Altair announced that Vertu has invested in and deployed Altair's complete range of technology and services through the company's new HyperWorks Unlimited(TM) (HWUL) appliance. HWUL is a fully managed, private cloud solution for computer-aided engineering (CAE), with fully configured high-performance computing (HPC) hardware and software, offering unlimited use of all Altair HyperWorks(R) engineering applications. Vertu is applying CAE methods in its development process to replace some time-consuming physical testing of valuable phone prototypes in order to achieve more efficient development cycles.

To maximize the benefits of using CAE, Vertu supported by Altair Product Design has developed and deployed an automated drop test simulation process, which is fully integrated into the HWUL solution. From a computer-aided design (CAD) model, a very high fidelity drop impact finite element analysis (FEA) model of the phone is set up to test different drop orientations, velocities, and many other scenarios which can be selected by the user. This is then simulated using Altair's RADIOSS(R) solver in parallel on the HWUL appliance.

The multiple simulation results are then extracted and analyzed in a batch process. A spreadsheet-based summary report is generated to review component and system-level performance with provision for detailed post-processing in the HyperWorks desktop environment. This automated process has enabled Vertu to quickly and efficiently identify potential impact damage and make design decisions.