When designing a mechanical system such as an automotive suspension or an aircraft landing gear, you need to understand how various components (pneumatics, hydraulics, electronics, and so on) interact as well as what forces (noise, vibration, and harshness) those components generate during operation. Adams is a motion simulation solution for analyzing the complex behavior of mechanical assemblies. Adams allows you test virtual prototypes and optimize designs for performance, safety, and comfort, without having to build and test numerous physical prototypes.
Starting with basics
Adams is a family of interactive motion simulation software. A core package (Adams/View, Adams/Solver, and Adams/PostProcessor) allows you to import geometry from most major CAD systems or to build a solid model of the mechanical system from scratch. A full library of joints and constraints is available for creating articulated mechanisms. Once the virtual prototype is complete, Adams checks the model and then runs simultaneous equations for kinematic, static, quasi-static, and dynamic simulations. Results are viewable as graph, data plots, reports, or colorful animations that you easily can share with others. You can use the results (loads created from different types of motion) of Adams simulation studies to provide loads for many different FEA programs including Nastran to optimize the structure of a design.
Tailoring Adams to your specific needs and industry
You can start with the Adams basic package and from there choose from a wide range of extension modules, including Adams/Control to analyze control systems, such as hydraulics, electronics, pneumatics, and more; Adams/Flex to examine the impact of flexible parts; Adams/Linear to calculate natural frequencies and mode shapes of large systems. Adams also offers a range of modules tailored specifically the automotive, aerospace, and rail industries. These modules include templates for building simulation design. Several CAD interface modules allow you to explore the motion of CAD designs without having to leave a familiar CAD interface or transfer data into Adams.
Applications
- Understand the operation of flight control systems in order to improve system safety and ensure compliance with FAA requirements.
- Predict the impact of vibration on the driver of an automobile, airplane, or train in order to design for optimal comfort and minimal vibration and harshness during operation.
- Support machinery manufactureres in modifying existing designs to increase operation speed while reducing vibration.
Benefits
- Work in a secure virtual environment, without the fear of losing critical data due to instrument failure or of falling behind schedule due to poor weather conditions, common elements that accompany real-world testing.
- Reduce risk by getting better design information at every stage of the development process.
- Analyze design changes much faster and at a lower cost than physical prototype testing requires.
- Improve product quality by exploring numerous design variations in order to optimize full-system performance.
- Vary the kinds of analyses being performed without having to modify physical instrumentation, test fixtures, and test procedures.
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