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Using modeFRONTIER to perform multi-objective cavitating propeller optimization Azimut Benetti Group is the world’s largest network producing megayachts and leading private group in the luxury yacht industry. Azimut-Benetti’s R&D Centre develops unique technologies, for an effortless and safe navigating experience. The Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Unit (DITEN Department) of Genoa University work jointly with DETRA Custom Propellers and Azimut Benetti’s R&D Centre, using modeFRONTIER to optimize the design of a custom propeller for a high- speed Azimut Benetti 95 RPH yacht. ## Challenge The design of a propeller is always a trade-off between competing objectives and constraints: maximizing the propulsion efficiency and ship speed while avoiding cavitation and maintaining a sufficient blade strength. The traditional lifting line / surface methodologies define the propeller shape by including simplified geometric assumptions that make them not suitable for modern fast propellers design. The application of more accurate flow solvers and the automatic investigation, possible through the parametric description of the geometry (unconventional combinations of pitch, camber, or, for instance, local hydrofoil shapes), proves to be a successful design alternative for a high-speed propeller. ## Solution Following this new approach, the optimization of a reference propeller with modified rake distribution was driven by the MOGA-II, the genetic algorithm included in the automation workflow in modeFRONTIER. The experimental data collected at the cavitation tunnel confirmed the reliability of both the Boundary Elements Method and RANSE numerical approaches. A dedicated full-scale sea trials, performed with propellers manufactured by Detra, showed that the cruise speed achieved with the optimized propeller is 1 kn higher than the baseline propeller speed, geometry by while the cavitating behavior was also significantly enhanced. “The result is remarkable, especially keeping in mind that the increase of cruise speed, together with the enhancement of comfort onboard, is crucial to the perception of luxury yacht customers”, said Francesco Serra, R&D Office, Azimut Benetti Group. ## Benefits modeFRONTIER helped build an optimization framework to interact with the parametric description of the geometry to define each new blade shape and employ flow solvers to quantify how each propeller fulfills the constraints and the objectives of the design. “Starting from a set of 48 blade parameters to alter the reference propeller geometry, the use of MOGA-II algorithm allowed to compute and test 50,000 different geometries in about 5 days to achieve a satisfactory Pareto convergence and choose optimal candidates (one for any rake distribution) for RANSE analyses” said Michele Viviani, Associated Professor at DITEN Department, Genoa University.

modeFRONTIER helped the team select the optimum design in terms of travel experience, maximizing energy efficiency while accelerating design iterations and development time. The Hyperloop Makers UPV team from the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia was awarded the Top Design Concept and the Propulsion/Compression Subsystem Technical Excellence Awards at the 2016 SpaceX international challenge. The goal of the competition, launched by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, is to perfect its revolutionary land transport system, driven by compressed air and able to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco in 30 minutes. Whereas the majority of the competing teams opted for passive magnetic levitation or designing the passenger pod suspended on air bearings, Hyperloop UPV developed a system that enables levitation through the magnetic attraction of the pod to the top of the tube. This rail-free solution saves up to 30% on Hyperloop tube construction costs. ## Challenge The engineering challenge consisted in providing the base design for a 30-passenger cabin travelling as fast as possible through a vacuumed tube. Solution The technological solutions, in terms of comfort for the travelers subject to such high acceleration and cruise speed, were investigated by the team, assisted by advanced multiobjective optimization techniques. The computations related to the acceleration and cruise phase were set up in Excel and integrated into the modeFRONTIER workflow. The design variables mainly related to the compressor and the turbine (pressure ratio and discharge velocity) were automatically adjusted by the software to optimize the output results: acceleration time, specific energy required, pod mass and travel speed. ## Benefits “The effects of modifying even a single variable were, at best, difficult to explain as the physical models regarding the behavior of the system were highly interconnected and interdependent. With a traditional approach, this fact would have lead to a slow and difficult system optimum. modeFRONTIER on the other hand, enabled the team to obtain a family of optimum solutions for a range of inputs in a mere fraction of the time” said Germán Torres, Technical Director at Hyperloop Makers UPV Team. In terms of specific energy per passenger/km, the results show the pod consumes ten time less energy and travels ten times faster than traditional road transport. “We are developing a small levitation demonstrator for the next phase of the SpaceX International Challenge”, continued Torres, “in fact we plan use modeFRONTIER again to optimize the new Hyperloop design proposal”.

