What do you do when you need to make a more muscular, higher performing version of your top-of-the-line sports car without adding weight and drag to the equation?
If you're Donkervoort Automobielen -- a Dutch automaker specializing in high-performance, custom-built sports cars -- you rally the big guns in the form of computer-aided-engineering (CAE) simulation tools to help optimize the design in a timely fashion.
Donkervoort Automobielen employed SolidWorks Simulation to cut the number of vehicle prototypes of its D8 GTO by 50 percent.
When Donkervoort embarked on its latest design, the D8 GTO, it had a clear goal in mind: Make a newer, more modern version of the classic -- it should be more muscular and command higher horsepower, yet still retain the design DNA of the old vehicle it was replacing, according to Jordi Wiersema, Donkervoort's head of design engineering.
The new car was slated to sport a brawnier, five-cylinder engine with 400 brake horsepower, up from 270 brake horsepower, yet it needed to weigh in at under 700 kilograms. "It had to have a visible connection to the old cars we use to build," Wiersema told us.
The reason the car had to be bigger boiled down to a matter of safety, Wiersema said. Donkervoort wanted to include more passive safety components in the rear and side doors, and thus was looking to find ways, both structurally and materials-wise, to take weight out of the design.
With that goal in mind, there were two principle design challenges where simulation came into play. In the first, Donkervoort created a hybrid carbon fiber tubular steel chassis, which added strength to the D8 GTO while minimizing its weight, but at the same time, held up to force, stiffness, crash, and impact testing. The second challenge was around aerodynamics.
Using SolidWorks CAD and its integrated 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Simulation FEA tools, Donkervoort was able to redesign and optimize the intake manifold and engine airflow, which helped resolve the open-wheel aerodynamic challenges, Wiersema said.
Chuck, while we didn't talk specifically about surface modeling work done on the D8 GTO, you just have to look at it and see it's an obvious candidate for that kind of software.
Rob, to address your points about looks. The whole design challenge with this car was to make it more "muscley" and higher performance, but also take weight out of the car even when adding some more safety functionality in the door frames. While achieving those goals, the team had to keep the car looking like its heritage which is definitely something that heralds from another time and place. Likely not a design for the masses, but for the wealthy driving enthusiasts that are the target audience.
Chuck, while we didn't talk specifically about surface modeling work done on the D8 GTO, you just have to look at it and see it's an obvious candidate for that kind of software.
Rob, to address your points about looks. The whole design challenge with this car was to make it more "muscley" and higher performance, but also take weight out of the car even when adding some more safety functionality in the door frames. While achieving those goals, the team had to keep the car looking like its heritage which is definitely something that heralds from another time and place. Likely not a design for the masses, but for the wealthy driving enthusiasts that are the target audience.
To me, this is almost a case of CAD meets kit car. This is a high performance, high cost, low volume automobile. Its design and manufacture would probably be economically unviable without the time/cost/knowledge/ leverage provided by an advanced CAD/CAE program, where you can in effect do virtual design, testing, and prototyping.
Another interesting thing about this car is its looks. Apparently the company really wanted its vehicle to stand out. It looks like it came from another era, heck, another planet. With so many recent American cars looking alike, the Donkervoort is refreshing.
Good point, Rob. As CAD and CAE become more of an integrated process as opposed to siloed tools done by different groups within engineering, there are bound to be design efficiencies. The real benefit, here, though was upping the number of prototype designs explored without upping the number of physical prototypes having to be built. Time saver and money saver.
Interesting article, Beth. That's a nice way to increase possibilities in design -- to do it with computers instead of physical prototypes. While the process may not have saved design time in this case, I would imagine it would inevitably save time as this practice becomes part of the standard design process.
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