EXCELLENCE IN ENGINEERING SIMULATION

ISSUE 3 | 202 2

6 18 22
Model-Based Systems PyAnsys: Tap into Introducing Ansys
Engineering Explained Ansys Simulation Gateway Powered
with Python by AWS

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 1
 Table of
Contents
42

34 56
Focus on Transformation

4 10 18
EDITORIAL AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES PYTHON SCRIPTING

COMPLETE SIMULATION’S MBSE ENHANCES THE ACCESS THE POWER

NEW MISSION SAFETY AND CYBERSECURITY OF ANSYS WITH PYTHON
Discover how Ansys’ integrated OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES Discover how PyAnsys is helping
products, services, and partner See how Hitachi Industry & developers integrate Ansys-based
ecosystem make it easier to Control Solutions Ltd. of Japan simulations into the wide world
connect your digital thread to established an MBSE Design Lab of Python-based products.

22
meet the complex engineering to balance functional safety and
challenges that will advance cybersecurity when supporting
society as a whole. autonomous vehicle design.
CLOUD COMPUTING

6 14
INTRODUCING ANSYS
GATEWAY POWERED BY AWS
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING DIGITAL MISSION ENGINEERING Gain more control over your
customized cloud configuration
MODEL-BASED SYSTEMS HOW TO ENGINEER and promote easier collaboration
ENGINEERING EXPLAINED MISSION SUCCESS among engineers by leveraging
Learn how MBSE enables you to Learn how to use digital Ansys Gateway powered by AWS.
replace static documents with modeling, simulation, and
“intelligent” digital models that
contain everything important
analysis to incorporate the
operational environment and
26
about the system — the DIGITAL TWINS
evaluate mission outcomes and
requirements, architecture, effectiveness at every phase of USE DIGITAL TWINS TO
and interfaces between system the life cycle. DRIVE GREATER INDUSTRIAL
components. AUTONOMY
Read about how AWS IoT
TwinMaker gives you easier,
scalable access to Ansys Twin
Builder so you can create predictive
and “living” digital twins.

2 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 30
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
49
CHANNEL PARTNERS
W  elcome to Ansys Advantage!
We hope you enjoy this
issue containing articles by Ansys
TEACHING ‘BRAINS’ USING A LINK AROUND THE WORLD customers, staff and partners.
DIGITAL TWINS Discover how Ansys Channel
See how Microsoft is using Partners deliver Ansys software
machine teaching, not machine worldwide, provide the The Editorial Staff
learning, to train “brains” that outstanding service customers [email protected]
can be used to advise a human expect, and help enable
operator on the best decision to transformative innovation. Editorial Adviser
make. Mary Beth Clay

Customer Success Executive Editor

34 Jamie J. Gooch
CFD IN THE CLOUD
SIMULATION PREDICTS
52
SYSTEM ON CHIP
Managing Editor
Tim Palucka
COVID-19 AEROSOL FLOW IN
STADIUMS DIGITAL COCKPIT ENHANCES
Copy Editor
Follow Professor Bert Blocken’s INFOTAINMENT AND SAFETY
Learn how HARMAN Abby Humphreys
team as they use CFD to
understand how Covid- implemented DDR5 — a
synchronous, dynamic Contributors
containing aerosols travel
throughout crowded stadiums, random-access memory that Laura Carter, Aliyah Mallak,
leading to a predictive model uses less power and allows Erik Ferguson, Jennifer Procario,
that could minimize future higher data rates — into their Matt White
stadium closures. automobile cockpit environment
by leveraging Ansys HFSS Editorial Contributor
simulations to ensure signal
38
Ansys Customer Excellence
integrity.
ROBUST DESIGN OPTIMIZATION Art Director
OPTIMIZE DESIGN 56 Ron Santillo
OPTIMIZATION EFFORTS SUSTAINABILITY Designer
Learn how Ansys optiSLang Dan Hart Design
factors in uncertainties SCRAPPING ERRORS,
and tolerance variations to NOT MATERIALS, WITH
SIMULATION ANSYS, Inc.,
automatically and efficiently
identify the optimal See how Combitech leveraged Southpointe, 2600 Ansys Drive,
configuration for a given design. Ansys Additive Suite to verify Canonsburg, PA 15317
that selective laser melting
would be successful in additively Subscribe at ansys.com/subscribe
42 manufacturing small cooling
channels.
TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS Take a Leap of Certainty … with Ansys
When visionary companies need to know how their

60
TO GO FAR, GO TOGETHER world-changing ideas will perform, they close the gap
Learn how Ansys is securing and between design and reality with Ansys simulation. For more
than 50 years, Ansys software has enabled innovators across
growing its ecosystem of more DIRECT FUNCTIONAL MODELING industries to push boundaries by using the predictive
than 350 technology partners power of simulation. From sustainable transportation to
to give potential customers NATURE ARCHITECTS advanced semiconductors, from satellite systems to

the confidence to include RESHAPES A CLEANER life-saving medical devices, the next great leaps in human
advancement will be powered by Ansys.
simulations in how they create FUTURE WITH
Ansys is the global leader in engineering simulation. We
products. METAMATERIALS help the world’s most innovative companies deliver radically
Learn how Nature Architects better products to their customers. By offering the best and

46
broadest portfolio of engineering simulation software, we
generates metamaterial help them solve the most complex design challenges and
structures with advanced engineer products limited only by imagination.

HARDWARE-IN-THE-LOOP physics properties that were Neither ANSYS, Inc. nor Dan Hart Design guarantees or
previously thought impossible warrants accuracy or completeness of the material
NI AND ANSYS LAUNCH to achieve using conventional contained in this publication.
JOINT SOLUTIONS FOR materials. ACT, Additive Print, Additive Science, Additive Suite, AIM, Aqwa,
CUSTOMERS Autodyn, BladeModeler, CFD, CFD Enterprise, CFD Flo, CFD
Premium, CFX, Chemkin-Pro, Cloud Gateway, Customization Suite,
Learn how NI developed a DesignerRF, DesignerSI, DesignModeler, DesignSpace,
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leveraging Ansys STK digital EnSight, Exalto, Explicit STR, Fatigue, FENSAP-ICE, FENSAP-ICE-
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Simplorer, Solver on Demand, SpaceClaim, SpaceClaim Direct
Modeler, SPEOS, Structural, TGrid, Totem, TPA, TurboGrid, Twin
Builder, VRXPERIENCE, Workbench, Vista TF, Realize Your Product
Promise, Sentinel, Simulation-Driven Product Development
ICEM CFD is a trademark licensed by ANSYS, Inc. LS-DYNA is a
registered trademark of Livermore Software Technology
Corporation. nCode DesignLife is a trademark of HBM nCode.
All other brand, product, service, and feature names or
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 33

 EDITOR IA L

Complete Simulation’s
New Mission
By Jane Trenaman, Senior Director, Product Management, Ansys

When Ansys began, more than 50 years ago, our goal was to help you use
structural simulation to verify physical tests. Over the years, simulation
came to be defined by the physics challenges being solved — structural,
thermal, fluidic, optical, electromagnetic – and the Ansys product portfolio
expanded, incorporating bestin-class physics simulation capabilities
across a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines. Our goal was to help
you answer the engineering challenges you faced.
Today, our goal is to help you design, develop, deliver, and operate
the most innovative products and services imaginable using Ansys
simulation. This requires more than just multiphysics. It requires many
different people, processes, and systems that are often separated by
geography, culture, expertise, and priorities. Consequently, our Ansys
portfolio continues to expand. We now incorporate simulation technologies for collaboration and
integration across the product life cycle— all the way from product requirements through early-phase
ideation and conceptual design, to the detailed physical analysis, and the management of the product
within its daily operating environment.
Simulation is a critical part of the solution to the biggest engineering challenges you face
(including sustainability, autonomy, and electrification), as well as a fundamental element necessary
for progress on your digital transformation journey. This issue of Advantage focuses on the integrated
products, services, and partners that make it easier for you to make that journey.