Long, freezing winters in Michigan leave the M-Fly team with only a month and a half to design and test their plane for the SAE Competition. Thanks to modeFRONTIER, the team can save precious time and improve their design. The SAE Aero Design Competition was created to connect engineering students with real-life engineering experiences and prepare them for their professional paths. As of this year, the M-Fly team participates both in the regular and the advanced class of the Competition. The 2016/2017 regular class objective is to maximize the amount of “passengers” on the plane without leaving empty seats - a realistic challenge faced by commercial airliners. The advanced class includes the design of the internal combustion power, static and dynamic payloads that must be dropped on a target during the flight, as well as the use of sensors and other electronic systems. M-Fly has partnered with ESTECO Academy and will benefit from free training and access to modeFRONTIER optimization platform to improve their aircraft design and validate analysis results faster. At M-Fly, our goal is to teach aerospace engineering, specifically aircraft design through competing at the SAE Aero Design competition. We balance winning and teaching, so we try to involve as many interested University of Michigan students in our project, while still designing the best aircraft for the competition. However, our design cycle is brutal as we have two major factors against us: our school year and the weather. If we want to finish the testing phase before we head to competition, we need to get to the final design by Thanksgiving and finish the construction in January: a very tight schedule. In Michigan, from December through March the temperature highs are hovering at freezing temperatures and opportunities for prime weather conditions to flight test are minimal. If we get lucky, we can perform a flight test or two before we head off to competition which is in the much nicer Southern United States (the competition rotates between Florida, Georgia, and Texas). The more time we have with a full aircraft built, the bigger are the chances of us getting more test flights in. That is where modeFRONTIER comes into play - it allows us to explore a much larger design space in significantly less time than we could do by ourselves. Just the Design of Experiments (DOE) runs give us more data that we have ever gotten in our past design cycles in terms of different configurations. We are currently using modeFRONTIER to do two things: iterate through many different configurations to optimize and do multi-disciplinary analysis since it interfaces so well with other analysis and CAD software we have here at Michigan such as ANSYS, StarCCM+, and SolidWorks. Instead of a standard design, analyze, build, test, go back to first step and repeat - design cycle, we can multiply the iterations for each step: design x 10000 -> analyze x 10000 -> downselect design -> build -> test and repeat the last 3 steps, with the first 3 steps taking only a couple of hours if needed. modeFRONTIER also has a superb post processing capability that allows us to analyze our results in many different ways to make sure we are choosing the right design, as well as provide insights into our design problem.

