MechChem Africa July 2017

July 2017

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MechChem Africa

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Computer-aided engineering

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ltair together with Artemis Racing

have applied design and simulation

technology to help place Artemis

Racing in the 35

America’s Cup.

The design of the daggerboards – foils that

lift the boat out of the water to break the

drag barrier – will be a critical differentiator

between the competing teams as they have a

significant impact on a boat’s performance.

TheAltair andArtemisRacing technical teams

have placed a great deal of emphasis on per-

fecting these composite material structures.

“Technology plays a huge part in the

America’sCup,” says IainPercy, teammanager

and on-water tactician for Artemis Racing.

“It’s been said the fastest boat has won the

America’s Cup for the last 160 years and I’m

not sure that is about to change. The dagger-

board is theappendage thatwefly theboat off

and it transfers side force into driving force.

Millimetres of difference on the daggerboard

make knots of difference to the speed, so the

optimal manufacturing and design of these

boards is absolutely critical.”

The teams have focused much of their ef-

fort on optimising the strength, shapes and

thicknesses, andhowwater andwind interact

with daggerboards using a simulation-driven

design approach. To accomplish this, Artemis

Racing used several Altair technologies from

the HyperWorks

suite including:

• The HyperMesh

complex composite ma-

terial finite element model development

software.

Artemis Racing is a professional sailing team that challenged for the 35

America’s Cup.

Representing the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, the fifth-oldest yacht club in the world,

Artemis Racing teamed up withAltair for the development of the daggerboard design.

Motor pre-design tool

increases efficiency

Altair has announced the release of

FluxMotor™, a dedicated platform focus-

ing on the pre-design of electric rotating

machines. FluxMotor is part of Altair’s

HyperWorks

CAE Suite, which includes

Flux™ the leading software for low frequen-

cyelectromagnetic and thermal simulations.

The software tool allows users to design

and create machines from standard or cus-

tomised parts, as well as to intuitively add

windings andmaterials to run a selection of

tests and compare machine capacity.

“FluxMotor is an easy-to-use and ef-

ficient dedicated pre-design tool, targeting

designers from all sectors related to the

electricmotorsfield,”saysGregoryMichaud,

electromagnetic engineer at Softbank

Robotics, who was involved in the testing

phase of the new software together with

the development team.

Appealing to a broad range of users

such as designers and manufacturers of

electrical rotating motors, the software

allows motor specialists to define

machines and assess their tech-

nical-economic potential within

minutes. Flux Motor’s efficient

working environment ensures a

better visualisation of machine

performances, enabling fast and

accurate computations that can

easily be connected to Flux finite

element software and other tools

within the HyperWorks suite for

more advance studies, includingmultiphys-

ics optimisation tools.

“We wanted to develop an easy to use

software without compromising accuracy.

FluxMotor helps reduce computing time to

a minimum while still maintaining accurate

results,” explains Fabrice Marion, program

manager for FluxMotor at Altair.

Artemis Racing’s Yacht design for the 35

Ameri-

ca’s Cup incorporated daggerboards designed with

Altair’s simulation software solutions.

Artemis Racing

and designing the difference

FluxMotor helps reduce computing time to a minimum while

still maintaining accurate results.

• OptiStruct

for structural analysis and

optimisation.

• AndRADIOSS

for nonlinear, largedeflec-

tion analysis.

Two sets of daggerboards were created

to withstand unexpected challenges from

mother nature–onepair designed toperform

optimally in heavier winds and waves and

another for lighter wind andwave conditions

– both designed to rapidly lift the boat from

the water with minimum drag.

“The tools that we use are at the forefront

of the industries,” says Brett Ellis, lead engi-

neering for daggerboards and rudders. “We

are working to tight tolerances and small

differences in section shapes on the dagger-

boards can lead to relatively big gains on the

water. We are all pushing hard and pushing

the design limits to win that America’s Cup.”

“The technology involved in designing

these boats is a critical component to provid-

ing a speed edge for the teams vying for the

win,” adds Uwe Schramm, chief technology

officer, Altair. “Itwas anhonour to collaborate

with the Artemis Racing design team and ap-

ply our design and simulation technologies to

create a world-class sailing vessel.”

Artemis Racing represents Kungliga

Svenska Segel Sällskapet (KSSS – the

Royal Swedish Yacht Club), the fifth-oldest

yacht club in the world. Artemis Racing

has a multinational crew comprised of

the most successful and respected sailors

and designers in the world. The sailing

team members have participated in 12

America’s Cup campaigns and competed

in 21 Olympics Games, winning 11 medals,

seven of which were Gold. Additionally,

Artemis’ engineers, boat builders and sup-

port teamhave been involved in64America’s

cup campaigns, including 14 victories.

Altair has released a short film documentary

titled “Surface To Air” that was developed to

celebrate the hard work and innovation that

is positioning Artemis Racing to win the 35

America’s Cup. The film highlights the pro-

found impact that simulation-driven design

has on the development of the Artemis boat,

available for viewing at www.designthedif-

ference.com.