These slides were presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2025, held in Salzburg, Austria from May 19–22, 2025.

Abstract

Virtual methods have played an important role in the development of technical products in the automotive industry for years. This generates enormous amounts of data, and it is established practice, at least among OEMs, to manage this data in a simulation data management system (SDM). In this presentation, we will show that such data management is not only essential for management and traceability, but will also use examples from the day-to-day practice of an OEM's simulation department to demonstrate how new possibilities for post-processing, reporting and data analysis can be exploited on the basis of structured data storage. The crash simulation and NVH examples presented show how advanced post-processing and sophisticated reporting templates help to quickly and clearly extract the key features from a collection of simulation results. Powerful methods for generating such templates make the rigid template system more flexible, and the templates can be easily adapted to extended requirements by users without in-depth knowledge of the template rules. This gives engineers the tools they need to focus on the issues at hand, rather than wasting time on data preparation. In another example, we show how visualization provides new insights and reveals correlations. These analyses are only possible because the simulation results can be easily selected in the underlying SDM system. Above all, it is also possible to quickly change or expand the data included in the analysis. The interesting features can also be used for quick access to the underlying calculation runs. These in turn can be traced back to the CAD data and load cases. The basis for these analysis options is the implementation of powerful post-processing routines, which have access to the simulation data and the associated metadata by using the API of the SDM system. These extensions are developed in close cooperation between the users and the experienced SDM experts at GNS Systems.