The Naviator, optimized using modeFRONTIER, was the first project to demonstrate an unmanned aerial and submersible vehicle that could operate both in air and underwater. At Rutgers, researchers in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering’s Laboratory for Experimental Fluids and Thermal Engineering, under the direction of prof. Diez, invented a remotely controlled drone similar to those used by hobbyists and professionals globally, but with one key difference – it is able to both fly and move underwater. The drone called Naviator, and funded in part by the Office of Naval Research, could speed search-and-rescue operations, monitor the spread of oil spills and even help the Navy rapidly defuse threats from underwater mines. Marco Maia, PhD candidate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) working under Prof. F. J. Diez in the Rutgers Applied Fluids Lab and student in the Optimal Design course with Prof. Knight, worked at this outstanding project using modeFRONTIER. Most of our research thrusts involve fluids such as in electrokinetics, microfluidics & nanofluidics, wind energy, turbulence, laser diagnostics with PIV, biological flows. We pride ourselves on the applied nature of some of our research topics, such as in the development of electrokinetic thrusters, AUVs & seagliders and unmanned aerial systems. This vehicle gained a great deal of attention and Prof. Diez was able to secure a grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in the amount of ~$600k. Since then, this research project has grown and has been showcased in several news outlets. Recently, National Geographic visited Rutgers University to film our latest multi-medium vehicle in action for use in one of their pieces, which we were told would be unveiled later in the summer. The optimization project in the MAE Optimal Design course with Prof. Doyle Knight was a great opportunity to make the planned improvements to our new multi-medium vehicle platform. We cannot provide too many details on the vehicle itself until its unveiling, but when we designed the new platform we purposely made it into a skeleton that could benefit from aerodynamic volumetric additions. Thanks to ESTECO for kindly making available its technology for the students of this course. With modeFRONTIER I was able to easily integrate several software together, such as MATLAB, Solidworks or ANSYS Fluent and run the necessary simulations to determine the optimal geometry for these volumetric additions using several optimization algorithms. The result was an optimal set of solutions that minimized the drag and weight while maintaining near neutral buoyancy. The autonomy and visual aids of the software were truly remarkable-it definitely streamlines the optimization process. Thank you again for allowing us to use this very useful tool”.

Jingyuan Yan, Ph.D in Department of Mechanical Engineering, used modeFRONTIER to develop his Ph.D research project focused on the design and optimization of the Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) process. DMD is a 3D printing process for metal, similar to welding, using powders instead of wire. It uses a continuous wave or pulsed laser to induce a melt pool on a substrate, and metallic powders are delivered into the pool via injection nozzles. The process is able to deposit different metal powders onto different locations of the powder substrate in order to manufacture multi-material parts according to user requirements at the microscale level. Despite the benefits of DMD, this process is not widely used in industry: the building powder waste, the need for reduction of energy usage and inaccurate material composition in the fabricated parts are still critical issues. The DMD system provided by Optomec was used to implement the research. During his research on DMD, Jingyuan worked on an injection nozzle designing first of all its geometry to maximize the process efficiency and investigate the relationship between the desired part’s composition and the process parameters. Jingyuan also wanted to improve the DMD process parameters considering their effect on efficiency when manufacturing multi-material parts. “In order to make the best use of powders and to minimize the laser energy consumption, we aimed at optimizing the process parameters. The bi-objective optimization problem was set up in modeFRONTIER workflow using the direct node to MATLAB. Eight design variables related to the process parameters (injection angles, velocities and nozzle diameters for the two materials as well as the laser power and the scanning speed) were set and automatically adjusted with modeFRONTIER to minimize the outputs results: powder waste and energy cost.". “The multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA-II)” continues Jingyuan, “turned out effective in driving the search process and identify the designs which met the constraints on the deposition of multiple materials. As we see in the scattered chart, the feasible designs show a trade-off relationship between the two objective functions. The Pareto front results, marked with green color, enable the users to rapidly select the configuration with lower powder waste.” “The calculation process took about three hours. Using modeFRONTIER, we saved about three days of calculation time compared to the traditional optimization method. In the future, the optimization method can be applied to analyze other combinations of materials used in DMD, with any powder feed rate ratio. The results will be validated with experimental tests and it will be possible to generate a database of optimal process parameters for any given condition to be reused for future DMD projects. In the long run, modeFRONTIER can help tailor the process parameters during the DMD manufacturing of functionally graded parts, in order to get an accurate material composition as desired.”

