vec bac ltd case study

PROVIDING BAC LTD VIRTUAL ENGINEERING EXPERTISE “ON DEMAND”

Creating easy to use, remote access virtual engineering processes for BAC Ltd to enhance and steer rapid virtual testing of vehicle components, making use of the VEC Engineering Cloud.

A novel technology solution developed by the

Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), accessible

through the VEC “expert on demand”

Engineering Cloud web portal, was deployed

to support the evaluation and understanding

of vehicle attributes for BAC Ltd and enhance

their vehicle development programme.

THE CHALLENGELiverpool based, niche vehicle manufacturer

Briggs Automotive Company Ltd (BAC),

developer of the road legal single seat

supercar MONO, wanted to increase its

flexibility and accessibility to CAE expertise,

sophisticated software and computing

resources in order to evolve vehicle’s

attributes and gain a competitive market edge.

The aim was to enable BAC to access “on

demand” virtual testing processes helping

them to accelerate the adoption of new

components and designs.

THE SOLUTIONThe VEC developed an advanced and

modularized workflow for assessing the

bending and torsional stiffness of the MONO

chassis. Using the VEC Engineering Cloud,

different variants of the chassis were created

and set-up for structural analysis through

single runs or design explorations, taking into

account suggestions from CAD engineers

as well as material specifications from the

chassis supplier. The submission of Finite

Element Analyses (FEA) to High Performance

Computing facilities was a user-friendly

“one-click” process. The powerful FE solver

DYNAMIS from DTECH was used, providing

various result representations, including

format for VR environments, enabling the

interpretation of the results in 1:1 scale.

Remote virtual engineering testing was

enabled through the extensive and seamless

access to the HPC facilities of the Hartree

Centre at the STFC, Daresbury Laboratory.

THE BENEFITSThe VEC provided BAC with a platform for

collaboration throughout their supply chain

and enabled them to co-design Engineering

Services tailored to their needs using multi-

disciplinary expertise, high fidelity virtual

prototypes and advanced workflows. This

access to “expertise on demand” reduces

design ‘bottlenecks’ and enables organisations

such as BAC greater flexibility and speed to

innovate their products. The VEC Engineering

Cloud provides easy-to-use, non-expert access

to HPC accessible from any internet enabled

computer/tablet or laptop and common

access to software “on demand”, providing

readily accessible resources beyond the

existing capacity of an organisation.

WORK WITH USThe Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) delivers innovative solutions to industry through the exploitation of academic research and the latest scientific and technology infrastructure. Enhancing capability through Virtual Innovation, the VEC is the UK’s leading centre of Virtual Engineering technology integration for industrial and commercial applications.

A collaboration between the University

of Liverpool and the Hartree Centre,

Science and Technology Facilities Council

(STFC) Daresbury Laboratory, the VEC

delivers advanced modelling, simulation

and visualisation solutions and ease

of access to the UK’s most powerful

supercomputing facilities to enable

business growth and competitiveness.

For more information about how your

organisation could benefit from working

with the Virtual Engineering Centre:

+44 (0)1925 864853

virtualengineeringcentre.com