through the different steps of the analysis, with a pre-defined model template requiring limited end-user interactions. This is a powerful way to allow non-CAE experts to leverage on simulation in the design of their products
User experience - Overall this new release brings several user experience enhancements leading to important productivity gains. Examples include the implementation of an automated fluid/structure coupling for incompatible meshes, a Field Viewer utility, an Excitation to Response tool, new 3D directivity maps and a new module to build automatic parametric studies. This version also enables faster calculations for most simulations thanks to new mesh adaptivity capabilities, extended MUMPS single precision coverage, faster SNGR and other improvements.
“Actran 19 enlarges the scope of numerical acoustic simulations capabilities” said Diego d'Udekem, Managing Director and CEO at Free Field Technologies.
“The new Actran SEA capabilities opens the door to mid-and high-frequencies vibro-acoustic simulation with limited users’ inputs. Tonal noise assessment of fans can now be performed entirely in Actran thanks to the blade design tool, or based on steady CFD results as well. Together with new possibilities for acoustic trimmed body simulations, our team has worked on combining user experience enhancements with faster computations.”
About Free Field Technologies an MSC Software Company
Founded in 1998, and headquartered in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium, Free Field Technologies, an MSC Software company, develops and supports Actran, a powerful software suite for acoustic, vibro-acoustic and aero-acoustic modelling. Actran contains a wide set of acoustic features making it the solution of choice for customers as diverse as top car manufacturers and their suppliers, the largest aircrafts and aircraft engine manufacturers, leading producers of loudspeakers and other audio devices, consultants, universities and research centres. FFT maintains offices in Toulouse, Tokyo, Beijing, Bangalore and Detroit. For more information, visit www.fft.be.
About MSC Software
MSC Software is one of the ten original software companies and a global leader in helping product manufacturers to advance their engineering methods with simulation software and services. As a trusted partner, MSC Software helps companies improve quality, save time, and reduce costs associated with design and test of manufactured products. Academic institutions, researchers, and students employ MSC’s technology to expand individual knowledge as well as expand the horizon of simulation. MSC Software employs 1,400 professionals in 20 countries. For more information about MSC Software’s products and services, please visit: www.mscsoftware.com.
MSC Software is part of Hexagon (hexagon.com), a leading global provider of information technology solutions that drive productivity and quality across geospatial and industrial landscapes.
Contact Information:
Romain Baudson - Product Marketing Manager at Free Field Technologies - romain.baudson@fft.be