HIPERCOMBATS: A parallel industrial tool for two-wheeler suspensions design

Abstract

In this paper we present an overview of the HPCN tool developed in the framework of the CAPRI's subproject HIPERCOMBATS (Esprit — HPCN contract no EP-9602 CAPRI). The acronym HIPERCOMBATS states for HIgh PERformance COmputing in Multi-Body Analyis for Two-wheeler Suspension design. This tool aims at helping the design of new suspensions for two wheeler vehicles by performing parametric simulations on a non dedicated network of heterogeneous computers, that is the parallel platforms available at PIAGGIO V.E. The user interacts with the code through a pre-processor and a post-processor. The user friendly pre-processor has been designed to allow the user to input each of the physical quantities characterizing the vehicle dynamics and to define the set of computers he intends to use for the parametric study. The Multi-Body System (MBS) simulations, using a general purpose MBS package called COMPAMM [2], are performed concurrently and are driven by a Parallel Manager module. The post-processor permits the users to have an easy access to the results by plotting the quantities meaningful for the study. Pictures of these user interfaces will be given in this paper as well as parallel performance.