What is power and fluidic equipment simulation?

Power and fluidic equipment simulation uses virtual testing to evaluate the performance, reliability, and durability of systems such as turbines, pumps, heat exchangers, electrical equipment, and gear mechanisms under real operating conditions.

How does SIMULIA help improve power equipment performance?

SIMULIA combines structural, fluid, thermal, electromagnetic, and acoustic simulation to help engineers optimize efficiency, reduce breakdowns, extend equipment life, and accelerate innovation without excessive physical testing.

Which SIMULIA products are used for power and fluidic equipment simulation?

SIMULIA solutions available on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, including Abaqus, CST Studio Suite, PowerFLOW, XFlow, and system simulation technologies, support the design and analysis of power and fluidic equipment.

Can SIMULIA support sustainability initiatives in power equipment design?

Yes. SIMULIA helps engineers investigate cleaner materials, improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions, minimize overdesign, and evaluate alternatives such as SF6-free electrical equipment.

How does simulation improve equipment reliability and maintenance planning?

Simulation helps predict wear, thermal loads, fatigue, vibration, and other performance factors that influence equipment lifespan, enabling engineers to optimize maintenance intervals and improve reliability.

Which physics can be combined in SIMULIA simulations?

SIMULIA supports multiphysics simulation, including structural mechanics, CFD, electromagnetics, thermal analysis, acoustics, fluid-structure interaction, and system modeling to capture real-world operating conditions.

Can SIMULIA reduce physical testing and prototyping?

Yes. Virtual simulation enables engineers to evaluate performance, investigate failure modes, validate designs, and assess compliance earlier in development, reducing reliance on costly prototypes and destructive testing.

What types of equipment can be simulated using SIMULIA?

SIMULIA supports the simulation of turbomachinery, pumps, duct systems, gear mechanisms, electrical power equipment, heat exchangers, lubrication systems, HVAC components, and other multiphysics applications.

SIMULIA Power & Fluidic Equipment

Advancing Power & Fluidic Equipment Engineering with SIMULIA

When gas turbines make up 70% of the European Union (EU) energy production needs, even incremental improvements can have significant impacts. Because of this, governments across the world are focusing on improving turbine efficiency, and new turbine designs and power generation cycles are slowly redefining the energy landscape. This ambition to reduce emissions does not stop with turbines however; induction motors currently account for 64% of drive energy consumption in manufacturing plants, and pumps 27%; in the case of pumps, an energy reduction potential of up to 50% can be achieved.

Power and Fluidic Equipment Engineering solutions from Dassault Systèmes help you meet the latest legislation requirements, and extend the operating life of your equipment. Avoid breakdown, increase operating performance, and investigate new cleaner materials with our designer oriented solutions. Investigate the behavior of your products in installed conditions, and without a prototype, through our multiphysics workflows.

Gear Mechanism Engineering

SIMULIA enables high-fidelity simulation of gear mechanisms to design lighter, more efficient, and more reliable power transmission systems. By capturing nonlinear contact, structural loads, and system dynamics under real operating conditions, engineers can predict performance and durability before physical testing — increasing power density, improving efficiency and emissions performance, accelerating time-to-market through cost-effective design decisions, and reducing risk by complementing and enhancing physical testing.

SIMULIA Capabilities

Nonlinear gear tooth contact and load distribution analysis
Fatigue, wear, and durability prediction
Vibration and dynamic behavior of gear trains
Thermo-mechanical effects on performance and lifetime

Benefits

Analysis of substructures or fully coupled nonlinear systems
Applicable across all stages of virtual product development, with varying model detail
Integration into a multidisciplinary simulation workflow

Learn more about Optimizing Gearbox Efficiency

Turbomachinery

Maximize energy production with advanced simulation that captures the full flow dynamics of the turbine assembly — leaving no detail overlooked. By redesigning blade cooling channels and improving resistance to creep and fatigue, you can:

Increase operating speeds by 5% or more.
Optimize thermal and structural performance.
Achieve efficiency gains of up to 65% without the need for costly physical prototypes.

Simulation-driven design allows engineers to explore innovative turbine solutions, accelerate development, and improve both performance and reliability.

Focus on individual aspects of turbomachinery design - structural, aerodynamic and aero-acoustic and component cooling

Pump and Duct Flow

Our simulation solutions predict the behavior of pumps and connected duct systems, even when complex fluid-structure interactions are involved, such as in peristaltic pumps or intricate piping networks. Valve performance and pressure losses can also be optimized, with capabilities that:

Model rigid-body interactions in spring-loaded check valves.
Predict complex instabilities that may affect wear, reliability, and operational lifetime.
Improve overall system efficiency and durability without the need for costly physical prototypes.

