Simulation Data Management - The Next Challenges A Summary of the 3rd International SPDM Conference Mark Norris, NAFEMS SDM Working Group T he 3rd International NAFEMS SPDM Conference was held in June 2017 in Stockholm, Sweden alongside the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 (NWC17). With a packed programme of presentations, training courses and workshops, NWC17 was the largest NAFEMS event to date, and the SPDM Conference gave all attendees an excellent opportunity to learn more about SDM, how the industry is moving forward, and what the next steps may be. The conference was kicked off by Dirk Ruschmeier of Porsche whose keynote title, “Simulation Data Management – The Next Challenges”, summarises the theme of the conference. He described the classical challenges of user acceptance and integration into the IT landscape based on a decade of SDM experience at Porsche. He then described the evolving challenges of integration into a Systems Engineering landscape with increasingly complex simulations with new model types, new domains and new simulation scenarios. The increase in the number and complexity of simulations and simulation types carried out each week by analysts at automotive companies is a recurring theme of NAFEMS SPDM conferences. Dr Ruschmeier described how the increasing use of simulation upstream of a vehicle program is driving the need for collaboration between OEM and their tier 1 suppliers. Three papers were presented on the management of simulation collaboration of which more later. Likewise simulation is increasingly used downstream for Virtual Testing, the simulation of the physical test process, as described in the keynote on Smarter Testing by Steven Chisholm of Boeing and by Tobias Ulmer of Airbus in his paper on Virtual Testing of High lift Systems. SDM for CoreProduct Development For traditional simulation in the core of the product development process we saw more papers that ever before describing substantive SDM deployments. This is clear evidence of increasing adoption of SDM as more organisations recognise the need to evolve from a paper trail to a Digital Thread. We also saw more solution vendors represented in the SDM deployments as well as a diversity of solution approaches. The best paper award was won by Carsten Eller of Eberspracher Exhaust Technology who described their successful deployment of SPDM on the 3D EXPERIENCE PLM platform as well as the effort required and the challenges encountered. This paper is well worth reading for those considering such a deployment. Eberspracher built an internal team to deploy and support SDM as did SAFRAN Landing Systems with the benefits of deep understanding of the organisation’s simulation Processes and Data to be managed as well as strong alignment with the needs of the Analysts and the Enterprise. The SAFRAN deployment described by Vincent Raimbault was perhaps the most impressive SDM project of the conference. Vincent and his team successfully deployed Ansys EKM to support the certification of the A350 Landing Gear system, building a database of more than 1 million objects. Not only did the SPDM system meet its objectives for the certification of the system, it’s proving invaluable to support manufacturing and repair concessions. For this program, it’s now possible to rapidly simulate the Digital Twin of a particular landing gear since the entire calculation set can be re-run as necessary in the managed environment so crucial in regulated industries. This is a great story of unintended positive consequences of SPDM deployment.
Transcript
Simulation Data Management - The Next ChallengesA Summary of the 3rd International SPDM Conference
Mark Norris, NAFEMS SDM Working Group
The 3rd International NAFEMS SPDM Conference was held in June 2017 inStockholm, Sweden alongside the NAFEMS World Congress 2017 (NWC17).With a packed programme of presentations, training courses and workshops,
NWC17 was the largest NAFEMS event to date, and the SPDM Conference gave allattendees an excellent opportunity to learn more about SDM, how the industry ismoving forward, and what the next steps may be.
The conference was kicked off by Dirk Ruschmeier ofPorsche whose keynote title, “Simulation DataManagement – The Next Challenges”, summarises thetheme of the conference. He described the classicalchallenges of user acceptance and integration into the ITlandscape based on a decade of SDM experience atPorsche. He then described the evolving challenges ofintegration into a Systems Engineering landscape withincreasingly complex simulations with new model types,new domains and new simulation scenarios. Theincrease in the number and complexity of simulationsand simulation types carried out each week by analysts atautomotive companies is a recurring theme of NAFEMSSPDM conferences.
