How CAD Technology benefits from Dynamic Modeling

Alexander Pope, in the 17^th century, coined the phrase “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. This phrase holds true in many cases, because a small amount of knowledge could lead to overconfidence. An overconfident person is likely to make decisions hastily without taking all facts into account.

The time will come when this overconfident engineer, who lacks adequate theoretical training, models a non-routine problem incorrectly and misinterprets the results. Consequently, an incorrect design for a product is implemented. Unless the design error is caught and fixed, the launched product will be an accident waiting to happen. Failure of a poorly-designed product could cost a company a lot of time, money, and loss of reputation.

Many CAD and engineering organizations are aware of such dangers, and they include Dynamic Modeling into their product design cycles. Doing so provides “checks and balances” before a design materializes into a product.

This article examines the roles that Dynamic Modeling plays in CAD-driven product design.

Specifically, the article tries to answer these questions:

• What is Dynamic Modeling, and is it needed for all product designs?
• Are all CAD engineers qualified to perform CAD enabled dynamic modeling?
• What are the benefits of Dynamic Modeling?
• How is Dynamic Modeling being used?

What Is Dynamic Modeling and Is It Needed for all Product Designs?

Dynamic modeling simulates the behavior of an object over time. In engineering, dynamic models are described in terms of causal loops or feedback and control systems.

The causal loop captures the structural makeup or components that comprise a complex system or product, and the interactions between them. Computer models are built to simulate how the system responds to time-varying states and external loads, and how the system responds over time.

Dynamic modeling is not restricted to time-variant behavior of physical structures, but it is also used for artificial intelligence, economics, psychology, political science, and many other disciplines.

Not all products require dynamic modeling. For example, stationary objects such as statues are not subjected often to time varying externals loads such as wind forces or earthquakes. Therefore, static models suffice for determining their structural integrity.

Examples of good candidates for dynamic modeling are:

• Bridges, which experience variable loadings, wind forces, and perhaps earthquakes.
• Offshore oil production platforms, which are subjected to ocean waves, wind, and current loadings.
• Automobiles, which are subjected to shock loadings and aerodynamic forces.
• Buildings and structures in earthquake-prone areas, because they endure seismic loadings. 

Are all CAD Engineers Qualified to Perform CAD Enabled Modeling?

Not all CAD engineers have the skills to perform dynamic modeling adequately. CAD software tools which provide its capabilities will incorporate them as FEA, CFD, and other software packages. The CAD engineer who has not taken advanced courses in Solid Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Feedback and Control Systems, Vibration Analysis, Random Mechanics, and similar courses may lack sufficient theoretical skills to adequately model and interpret non-routine design problems with CAD software.

Dynamic modeling which is performed incorrectly could produce design errors with disastrous consequences, if the errors:

• Are not detected and corrected by peers,
• Are not detected during design reviews,
• Are not detected during the prototyping and testing phase.

Once a poorly designed product is launched, the consequences could mean applying fixes in the field, having a product recall, or withdrawing a product. None of these options is desirable, because it creates customer dissatisfaction, possible lawsuits, loss of income, and loss of reputation.

What are the Benefits of Dynamic Modeling?

If properly performed, Dynamic Modeling can reveal design flaws that may not show up readily during the prototyping and testing phases of the product design cycle.

Unique benefits that dynamic modeling provides include:

• Identifying interactions between subsystems of a complex product which may be too expensive to create during physical prototyping and testing,
• Identifying potential failure modes which should be tested in physical prototypes, before hard tooling,
• Simulating dynamic loadings which may be difficult to create during actual testing,
• Identifying functional limitations on the use of a product.

Although some complex systems may be difficult to model accurately, it provides extra product performance data from virtual prototypes. Testing and validation of data obtained from virtual prototypes within physical prototypes should create a robust and reliable design.

How is Dynamic Modeling being used?

A few examples should clarify the benefits that Dynamic Modeling brings to CAD design work.

