The Challenges & ROI of the Democratization of Simulation ...€¦ · Cleveland, OH Challenges –

June 5th-7th | Cleveland, OHThe Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18nafems.org/caase18

The Challenges & ROI of the Democratization of Simulation – Why Progress is SlowMalcolm Panthaki, Comet Solutions, Inc.Glenn Valine, GKN Driveline NA, Inc.Salvatore “Tory” Scola, NASA Langley Research Center

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Democratization of Complex Technologies

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Simple (no manual or PhD needed)Accurate (>98% of the time)ReliableCheapAccessible (whenever, wherever)

June 5The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18nafems.org/caase18

Democratization: “Makes Technology Vanish”

“Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next

comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives.” according to Xerox PARC’s Mark Weiser in 1996.




Democratization of Simulation – why bother?

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▪ Significant barriers to broader adoption of CAE within the enterprise

▪ Formal education: Most expert users are PhD’s and MS engineers

▪ Requires specific product training and experience, for many years

▪ Many engineers and employees engaged in product development are not able or capable of participating in simulation today, even though this would be highly advantageous for the product development process

Current Simulation (CAE) Realities

750,000 simulation experts 8 million engineers 20M potential users*Source (2014):

20 MillionEngineers & Others

Globally

8 MillionEngineers of a type who can

benefit directly from CAE use

750 K Engineers actually

using CAE today




Knowledge Capture & Automation

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Potential economic impact of $5.2T to $6.7T per year in 2025

• Capture product engineering knowledge in reusable system modelling templates

• Automate multi-fidelity, multi-disciplinary product and design calculations related to performance, manufacturing, maintenance, or cost

• Deploy these automated calculations to be safely & easily, using simple-to-use Simulation Apps

Simulation Automation Democratization

Knowledge Capture & Automation will have a huge impact

2015McKinsey

Study

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Challenges: Slowing the Progress of Democratization

• Simulation Experts: believe only they must run simulations

• Safe, robust & usable Automation Templates:– Difficult to create, maintain and enhance– Must work across a Product Family – easier said than done!

• CAD: created for Manufacturing, not Analysis

• Automatic Meshing: difficult for Assemblies with Connections

• Cultural & organizational barriers:– Simulation experts have to accept and learn a new role– Stove-piped organizations are silos with their own methods

• Executive sponsorship: is essential and hard to win

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Simulation Templates – what’s the big deal?

• “Templates” for automation have existed for decades

• But have not withstood the test of time– Based solely on scripts and programs – too difficult to create,

maintain, extend useful templates– Engineers are not the best programmers– Ad hoc solutions do not survive

• Rarely, if ever, do these templates work across significant design changes and across a Product Family– Rules are often based on geometry/topology, not architecture– Hence, the design-change scope of these templates is too narrow

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Templates must work across Product Families

7Gearboxes Consumer ProductsGearboxes

Control Arms

PneumaticComponents

Hitch Products

Beverage Containers

Faucets

Heat Exchangers




Templates must work across Product Families

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Family of Automotive WheelsCommon Product Architecture

RimHub

Lug HolesSpokes

Valve Hole

Common Product RequirementsA Wheel must meet certain Packaging, Fatigue Life and Strength requirements,

and is subjected to a set of Standard Operating Conditions (by geography)

It needs to be as Light as possible, as Cheap to manufacture as possible,But still meet all OEM performance requirements!

It is the only automotive part that has not only strong aesthetics requirements (complex geometry/meshing),

but is also a critical structural component (accurate stresses needed).8888

Rules for a Template must be based on Functional Commonalities across the Product Family




Essential Ingredients of a SimApp

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Fully Automate0/1/2/3-D Assembly Mesh

Gear/ShaftSystem Model

FEA – Strength & Life3-D Model

SimApp GUI

Automation Template

Engineering

CAD Model

Results

Reports

Expert Certified!Safe for all users

Enforce Best PracticesSimulation Governance

Targeted Applications: answer particular questions, on a particular product family, at a particular level of fidelity

Simple GUI’s that drive the Templates

Must speak the language of the user, not “Simulation”

Targeted Applications: answer particular questions, Targeted Applications: answer particular questions,

Users: Product Teams

Expert Certified! Enforce Best PracticesSimulation and Product Experts

The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18The Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering | CAASE18

Robust, accurate, repeatable across a Product Family

New Roles




Examples of SimApps – from simple to complex!

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Typical effort to create a Comet SimApp

• From a study of 15 Automation Templates and SimApps:

• Assumptions:– User has a good knowledge of Comet and the Process to be automated– All required model data and prior validated results are available– Use Low Code Development Platforms (LCDP’s)

– NOTE: These are efforts to generate version 1 of a usable SimApp

Task Note Range of effort (days) Investigate the Process & Agree Scope 0.5 – 5Create Pilot Template 0.5 – 10Create Web SimApp Optional 1 – 5Improve/Extend Template 1 – 20Improve/Expand Web SimApp Optional 0.5 – 10

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When would the ROI (on SimApps) be highest?The following will increase the chances of a successful process automation:• The customer has a well-defined (manual) PROCESS• The customer’s CAE team members do not always

follow the process (inconsistencies, inaccuracies)– “It’s too complicated”

– “I know better”

– “I’m too busy to produce reports”

• The customer designs FAMILIES of Products• The customer uses PARAMETRIC CAD (or could use it!)• The customer uses MULTIPLE CAE codes and other tools

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GKN Driveline Case Study

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GKN Driveline supplies automotive components