LET’S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING engineering analysis software to systems

Where does a product design begin? For most architecture, enabling the MBSE mission. This
products, it begins with a product requirement results in better decisions being enabled early in
or specification. The management of these the product development life cycle and better
complex requirements has gradually been target product designs.
digitized, and in recent years, not just the
requirement, but also the expected or desired THE RIGHT DESIGN
behaviors of the product or sub-component. Even though innovative companies have
Simulation therefore now starts with the shifted the use of simulation earlier in the
requirement and what is called model-based product design process to reduce the number
systems engineering (MBSE). MBSE replaces of physical prototypes needed and to identify
the stacks of paper that were once used with a the target product design early, simulation
digital model that becomes the single source continues to be critical as the
of truth accessible to everyone working on target design is refined
a project, which models the behavior and and optimized.
interactions of the parts and components Ansys optiSLang
included within the product specification uses advanced
MBSE helps teams to capture and automation and
communicate new or changing requirements. machine learning
It ensures that everyone has the same data to explore and
to work with throughout the entire life cycle optimize one or
of the product. This requires an automated more target designs
engineering workflow that provides a to meet robustness
bi-directional connection between the systems and reliability criteria,
model and the engineering analyses. Ansys among other
ModelCenter is a vendor-neutral engineering parameters. It
workflow software solution that connects connects to both

4 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 tap into the cloud compute strength of Microsoft
Azure. Our new Ansys Gateway powered by AWS
offering enables you to use your existing AWS
cloud subscription to support your use of Ansys
simulation. You can read how Ansys Cloud was
used to simulate airflow in an entire stadium
on page 34 and see how Emirates Team New
Zealand is using Ansys simulation to help design
its winning America’s Cup yachts via Ansys
Gateway powered by AWS on page 22.

YOUR MISSION IS OUR MISSION

The concept of digital mission engineering, in
which digital modeling, simulation, and analysis
Ansys and third-party tools, as well as your incorporate the operational environment where
in-house solutions, to automate simulation designs will be used is a well understood concept
workflows. within the aerospace & defense communities.
By taking into account a product’s effectiveness
CAPTURE AND MANAGE THE DATA at every phase of the life cycle, we’re expanding
More simulation means more data is generated. the definition of simulation out of the lab and
Our expanded definition of simulation includes into the field. Digital mission engineering means
tools to manage and connect that data. modeling systems, and systems-of-systems, in
Ansys Minerva simulation process and data a realistic operational environment so you can
management software provides a web-based evaluate how they will perform before you bend
interface to ensure that data is accessible, any metal on a prototype. In this way, critical
reusable, traceable, and secure across your engineering and planning decisions can be made
organization – by simulation experts and non- early on, preventing errors from perpetuating,
experts alike. and avoiding resource waste. Learn more on page
14.
FLEXIBILITY OF USE AND ACCESS Similarly, digital twins take shape in an
Providing you with the flexibility to use our integrated, multidomain simulation that mirrors
technologies to meet your needs is a key driver the life and real-world experience of a product, or
for our product and technology development. an asset. Ansys Twin Builder is an open solution
PyAnsys is a collection of open-source libraries that enables engineers to create physics-based
that enable developers to access Ansys digital twins with hybrid analytics, offering more
technologies using the Python development accurate and reliable data to support operational
language. This project originated as a single decision-making.
package, PyMAPDL, and continues to expand to
include core Ansys technologies like PyFluent, DELIVER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
PyAEDT, and PyDPF. Having well documented, Digital transformation involves more than just
easy-to-access software libraries in Python technological enhancements. Our global partner
allows our customers, partners, and external community includes more than 350 technology
developers to use Ansys technology to build new partners, channel partners in more than 40
applications, automate existing workflows, and countries, service partners, strategic partners,
extend the power of simulation to new, non- and academic partners. Technology partners
engineering professionals. collaborate with Ansys on developing new, world-
The increasing use of simulation also changing solutions, while channel partners help
leads to ever increasing requirements for you choose the right Ansys products for your
computation power and capacity. This can mean needs and work with you to ensure you are using
not just expensive hardware, but complexity them in the most effective manner. Together,
of IT infrastructure and resource allocation our partners reflect today’s cross-silo workflows
and accessibility. Leveraging cloud-based where an array of people, hardware, and software
technologies helps resolve these challenges. needs to work together to foster innovation.
By distributing today’s large, system-level, I hope this issue shows you how the use of
multiphysics problems over multiple remote simulation can deliver unmatched insights and
processors, engineers can collaborate on high- support your decision making across your entire
fidelity solutions faster than ever. engineering design life cycle. Simulation can
Ansys offers multiple ways to run simulation help you transform the way you design, develop,
on the cloud. Ansys Cloud (Direct) allows you to deliver, and operate your products.

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 5
 FO CU S ON T RA N S FO R M AT I O N / M B S E

MODEL-BASED
SYSTEMS
ENGINEERING
EXPLAINED
By Tim Palucka, Managing Editor, Ansys Advantage

Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is a

methodology that focuses on creating and exploiting
digital system and engineering domain models as the
primary means of exchange of information, feedback,
and requirements, rather than relying on documents.
It involves the entire process of capturing,
communicating, and making sure all the digital
models we use to represent a system are
coordinated and maintained throughout
the entire life cycle of the system.

