Engineering design and optimization

Engineering professional practices are driven by market pressures for higher performance products and by demands for radically shortened design cycles and flexible design and production processes. At the same time, technical advances in computers and communications hold out the promise of rapid assembly - and dispersal - of development teams with expertise on all relevant aspects, instant cooperation and concurrent access to all available information. Virtual product
development, mathematical modelling, computer simulation and multi-disciplinary optimization have become indispensable tools for engineering enterprizes.

Sample projects

Computational electromagnetics
Recently major efforts in the development of simulation software for the prediction of electromagnetic fields have been made. Abundant computer power enable large simulation models, and the pull from telecom and military applications are drivers that make academic and industry researchers join forces to advance the research frontiers. The
results are spectacular, both in terms of width of application and in terms of simulation accuracy. While computer resources are a crucial factor, new mathematical and numerical methods contribute in about equal amount as growth in raw computing power to the capabilities we see today. The Swedish effort in building a new generation of electromagnetic solvers was made possible by the Vinnova funded Competence Center PSCI at NADA, our industrial collaboration partners, and coordinated grants from FMV and VR. As an example of results obtained, a lightning strike on a SAAB 2000 commuter aircraft was simulated with a Giga-cell Finite Difference - Time Domain computational model. The results shown in the figure are the time-evolving surface currents on the metal parts of the aircraft, inside and out. They were visualized, together with the magnetic fields, in the KTH VR-cube by immersive interactiontechnology.

Simulation of the properties of thin membrane structures
Structures made of thin films are gaining in popularity for both Earth and space applications. Today, large sports stadia are often designed with a retractable roof, which can be closed during bad weather. Large space structures, such as antennas and solar arrays, must be packaged during launch and deployed into their operational configuration once in orbit. Thin film structures are attractive because they can be stowed into a very small volume. The functionality and safety of future thin membrane structures must be verified through extensive computational analysis, but eventually required to advance the design of membrane structures and to explain unexpected phenomena observed during tests of at the department of Mechanics is shown in the figure.