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ANSYS > Case Studies > Trenitalia Enhances Rail System Efficiency with ANSYS Mechanical
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Trenitalia Enhances Rail System Efficiency with ANSYS Mechanical

Technology Category
  • Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Applicable Industries
  • Construction & Infrastructure
  • Transportation
Applicable Functions
  • Maintenance
  • Product Research & Development
Use Cases
  • Autonomous Transport Systems
  • Transportation Simulation
Services
  • System Integration
  • Testing & Certification
The Challenge
Trenitalia, the Italian railway operator, was facing challenges in managing the development, construction, and maintenance of the rail transportation system in the country. The Technical and Research Department of Trenitalia was using ANSYS Mechanical for design optimization, stress strength structural checks, and maintenance engineering planning. However, the need for larger analysis models and shorter computer response times led Trenitalia to evaluate new calculation solutions. The primary issues they had to overcome included limitations in model size due to the amount of real memory used by 32-bit finite-element programs, long solution times resulting from using a single-processor platform, and hardware architecture bottlenecks in memory and storage sub-systems that increased elapsed solution times. To address these issues, Trenitalia began investigating 64-bit technology, with efficiency requirements suggesting a scalable SMP architecture.
About The Customer
Trenitalia is the primary railway operator in Italy, responsible for managing the development, construction, and maintenance of the rail transportation system in the country. The company's Technical and Research Department uses advanced technology for design optimization, stress strength structural checks, and maintenance engineering planning for the Trenitalia fleet. The department works in collaboration with the Information Technology Department to improve mechanical stress simulation capability and efficiency, and to overcome challenges related to model size, solution times, and hardware architecture bottlenecks.
The Solution
Trenitalia evaluated the x86-64 technology of the PC-based AMD™ 64/EM64T systems to address their challenges. The AMD processors yielded good mathematical results, and full-duplex star topology workstation platforms moved gigabytes of data to/from memory and storage subsystem. A benchmarking study using ANSYS Mechanical to solve some real production test models led to the selection of the Microsoft® Windows x64 Edition operating system because of its solution speed and performance efficiency. A native 64-bit version of ANSYS for Windows x64 provided the analysis software needed for a two-way Win x64 SMP workstation able to support at least 16 gigabytes of memory with low-latency memory and storage subsystem. The success in efficiently solving million-degree-of-freedom models is attributed in particular to the ANSYS parallel compliant high-performance sparse solver.
Operational Impact
  • The implementation of the 64-bit technology and the use of the AMD processors have significantly improved Trenitalia's operations. The company is now able to solve large models typically using the highly efficient in-core feature of the ANSYS sparse solver. Engineers are finally able to browse through large postprocessed result files in real time and to efficiently study larger models made with complex and expensive cluster solutions. The new system has significantly reduced the engineering time needed to prepare models for the solver, thereby enhancing the overall efficiency of the rail system.
Quantitative Benefit
  • Trenitalia can now work with finite element models five times larger than was previously possible.
  • The response times have improved by eight times.
  • The new ANSYS® WorkbenchTM meshing functions have significantly improved pre-processing work.

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