6
6 Ansys
AnsysAdvantage
Advantage Issue 3 /| 2022
Issue 3 2022
 “system
Automating and integrating the simulation into this
model allows the team to rapidly identify potential
issues with changes to mission requirements ... The overall
improvement versus the original process was about a 7X
speedup in turnaround time. ”
— Phathom Atena Donald, Systems Engineer, Lockheed Martin Space

P
rior to about 2010, a system engineering MBSE was developed to replace static documents
design was likely to be a bunch with “intelligent” digital models that contain
of related papers and documents everything important about the system — the
containing drawings, diagrams, requirements, architecture, and interfaces
mathematical formulas, requirements, and between the pieces of the system. Instead of
other specifications for how the system would paper documents that were at best organized
work. But around that time, projects became into folders, these digital models are connected
too large to rely on disconnected documents. by a “digital thread” that can be followed to
Problems included: understand the entire design.
• Upkeep of the design specification as The overarching systems architect model
the concept of the system evolved: If an (SAM) serves as an “authoritative source of
engineer changed a single dimension on truth” for everyone working on the project. This
one document, they had to go through the digital model has a central location that can be
entire stack of documents and make sure accessed by all the engineers working on the
the same change was made in all documents project, but cannot be modified independently
that contained that dimension. If other copies of others, preserving the single source of truth.
existed, they could not be sure that the Any changes made are automatically propagated
change was recorded in all copies. throughout the model and checked for internal
• Human interpretation: It is entirely possible consistency and accuracy by the program.
that two engineers could read the same
sentence in the specification and come away THE CORE COMPONENTS OF MBSE
with different meanings, given the ambiguities MBSE relies on three major components:
of human writing systems and understanding. 1. The SAM, in which the system being designed
• Verifiability: How could you be sure the is represented by a series of connected block
system being designed satisfied all customer diagrams to describe the system’s physical
requirements? and functional architecture. It also contains a

Ansys ModelCenter connects the system architecture model with engineering simulation software.

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 7
 FO CU S ON T RAN S FO R M AT I O N / M B S E

Ansys ModelCenter’s Behavior Execution Engine (BEE) integration ensures that system design meets
behavioral requirements early in the development life cycle.

comprehensive list of qualities that the system that links all the models and engineering data
is required to have or functions it is required together. This occurs early in the design cycle
to perform (i.e., the requirements). SAMs are and continues to function through the entire
created using specialized software programs operational life cycle of the product until it is
and utilize purpose-built languages for retired from use. When changes are made,
describing system architectures. the digital thread ensures that updates to
2. Engineering simulation software. A SAM can be one model are automatically transferred to
compared to a computer-aided design (CAD) all the models in the system.
drawing — it describes the system in detail, Ansys software does not create the
but there is no way to tell from the SAM alone SAM, but instead provides the wide array
if the system meets requirements. For this, of engineering simulations needed to
the SAM must be coupled with engineering verify the system design — and, most
simulation. If the airplane you are designing importantly, a way to connect them.
is required to withstand 6 Gs, for example, Ansys ModelCenter, the software product
engineers will need to run a simulation to tell obtained when Ansys acquired Phoenix
them if the airplane they are designing is up Integration in 2021, provides that connection
for the task. Because a complex system might between the engineering simulation
require engineers to execute many different software and the SAM, enabling engineers
types of simulation solvers — structural, fluids, to virtually verify their designs. So, if you are
electromagnetic, embedded software, safety, working on a project that has digital models
cybersecurity, etc. — it is important to be able to containing structural, fluids, electromagnetic,
use many different types of simulation tools. safety, and embedded software simulations,
3. A centralized computation center. Whether ModelCenter will coordinate the operation
located somewhere on the company’s premises and data collection from simulation tools
or in the cloud, this centralized computation such as Ansys Mechanical, Ansys Fluent,
center contains the SAM and the executable Ansys HFSS, Ansys medini analyze, Ansys
software. It performs all functions and stores all SCADE, and others and connect these
results of the MBSE process. simulations to the SAM to enable MBSE.
Consistent with Ansys’ overall corporate
ACHIEVING AN MBSE ENVIRONMENT strategy to provide an open ecosystem,
WITH ANSYS SOFTWARE ModelCenter is a vendor-neutral solution
In MBSE, the combination of the SAM, CAD, and that can automate the execution of any
computer-aided engineering (CAE) simulation simulation tool within a workflow, even
tools comprise key parts of the “digital thread” those from other software vendors.

8 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022
 As the design cycle progresses electromagnetic simulations for the functions of
and the product design is refined, the communications devices, and others.
engineers can use Ansys MBSE For more complex, mission-based
technology to assess whether the applications, engineers can use digital mission
as-designed system meets the specified engineering software to simulate the complex
requirements, or whether changes have “system of systems” structure of modern
to be made. When changes are made to aerospace and defense missions. (See page 14.)
the requirements or the SAM, the entire In a real-world example, Lockheed
procedure can repeat until results satisfy Martin Space performed MBSE using Ansys
specifications, verifying that the design will ModelCenter to simulate the mission trajectory
work as intended throughout the product’s for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, whose mission
lifetime. Only after these requirements was to grab a sample of an asteroid in a “touch-
have been satisfied will the team build and-go” operation. In October 2020, OSIRIS-
a physical prototype of the design to REx successfully conducted this maneuver to
perform physical tests on it. collect at least 60 grams of material, a far larger
The value of MBSE is that it sample size than any other previous sample
enables better decisions to be made retrieval mission. It is due to return the sample
throughout the design life cycle, to Earth in 2023.
and as early in the design life cycle “Automating and integrating the simulation
as possible. The earlier a problem into this system model allows the team to
can be identified, the easier and rapidly identify potential issues with changes
cheaper it is to correct. to mission requirements, as well as perform
MBSE provides value from continuous verification of requirements and
requirements through to mission design parameters throughout the life
retirement by enabling cycle of the spacecraft ...” says Phathom Athena
a disciplined system Donald, a Systems Engineer for Lockheed
engineering approach. Martin Space. “The overall improvement versus
The digital models can the original process was about a 7X speedup in
be inspected, verified, turnaround time.”
and validated against an
authoritative source of DEFENSE DRIVES MBSE ADOPTION
truth, ensuring the internal The biggest boost to MBSE came from the U.S.
consistency of the models. MBSE Department of Defense (DOD), which issued
improves delivery, product yield, DODI 5000.02 on January 7, 2015, and reads: “The
and both the top and bottom line. Program Manager will integrate modeling and
simulation activities into program planning and
MBSE IN ACTION engineering efforts.” With this simple statement
As an example, imagine that the Air and the details that followed, the DOD essentially
Force has put out a bid to design a new made MBSE a requirement for all proposals
plane that can fly 3,000 miles on a single related to U.S. defense and weapon systems.
load of fuel. You can design, build, and test Based on this DOD requirement, Northrop
the airplane by building multiple prototypes, or Grumman delivered an MBSE-based proposal in
you can use a model-based approach. 2020 that won them the prime contract for the
If you decide to use an MBSE approach to U.S. Air Force’s Ground Based Strategic Deterrent
design this complex new plane, you would first (GBSD) project. GBSD is designed to modernize
create a SAM that documents all the important the U.S. land-based nuclear infrastructure,
requirements for the airplane (including the replacing the aging LGM-30 Minuteman III
requirement that it needs to be capable of flying intercontinental ballistic missile system (ICBM)
3,000 miles on a single fueling). You would then with an integrated weapon system that will meet
use the SAM to describe the design you intend defense requirements through 2075.
to build, including the system architecture, the While A&D is leading the charge, other sectors
desired behavior, interfaces between system are quickly catching up. The automotive industry,
components, etc. At this point, you would use in pursuit of solutions for complex autonomous
simulation to verify that the design you described driving challenges, is also rapidly adopting MBSE.
meets all the requirements (both physical and As complexity increases in other sectors, such
behavioral). Simulation would include fluids as semiconductors, medical devices, alternative
simulations to verify aerodynamics, structural energy, the smart grid, and 5G communications,
simulations to verify mechanical strength, MBSE adoption will likely accelerate there, too.