• Engineers at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) are building a horizontal smokestack computer model called the Scale-Model Smokestack Simulator. The Dynamic Model will predict the amount of carbon dioxide coming out of smokestacks with 1% accuracy, compared with current measurement accuracy of 10 to 20%. This Dynamic Model will make it easier to address the problem of CO2 emissions which the EPA is concerned about.
• The University of Le Havre uses Dynamic Modeling to efficiently calculate optimized mold measurements for a ship hull.
• SolidWorks provides modeling software within their CAD offerings for all types of industrial robot movements. The software also translates code from one robot to another, and can import models from major CAD systems.
• It is being used extensively to study the impact of Self Driving vehicles on traffic flow.

Conclusions

When it is used effectively and correctly, creates virtual product prototypes that can identify failure modes and functional limitations of a design at an early stage.

When dynamic modeling is used together with Additive Manufacturing (or 3D printing) for physical product prototyping, the design cycle could be significantly shortened. Consequently, reliable and cost effective products will be launched, and the cost saving will benefit both the product manufacturer and the consumer.

• What methods to use historically to store music?
• What modern methods are utilised for storing music?
• How useful is it to support 3D Printing for the music industry?

What methods have been used historically with store music?

It’s a traditional method used to store music that relies on writing music on sheets of paper. Let’s say classical orchestral works by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and others are published as sheet music.

The method used to store music cannot offer good longevity and permanence using a medium for storing music over time and storing music that can easily be lost due to fire or floods.

It adds improvements with storing music that utilise an audio format together with physical recording media.

Over the last 100 years, musical storage relies on the below methods:

A few years ago, audio data came in the form of sound waves that transcribe to glass, paper, and wax cylinders as mechanical analog signals recorded as lateral grooves. Also, the stylus motion adds grooves used to render the recorded audio data. The products in this era cover the Edison phonograph, the Dictaphone and the phonograph disk.

1900 and 1948 came with many improvements that utilized magnetization and electrical amplification for analog signals with high fidelity audio. The products cover magnetic tape, audio cassettes, and vinyl phonograph discs.

They are moving on with 1948 and 1970, the powerful audio signal process techniques that utilised Dolby noise reduction covering stereophonic rendition. The products in this era come with 4-track and 8-track stereo, the microcassette, minicassette and compact cassette.

After 1970, the digital processing tech used advanced products that utilise audio formats, including MPEG, MLP, and other audio formats found in products that provide CDs, DVDs, HD DVDs, and various Blu-ray technology.

What modern methods are utilised for storing music?

The music library grows at an alarming rate, where the compression methods develop to store the volume of audio data used in the cloud by making it available to users and using them as web streaming technology.

Well-known competitors in this audio storage and streaming marketplace include the following:

Apple’s iTunes stores over 43 million songs using downloaded on iPad, iPhones, iPods or other Apple-based products. The audio formats offer Apple style, adding conversion software that primarily uses services that do not use web streaming.

The Amazon Cloud Player uses services that are similar to Apple iTunes. It uses Amazon Player that utilises a compression than iTunes. Being lossy means the original music that’s not rendered with true fidelity. The portions of the audio signal dropped when rendering so that the human ear cannot easily detect the difference between the actual and rendered sound.

Google Play Music offers free access to over 30 million songs. The services are free and are considered a bargain compared with the other paid services. Both Google and Amazon services utilise web streaming with ease.

How useful is 3D printing for the music industry?

A fantastic benefit includes 3D Printing, which brings musical recordings stored in digital format recalled and reprinted at will. For sentimental reasons, some people like to play music available on phonographs. Using 3D Printing, both old and modern music can be stored in digital form, retrieving 3D printed used on improved durable media. More sophisticated materials are available for 3D printers, and high-quality audio recordings are used to get outstanding audio fidelity and rendition. Apart from this printing musical recordings, the 3D printers are used primarily to print musical instruments like drums, guitars, pianos and saxophones. The list covers musical instruments that grow as 3D printing materials like:

To summarise, 3D Printing makes it possible to:

• Store music digitally with reproduce it faithfully
• Print a variety of musical instruments.

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