modeFRONTIER helps the astronaut-like researchers develop system models for sustainable living on Mars, in particular in terms of waste reduction and sustainable lifestyle. Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HISEAS) is a NASA-funded research project aimed to help determine the individual and team requirements for long term space exploration missions, including travel to Mars. HI-SEAS V is an 8-month Mars analog isolation mission that begun on January 19th, 2017. Two 8-month missions are scheduled starting in January 2017 and 2018. During the HI-SEAS Mission V, six researchers are studying human behavior on Mars by entering in a geodesic dome in the isolated environment of Mauna Loa volcano on the Hawaii Big Island, including 20-minutes delayed communication and partial self-sufficiency. The purpose of Campaign 3 is to directly address the IRP Team Risk: “Risk of Performance Decrements Due to Inadequate Cooperation, Coordination, Communication, and Psychosocial Adaptation within a Team”. Ansley Barnard is the Engineering Officer for Mission V. She is in charge of monitoring their life support systems and fixing things that break down. “On a space mission, the astronaut crew is very limited on what they can bring with them. Launch mass (fully fueled) is highly valuable, so every item you send on a rocket needs to be weight and size efficient, including food, water, research materials, and personal effects. When you are traveling far away, like a manned mission to Mars, you need more supplies and you have to burn more fuel to get everything there - this makes resource optimization even more challenging”. “Parametric modeling and optimization software tools like modeFRONTIER provide us with faster and more robust ways to optimize. It is possible to find trends that your human eyes might have missed, which can yield better solutions in less time. modeFRONTIER is an easy to learn tool with a lot of built-in capability and modular flexibility. It is possible to tailor the software to specific needs, and the modeFRONTIER support people have always been helpful when I feel stuck”. Moreover, our resources are limited and we have to use them wisely. If we run out of something before we are resupplied, we have to find a way to make do. Sustainable living is important to me on a personal level and is a big motivator for me to use an optimization approach in my engineering work. While in the habitat, I am hoping to learn more skills about efficient living, like using less water and power by making active choices in how I cook, shower or do laundry. These are real skills I can bring home with me. Just like in space, each of us can balance what we use with what resources are available if we have a curious and observant eye. Tools like modeFRONTIER can help us model systems, but changes are carried out through our actions. By building parametric models of our life support system, I hope to balance our resource needs and find ways for the crew to have energy and water available for all our research and personal uses. My goal is to make a tangible difference in how my crewmates live day-to-day in our mission and provide future HI-SEAS crews with updated engineering information on the habitat life support systems.

Toyota has virtualized a significant portion of its calibration and testing process, reducing dramatically the development time and man-hours dedicated to it. Mr. Goh [Project manager, TMC Laboratory Automation System, Toyota Technical Development Corp.] and Mr. Goto [Group Manager, Power Train Company, Engine Management System Development] talk about the benefits of using automated Design Exploration techniques to verify actuator responses and identify the best control values. “It’s easy to find the optimal control value for a single actuator but when looking to improve EGR, supercharging, VTT, direct injection, etc. With the number of actuators and consequently of the output variables and constraints, manually identifying the optimal control values would require a massive amount of time due to measurement tasks.”, says Mr. Goh. ## Methodology To test the engine, temperature and pressure sensors, torque and fuel consumption (gauge) meter and exhaust gas analyzer are installed and the control systems are implemented accordingly. The combined software iTEST and ORION – the automated control and measurement system for engine bench test implemented at Toyota – manages the controls equipment and collects the output from each instrument. These values are then validated by checking the reference maps. The complexity of the calibration procedure is streamlined by including modeFRONTIER for Calibration (mFC) in the process, directly integrated with ORION – that is used for automatic measurements. This replaces all the manual measurement tasks conducted at the engine test bench (laboratory) and relieves the team from the burden of the repeated iterations between the “design room” and the “laboratory”, where now measurement, modelling and accuracy evaluation can be automatically repeated. “To understand the output trend and find the optimal solution with experimental points, we used mFC to create a Design of Experiment, measure data, train and compare metamodels (RSMs). The next step of the process consists in determining the optimal Engine Control Units maps and finally test again on the real engine.” “mFC succeeds in reducing the difficulties experienced by calibration engineers when using tools for model-based calibration by providing a dedicated graphic interface to directly set parameters, lower and upper bounds. mFC automatically generates designs and RSMs, then iteratively evaluates the accuracy levels and stops the evaluations when the target model accuracy is reached.” Mr. Goh says. Since real engine test is influenced by the variability of control variables and by measurements error, sometimes the combination of temperature, pressure and torque cause the stop of the testing for safety reasons. ## Benefits By using a visual filter in mFC, this issue is easily identified and the DOE is automatically substituted with a more suitable dataset. “In any case, during the evaluation, it is easy to stop mFC and change the DOE. Given certain scenarios, with this technique we can reduce the number of evaluation by 50%” Mr Goh says. This method empowers the system engineering process by adding the capabilities of simulation and automation in the right side of the V-cycle, the experimental evaluation phase of the Verification and Validation model, where is hardly used. ESTECO modeFRONTIER technology has been widely used in the engine modeling phase, in combination with GT-SUITE. Mr. Goto says that by reciprocally using optimization result as continuous feedback between the design and testing phases, there is great potential for further accuracy improvement. “By performing optimization with real engine data, we can leverage the efficiency and accuracy gained during the testing back in model design. Thanks to the common use of both data and models, designer and calibration experts can work together and further improve our operations” concluded Mr. Goh, stressing collaboration among experts as a major benefit of this technology.

