MSC seeks to expand motorsport VPD business

MSC's CEO, Frank Perna, commented: "Because of the complex interactions they're simulating, like rollhoops and complex tyre-terrain interactions, the manufacturers of these cars need to be sure that they meet both performance and safety requirements. The best way to do that is to utilise MSC.Software VPD tools. The MSC.Software team looks forward to growing our partnerships with racing teams around the world and helping them [to] field the cars best engineered for winning."

MMSP and Trebur-Astheim, Germany, based Mitsubishi Motorsport GmbH are using the VPD software products to perform non-linear contact analysis of components of the Japanese company's WR04 rally car, including analysis of the main rollhoop. "In the past, MMSP had no software capable of carrying out non-linear FEA," said technical director Mario Fornaris. "With the introduction of a mandatory [FIA] vertical rollhoop test, this became an obvious problem.

"To recreate this test with CAE, we needed a software package with an FEA solver suitable for both non-linear material and geometric effects. 'MSC.Patran' and 'MSC.Marc' turned out to be the solutions. MSC.Software was also a strategic choice for us, perfectly fitting our company's philosophy to perform state-of-the-art engineering.

"In future projects, we're also considering 'MSC.Patran' and 'MSC.Marc' to be used for the majority of calculations on the cars, as well as any FEA calculations concerned with the chassis, engine, gearbox, and suspension. We're conscious of the fact that the performance of our cars is directly related to skills, methods and tools used by our development department."