Case Study: Stewart Technology Associates achieves 30% manufacturing cost savings and 10x consulting project cost reduction with SimScale

Stewart Technology Associates used FEA with SimScale to optimize a navaid's design

Stewart Technology Associates (STA), a Houston-based technology consultancy specializing in marine and offshore structures, was asked to validate and optimize an articulated navaid whose floats were prone to damage at operating depths. To move beyond unreliable hand calculations, STA used SimScale’s cloud-based finite element analysis (FEA) platform and direct support from the SimScale team to assess float geometry, shell thickness, and polyurethane fill properties.

Using SimScale, STA ran four optimization iterations and more than 30 simulation variants (second-order tetrahedral meshes ~1.2M nodes) to identify that the foam stiffness needed to be ~75× higher and the outer shell thickness increased by 16%. The SimScale-enabled workflow reduced consulting project costs tenfold, enabled 4× more design iterations, and delivered a 30% reduction in manufacturing costs for the customer.

Stewart Technology Associates

Bil Stewart

CEO