How ESTECO’s first Brazilian customer optimized the largest semi-submersible platform in the country Last year Petrobras, a state-owned publicly traded Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, launched their P-55 offshore platform, which was initially sized using modeFRONTIER. In order to tackle the complex problem of multiple variables, constraints and objectives, as well as a desire for a rational approach to the design process, Petrobras turned to modeFRONTIER to help them with the optimization study. ## Challenge Defining the main dimensions of an offshore production platform is a complex problem due to the many variables that can influence the behavior of the platform, including: deck area, deck weight, subsea systems interface, stability issues and wave-induced motions. The dimensioning process is affected by many constraints imposed by more stringent motion requirements, construction and assembly considerations, as well as by the draft limit of shipyards. Ultimately the goal is to reduce to a minimum the vertical wave-induced motions which can cause fatigue damage to the steel catenary risers (the pipes which bring the oil from the seabed to the platform) ## Solution Dr. Mauro Costa de Oliveira, a naval architect at CENPES, the Petrobras Research Center in Rio, and the first user of modeFRONTIER in Brazil, used the software to integrate the hydrodynamics analysis tool, WAMIT, and CENPES’s own stability software, SSTAB. He then went on to run an optimization study in which modeFRONTIER varied 5 key geometric parameters of the platform with the objective of minimizing, subject to numerous constraints, vertical motion of the platform due to wave loading. During the study, the structure was analyzed for multiple conditions: quayside, transit and in operation with 2 different wave load conditions. Using one of modeFRONTIER’s genetic algorithms to drive the search process, Dr Costa de Oliveira was able to identify the designs which met all the constraints, and from among those to select the configuration with the lowest riser vertical motion. The feasible region (ie the part of design space where all constraints were respected) is very small - to identify this region without the help of a tool like modeFRONTIER would have been almost impossible. The final design is shown in Fig. 2. ## Benefits “modeFRONTIER - Dr Costa de Oliveira says - proved to be invaluable in helping us to address the complex problem of selecting the main dimensions of a deep water floating production system, where there is potentially a huge number of alternatives to be evaluated. The software allowed us to rationalize our approach to the problem and conduct an automatic search, driven by a genetic algorithm, which quickly identified the best design which met all constraints. The post-processing tools also proved to be extremely useful for the conceptual phases of the design of a deep water floating production system”. In January 2014 the P-55 began operation in Brazil’s Roncador field at a site where the depth of the seabed is 1,800 meters. At 52,000 tons and 10,000 square meters in size and displacing 105,000 tons, the P-55 is the largest semi-submersible platform built in Brazil and one of the largest of its kind in the world; it is capable of processing 180,000 barrels of oil per day , compressing 6 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, and injecting 290,000 barrels of water per day.

