Optimising vehicles design in an era of rapidly changing safety regulations presents major challenges. With a goal of Vision Zero, ever-tightening regulations and protocols, the need to assess a wider demographic range, and the challenges autonomous driving brings, vehicle safety assessment is becoming ever more difficult, especially with the step change to electric power. Additionally, the move towards virtual homologation is perhaps the biggest immediate area for concern.

Join ESI as we present our view of these challenges and hear from our guest speaker, CATARC, on the role they play in testing and certification, and their approach to virtual homologation.

The development of an effective Acoustic Vehicle Alert System (AVAS) extends beyond safety compliance to shaping an auditory experience meeting vulnerable road users' expectations. Understanding the acoustic transfer function, which links sound emission (from the vehicle's speaker) to reception (by road users), is vital. Maintaining this function's consistency ensures emitted sounds align with safety cues and brand identity. This work presents three methodologies for calculating the transfer function: classical Boundary Element, H-Matrix BEM acceleration, and ray tracing. It evaluates their correlation and impact on simulation time and computational efficiency. Additionally, it offers a binaural listening example in various certification positions within a simulated environment

Mega Casting stands at the forefront of Electric Vehicles manufacturing innovation, enabling lightweighting, enhancing fuel efficiency and reducing overall manufacturing costs.  Cast metal parts can be found in crash loaded zones of all kinds of vehicle, including those large aluminum space frames sometimes also called Hyper Casting or Integrated Casting. As cast metal parts usually show limited plasticity, they behave critically under crash loading. In this session, we will present a new modular material framework applied to cast components: Handling manufacturing simulation results in performance evaluation.

Assembly processes and Maintenance procedures for internal combustion vehicles have evolved significantly in the century since the automotive assembly line was introduced. Assuming that  battery or fuel cell electric vehicles can be assembled in the same way we did in the 20th century may delay discovery of process planning and product design issues unexamined until we experience production delays or no-build scenarios in real-life; too late to make effective changes.

Join us as we present our views of the application of Virtual- and eXtended-Reality technology to accelerate enterprise experience in building and maintaining yet-to-be-built new vehicle concepts.

An essential aspect of virtual crash testing are  ""compute models"" which represent ancillary elements of a simulation, such as dummies, human models and barriers. As well as a realistic 3D model of the test vehicle, it is critical for accurate test results and successful certification to ensure these compute models are also as true to real-life as possible.

Barriers are a key element to compute models. This session will outline why accuracy is so important in this area, and our guest speaker, CAERI, will give an overview of the latest developments in this vital part of the crash simulation ecosystem.

Vibro-acoustic modeling plays a critical role in the automotive industry by significantly improving the driving experience through enhanced comfort and safety. Additionally, it supports manufacturers in meeting regulatory standards and optimizing the efficiency of the design process. When it comes to cabin noise, these simulations empower engineers to assess, refine, and perfect the vehicle's interior acoustics from the early stages of design, leading to informed decisions on materials, components, and structural elements. This presentation introduces a direct frequency method that utilizes a finite element-poroelastic approach for cabin noise simulation. This method leverages a geometric/hybrid solution designed for efficient scaling on cost-effective hardware and is successfully applied to a fully trimmed vehicle model, demonstrating its practical application in real-world scenarios

Welding fabrication of a battery box involves various engineering aspects of upfront design verification and downstream process design and - validation, with the main target to stay within tolerances whilst controlling fabrication cost. By using advanced virtual tools, such as ESI-SYSWELD, engineers can check designs early on applying a rapid distortion engineering methodology but also simulate the welding process as is once the design has settled. This includes fixture design, assembly sequence, weld process parameters and realistic heat input and material properties. Using the application, engineers can study and control temperature effects, distortion, and residual stresses during and at the end of welding of structures like battery boxes. The presentation will outline what’s in it for you and demonstrate capabilities with the ESI Battery Box Frame and Bottom Plate Assembly.

The commissioning of new assembly lines and tooling, definition of and acceptance of service procedures, and integration of products has widely been a physical process requiring travel to tooling vendors by members of product development, assembly process planning, service method planners, tooling engineers, and release engineers from vendors and OEM alike. However, consolidation of previously distributed roles and the global distribution of responsible team members can sometimes create gaps. 

In this session we will explore the challenges faced with global enterprises seek to define product designs, process plans, and supporting production environments that suit globally distributed production requirements and the local populations of workers.

Modern automotive seating is incredibly complex. To assess and validate all of the many aspects of a seat and ensure an end product that is safe yet comfortable, light and durable is a difficult balancing act. This challenge will become even greater with the introduction of innovations such as zero-gravity seating and autonomous vehicles.

This session will introduce you to ESI's virtual prototyping approach for evaluating seat design from concept onwards, assessing static, dynamic and thermal comfort, whiplash safety, ergonomics, and foam, trim and frame manufacturing, across multiple configurations.

Ever increasing complexity of modern cyber-physical systems is a challenge. Today we often observe silos in different design stages, that increase the risk of too late discovery of design flaws and errors.

We will demonstrate how a digital thread, that connects requirements definition, system architecture, functional system design and testing into a fully traceable workflow, enables a continuous validation and verification of the designed system throughout the stages of the design process.

The approach will be illustrated on the use case of early concept design for an electrically driven truck.

Our client, a global leader in turbo and hybrid technologies, develops high-speed, high-efficiency components for electric and hydrogen vehicles. Key innovations include the E-Cooling Compressor for EVs, the Fuel Cell Compressor for hydrogen vehicles, and the integrated E-Powertrain system, which reduces size, weight, and rare earth material content. ESI’s Smart Manufacturing tools, ProCAST and PAM-STAMP, enhance these innovations by optimizing design and manufacturing, improving casting accuracy and metal forming precision. This collaboration accelerates the transition to zero-emission technologies, reinforcing their leadership in sustainable mobility solutions.

In globally distributed manufacturing and engineering, evaluating the assembly methods and proposed production tooling for regionally produced vehicles can leave remote manufacturing engineering teams without first hand experience with proposed automotive products in the context of manufacturing. 

By leveraging Virtual and eXtended Reality technology, leading enterprises transport their teams across time and space to experience proposed automotive and light truck products in the context of assembly processes incorporating assembly line and cell tooling.