Ohio State, Honda pair to speed auto-parts design
By Dan Gearino
The Columbus Dispatch • Friday May 22, 2015
The rows of monitors and keyboards give little indication of the vast computing power in a new Ohio State University lab, part of a team-up with Honda that seeks to expedite the design of vehicle parts.
Ohio State gave its first public tour on Thursday of the lab it calls the Simulation Innovation and Modeling Center. Located in a single room, the 20 or so work stations can tap into the muscle of the equivalent of hundreds of home computers, according to university officials.
The center’s opening is indicative of trends in academia and the auto industry. Universities are devoting more resources to working with private industry, with some of the work leading to financial returns for the schools. At the same time, automakers are shortening the time between vehicle redesigns, which creates pressure to design and test parts more quickly than before.
“When we all get faster, we all get better,” said Frank Paluch, president of Honda R&D Americas, speaking before the tour.
He was joined by David B. Williams, dean of Ohio State’s College of Engineering, and other dignitaries.
Honda donated $5 million toward the lab’s startup costs of more than $10 million, according to Ohio State. About 10 faculty members work closely with the center.
The lab has a data connection to Honda R&D’s offices in Raymond, Ohio, allowing two-way communication on Honda-related projects. The partnership gives the university and the automaker the ability to perform complex simulations much more quickly than each could do alone.
This type of collaboration is increasingly common, said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific, a research firm in Tustin, Calif.
“It speeds up the development time, reduces development cost and gets us better cars,” Peterson said.
He listed Clemson and Stanford universities as two prominent examples of schools that work closely with automakers.
The lab has been open to students and faculty members for about a year. And while Honda is the major sponsor, Ohio State also works with other automakers and auto-parts manufacturers, some of whom had representatives at the tour.
Among current projects, a team of students is simulating the flow of air over the front hoods of cars. The goal is to design a hood that is as lightweight as possible while also having minimal vibration.
In other words, researchers are asking, “How thin can we make the hood?” said Justin Pesich, 23, a graduate student who is working on the project.
The computer system allows students to make a virtual model of a hood design and then test it under various simulated vehicle speeds.
Before this type of computer modeling, automakers relied more on physical prototypes. Current technology allows forgoing the physical prototypes until much later in the process, which saves time and money.
In honor of the lab tour, Honda brought a special version of the 2016 Pilot SUV, which began mass production this week. This Pilot, parked outside the lab building, has cutaways along the passenger side to allow a view of parts that ordinarily would be out of sight.
“Engineers geek out about that kind of stuff,” said Shawn Midlam-Mohler, associate director of the lab.
@DanGearino
Article originally featured in The Columbus Dispatch.