Messier Designer / St-Hubert

FEA analysis on a rooster comb

Messier Designers was hired to design a new car top sign for the St-Hubert delivery vehicles. Lx Sim’s mandate for this project was to analyze the resistance and anchor points of the new design and offer recommendations for improvement.

CHALLENGE

To study the structural behavior of the sign when subjected to frontal and lateral impact loads, as well as aerodynamic loads from front winds of 120 km/h and side winds of 140 km/h.

LX SIM EXPERTISE

Quasi-static non-linear finite element analysis to evaluate the car top sign’s resistance and anchor points.
Fluid flow analysis to determine the distribution of pressures generated by the air on the sign’s surfaces and the direct transfer of mesh information for the finite element analysis.

Benefits:
Integrating the CFD and FEA analyses allowed us to validate the design and reduce the risk of error during the prototyping phase and initial trials.

RESULTS:
Lx used quasi static non-linear finite element analysis to assess the car top sign’s resistance and anchor points. The sign’s structure was subjected to three load cases: a frontal impact case, a lateral impact case and a case involving violent front and side winds.
For the wind load case, the fluid flow was analyzed using Siemens Star-CCM+ software to determine the distribution of pressure generated by the air on the sign’s surfaces.

Benefits

Concept validation
Reduction of error risks during the prototyping phase
Acceleration of initial trials