Case study: efficient visualization of physical and structural properties in crash-worthiness simulations

Numerical finite element simulations of the behaviour of a car body in frontal, side or rear impact collision scenarios have become increasingly complex as well as reliable and precise. They are well-established as a standard evaluation tool in the automotive development process. Both the increased complexity and the advances in computer graphics technology have resulted in the need for new visualization techniques to facilitate the analysis of the immense amount of data originating from such scientific engineering computations. Expanding the effectiveness of traditional post-processing techniques is one key to achieve shorter design cycles and faster time-to-market. In this paper, we describe how the extensive use of texture mapping and new visualization mappings like force tubing can considerably enhance the post-processing of structural and physical properties of car components in crash simulations. We show that, using these techniques, both the calculation costs and the rendering costs are reduced, and the quality of the visualization is improved.