By accurately capturing fluid dynamics and mechanical interactions, engineers can optimize pump and duct designs, reduce energy consumption, extend equipment lifespan, and ensure reliable performance across the system.

Community Noise

Induction motors drive most industrial systems and demand is rapidly increasing. Higher-torque designs need forced cooling, and ventilation fans become the main noise source.

Equipment noise can reach 120–150 dB, while limits near homes are typically ~55 dB. As power and industrial plants move closer to communities, noise control is critical for compliance, worker safety, and public acceptance.

Designing quiet cooling systems is difficult: engineers must deliver high airflow, high efficiency, and low noise — a combination that requires advanced aeroacoustic expertise and costly development cycles.

More performance → more cooling → more noise. Smarter fan and acoustic design is the key.

Electrical Power Equipment

Electromagnetic (EM) simulation enables you to optimize electrical power equipment — such as switchgear, transformers, motors, and generators — for performance, reliability, and sustainability. With these capabilities, you can:

Predict the electrical and thermal behavior of switchgear using cleaner insulation gases, avoiding breakdowns.
Ensure successful in-service testing and compliance with safety standards.
Accelerate early-stage development of innovative designs without relying on physical prototypes.

By integrating EM simulation into your design workflow, engineers can reduce environmental impact, improve efficiency, and deliver reliable, safe electrical power equipment — all while supporting faster innovation and regulatory compliance.

Read here about Switchgear Design

Power & Fluidic Equipment Workflows

Bus-bar Electromechanical Structural Integrity

Current-carrying components and bus-bar systems in electrical equipment can be subjected to currents up to 20 or 30 times the rated current for just a few milliseconds, which can generate forces that cause catastrophic failure. It is critical for designers to establish short-circuit withstand and mechanical strength in such systems and to ensure adherence to standards such as IEC 60865-1, IEC 61439 and their variants.

Simulation is used to evaluate the thermal and structural response of bus-bar systems under short-circuit conditions, helping verify mechanical strength and compliance with industry standards.

Electromagnetic force and short-circuit withstand assessment
Thermal performance and support integrity evaluation
Design exploration for materials, spacing, and support configurations

Heat Exchanger Analysis

Heat exchangers play a critical role in power plants, where efficient heat transfer directly impacts overall plant performance. Challenges arise from complex fluid flow patterns, temperature gradients, and interaction between fluid and solid domains, which influence heat transfer efficiency and pressure drop.

Simulation is used to predict flow and heat transfer performance in heat exchangers, helping optimize efficiency and ensure reliable operation across varying conditions.

Heat transfer and temperature distribution analysis
Pressure drop and flow behavior evaluation
Design optimization across multiple configurations

Electrical Breakdown Performance

Insulation failure can lead to electrical breakdown, catastrophic failure and system downtime in electrical power equipment such as switchgear and any equipment exposed to potential breakdown conditions. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) has long dominated high- and medium-voltage Gas-Insulated Switchgear (GIS), Gas-Insulated Circuit Breakers (GCB), and Gas-Insulated Transmission Lines (GIL). SF6 also has an extremely high GWP of around 23,500, which is 23,500 times that of CO2. Significant effort is underway to discover SF6-free solutions to address this environmental concern.

Simulation is used to assess insulation performance and breakdown risk in electrical equipment, helping validate safe operating limits and reduce the need for physical testing.

Breakdown voltage and critical field evaluation
Verification of operating voltages and currents
Reduced prototyping and compliance testing efforts

Heat Exchangers

Couple fluid flow and heat transfer in a single simulation. Improve the integration of heat exchanger in your system by ensuring maximum heat exchange. Include coolant computation, flow aerodynamics and convection, and thermal conduction and radiation in the simulation.

1D/3D Coupled Simulations

Couple CFD with system modeling to optimize HVAC components across varying operating and weather conditions, integrating experimental and 3D simulation data as 1D behavior laws via Functional Mockup (FMU) interfaces to balance accuracy, complexity, and development time.

Thermal performance

Predict thermal loads by coupling electromagnetic and thermal solvers. Safely investigate novel designs numerically eliminating unnecessary and destructive tests and also reducing the number of prototypes. Emulate costly mandatory tests and determine pass-fail compliance to avoid late stage failures. Integrate simulation in early design stages to reduce product development costs.

Gearbox Lubrication

Our GPU native solution empowers designers and analysts to perform complex Powertrain simulations, that involves multiphase flows and moving parts, such as Gearboxes, in a very fast and affordable way, without the significant hardware and long turnaround time that traditional CPU solutions required.

Industry Processes for Power & Fluidic Equipment

Power & Fluidic Equipment Simulation Resources

Explore the technological advancements, innovative methodologies, and evolving industry demands that are reshaping the world of Power & Fluidic. Stay a step ahead with SIMULIA. Discover now.

FAQs about Power & Fluidic Equipment

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