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Migration of Crash Simulation Software at BMW

Submitted by SIMULIA on

Over the past three years, BMW has undertaken a significant project to first investigate,

then proceed with migration from its present crash simulation software to ABAQUS. This project

has been motivated by a growing recognition within BMW that, in order to advance its crash

simulation methods, improved robustness in the software employed, along with a greater emphasis on physically-motivated simulation capabilities, are required. This paper documents the processes that have been undertaken for the migration project, from the very early stages, up through to the present point where ABAQUS is being used exclusively in a substantial pilot project to design the crashworthiness aspects of a new BMW automobile. The paper also documents some ABAQUS advantages already becoming evident for crash simulation, along with some particular ABAQUS simulation results demonstrating its advanced capabilities for modeling failure mechanisms.