Efficient Technologies Using FAST

New Methodologies have been developed and implemented at VITEC with the use of advanced Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) tools to effectively reduce product development cost and time from design to production of plastic fuel tanks.

VITEC’s fuel tank product development process consists of designing the tank outer shell configuration dictated by the customer’s vehicle environment clearances. These are specified to avoid any interference with other vehicle components and still maintain the required fuel capacity level of the tank based on a constant wall thickness assigned throughout the tank shell surface.

VITEC uses a validated process simulation technology to reproduce accurately the entire tank blow molding process including head tool/die design and optimization. The intent is to generate a more realistic variable tank wall thickness spectrum in a digital/virtual environment, which is now used to help assess tank design performance in the early stages of the development process.

VITEC’s customers take advantage of this valuable variable thickness information to perform crash simulation runs while the tank is integrated into and is part of the full vehicle body. Latest results revealed that the use of a variable thickness data, obtained from process simulation, helped anticipate design/process issues prior to tool machining and part manufacturing. The developed methodology was applied on several tank programs within VITEC and was proved to be successful in reducing cost and time consumed with physical tests.

This implemented methodology is only the first step in relying on commercially available software packages for internal simulation capabilities. VITEC’s vision is to develop and implement an intelligent interface that would automatically transfer data from one software package to another and that links all of the individual internal simulation tools. VITEC is currently developing a Fully Automated Simulation Tool (FAST) that CAD designers and product engineers can use on a daily basis to assess and optimize tank designs for manufacturability, structural integrity and refueling performance.

Permeation level formulations will be also developed and implemented in FAST in an attempt to reproduce costly and time-consuming fuel tank system permeation tests in laboratory sheds for emissions performance and fuel vapor management purposes. This new permeation simulation technology will support the VITEC’s Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (PZEV) solution development in terms of performing relatively quick virtual permeation testing of newly developed design configurations rather than relying on long physical tests from lab sheds that usually take 20-30 weeks to satisfy CARB requirements.