Dr Ruschmeier described how the increasing use ofsimulation upstream of a vehicle program is driving theneed for collaboration between OEM and their tier 1suppliers. Three papers were presented on themanagement of simulation collaboration of which morelater. Likewise simulation is increasingly useddownstream for Virtual Testing, the simulation of thephysical test process, as described in the keynote onSmarter Testing by Steven Chisholm of Boeing and byTobias Ulmer of Airbus in his paper on Virtual Testing ofHigh lift Systems.
SDM for CoreProduct DevelopmentFor traditional simulation in the core of the productdevelopment process we saw more papers that everbefore describing substantive SDM deployments. This is
clear evidence of increasing adoption of SDM as moreorganisations recognise the need to evolve from a papertrail to a Digital Thread. We also saw more solutionvendors represented in the SDM deployments as well asa diversity of solution approaches.
The best paper award was won by Carsten Eller ofEberspracher Exhaust Technology who described theirsuccessful deployment of SPDM on the 3D EXPERIENCEPLM platform as well as the effort required and thechallenges encountered. This paper is well worth readingfor those considering such a deployment. Eberspracherbuilt an internal team to deploy and support SDM as didSAFRAN Landing Systems with the benefits of deepunderstanding of the organisation’s simulation Processesand Data to be managed as well as strong alignment withthe needs of the Analysts and the Enterprise. TheSAFRAN deployment described by Vincent Raimbault wasperhaps the most impressive SDM project of theconference.
Vincent and his team successfully deployed Ansys EKM tosupport the certification of the A350 Landing Gearsystem, building a database of more than 1 millionobjects. Not only did the SPDM system meet itsobjectives for the certification of the system, it’s provinginvaluable to support manufacturing and repairconcessions. For this program, it’s now possible torapidly simulate the Digital Twin of a particular landinggear since the entire calculation set can be re-run asnecessary in the managed environment so crucial inregulated industries. This is a great story of unintendedpositive consequences of SPDM deployment.
A further example of the expansion of SDM in tier-1suppliers is ZF. Martin Pährisch of ZF, the automotivepowertrain supplier, co-authored a paper with StefanMayer, MSC’s Munich-based SDM Services Director onthe integration of SDM into a PLM and SAP environment.They describe both the IT integration aspects as well asthe replacement of paper-based reporting with audittrails in the SDM database, see Figure 1. It’s noteworthythat the Proof of Concept was designed to address thekey concern of ZF for their SDM selection, namely that anSDM system could be successfully integrated into their ITlandscape.
Since the conference was in Sweden, it was good to hearof China Euro Vehicle Technology’s deployment ofSPDRM, Simulation Process Data and ResourceManagement. CEVT is better known by its consumerbrands such as Volvo. SPDRM is the brainchild ofBetaCAE and it’s an integrated SDM solution from thiswell-known CAE vendor. CEVT described their use of theintegrated Load Case Configurator to select CAE sub-assemblies and Load Cases for a particular run.SPDRM, like SimManager from MSCsoftware, includesan optional Load Case Configurator module in anintegrated SDM solution. In contrast, Dr Müllerschön ofSCALE described their Load Case Configuration moduleLoCo which is interfaced to the PDTec Pre-ProcessingSDM platform at Audi and has been used to generate800,000 simulation runs. He also addressed theimportant topic of eliminating duplicate and redundantdata in the face of the exponential rise of simulation datain highly productive SDM-powered environments.
Desktop or Cloud?Audi have adopted a building block approach to SDMincorporating best in class modules such as the LoCodesktop application. A key feature of this approach is thatthe analyst can keep working if disconnected from thenetwork and the SDM backbone; the analyst can cachethe data locally and save back to the SDM when theconnection is restored. Analogous workbenchapproaches were presented by JJ Billings of Oak RidgeNational Laboratory and Robert Clay of Sandia Labs, seeFigure 2.
