CAE specialist, Altair has teamed up with materials testing expert, Ziegler Instruments (ZINS) to create a system for the evaluation and eradication of squeak and rattle (S&R) phenomena in vehicles.
Ziegler’s ‘PEM Material Pair Database’ is a web portal hosted by Altair on Microsoft Azure, which provides access to results for over 10,000 individual stick-and-slip test results for different pairs of materials, including many of those commonly found in the market. Users can search the database for information on stick-slip risks, with friction values identified, directly facilitating S&R detection within the Altair’s ‘Squeak & Rattle Director’ (SnRD), a custom software and services solution to identify and eliminate the root causes of S&R in assemblies.
“The Squeak and Rattle Director allows us to input different data, like design and manufacturing tolerances, in order to improve the output of our analysis and therefore have more valuable inputs to the project,” stated Marcelo Starling Braga, NVH coordinator at Fiat Brazil.
The joint system has progressed from traditionally performed CAE analysis, to the solution being available during the development cycle to aid designers and CAE engineers in their preliminary squeak and rattle analyses during the design phase. In Altair’s Inspire environment, designers can investigate S&R risks in a CAD environment thanks to contact point analysis, which combines proximity checks between parts to material compatibility information from the PEM Material Pairs Database. Simulation enables the designers to visualize how an assembly will vibrate and which interfaces are at risk. Then, optimization in the same environment will suggest different design solution to eliminate problem areas.
