Modern Technological Advancements In Design And Engineering
The advancements of technology in the last 50 years has led to significant improvements in all areas of design and engineering, and have allowed for more efficient and cost effective methods for when researching and designing a product. It was allowed ability to produce and view a 3D model without needing to produce various expensive production tooling, reducing cost and thus allowing engineers to experiment and be more creative whilst designing.
The increased computing power has allowed computers to be able to simulate certain aspects of the real world, allowing areas of study such as aerodynamic research and stress analysis to occur within a computer. This has resulted in a large increase in the variety of products that we see day-to-day, along with an increase in complexity too.
Through the use of 3D modeling software, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machinery, a large number of products are now able to be produced on a mass scale and with micron accuracy. The expanded computing power available to engineers has resulted in more complex, yet more efficient products.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is another form of computational simulation, effectively a wind tunnel inside computer. CFD works simply by modelling fluid flow around the object. Whilst it is simple to simulate of flow over one section of an object, the computing power required to simulate multiple air flows over the whole surface of an object requires vastly more computing power. The accuracy of CFD software is constantly increasing, but occasionally still is not as accurate as a real world wind tunnel. The availability and accuracy of CFD software has still allowed for more efficient research and development regardless, as potential variants can be compared and tested without the need for creating real world models for a wind tunnel. Additionally, CFD allows for greater visualisation of aerodynamic data that otherwise would not be possible in a windtunnel. This data, which can be edited to display what engineers wish to see, allows for a greater understanding of the flow structures and how an airflow moves around a particular object.
FEA is a method of understanding how forces interact with an object, and relies on breaking down an object into smaller parts in order to calculate how the object would react as a whole when under stress. FEA requires an understanding of a material’s specific properties and previously was quite manual, with many calculations still needed to completed by hand. With the advent of computer software however, FEA software has become much more advanced. Computers are able to divide objects into even smaller parts than ever before, yielding far more accurate results. The additional computing power has also meant that dynamic simulations can happen too, thus providing more accuracy to the types of forces a product me see within the real world.
