| |December 20189CIOReviewPervasive engineering simulation has caused a paradigm shift that will revolutionize product design, manufacturing and performance for many years to comeThis new simulation concept has substituted generative design for incremental improvement. When pervasive simulation is combined with artificial intelligence and the availability of unlimited computing and storage resources on the cloud, engineers can generate thousands of possible designs that mimic the myriad structures found in nature instead of just those conceived of by humans. Simulation can accurately predict the performance of each of these designs to choose an optimal one. Additive manufacturing can then build the intricate designs that would be impossible to build using subtractive manufacturing. Finally, a digital twin can use simulation to determine the health of a physical product based on performance data.Let's take a look at the role of engineering simulation at every step of the process, from ideation to development to operation. In the ideation stage, engineers need to explore and evaluate many scenarios quickly. This has been made easier by the recent emergence of simulation software that instantly updates results with each change in the design. Instead of waiting hours or days for simulation results, this software provides results in seconds, enabling the designer to explore more possibilities faster. A graphical user interface that allows an engineer to change design dimensions merely by "grabbing" a feature -- say, the wall of a pipe -- and "pulling" the feature until the desired dimension is reached makes design modification even quicker. The simulation software instantly displays the results of the change, perhaps, in this example, an altered fluid flow pattern in the pipe. Exploring options to arrive at an optimal design early in the process is much cheaper than altering the design later in the product development cycle.As would be expected, this instant simulation software sacrifices a little -- but not much -- accuracy in favor of speed. For the development and testing stage, engineers can import the optimal design geometry into a more standard, full-featured simulation solution to fine-tune the design and test it in a virtual environment.Engineering simulation is also crucial in additive manufacturing, especially when the part being built is made of metal. Depositing metal powders in patterned layers and melting them with lasers can lead to defects from thermal expansion differences between hot and cold layers, among other possible defect-producing mechanisms. New simulation software can help engineers to: design a part specifically for additive manufacturing, including the addition of temporary support structures for stress relief; simulate the print process for a part on a given machine to determine residual stresses and compensate for distortion; and predict melt-pool thermal history during printing. Complete simulation of the additive manufacturing process from design to print prevents costly build failures and gives engineers confidence in the structural integrity of the finished part. Finally, pervasive engineering simulation extends all the way to operation and maintenance of a part, machine or system. By creating a digital twin -- a virtual model of the physical device that is subject to the same operating conditions -- engineers can track the performance and ageing of the physical device virtually. Sensors on the device transmit temperature, stress, vibration and other data to the digital twin. The digital twin incorporates this data into its model so that it closely approximates the wear and tear of the physical device. Engineers can interrogate the digital twin to predict when a part might be ready to fail, and schedule maintenance to repair or replace it, instead of letting an unexpected failure force a more expensive unscheduled shutdown. They can also run simulations on the digital twin to test the relative value of repair versus replacement. The historical data from a digital twin can subsequently inform the design of the next generation of the device.By changing the scope of simulation from a tool used mostly in late-stage development and testing, when any changes could be costly, to a tool that is useful throughout the product lifecycle -- from ideation to development to operation -- pervasive engineering simulation has caused a paradigm shift that will revolutionize product design, manufacturing and performance for many years to come. This new paradigm will prepare us for the new world of Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0.
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