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 9
 FO CU S ON T RA N S FO R M AT I O N / M B S E

MBSE Enhances the Safety and

Cybersecurity of
Autonomous
Vehicles

By Tim Palucka, The continuing enhancement of automobiles with advanced

Managing Editor,
driver assist systems (ADAS) and the ongoing quest to produce
Ansys Advantage
fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) that communicate with each
other on the road leads to larger, more complex systems.
Simultaneously, it demands more safety and security in
automobile systems design. But safety and security requirements can sometimes
clash. To make a car safer requires additional components to monitor the operation of
the vehicle, but these components may make the vehicle less cyber-secure by offering
new entry points for hackers to access the control system and software.

10 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 T
o support development of such large, INVENTING AN MBSE SOLUTION
complex systems and provide a robust Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions has
development framework for automotive transformed their development style from
system designs, Hitachi Industry & traditional design to systems engineering to
Control Solutions, Ltd. (Hitachi Industry & Control MBSE over the last 10 years. Before that time,
Solutions) of Japan established a specialized developments in the automotive field started
department called the MBSE Design Lab in becoming increasingly large and complex,
2019. It expanded to become the MBSE Design leading to problems at their customers’
Center in October 2022. This model-based automobile development sites.
systems engineering (MBSE) Design Center “The development sites were experiencing a
features Ansys SCADE embedded software lot of rework in the verification process, which
and Ansys medini analyze functional safety could no longer be handled by conventional
and cybersecurity simulation software as key development methods,” Hashimoto says. “We
elements of their approach to designing safe spent a lot of time studying how we should
and secure automobiles. organize the requirements while effectively using
Through the MBSE Design Center, Hitachi existing assets to address the issue of insufficient
Industry & Control Solutions is practicing documentation in the upstream process, which is
strategies to manage functional safety and the basis of the verification process.”
cybersecurity when supporting automotive This detailed study led them to the
OEMs and tier-one suppliers in their design and conclusion that systems engineering was
development of automated driving, automotive the solution to their problems. As defined by
infotainment, and automotive control systems. INCOSE (International Council on Systems
From the functional perspective, SCADE Architect Engineering), systems engineering is “a
is used to design architecture through step-by- transdisciplinary and integrative approach
step detailing. Ansys medini analyze makes it to enable the successful realization, use, and
possible to run two types of analyses — safety retirement of engineered systems, using
and security — on one common model. systems principles and concepts, and scientific,
“We believe that the integration of Ansys technological, and management methods. In
simulation tools and MBSE gives us visibility into particular, it focuses on establishing, balancing
the entire design process, reducing development and integrating stakeholders’ goals, purpose,
costs, improving engineering efficiency, driving and success criteria, and defining actual or
innovation, and designing competitive products,” anticipated customer needs, operational
says Takeo Hashimoto, General Manager of MBSE concept, and required functionality, starting
Design Center, Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions. early in the development cycle.”

© Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions, Ltd. 2022. All rights reserved.
Flowchart for managing functional safety and cybersecurity of automobiles using Ansys solutions at
Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 11
 FO CU S ON T RAN S FO R M AT I O N / M B S E

Embodying the system

Applying MBSE in a
by selecting appropriate
way that is appropriate
modeling method
for the project

How to Proceed How to Model

(Systems Engineering) (Modeling Language
/Methodology/ Tool)

How to Think
Sharing the (Logical thinking
“way of thinking” /Systems thinking)
with engineering

© Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions, Ltd. 2022. All rights reserved.

The three axes of MBSE at Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions

“But, at the time, there was very little systems while maintaining overall consistency
literature on systems engineering in Japan,” and integrity.
Hashimoto says. ”We have been taught by
pioneering universities in Japan and gradually THE THREE AXES OF MBSE AT HITACHI
developed it through repeated trial and error INDUSTRY & CONTROL SOLUTIONS
based on overseas literature and information Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions has
from INCOSE. We were the pioneers of systems developed a framework of MBSE through
engineering practices in Japan.” practice based on three axes.
Even with systems engineering in place, The first axis, “how to proceed,” involves
when it came time to proceed with the applying MBSE in a way that is appropriate
upstream process of requirements analysis and for the project while taking into account the
architecture design, the design information essence of the system design process based on
became too voluminous, and the traditional the systems engineering approach.
paper-based development style of systems The second axis, “how to model,” embodies
engineering faced new challenges that made the system by selecting appropriate modeling
it difficult to develop and manage while methods while organizing diverse perspectives
maintaining overall consistency and integrity. into a coherent whole. Ansys SCADE Architect
Soon, Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions and Ansys medini analyze are deployed here
was transforming to MBSE, which INCOSE not only for modeling but also for streamlining
defines as “the formalized application of safety and reliability analysis and verification
modeling to support system requirements, based on simulations.
design, analysis, verification, and validation The third axis, “how to think,” combines
activities beginning in the conceptual design systems thinking with logical thinking. It is the
phase and continuing throughout development most important factor of their framework in the
and later life cycle phases.” application of MBSE.
In effect, by introducing MBSE — utilizing a Hashimoto explains: “Systems thinking,
system model that expresses the relationship which looks at the overall picture and clarifies
between the multifaceted requirements and the relationships among the components, and
functions of the system — it has become logical thinking, which maintains consistency
possible to achieve a common understanding among the elements while controlling the level
with stakeholders, including engineers, and to of abstraction and logically capturing them,
develop and manage large-scale and complex are necessary to promote essential discussions

12 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 “andWeMBSE
believe that the integration of Ansys simulation tools
gives us visibility into the entire design process,
reducing development costs, improving engineering
efficiency, driving innovation, and designing competitive
products. ” — Takeo Hashimoto, General Manager of the MBSE Design Center