Since it’s neither desirable, remember Chernobyl, norpossible to test these engineering systems, Analysts atSandia perform exhaustive multi-domain simulationswith upstream Design Space Exploration using theirDakota plug-in and then Design Optimisation and RobustDesign to validate solutions. Once again the analyst cancontinue work on the workbench and connect to theSandia SDM solution which underpins SAW as needed.This intensive use of simulation is indicative of where thesimulation world is headed so the data managementapproaches that Sandia have adopted may be the shapeof things to come for the rest of us. It’s noteworthy thatthe Airbus flight Physics SDM is also a workbenchunderpinned by a repository.
In complete contrast, Michael Schlenkrich ofMSCsoftware and Mr Lieb of BMW presented asophisticated SDM solution for managing Multi-BodySimulations (MBS) vehicle suspensions. SimManageralready has very large SDM implementations such as
BMW with 2,000,000 vehicle simulation datasets,where model assembly, job submission andautomated post-processing are all managed on theserver-side. The MBS SDM solution takes the move tolocating processes in the Cloud one step further.Whereas MBS has typically been a desktop application,solving has been moved to the “Cloud” so criticalIntellectual Property such as control algorithms andsuspension performance characteristics never leavethe Cloud. This ensures that Intellectual Property of“the Ultimate Driving Machine” is not shared on everysuspension engineers desktop but is completelysecure as a “black box” model on the server.
Secure CollaborationThe approach of consolidating processes and data on aPrivate cloud begs the question; “how do I integratemy suppliers?” At present large automotive SDMdeployments at Audi and BMW use the security of theSDM system to permit controlled supplier logons. Thiswas effective when SDM was a new technology andmany tier 1 suppliers did not have an SDM solution. Inthe evolving SDM world, where companies areequipped with their own different SDMs, differentcollaborative solutions are required. Three differentapproaches for simulation collaboration werepresented at the conference. Dirk Ruschmeierpresented FDX a file-based format for Functional DataeXchange that will become the VDA5550 standard. Thisis analogous to the xMCF Master Connection Fileapproach pioneered by Ford and standardised by VDAfor weld, rivet, bolt…definition exchange which waspresented by Carsten Franke of ProStep at the 2015eSPDM conference.
Adrian Murton of Airbus presented the progress of MoSSECweb-services-based collaboration standard that has beenelaborated between Aerospece OEMs and suppliers.MoSSEC is on track to become a STEP standard and theresults of the TOICA project to further refine the data modelare now available.
The third solution to be presented was KARREN from DPS incollaboration with Valeo, the automotive equipment supplier.KARREN is a revolutionary and pragmatic approach whichenables a CAD designer at an OEM and an Analyst in asupplier to collaborate based on a parameterised definitionof a functional component. The designer can request aperformance evaluation of a set of CAD design and duty-cycle parameters and the analyst can respond with hissimulation of performance. The volume of data that isexchanged is extremely small and the users interfaces arewithin the engineers CAD and CAE tools. Additionally, eitherperson can interrogate the KARREN database to see if thisparameter combination has already been simulated.
ConclusionIt was encouraging to see a growing number of SDMimplementations presented using SDM software from awider range of vendors. It’s clear that SDM has joined themainstream as organisations replace their paper trails witha Digital Thread. This not only provides traceability forregulatory compliance but also provides a sound foundationfor Digital Twins of specific real world systems to be rapidlyassembled to respond to manufacturing or operationalrequests. As always, NAFEMS is a public forum whichenabled a robust exchange of views on the real challenges ofSDM deployment. We look forward with interest to theEuropean SPDM conference in 2018 nafe.ms/SPDM18.
Figure 2: Sandia Analysis Workbench(SAW) for HighConsequence Engineering Systems.
Mark Norris is a PLM and SDM consultant, he is a long-standing member of the NAFEMS SDM Working Group and authorof the NAFEMS SDM Business Value White Paper. He can be reached at [email protected]
Figure 1: The Graph browser which answers the question: “How and from what data did you get this result?”
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