Abstract

Reliance on simulation results is ever-increasing, resulting in larger model sizes incorporating more physics, larger meshes, higher numbers of iterations, and more sophisticated multidisciplinary simulation workflows. The complex high-fidelity virtual test scenarios are modelled using different simulation software packages and run on local high-performance computers (HPC), taking days or sometimes even weeks to return results. Simulation environments face unique challenges: fragmented software and hardware, a large simulation data set, and a complex execution process. Data is often isolated and managed using ageing, legacy technology. For example, simulation data is managed on the engineering desktop, or at best, through a shared NAS relying heavily on naming conventions. Files are shared with remote users via email or FTP. This is incredibly inefficient as it can be impossible to find which file was used for which analysis. With simulation processes being up to 20 steps long this can be hard to track with a reliance on files in folders. Simulation Data Management is a technology trend that has existed since the year 2000, aiming to build a simulation method, provide traceability and increase productivity through automation. “Despite the successes achieved with SDM, the adoption of information systems to manage simulation data by simulation engineers is still very low at 1%-2%,” according to NAFEMS. This is primarily down to the technology not being well understood, not being accessible to small teams and a relatively high cost. However, companies such as BMW Audi, Porsche, and certain divisions of Airbus have been using it extensively. In 2020 ARAS, Rescale and other Digital R&D-focused startups took part to a hackathon hosted by McKinsey & Company. Following this event, they explored the feasibility of plugging HPC job submission software into SDM so that engineers could both submit jobs from within their SDM environment and recover the results there too. This resulted in an MVP called eSteam. This presentation will detail the implementation of the eSteam project and how the provision of REST API’s across both platforms was the key to rapidly integrating the platforms in only a matter of weeks leading to significant improvements in resource and productivity, and allowing teams to collaborate exclusively within one environment.