among members and gradually organize in terms of safety and security. They also
ideas to build the whole. These two ways of use Ansys SCADE Architect in the item
thinking are the driving force behind MBSE for definition process, which allows for a step-
us, because they lead to team and corporate by-step detailed design of the architecture
strength. Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions is that will be the scope of safety and security.
promoting a curriculum to develop employees The architecture can then be imported into
who can think in such a way.” medini analyze, which ultimately leads to the
elimination of inconsistencies in the analysis
INSERTING SIMULATION target and in analysis granularity.
INTO THE MBSE PROCESS “We believe that this kind of collaboration
MBSE makes it easy to analyze and simulate between simulation software products is the
frequently in the early stages of the product greatest advantage of using Ansys tools,”
development process to confirm requirements Hashimoto says.
and begin reviewing design alternatives before The MBSE approach using Ansys SCADE
spending money on prototypes that ultimately Architect models the entire system from
fail to meet requirements. various perspectives to provide a common
The engineering teams at Hitachi understanding between experts in different
Industry & Control Solutions spent some domains of safety and security, contributing to
time in determining how best to integrate the derivation of optimal architectural solutions.
Ansys simulation solutions into the product “From an engineering firm’s perspective,
development process. Without this integration, introducing the MBSE approach to a
requirements could not be validated and development site that is in turmoil due to the
performance, cost, and risk tradeoffs could not development of a large and complex system
be fully evaluated. has the effect of promoting project efficiency,”
As mentioned earlier, in safety design Hashimoto says, “because it enables the site
it is standard practice to design external to separate design and development work by
components to monitor for component failures. organizing what needs to be done and for what
This is to ensure that anomalies caused by purpose as part of system development. We
component failures are detected. However, in believe this is the ROI for our engineering firm.”
security design, this external component can Using systems engineering and MBSE
also create a security risk that can be the starting approaches, Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions
point for an attack. Resolving these contradictory has participated in 35 projects for 13 companies
events is a key safety and security concern. over the last 10 years. With the help of Ansys
“Ansys simulation solutions are very helpful simulation solutions, they hope to increase this
in visualizing the conflicting structure of safety number significantly in the next 10 years.
and security requirements and ensuring “We will expand the value we provide to
traceability, as they allow for centralized the entire workplace for the life cycle of their
management of requirements and design products,” Hashimoto says. “With Ansys tools
models from different perspectives, while and Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions’
providing an overview of the entire process,” MBSE-focused engineering, we will support
Hashimoto says. autonomous development in the automotive
Hitachi Industry & Control Solutions field and help customers solve their manufac-
engineers use Ansys medini analyze to turing issues in a more connected society.”
aggregate and analyze a single architecture,
helping them to achieve an optimal design

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 13
 FO CU S ON T RA N S FO R M AT I O N / D I G I TAL MISSION E N G IN E E RIN G

How to Engineer
Mission Success

By Ansys Advantage Staff The pressure was on, and the design
engineers at an American aerospace
giant needed a new approach to
developing products. While the traditional approach — design, build,
test, and repeat — had won them a long string of successes, times
have changed. Indeed, their entire company was in the midst of an
enterprise-wide digital transformation to respond to the new reality:
products must get to market faster. Against this backdrop, the team
of engineers decided to use simulation to achieve a much leaner
approach: model, analyze, then build.

14 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 | 2022

 “ Digital mission engineering is the
use of digital modeling, physics-based
simulation, and analysis to incorporate
the operational environment and evaluate
mission outcomes and effectiveness at
every phase of the life cycle. ”
One essential its operating environment. They analyzed the
element of this new data from these simulations to understand
approach was digital interference on the gateway, effectively allocate
mission engineering — the channels to be used, and determine antenna
pioneered by AGI, now placement and pattern. Because these tests
Ansys Government Initiatives. were simulated, the cycles of adjustment and
Digital mission engineering reevaluation were only waiting on new data —
is the use of digital modeling, not new prototypes.
physics-based simulation, The result? The engineers achieved their goal
and analysis to incorporate the in about half the time it usually took. Let’s take a
operational environment and closer look at how they did it.
evaluate mission outcomes and The process began with designing a mission
effectiveness at every phase of the model in Ansys Systems Tool Kit (STK) that
life cycle. In represented the
other words, gateway’s operational
you simulate environment — what
your product in a it needed to do, but
digital model of the also where and when.
conditions it must This enabled them to
operate under and evaluate their designs
evaluate how well it to understand how
will perform. real-world variables
might affect them,
MISSION (DIGITALLY) and why, from the
ACCOMPLISHED beginning.
How did digital mission engineering assist The next step was to integrate Ansys HFSS
with this team’s project? The team needed to (3D, high-frequency simulation) with STK to
optimize an airborne communications gateway, determine a link budget, which measures
to be used by a variety of warfighters. This the total transmitted power in a radio system,
gateway would comprise radios and antennas including all gains and losses. Now the team
— some under wings, others on the fuselage — could use its arsenal of simulation tools to
plus data links and voice systems. optimize the gateway design, while gaining
The challenges were significant, starting important insights about how each change
with the millions of channel combinations to would impact mission success with just a few
analyze and solve. Complicating this analysis clicks. Here are some of the ways that they
were environmental factors such as co-site applied simulation solutions and their mission
interference from the emitters and antennas model to the challenges they faced:
sharing such a limited space. And, beyond • Importing computer-aided design (CAD)
the gateway’s potential to hinder itself, the geometry files of aircraft that would host
entire electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is an the gateway into HFSS to create nominal
increasingly congested and contested domain. antenna designs, understand the installed
Applying digital mission engineering, the electrical response at various locations, and
team simulated the gateway by performing then pick the right spots and pattern for the
a variety of expected missions in a model of antennas.

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 15

 FO CU S ON T RAN S FO R M AT I O N / D I G I TA L MISSION E N G IN E E RIN G

“engineering
Through digital mission engineering, the
team could quickly understand
the performance of their gateway and
identify new requirements,
without physical testing.
”

• Exporting the information from HFSS into FASTER, SMARTER, BETTER

Ansys Emit, which predicts interference Through digital mission engineering, the
in a complex system comprising multiple engineering team could quickly understand the
emitters that operate simultaneously. The performance of their gateway and identify new
results of this analysis indicated which requirements, without physical testing. The rapid
channels or radios would have a destructive iterations of modeling and analysis dramatically
effect on avionics or other systems and accelerated the project’s timeline and enabled
services. the team to deliver a first build that was closer to
• Mitigating co-site interference by filtering and production-ready than legacy approaches could
using frequency planning to reallocate the achieve. In a world where time to market is a
channels and antennas, then applying the crucial discriminator, digital mission engineering
changes to the analysis in HFSS. provides an unparalleled advantage.
• Importing the antenna response as installed,
and the selection of clean channels, into
STK. This enabled engineers to visualize
the effects of all of the components on the Learn more about Ansys Digital Mission
whole gateway while they simulated various Engineering solutions
ansys.com/products/missions
maneuvers and routes.

As an example of digital mission engineering in aerospace, Ansys STK allows you to design the architecture,
mission, and spacecraft, while defining requirements for payloads, communications, and ground infrastructure.

16 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 | 2022

 The Meaning of Mission
One of the trickier things to contend with is a simple question, one that you assume you know the
answer to until you ask it: What do we mean when we say “the mission”? The reason it’s not so simple
is that people use the word mission in many ways. So, what do we mean when we talk about the
mission in terms of digital mission engineering? Let’s break it down.