Propshaft designs typically require Bending Frequency Analysis

Bending Frequency is influenced by design variables that are unique for each application requirement

Analysis is performed by a CAE expert starting from a 3D CAD model

GKN Driveline Case Study – Propshaft Analysis




Setup Material PropertiesSetup Boundary ConditionsSetup Parameters and LoadingExecute Analysis/CalculationPost Analysis Reporting

3D CAD Model from standard componentsApply mesh to all modelsSetup Geometric Constants

To be Automated

CAE Analysis – Traditional Way of Working




1. Standardized Manual Way of Working (WOW)

CAE Process Automation

Linking together:CAD Model (tagged)Preprocess MeshAnalysis CAE ViewableReporting

Process Automation – Expert User

2. Automation Template

New Task Required

CAD Models must be tagged for Process Automation

(Engineering Model) Key files manually accessible for Expert Analyst to review

Process Automation – Expert User




Web Front End – non Expert User

Global ApplicationEngineers

End User – Simulation Process Automation

Web Access to Tool-Kit

Non-Expert-User Web InterfaceIn a terminology they already speak

Linked together:CAD Model (tagged)Preprocess MeshAnalysisCAE ViewableReporting

Web Tool: Outputs

Calculation is behind the Scenes

Web Front End – non Expert User




ChallengesAdditional requirement on CAD modeling (tagging) to support the automation process.New WoW for tagging models requires training and practice to develop full capabilities for CAD teams.

Building a reference library of test-cases with sufficient complexity to identify necessary error handling. Advanced trial users with a diverse set of input and output requirements; want to find the limits of tool without redefining the scope.

Automated processing of non-conditioned CAD models to assign appropriate mesh-size.Development of a robust mesh-handling strategy to complete inline corrections and re-execute without user input.

Tags are added (one time) to define:- Components to Mesh- Components for Mass Analysis- Material Assignments- Connections- Boundary Conditions

CAD Model Engineering ModelRequired for the Automation Template

Web Front End – non Expert UserChallenges




Removes the bulk of routine analysis work and tedious report creation from the CAE Expert role, freeing them to work on more complex problems.

Allows a non-expert user to investigate many iterations and establish a design-intent before expert involvement.

Data interrogation remains available for expert users, but is not required to execute the process.

Expert User

Automation activity drives process refinement and structure; creating a globally consistent methodology.

Web User

ChallengesWeb Front End – non Expert UserBenefits




NASA Langley Research CenterCase Study

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Analysis Template Development at NASA LaRC• LaRC has developed analysis templates for > 7 years

– Structural-Thermal-Optical-Performance Analysis (STOP) has been primary area of use

• Initially built for automation vs. democratization:– Eliminate manual data handoffs– Increase number of analyses that can be completed– Reduce errors in analysis cycles

• Template developers at LaRC are also the end users– Structural, thermal, optical, mechanical engineers build/use templates– Templates have been used by non-experts only in limited situations

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Full STOP Analysis Modes and Static Loads AnalysisUniform ΔT STOP Analysis




Example Use Case: Lidar Interferometer• STOP template used to improve performance of interferometer by factor of 10

• Interferometer template allows rapid verification of design changes – Flaw in interferometer mounting system identified in vibration test– Performance of updated design verified in a few days using STOP template– New mounting system designed, built and delivered in 3 months

• Updated design successfully passed vibration testing!– Template enabled rapid analysis with far less man-hours than traditional methods

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Input Light

Output Interferogram

STOP Predicted Interferogram




Overcoming Challenges with Templates• Adoption of analysis templates has been slow at LaRC

– Requires analysts to work in a new way– Steep learning curve for implementing software– NASA generally builds unique systems; lack of “product lines“ reduces usefulness of highly

specific templates

• Investment in personnel training is key for showing value to users and organization– LaRC funded development of generic STOP template– Team was able to use template to support several projects

• Maintaining consistent work is critical for adoption– STOP needs dropped off for several months; requiring re-training personnel

• Building “generic” templates that work for a wide variety of systems encourages use– Develop analysis processes within a template that can be used on many systems– Allows analysts to consider using a template for a project that it was not designed for

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Benefits of Automation Templates

• Common analysis tasks can be setup, and reused– Faster assessment of candidate designs in conceptual phase– Reduces duplicated work over many projects

• Rapid assessment of system when failures or unexpected performance is encountered during test and operation– Template only requires boundary conditions to be changed for investigation– One analyst can perform the work of several analysts, saving time/money

• Encourages “systems” thinking within team– Multi-disciplinary templates encourage team members to learn from each other– Team works closer on analysis tasks, leading to easier collaboration over time,

and across projects

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It’s a Wrap!

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Achieving Safe, Robust & Feasible Democratization

• Motivate and train the experts in their new role • Use a low-code platform to create Templates

– Minimize the need for scripting/programming

– Create templates that work across a Product Family

• Use a low-code platform to create SimApp GUI’s

• With demonstrated ROI, win executive sponsorship– Rigorously & continuously document the ROI

• Gradually expand your Library of Robust SimApps– Continuously improve/extend existing SimApps

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Join the Revolutionin the

Democratization of Simulation

www.revolutioninsimulation.org




Thank You!

Malcolm PanthakiGlenn Valine

Salvatore “Tory” Scola

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Comet Solutions, Inc.GKN Driveline NA, Inc.NASA Langley Research Center



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The Challenges & ROI of the Democratization of Simulation ...€¦ · Cleveland, OH Challenges –