With three weeks to go before the 2019 conference gets underway, we caught up with several of our speakers to understand the challenges facing their specific industries and their potential solutions, including the Digital Twin, methods for data validation, simplified processes, multiphysics modelling, large scale simulation and much more.
Q: What are the main challenges facing the industry at the moment and what are the most common issues you hear from colleagues?
Dom Dathan, Aero-Thermal Engineer, d2HAero: The main challenge from my perspective is model validation. It is all well and good creating a model but if the user doesn’t have confidence that it provides accurate predictions then it is useless. Very often the purpose of the model is to model something that cannot be measured, at least not easily, accurately or without prohibitively high costs, such as the temperature inside the compound of a tyre. Therefore, the challenge is to find a way that you can validate your model, perhaps by measuring in the vicinity of what you would like to know and extrapolating or by testing a simplified version of your system in a lab or controlled test environment.
Giovanni Federico, Whole Engine Modelling Analyst, Rolls-Royce: From my view, the challenge we are facing is on the capability to respond quickly to a market that is growing fast and is eager to reduce the carbon footprint, maintaining the high level of quality that our product needs to have. Digitalization and electrification are revolutionary phases that are driving development at the moment. And in the near future they can be game changer in the sector. This adds more pressure to structural modelling, where it tends to become more difficult to achieve results in a shorter time frame maintaining accuracy and fidelity at a multiscale level.
Claire Lucas, Associate Professor, Systems and Information Engineering, University of Warwick: In Engineering Education, the skill shortage is resulting in innovative programme development to widen participation. Some programmes are reducing the focus on fundamental engineering mathematics in favour of creating practitioners capable of utilising the vast array of available tools to model and simulate Engineering Systems. Colleagues complain about having to teach numerical methods, scientific computing, state-space modelling and vector calculus because many graduates tell us they don’t ever need to use their mathematical skills. For simulation, there are so many tools available that it is difficult to know what our graduates will need to use in the future. At the same time, the demand for data scientists with their ability to derive models from data is increasing in such a way that the shortage cannot be fulfilled by data scientists alone. This tension is a constant challenge for curriculum owners to know which tools will give their students the best educational experience whilst also giving them the employability skills needed for the future.
Adrian Gaylard, Technical Specialist, Computational Aerodynamics & WDM, Jaguar Land Rover: Our products need to be developed to meet ever increasing environmental and customer demands. This drives the need for both higher accuracy methods and the ability to influence product development from the outset. These pressures have also lead to us needing to support our businesses with ever more complex and demanding simulations that need to be validated and operated within tight time and cost constraints."
Chris Sigournay, Thermo-fluids team lead, Structural Integrity Branch, Central Technical Organisation, EDF-Energy: In the day-to-day role, the principal challenge is plant ageing. Most of our stations are now some way beyond their original design lives; with the need for low-carbon electricity and slow start to the New Build programme it’s important that we keep our existing assets running for as long as it’s safe to do so. In turn, this requires the use of ever more sophisticated modelling techniques, which in a safety-led industry results in a lot of scrutiny from our regulators – “novel” and “complex” are rarely seen as advantages in this field. Bigger picture, it’s all about making Nuclear more cost-competitive – in focussing so heavily on safety we’re a bit behind the curve when it comes to the economics, so there’s a lot of work to do there.
Akin Keskin, Chief of Virtual Engine Design, Rolls-Royce: A common theme across all industries seems to be “rapid and cost—effective product and technology development”. The product markets are changing while regulations are getting tighter so every company is acting in a very constraint environment. The winners will be companies who are able to adapt to fast changing environment and show flexibility in their product portfolio. Simulation and modelling have been seen as a fundamental mean to reduce engineering cost and design time but what people didn’t realise is that it also opened up a new spectrum of possibilities such as optimisation and probabilistic design.
Q: What key topics are you excited to speak about?
Dom Dathan: I am excited to speak about a real time, transient, thermal tyre model developed by myself and colleagues at D2H in collaboration with the University of Cambridge. Tyre temperatures are of paramount importance in all forms of Motorsport and many Automotive vehicles, as both the achievable level of grip and the rate of degradation are strongly dependent on temperature. This model works in real time using easily measured data to predict the temperature not only in the tyre but throughout the wheel and therefore predict performance. The presentation will cover the challenges involved in creating this physics-based model and how they were overcome, how the model was validated, how it is being used in industry and how we see its future use and development.
Giovanni Federico: I will be talking about design optimization for a complex product system like aerospace engines, and how important this can be financially and technically for the product.