ISUZU Advanced Engineering Center (IAEC) enhances fuel efficiency by optimizing the combustion chamber design In the debate on how best to tackle the impact of vehicles on environment, the improvement of diesel engine efficiency has emerged as a transitory but effective solution, especially for heavy-duty vehicles and passenger cars. Designers at the ISUZU Advanced Engineering Center (IAEC) have analyzed how to enhance fuel efficiency by modifying the shape of the diesel engine combustion chamber. ## Challenge Theoretical thermal efficiency affects fuel consumption in diesel engines and one way of improving it is to increase the combustion chamber compression ratio. The resulting higher in-cylinder temperature and the expansion of the impingement area between fuel spray and chamber wall, however, can cause the chamber wall to heat up and lower theoretical efficiency. The team at IAEC looked at a new way of lowering heat loss by studying the combustion chamber shape, preventing the volumetric inefficiencies and cost and durability issues, which other methods caused. Solution To analyze the impact of the different chamber shapes, the team first defined the chamber outline and spray angle2 and adjusted it to match a given baseline compression ratio. The computational mesh was then created with CONVERGE CFD and modeFRONTIER was used to pilot the 3D-CFD simulations. “In this way, we were able identify the shapes with the maximum cumulative heat release and work, and – at the same time - the minimum heat loss” says Takashima, Chief Engineer Powertrain Product Planning at IAEC. ## Benefits “The shape with the highest cumulative rate of heat release was analyzed in depth. We compared it to calculated heat release rates and cylinder gas temperature profiles of re-entrant-type and shallowdish-type chambers and, later, verified it using experimental data from a single-cylinder engine. The optimized chamber improved fuel consumption by 3.2% compared to its shallow dish type counterpart. modeFRONTIER helped us spot the optimal shape and further analyze the delicate tradeoffs regarding the thermal balance” concluded Arato.

Piaggio & C. s.p.a. uses modeFRONTIER optimization capabilities to improve a 125cc 4-valve engine design The Piaggio Group is the largest European manufacturer of two-wheel motor vehicles and one of the world leaders in its sector. Headquartered in Italy and with Technology & Innovation centers located in India, China and Vietnam, Piaggio is known for its unique range of two-wheel and light transport powertrain vehicles. The company’s R&D activities focus mainly on reducing the environmental impact of its products and improving vehicle efficiency, performance and passenger safety. For many years now, Innovation & Research engineers have been using modeFRONTIER to achieve these design objectives. ## Challenge Reducing the environmental impact of two-wheeler engines, in other words, increasing overall engine efficiency, means, amongst other things, opting for engine downspeeding or downsizing strategies, with the need of reducing engine friction; however, in order to maintain or improve vehicle performance, this requires an increase in specific engine power. The use of numerical models and calculation methodologies provide important support in pursuing these goals. In this case, the design of valve lift events and the valve train components are crucial when taking into account multiple engine issues like valve train systems stability, durability, resisting torque and engine breathing. ## Solution Starting with the baseline valve lift profiles of a 125cc 3-valve engine, engineers at Piaggio set up an automatic workflow within the modeFRONTIER environment that piloted the GT-SUITE calculation in order to evaluate the engine performance and the valve train system behavior in relation to specific valve lift profiles. “With this automated optimization approach we were able to avoid manual, time-consuming tasks involved in modifying the valve lift event in closed loop and to gain control of the entire system behavior”, says Francesco Maiani, Engine Calculation Engineer from Piaggio & C. s.p.a. ## Benefits “modeFRONTIER allowed us to adopt a modular approach to the problem that led us to the final valve lift event design. This methodology made it possible to define the valve lift event and support the analyst during the design of a cam profile. The optimization process sought to improve the system in terms of kinematic and dynamic characteristics and thermodynamic performance requirements”. This allowed engineers to simultaneously modify both the valve springs setup and the cam profile shapes, conveying the required response for the engine friction reduction. Additionally, the whole timing system benefitted from this procedure, also improving stability and durability.