Distributed-collaborative working:: A new way in vehicle development?

The aim of the ESPRIT-project COVAS (Collaborative Visualization of Automotive Simulation) is to conduct experiments and analyse a collaborative working scenario in the field of CAE during the vehicle development process. The participating companies Dr.-lng. h.c.F. Porsche AG. Ove Arup & Partners and Falkenburger und Partner GmbH have longstanding experiences in numerical simulation and will use the software COVISE (Collaborative Visualization of Automotive Simulation) developed by the Computing Center of the University of Stuttgart (RUS). COVISE has been designed to exloit the benefits of distributed computing and enables visualisation of simulation results in a collaborative working scenario. The COVAS project coordinator,Porsche, offers engineering services to customers ail over the world. Therefore Porsche is interested in cooperative working tools which improve the communication with their customers. In one part of the project, Falkenburger und Partner Porsche investigate the influence of collaborative working on the workflow of linear-static FE analyses in the field of engine development. In another part of the project Porsche and Ove Arup & Partners use a high-speed international network to visualise the results of vehicle crash analyses where large amounts of data need to be processed. The COVAS project will report on how collaborative working using modern high-speed networks could influence the way CAE projects are undertaken in the Vehicle development process. An aim of the project is to provide a cost-benefit analysis of the traditional and the new collaborative working method.