Vibration and acceleration simulation

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Written by Jennifer Shuttleworth

Mentor Graphics Corp."s (Wilsonville, OR) Xpedition vibration and acceleration simulation product for printed circuit board (PCB) systems reliability and failure prediction addresses the challenges of harsh environments for today"s electronics. Xpedition Design for Reliability (DfR) augments mechanical analysis and physical testing by introducing virtual accelerated lifecycle testing much earlier in the design process. According to Mentor Graphics, it is the industry"s first PCB-design-specific vibration and acceleration simulation solution targeting products where harsh environments can compromise product performance and reliability, including automotive, military, aerospace and industrial markets. Bridging mechanical and electronic design disciplines, Mentor Graphics claims the Xpedition product provides vibration simulation significantly faster than any existing method. This results in increased test coverage and shortened design cycles to ensure product reliability and faster time to market. For more information, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yna1jLnn4qw.



Date written: 13-Mar-2017 06:18 EDT

More of this article on the SAE International Website

ID: 7053

 

[TransAmDan]

With that large capacitor and vibration would surely be a target for improvement. I guess the simulation can simulate models in the library, but when you see things like this in the field they have hot glue holding components in place, how would you simulate hot glue? if done by hand, different amount could be applied, or the incorrect temperature.

Interesting though, as simulations like this for car ECU's is a must.

We were told at one point that the BGA(ball grid array) footprint of a chip was ideal to be compact, however during heat cycles the board expands to a different rate of the chip, therefore fracturing the ball joints. Which isn't much good, so when you are interested in heat ranges and vibration the good old surface mount leaded packages seem to work out best, but of course are a little larger.