Automated Symmetry Exploitation in Engineering Analysis

It is well known that one can exploit symmetry to speed-up engineering analysis and improve accuracy, at the same time. Not surprisingly, most CAE systems have standard ‘provisions’ for exploiting symmetry. However, these provisions are inadequate in that they needlessly burden the design engineer with time consuming and error-prone tasks of symmetry detection, symmetry cell construction and reformulation. In this paper, we propose and discuss an automated methodology for symmetry exploitation. First, we briefly review the theory of point symmetry groups that symmetry exploitation rests on. We then address symmetry detection and ‘symmetry cell’ construction. We then address an important concept of boundary mapping of symmetry cells, and relate it to the irreducible representations of point symmetry groups. By formalizing these concepts, we show how automated symmetry exploitation can be achieved, and discuss an implementation of the proposed work within the FEMLAB CAE environment.