Issue link: https://resources.randsim.com/i/1493290
47 Ansys Advantage © 2020 ANSYS, Inc. Visual Appearance Evaluation Using Ansys SPEOS ANSYS SPEOS PROVIDES ACCURATE EVALUATION In automobile lighting technology, design degrees of freedom have greatly improved since transitioning to LEDs. Before this transition, light performance was determined to some extent based on the knowledge of the supplier. The supplier would propose a new light using various tools. However, Mazda had no idea how to independently judge the recommendations. Mazda also had to ensure that it was satisfying various legal regulations and functionality requirements. To move forward, Mazda needed to evaluate the actual light illumination early in the development cycle. "In other development fields, such as collision safety and vibration noise, we used simulation-based performance verification and model-based development in the design stage," says Minoru Inoue, technical leader in Mazda's Interior & Exterior Components Technology Development group. "Meanwhile, in the development of interior and exterior equipment, including lights, verification was mostly conducted using an actual vehicle, so we knew that we were far behind in the optical development. That is why we always wanted to evaluate the human senses, such as feeling comfortable and looking good, based on the physical quantity to front-load the development." "We also liked Ansys SPEOS because its simulation allows us to evaluate different physical quantities — luminance required in the visual lighting evaluation and luminous intensity required to satisfy the legal and regulatory check — at the same time in a single SIMULATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT PHASE DESIGN ACTUAL VEHICLE BY THE NUMBERS Capital: 284 billion yen ($2.7 billion) Employees: 23,087 (unconsolidated) Vehicles sold: (fiscal year ended March 2019): Approximately 1.57 million Sales: 3.565 trillion yen ($33,949 billion) Ansys SPEOS was used for interior and exterior lighting simulation at Mazda Motor Corporation. The company's use of model-based development results in fewer prototypes, saving time and lowering costs. SPEOS also provided a means to quantify the user experience, which justified engineering change orders and improved workflow efficiency.