A mission is: that a cell phone’s mission is to maintain data

• The things that a product, system, or rates, links, and voice communication anywhere
platform is supposed to be able to do within a crowded urban environment. You
• The environment it must do it in — including have defined the things it must do and the
natural forces and competitive or adversarial environment it must do it in. In what ways could
activity digital mission engineering provide insight
What are some examples of this kind of about this phone’s ability to perform its mission?
mission?
At the simplest, you might say that a spoon
is supposed to enable you to eat soup, and a
bowl of soup would then be its operational
environment. Or consider a heat pump for your
home, which must be able to heat and cool
it. A heat pump’s environment includes many
factors, from weather outside the house to
airflow inside it.
A mission can have conditions, too, like a
car that must be able to safely transport four
to six human passengers and some amount of Here are few things you could analyze:
cargo while averaging a certain fuel efficiency, • Dynamic environmental factors, such as
and so on. If you’ve driven a car, then you’re natural radio frequency (RF) interference on
already very familiar with how dynamic that complex communications networks
environment can be, and how those dynamic • System-of-systems interactions, such as
factors can affect the car’s mission conditions in taking a picture while streaming a video
different ways. conference call, while connected to a
Finally, consider a radar that detects aircraft, Bluetooth headset
which someone else may not want it to do. • How motion affects performance. For
There’s a good chance that its environment example, a phone may rely on positioning
includes competitive or adversarial activity — information f rom GPS satellites, so it is
for example, an aircraft that’s trying to jam it. important to consider how obstructions
So, while the definition of mission can be such as buildings vary as the device travels
distilled reasonably simply, the full expression through a city.
of a particular mission can be multifaceted and Obviously, we’re keeping things simple here.
intricate. And as you can imagine, the more But once you understand the full meaning
complex the mission, the greater the advantage of mission in the context of digital mission
you gain from digital mission engineering. engineering, you can begin to appreciate the
multitude of applications waiting to be realized.
DIVERSIFYING MISSIONS Properly applied, digital mission engineering
Digital mission engineering was first increases efficiency and reduces costs, starting
implemented in the aerospace industry, and from the very beginning of product design and
its use there continues to spread. At the same carrying all the way through to operations and
time, Ansys — and our customers — are proving maintenance. And by continuously validating
that the same approach can be successfully real-world performance as you advance through
applied to a diverse set of other systems, the life cycle, you start each new phase with
including automotive vehicles, maritime vessels, confidence that your design is ready for that
and smart cities. next step. Moreover, once you see, firsthand,
Let’s look at an example of how digital how efficient the approach makes your team,
mission engineering could apply to another you can start to consider truly extraordinary
industry: telecommunications. You might say leaps in innovation.

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 17

 FO CU S ON T RA N S FO R M AT I O N / S C R I PTIN G

Access the Power

of Ansys from the

PYTHON
WORLD
By Ansys Advantage Staff Python is the world’s most popular
programming language, and the
Python ecosystem contains an
abundance of open source code libraries that developers can
freely use to create new solutions. The PyAnsys code library
breaks new ground by enabling developers to integrate
Ansys-based simulation into their Python-based projects.

O
ne way to look at simulation is this: Simulation delivers insights without
the need to perform the real-world tasks that would otherwise deliver
those same insights. Stresses can be tested without breaking — or even
building — an expensive prototype. The characteristics of a new design
— be they thermal, electrical, fluid, or whatever — can be explored
without having to create the actual temperatures, pressures, currents, or flows. We
can gain the insights that would otherwise have arisen from experience without
actually having to create the experience — which is particularly valuable when
gaining those insights might take 50 or 100 years or involve destroying multi-
million-dollar prototypes.
The only real-world tasks that need to be performed in a world enabled
by simulation are the manual tasks associated with configuring, running,
and sharing the results of the simulations themselves.
But thanks to PyAnsys and other Ansys solutions that connect the
digital thread, even that is changing.

18 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 The GitHub community has been
active in uploading PyAnsys-based
projects for others to use, and Ansys has
been reviewing the projects and working
with developers to incorporate their ideas
into new PyAnsys packages.

PyAnsys is a family of Python packages that enable users to interact with

Ansys products, including MAPDL, AEDT, and others, in an unprecedented
manner. The packages provide users with a modern programmable interface
through which they can not only script the execution of a wide range of
multiphysics simulations using the Ansys simulation stack, but they can also
script workflows that incorporate simulation to other automated operations.

WHY PYTHON?
So why Python? The Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL) has long provided
extensive scripting and control capabilities for interacting with Ansys products.
Individuals can write scripts in APDL (or Mechanical APDL [MAPDL], a finite element
analysis program built on APDL), that facilitate setup, execution, and post-processing
of simulations. The Ansys Customization Toolkit (ACT) also provides features for
controlling and automating simulations in Ansys Mechanical. But that was just it: One
could only use the scripting features of these tools from within the tools. There was
no mechanism for interacting programmatically with any Ansys products from outside
APDL, MAPDL, or ACT.
That changed in 2016 when a Python
developer and Ansys MAPDL user named
Alex Kaszynski created a code library that
enabled him to interact with MAPDL using
Python. The Python language is widely taught
in schools and embraced enthusiastically
by innumerable developers, and the Python
ecosystem has an abundance of public and
private code repositories that developers can
draw from to create their own applications.
Kaszynski posted his code library — called
PyMAPDL — to GitHub, the open source online
code repository, where interested users could
download it and incorporate its functionality into
their own projects that involved using MAPDL.
And download it they did. PyMAPDL was
made available at no cost to users — though 3D polar plot of antenna array output
users intending to interact with Ansys MAPDL using PyAEDT
needed to license that application — and it soon
became clear that Ansys users very much wanted the ability to interact more programmatically
with the Ansys simulation stack.
This enthusiasm was clear to Ansys as well, which hired Kaszynski and encouraged him to
continue the work he had begun.

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 19
 FO CU S ON T RAN S FO R M AT I O N / S C R I PTIN G

MOVING FORWARD PYTHONICALLY

That work today is ongoing. As of this writing, the PyAnsys page
on GitHub offers a range of packages that can be used to interact
“Pythonically” with Ansys products:
• Electronics simulation: PyAEDT
• Solid mechanics simulation: PyMAPDL
• Fluids simulation: PyFluent, PyFluent-Parametric,
Exhaust manifold PyFluent-Visualization
mesh post- • Post-processing: PyDPF-Core, PyDPF-Post
processing using • Materials management: Granta MI BoM Analytics
PyFluent Additionally, the PyAnsys page on GitHub offers access
to a range of shared components that facilitate package
interoperability and minimize maintenance.
Because the Python ecosystem provides code libraries with
which users can create web applications with customized user
interfaces (UIs), PyAnsys products can easily be called from
those customized UIs. That ensures that PyAnsys-based projects
are very easy to use because users need not be familiar with
the UIs associated with each individual Ansys product. Even a
PyFluent post-
Python script that accesses several different Ansys simulation
processing showing
an iso-surface of tools can present users with a UI whose only options and input
the velocity of requirements are those that are relevant to the workflow being
flow in an exhaust automated.
manifold The GitHub community has been active in uploading PyAnsys-
based projects for others to use, and Ansys has been reviewing
the projects and working with developers to incorporate their
ideas into new PyAnsys packages. The packages (along with full documentation and code
examples) continue to be offered on GitHub as open source libraries under an MIT license.
In addition, the Ansys Developer Experience has been introduced as a digital platform
designed to encourage and enable the broader developer ecosystem to interact with Ansys.

