Funded by: Siemens
PI: Hrachya Kocharyan
Researcher: Amaras Mehrabi
Project description
This project, conducted in collaboration with Siemens, focuses on evaluating the capabilities and limitations of Altair Simlab for modeling nonlinear mechanical behavior in engineering applications. The main goal is to understand how effectively the software can simulate complex material responses such as elastoplasticity, viscoelasticity, and viscoplasticity, particularly when these behaviors are temperature-dependent. Siemens is especially interested in the application of those capabilities in simulating integrated circuits and microchips, with attention to the solders between the layers. This is important, as current simulation models do not provide adequate capabilities in simulating 3D integrated circuits, and thermal cycles can result in deformations and warpages at the solder balls as shown below in Fig. 1. The work began with a structured literature review and documentation study while awaiting access to the full software license. Preliminary finding was that Altair Simlab is highly capable in non-linear mechanical simulations. Further literature review has demonstrated that viscoplasticity models are well supported. Most of elasto-plasticity models are well supported with the exception of the Tresca yield criterion. Furthermore, Altair Simlab has decent capabilities in modeling geometric nonlinearities, however, it lucks fully coupled thermo-mechanics.
The next phase of the project will involve hands-on simulations after obtaining the license, starting with simple elastoplastic cases and progressing to more complex thermo-mechanical scenarios.
Figure 1: Initial configuration (left) and possible thermal deformations (right)