BMBF Funding for the eEgO Project

Sept. 12, 2014
The BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung - Federal Ministry of Education and Research) has decided to fund the eEgO research project “Development of software applications, based on analog models, for the efficient optimization of crash simulations in the automotive development process” as part of the funding program KMU-innovativ.

This project is a collaborative project coordinated by the Automotive Simulation Center Stuttgart e.V. and its project partners divis intelligent solutions GmbH, GNS mbH, SCALE GmbH, as well as the Bergische Universität Wuppertal and the Technische Universität München. This project with a term of three years (project launch was 1 September 2014) meets the rising demand for crash simulations made necessary by stricter regulatory requirements, growing customer wishes and the use of new material combinations. The research and development of innovative software tools, as pursued through the eEgO project, aims to have a lasting positive impact on the virtual structural optimisation of vehicle bodies and thus to tap into a considerable economical and technical potential. Virtual crash simulations have been based on highly detailed finite element models requiring protracted computing times. These simulation models will become more and more refined in the future and thus even more compute-intensive. By using mathematical procedures for structural optimization it is possible to tap into a considerable potential for the design process - albeit necessitating between 500 and 1,000 of these crash calculations. For the industry this entails computing times that are thus far neither economical nor practical. By employing physical and mathematical substitute models, the aim is to reduce the uneconomical and unpractical response times experienced during structural optimization and to allow the use of these models in the vehicle development process. To this end, the eEgO project is developing new procedures, methods and software tools to (semi-)automatically derive suitable substitute models and to apply them in a new optimization environment. The overall goal is to achieve a significant increase in the efficiency of structural optimization. In addition to the reduction of computing times substitute models offer another big advantage, namely providing system developers (suppliers) with an opportunity for development activities of their own on largely decoupled substitute models. There are also plans in place to examine these optimization methods with regard to an expansion into other sectors (e.g. mechanical engineering).

The project is supported by associated partners Adam Opel AG, Daimler AG, Dr.-Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, AUDI AG, BMW AG, Volkswagen Osnabrück GmbH, Dassault Systèmes / SFE GmbH and the Benteler Automobiltechnik GmbH, all of whom provide advise and input. Project coordinator Dipl.-Ing. Alexander F. Walser remarks: “We are aiming very high with this project, but there is a considerable potential. We are confident that we will develop innovative solutions with the knowhow of our associated partners and the support from our partners in the industry.”