MSC.Software Corp.the leading global provider of virtual product development (VPD) products, including simulation software and services, today announced the availability of MSC.Robust Design, the next generation in the evolution of simulation software. MSC.Robust Design drives probabilistic design in MSC.Software simulation products by allowing multiple variables to be processed efficiently. The results of simulations powered by MSC.Robust Design provide more insight and better understanding of design sensitivity, allowing engineers to manage risk and improve product quality, safety and performance.

“The ability to perform simulation that takes into account real-world variability and uncertainty is an extremely important next step in the evolution of computer-aided engineering,” said Frank Perna, chairman and chief executive officer of MSC.Software. “We are already seeing opportunities to take on services engagements related to bundling MSC.Robust Design and the MSC.Simulation Data Management Framework, which are very complementary technologies.”

“We developed the MSC.Robust Design environment to be within the reach of every MSC.Software customer and to help them leverage the investment they have made insimulation and virtual prototyping,” continued Perna. “Thanks to advances in processing speed, any engineer using MSC.Nastran can take advantage of this next generation in engineering and unlock the hidden knowledge in their virtual models and designs.”

"Uncertainties cannot be known, but they exist and must be taken into account; modern uncertainty management techniques imply the quantification of the robustness. MSC.Robust Design is opening the possibility to estimate and improve the robustness of the design: this is the right way to obtain faster, better and cheaper products and we are already using this technology from MSC.Software," said Mr. V. Gomez-Molinero, Head of Engineering, Development and Test, EADS (Airbus)/CASA Espacio.

Today’s computer-aided engineering process is largely reliant upon deterministic analysis, where an engineer performs a computer test on a single model with one or more load conditions to obtain a single result. However, in the real world, both the model and environment have combinations of variability and uncertainty that must be considered to truly simulate possible outcomes. For example, passenger cars are manufactured with sheet metal, which is not always of uniform thickness. To obtain a realistic estimate of how the car will perform in terms of noise, vibration or crash; the variability of sheet metal thickness and the manufacturing imperfections, such as those encountered in the welding process, must be taken into account. Using MSC.Robust Design, engineers can automatically consider a range of simulations that randomly varies the sheet thickness, material property scatter, weld imperfections or loading, in order to simulate a realistic variety of outcomes. When complete, the engineer is presented with a graphical representation of the model’s quality and credibility, and estimates of probability of failure.

MSC.Robust Design is very important for those companies who manufacture vehicles or any other product where personal safety or risk is a crucial design requirement. The more complex a product is, the higher the chance that some combination of uncertainties will have an unexpected and potentially undesired effect. This phenomenon, which can only be observed if the virtual prototype incorporates uncertainty, manifests itself as outliers, that is isolated points that in many cases can be translated directly into risk and liability. It is therefore of paramount importance to anticipate their presence and to understand the circumstances under which they arise.

Virtual prototype models represent a valuable asset in a company – an investment that captures corporate know-how and experience as it relates to product performance. MSC.Robust Design provides an opportunity to not only consolidate this knowledge, but also to extract additional, often unexpected, information about a system and its performance.