Adrian Gaylard: We have recently deployed a simulation method for simulating the build-up of dirt on vehicle surfaces. This is a demanding problem, resulting from the interaction of airborne spray with unsteady vehicle wake flows; but it’s also an issue which touches our customers directly and poses challenges for the deployment of ADAS systems. This convergence of a tough physics problem with practical concerns really excites me.
Chris Sigournay: I’m most looking forward to showing how we make practical use of large scale modelling tools and how we approach validation. New developments are exciting and academically interesting, but what’s always attracted me most to engineering is the practical application.
Akin Keskin: ’m planning to talk about new ways of working and how Agile and Scrum from software development can help in the engineering community to develop products faster. Another point will be the skillset of todays and future engineers. I’m looking forward to discuss with the audience how the education system in the UK needs to adopt to a changing world where engineers needs to be much more IT and data science savvy.
Claire Lucas: I’m excited to talk about what we are doing at Warwick and how we are developing our modelling and simulation curriculum. I’m also looking forward to finding out from the panel what tools have longevity and what skills they identify as missing in their simulation engineers.
Q: Who else are you most interested in hearing from on the programme, and why?
Dom Dathan: I am looking forward to hearing from Dr Neil Ashton from the University of Oxford. I have worked with Neil on a separate project and have always found him to be extremely knowledgeable and active in the industry. His talk on the future of CFD in industry will be very interesting and I am looking forward to hearing his thoughts on how we can get to a stage where design is entirely virtual.
Giovanni Federico: I’m looking forward to hearing all presentations about new trends in simulation for product development. I believe digital twin can be the key player for simulations in all industries. Ability to assess performances of a product during operations, based on real time data is the next big step.
Adrian Gaylard: The keynote from Rob Lewis looks interesting. The observation that better simulation requires better physical testing is an important and under-appreciated one. I’m really looking forward to Alessandro Picarelli’s talk on developing and testing autonomous vehicles, as this is one for the key challenges we face over the next decade. Finally, Neil Ashton’s take on the future of CFD in industry.
Akin Keskin: It will be interesting to hear across industry where we are in terms of implementation of simulation and modelling in their daily design processes. I’m sure there will be lots of insight from other companies and speakers from which each other can learn. The important thing for me is to listen, discuss and learn.
Chris Sigournay: I’ve had challenging experiences in the past with using limited experimental work to validate simulation tools which are then used to extrapolate to scenarios relevant to our plant. Adam Brooke looks to have a very relevant presentation on this topic, so I’m particularly keen to hear from him.
Claire Lucas: As someone with a PhD in biomedical modelling, I’m excited to see how human behaviour modelling can be used to improve engineering products.
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join this seminar?
Dom Dathan: I think it is important as engineers in a growing industry to be aware of the latest ideas and to learn from each other. There is a huge range of applications on showcase during the event, but the underlying skills are the same and I always come away with ideas about how a new technology or method could be applied to my job.
Giovanni Federico: I think it provides insights on what is the state of the art in simulation and what the direction is for the future
Akin Keskin: The event is an ideal place to build a network with other subject matter experts, be inspired and learn new things.
Adrian Gaylard: Listening to others share their experience is a great way to learn.
Chris Sigournay: To get exposure to what others are doing in the field. Within our own institutions, generally there are only a handful of colleagues who fully understand the intricacies of what we do. Hearing from and talking to others about our work is the best way to drive development both of ourselves and also the discipline.
Claire Lucas: There is a huge and conflicting requirement set cascaded from industry to education on what graduates need to know. It is really difficult to validate and balance these. You might say ‘graduates need to be better at communicating’ but what is the priority for this compared to being able to calculate the mode-shapes of a system? This is an opportunity to provide feedback and to have your voice heard.
Simulation and Modelling 2019, 17-18 September 2019, Birmingham
Taking place in three weeks’ time, the Simulation and Modelling 2019 conference will provide a unique opportunity to discuss the latest developments being made with computer aided and virtual engineering. Join us to address the key challenges facing engineers using these tools, including ensuring model validity, assessing uncertainty, multiphysics models, data analysis and democratisation of simulation.
Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with colleagues and peers across multiple sectors, with presentations from engineers at:
- TotalSim
- Rolls Royce
- Airbus
- Amazon Web Services
- Wood Group
- Caterpillar Global Mining
- EDF-Energy
- Jaguar Land Rover
- AMRC with Boeing.
For full details and to book your place, please visit www.imeche.org/simmod2019.