The Ansys Developer Experience aims to encourage

the developer ecosystem to grow and mature, while
improving the user experience by more easily accessing
relevant resources and getting technical support.

The platform includes the developer portal, peer-to-peer discussion forums, and access to Ansys
documentation and tools intended to enable developers to get up and running quickly. This
is the first time that Ansys has dedicated platforms and resources to supporting developers
using new and emerging Ansys technologies. The Developer Experience aims to encourage the
developer ecosystem to grow and mature, while improving the user experience by more easily
accessing relevant resources and getting technical support.

REAL-WORLD BENEFITS
For users around the world, PyAnsys presents tangible benefits. The engineering team at Bewind
GmbH, a German systems design and engineering firm, for example, uses PyAnsys to create a
customized, automated workflow to assess fatigue in its wind turbine blades more accurately and
effectively. This approach saves significantly on time and costs by using the predictive accuracy of
Ansys solvers to validate that the blades are both structurally sound and operationally efficient.
Other companies are already using PyAnsys to automate repetitive, complex simulations,
such as those that might be used to train a machine learning (ML) or artificial intelligence

20 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 MAPDL volume plot of a lathe cutter MAPDL modal principal stresses of lathe cutter

(AI) system. Training such systems may require thousands of simulations, and managing the
execution and analysis of those simulations becomes significantly easier if execution can
be managed programmatically through a Python script. Still other companies are adopting
PyAnsys to help ensure that repeated simulations are conducted in exactly the same way so as
to reduce the possibility of human error arising from the imperfect repetition of a complex task
whose novelty has worn off.
The ability to orchestrate processes using Python also creates opportunities for engineers
to rethink the manner in which activities are performed. By breaking a complex workflow into
tasks that can be run in parallel using separate resources, for example, a Python script can
dramatically reduce the amount of clock time required to complete the workflow. Activities
that might previously have required ongoing coordination and hand-offs between a structures
team, a fluids team, and a thermal team — each traditionally running simulations sequentially
on different tools — can now be captured in a script that can be used in conjunction with
other solutions in a connected digital thread to provide the information that all teams need.
For both end users and developers, the availability of PyAnsys packages and the ability
to incorporate Ansys simulations
into a broader ecosystem of
activities opens new doors. Many
organizations today are using
PyAnsys to automate existing
processes, which makes sense
because they are the processes
that are known and need to be
performed in specific ways. But
PyAnsys also creates opportunities
to integrate the Ansys simulation
stack into workflows that may never
have been tried before. PyAnsys
is yet another Ansys technology
that enables interconnected
innovation and, ultimately, digital
transformation.

Visit the Ansys Developer Experience

developer.ansys.com 

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 21
 FOCU S ON T RAN S FO R M AT I O N / C LO U D COMPUTIN G

A New Cloud is on the Horizon:

INTRODUCING
ANSYS GATEWAY
POWERED BY AWS
By Thomas Lejeune, Cumulus. Stratus. Cirrus. All of us learned these
Product Marketing cloud types at some point in science class — and
Manager,
experienced a sudden realization that not all cloud
Ansys
formations were the same. For at least a few weeks
or months, it changed how we looked up at the
sky, seeing distinctions and variations we’d missed
before. It turned out that the concept of a “cloud” was a lot more complex
than we’d originally thought.
Similarly, the concept of cloud computing has grown in nuance and
complexity since the term was first used in 1993 to describe the use of a
distributed computing platform. Today there is general agreement that there
are three types of clouds: private, public, and hybrid. But within each of these
three general classifications, there are seemingly endless cloud variations.
Who owns the resources? How are they shared and accessed? How much
control does the user have in specifying and controlling those resources?

22 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 “ WE WERE SURPRISED BY HOW EASY AND SEAMLESS
IT IS TO SWITCH FROM OUR INTERNAL CLUSTER TO THE
CLOUD WITH ANSYS GATEWAY POWERED BY AWS. IT’S
FAST AND INTUITIVE TO SWITCH BACK AND FORTH FROM
CLUSTER TO CLOUD AS OUR NEEDS CHANGE.
”
— Steve Collie, Aerodynamics Coordinator for Emirates Team New Zealand

Today, every organization seems to have problems over multiple remote processors,
a different answer. And, as companies engineers can arrive at high-fidelity
become more digitally sophisticated, solutions faster than ever. Cloud-computing
they’re demanding even more customized approaches deliver these rapid solution
cloud approaches and configurations that times in a cost-effective manner by enabling
meet their own unique computing needs product development teams to minimize
— including the need for remote users to technology ownership and maintenance
collaborate via cloud platforms. demands while still accessing state-of-the-art
Cloud providers are responding by hardware resources and the newest software
delivering ever-increasing levels of flexibility, functionality.
scalability, ease of use, and other service In addition to the existing managed-services
innovations — and with good reason: The solution that has already helped hundreds
global market for cloud computing is expected of Ansys customers, there is a new Ansys
to grow from $405 billion in 2022 to nearly cloud solution on the horizon. In response to
$1.5 trillion by 20281, reflecting an annual customers’ evolving needs for more customized
growth rate of 23.9%. Capturing a share of this cloud platforms, which provide individual
market means understanding and meeting users with more control over the specific cloud
organizations’ changing requirements — configuration and easier collaboration, Ansys
and delivering more innovative, custom- recently announced the availability of Ansys
tailored approaches to offering data storage, Gateway powered by AWS.
processing resources, and even shared virtual Ansys Gateway powered by AWS is an
workspaces on demand. intuitive, scalable, easy-to-use cloud solution
available via AWS Marketplace. After customers
ENABLING INCREASED CONTROL AND subscribe and complete a series of onboarding
CUSTOMIZATION FOR SIMULATION USERS steps, they can deploy and scale Ansys
With its enormous data volumes and applications on a virtual desktop infrastructure
computational complexity, engineering (VDI) or high-performance computing (HPC)
simulation is ideally suited to a cloud cluster via the Ansys Gateway web portal.
computing environment. By distributing Instead of committing to a static, resources-
today’s large, system-level, multiphysics constrained, on-premises HPC platform or

Emirates Team New

Zealand simulations can
exceed 50 million cells.
Ansys Gateway powered
by AWS lets them switch
from their internal cluster
to the cloud and back.

