This presentation was made at CAASE18, The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering. CAASE18 brought together the leading visionaries, developers, and practitioners of CAE-related technologies in an open forum, to share experiences, discuss relevant trends, discover common themes, and explore future issues.

Resource Abstract

Engineering Simulation (CAE) has grown from a niche trouble-shooting (1980s) and design verification technology (1990s) to become a mainstream part of engineering development in the 2000s in most major technology-driven product industries, led by automotive and aerospace but broadening to energy, medical, comsumer product industries and more over the past two decades. Other than the very early use for trouble-shooting of in-field performance problems, CAE has overwhelmingly become a technology that is focussed up-front on improving product design and development. With the advances in simulation software algorithms and data structures, coupled with dramatic reductions in cost of high-perfomance computing (HPC) and ease of affordable access (e.g., cloud-based, "by the drink"), CAE has now become the practical, affordable foundation for design-space exploration and optimization, but still in the development stage of a product's lifecycle.

Driving the use of CAE and system models as key business benefit enablers throughout the full performance lifecycle of products and systems (PPL) opens up a whole new “order of magnitude” increase in the use of engineering simulation beyond just the traditional design/development phases. Automated simulation apps that link continuously-updated (field modifications, damage, corrosion,...) robust digital-twin simulation models to ongoing real-time product/system performance data, from sensors and other lifecycle input, provide the emerging basis for engineering simulation to be the key engine in real-time feedback for improved ongoing system operation.

This area of dramatically-increasing engineering simulation usage will come without necessarily the corresponding need for a dramatic increase in the number of traditionally trained and experienced simulation engineers. The key focus will be on having enough trained/experienced engineers and developers creating, maintaining, and enhancing the up-front automated PPL hardware-software systems necessary to drive simulation-based lifecycle feedback for enhanced product/system performance and resulting business benefit. An excellent early example of this potential by SAP/Fedem can be seen at http://schnitgercorp.com/2017/05/22/fedem-hits-stage-front-30000-sapphire/.

This presentation will cover recent work on simulation-oriented digital twins by a number of software vendors and end-user organizations. The SAP/Fedem example will be shown and discussed in some detail as well as other examples that emerge publicly prior to the June 2018 CAASE event.