Engineering Research Excellence
Conceptual design, CAD, FEA, thermal and fluid analysis, optimisation and validation.
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Structural, thermal, CFD, modal, impact and multi-physics analysis with optimisation.
Simulation is cheaper than prototyping and faster than testing, which is exactly why it is so often trusted further than it deserves. A model is only as good as the assumptions written into it.
The eight analysis types on the poster cover the range: design and modelling, structural analysis, thermal analysis, CFD and fluid analysis, impact and explicit analysis, multi-physics for coupled effects, and optimisation and validation. Most real projects need two or three of these together, because the physics does not respect the boundaries between solver modules.
A heat exchanger is a thermal problem, a flow problem and a structural problem at once. A bracket that passes a static analysis may fail at a resonance the modal analysis would have found. A battery pack that survives a drop test in explicit dynamics may still overheat in steady operation. Deciding which analyses a design genuinely needs is the first piece of engineering judgement in any project.
We serve automotive, aerospace, defence, energy, heavy machinery, industrial equipment and medical device work, in ANSYS, SolidWorks Simulation and Autodesk Inventor. The six-step workflow on the poster — requirement analysis, CAD model creation, meshing, simulation and solver, results analysis, report and deliverables — is the one we follow on every job.
Eight analysis families from the poster, with what each one actually tells you.
Almost every simulation begins with simplification: fillets removed, threads suppressed, thin features defeatured, symmetry exploited, a bolted joint replaced by a bonded contact. Each of these is legitimate in the right place and dangerous in the wrong one. Removing a fillet where the peak stress occurs turns a real answer into a singularity.
We record every simplification and the reason for it. Where a simplification might affect the quantity of interest we test it — run the case both ways on a coarse mesh and show the difference is small. That test costs an hour and it converts an assumption into evidence.
The same applies to boundary conditions, which is where most simulation error actually lives. A fixed support where the real part is bolted through a flexible bracket will overpredict stiffness and underpredict deflection. We model the constraint that exists rather than the constraint that is convenient, and where we cannot, we say so in the report.
What has to be answered, to what accuracy, and what will be done with the answer. This determines every later choice.
Geometry built or cleaned, with simplifications listed and justified rather than made silently.
Element type, sizing, refinement in regions of interest, and quality metrics reported — skewness, aspect ratio, orthogonality.
Materials, contacts, loads, boundary conditions and solver settings documented so the run is reproducible.
Not just the peak value: the distribution, the location, the sensitivity and whether the result is physically plausible.
Written interpretation, figures at publication quality, and every native file handed over.
Design optimisation is where simulation earns its cost, but it only works when the objective and the constraints are stated precisely. 'Make it lighter' is not an objective; 'minimise mass subject to peak von Mises stress below 180 MPa and first natural frequency above 240 Hz' is. Once the problem is written that way, a design of experiments and a response surface will find the trade-off surface efficiently.
We present optimisation results as a trade-off rather than a single answer, because there almost never is a single answer. Mass against stiffness, cost against life, performance against manufacturability — showing the frontier lets you and your supervisor choose with the trade-off visible.
Manufacturability is part of the assessment. A topology-optimised bracket that cannot be cast, machined or printed at your budget is an academic exercise. We flag it when the optimum is not makeable and show what the constraint costs you in performance.
| What you receive |
|---|
| CAD models and drawings |
| Meshed models with quality reports |
| Documented setup for every load case |
| Convergence and mesh independence evidence |
| Result contours, plots and comparison tables |
| Optimisation study with the trade-off frontier |
| Technical report with interpretation and limitations |
| All native project files |
Three densities is the practical minimum and four is better. Plot your quantity of interest against element count and show it flattening. Report the mesh you used and the percentage change from the previous refinement — reviewers look for that number.
Yes, in explicit dynamics. These are computationally heavy and the material models matter far more than in a static analysis, so we will discuss what strain-rate data is available before committing to a timeline.
It strengthens the work considerably. Where an experiment is not feasible we validate against an analytical solution or trusted published data for a similar case, and present the study as comparative rather than absolute. What we will not do is present an unvalidated model as though it were validated.
You get the native project files plus exported results in neutral formats — STEP for geometry, CSV for data, PDF and PNG for figures — so you have something usable even without the original software licence.
Most models can be reduced without losing the answer — symmetry, submodelling, shell elements instead of solids, or a coarse global model with a refined local one. We size the analysis to the hardware you actually have and tell you when a simplification would change the result rather than merely speed it up.
Conceptual design, CAD, FEA, thermal and fluid analysis, optimisation and validation.
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Steady-state, transient, conjugate heat transfer, thermal stress and cooling design.
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Theoretical modelling, experimental data interpretation, computation and validation.
Read moreSend your topic, your dataset or one draft chapter. We will tell you honestly what it needs — before you pay anything. The first consultation is free.