"ENERGY: Design Automation Tackles Cleaner, Greener Fuels"

Green fuels and clean-burning engines used to be the domain of old-fashioned trial-and-error design methodology, but Reaction Design aims to bring design automation software to the modeling and simulation of modern fuels and engines. Look for EDA-like tools for testing new fuels and engine designs to be adopted at major automobile makers worldwide over the next few years. R.C.J.


If you thought that design automation software was being used to model and simulate new fuels and combustion methods at automobile makers, you’d be wrong. Today, the automotive industry still builds old-school hardware prototypes to try out its new engine designs as well as new fuels in old engine designs. While it’s true that design automation software has replaced old-school clay models used to test new automobile bodies and mechanisms, advances in chemistry, timing and use of sensors to lower emissions and increase fuel efficiency of modern automobile engines have mostly been found by trial and error. Now Reaction Design wants to bring design automation to the simulation of new fuels and engine designs, enabling automobile makers to perform "what if" experiments with new formulations without having to build a physical prototype.
Full Text: http://bit.ly/dqH0N7