Siemens Digital Industries Software has announced the availability of the latest release of Simcenter Testlab software. It is part of the Simcenter portfolio of simulation and test solutions within the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of integrated software and services. The latest release includes updates to Simcenter Testlab Neo, enhanced model-based systems testing, introduces a new technology for accelerating structural dynamics called Digital Image Correlation, and frontloads analysis of full vehicle noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) during the design process. Test and simulation engineers as well as test campaign managers can benefit from this latest release for multi-disciplinary test-based performance engineering, specifically designed to offer test and simulation teams new capabilities to innovate smart products more productively.

The latest developments within industry can bring innovation, but also bring new demands and requirements, including the need to achieve realistic and predictive results more efficiently than ever before. Test teams are now working closely together with simulation teams, as the ever-declining number of prototypes available calls for the use of digital twins in the early stages of development. At the same time, there is an ever present need to obtain the most information possible from massive amounts of data, collected by testing and generated by simulation. 

In Simcenter Testlab, test engineers have access to new technologies that can increase productivity when collecting and processing data. The effort to compare and correlate test and simulation results is minimized, and validated simulation models - digital twins - can be used during the physical testing activities to generate valuable extra data. At the same time, Simcenter Testlab provides direct data access to many simulation results formats, enabling simulation engineers to benefit from the data processing capabilities within the software as well as the consistency of selected processing functions and parameters between the physical and virtual tests.

Characterizing the structural behavior of materials and structures under load is a key enabler to improving designs and developing high performance products. New developments in digital camera technology in combination with high-performant Digital Image Correlation (DIC) techniques allow users to extract full-field 3D geometry, displacement and strain information, under any load and for almost any type of material, with limited instrumentation. DIC can then be used to identify material properties, validating numerical models and assessing the strength of materials and components, and analyze structural vibrations and dynamic responses to enable faster and more responsive development cycles.

The component-based transfer path analysis solution with Simcenter Testlab also enables the evaluation of vehicle performance in early design stages. It maximizes the usage of all available information on sub-systems and components, whether that be measurement data or simulation results. This unique and comprehensive solution can measure, post-process and publish accurate and consistent component NVH models, offering users improved component characterization methods and predictive NVH synthesis supporting performance evaluation of virtual prototype assemblies.

The new Simcenter Testlab 2021.1 software release brings these and many other enhancements to offer test and simulation teams a solution to integrate physical testing and virtual simulation throughout the development cycle, bringing new capabilities to innovate smart products more efficiently.