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 23
 FO CU S ON T RAN S FO R M AT I O N / C LO UD COMPUTIN G

fixed software-as-a-service (SaaS) licensing The open architecture of Ansys Gateway

agreement, customers can leverage their own powered by AWS enables Ansys software to run
AWS subscription and their own software side-by-side with third-party computer-aided
licenses. By logging onto the Ansys Gateway engineering and design solutions. Product
powered by AWS web portal, they can easily development teams can boost their engineers’
initiate a simulation run of any size, from productivity by eliminating the need to switch
anywhere and at any time. back and forth between platforms as they
“We recognized that many organizations are complete analysis tasks and move on to the
already using AWS to manage their growing next step.
data volumes and processing needs,” says Ansys Gateway also improves engineering
Neehar Kulkarni, Product Manager for Ansys productivity, collaboration, and innovation
Cloud Solutions. “They may not want to add by enabling each engineering team to create
another cloud platform just for simulation. As and manage its own virtual project space.
its name suggests, Ansys Gateway powered by Team members around the world can easily
AWS is designed to be a user-friendly gateway, work together in this space by accessing the
or portal, that enables our customers to easily AWS resources closest to them. By acting as
leverage the enormous computing power of a platform for easy collaboration, the virtual
AWS for all their Ansys simulation needs.” project spaces delivered by Ansys Gateway
powered by AWS reflect the way product
development teams are working together
today. AWS is a critical part of the equation
because it streamlines the collaborative process
and simplifies the complexity of bringing
together geographically scattered team
members.
“Helping customers get the most out of
their Ansys simulation, we worked with Ansys
on Ansys Gateway powered by AWS to boost
innovation, accelerate time to market, and
realize greater cost efficiencies. As a result
of these efforts, customers now have a very
secure, reliable, and accurate product that will
push the boundaries of simulation,” says Avi
Kulkarni, Senior Partner Development Manager
at AWS.
Ansys Gateway powered by AWS also
addresses evolving Ansys customer needs by
enabling complete customization of the remote
simulation processing environment. “We’ve
noticed that our customers are becoming more
tech-savvy about HPC and cloud,” says Krishna
Samavedam, Senior Cloud Product Manager,
Ansys. “With that knowledge comes a desire for
Emirates Team New Zealand uses Ansys greater control of the HPC resources.
simulation software to optimize the designs of “Ansys Gateway powered by AWS offers
its winning America’s Cup yachts via detailed a nice balance between customization and
simulations that are perfect candidates for ease of use. It’s flexible enough for power
Ansys Gateway powered by AWS. users or cloud-savvy users — but simple

24 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 enough for those users who just want to ‘plug While its internal HPC cluster provides
and play,’” adds Samavedam. “Even non- Emirates Team New Zealand with a good
experts can quickly and easily configure, then baseline computing resource, Ansys Gateway
iteratively reconfigure, an optimal VDI or HPC powered by AWS provides instant and
environment. They can see recommended elastic additional capacity when Emirates
virtual-machine configurations from Gateway Team New Zealand engineers are exploring
and understand how these choices will impact computationally intense problems such as
their simulation run times upfront, before turbulence and cavitation, or running multiple
committing.” simulations simultaneously.
Jim Burnham, Strategic Partnerships According to Collie, Emirates Team New
Director for Ansys, emphasizes that, no matter Zealand has realized important strategic
which VDI or HPC resources users select, they benefits since switching to a hybrid
always have access to the most recent software computing approach.
features and functionality from Ansys, as well as
the most advanced hardware, delivered
by AWS.
“The world’s leading financial institutions,
healthcare providers, and corporations are
running on AWS today,” Burnham notes. “So
extreme power, speed, and security are a given.
It’s a partnership that makes sense for Ansys
customers for many reasons.”

TESTED, PROVEN PERFORMANCE

FOR CRITICAL SIMULATIONS
While Ansys Gateway powered by AWS is a
new offering, its fast and reliable performance
has already been demonstrated by some
of Ansys’ most demanding customers. “Now Emirates Team New Zealand is
Emirates Team New Zealand, an Ansys power able to scale up on demand to many times
user, applies both Ansys Fluent and Ansys the simulation throughput of our internal
Mechanical to optimize the designs of its cluster, simply by switching over to Ansys
winning America’s Cup yachts, both above Gateway powered by AWS. As a result, we can
and below the water. significantly accelerate our design for the 2024
The team’s detailed simulations, which America’s Cup.”
include dynamic changes in wind and Whether Ansys customers are relying on
weather conditions, as well as sail shapes, Ansys Gateway powered by AWS to manage
can exceed 50 million cells. Because the all their simulation needs or taking a hybrid
size was putting a strain on its internal approach like Emirates Team New Zealand,
computing cluster, Emirates Team New they now have a robust new cloud services
Zealand partnered with Ansys to test the model, powered by AWS, to accelerate and
ability of Ansys Gateway powered by AWS streamline their most computationally
to supplement the team’s on-premises HPC intense product studies. By scaling up their
resources during peak usage periods. computing capabilities via an easy-to-use
“We were surprised by how easy and cloud platform, every product development
seamless it is to switch from our internal cluster team can keep the wind in its sails, taking
to the cloud with Ansys Gateway powered a decisive lead in the race to meaningful
by AWS,” notes Steve Collie, Aerodynamics innovation and market leadership.
Coordinator for Emirates Team New Zealand.
“We can quickly set up a customized
workstation or cluster and select the best RESOURCES

hardware. We can replace our hardware every 1.“Cloud Computing Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact
and Global Analysis By Service Model, Deployment Model,
day if we want, instead of replacing physical
Organization Size, and Verticals,” The Insight Partners,
resources every four years. It’s fast and intuitive June 2022, https://www.theinsightpartners.com/reports/
to switch back and forth from cluster to cloud cloud-computing-market
as our needs change.”

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 25
 FO CU S ON T RA N S FO R M AT I O N / D I G I TAL TWIN S

How Ansys and Amazon

Web Services Use

DIGITAL TWINS
to Drive Greater
Industrial Autonomy

By Graziella Alves, Digital twins can deliver a tremendous amount of

Manager Product value by improving engineering designs and delivering
Marketing,
predictive modeling to support industrial operations.
Ansys
However, creating and deploying digital twins at scale
requires coordination across several organizational silos
and boundaries. For instance, much of the engineering know-how about
assets is available within the product or engineering departments, typically
codified in simulation models. By combining forces, Ansys and Amazon Web
Services (AWS) are helping organizations bridge these silos to deliver scalable
digital twin solutions.

26 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 “The world is moving more towards autonomous
operations, and in particular for industrial autonomy
use cases, we see digital twins as an enabling
technology,” says Adam Rasheed, Head of Autonomous
Computing at Amazon Web Services (AWS). “You need
to be able to understand how a system will behave
under different scenarios to support autonomous decision
making. Introducing a predictive modeling digital twin
allows you to make predictions about the future under
different potential scenarios.”
Ansys and AWS are collaborating to help drive simulation-
based digital twin solutions supporting industrial autonomy
for our customers. The idea goes beyond pure 3D contextual
visualization, which is a starting point that enables you to visualize
all the data associated with your in-service physical assets in a
particular environment. Within this context, we’ll explain what a
digital twin is, and how Ansys Twin Builder, AWS IoT TwinMaker, and
advanced probabilistic methods can enable industrial autonomy for
customers.

LEVELING UP TO DIGITAL TWINS

The generally understood definition of a digital twin is that it is a virtual
representation of real-world entities and processes, synchronized at a
specified frequency and fidelity. Often customers gravitate toward the idea of
creating a digital twin for their unique use case prior to exploring the context
of the challenge they are trying to solve. In a related blog1, AWS proposed four
distinct levels (L1-L4) of digital twins to consider. (See chart below.)
This is consistent with the customer journey that we have seen at Ansys —
with levels 1 and 2 representing building blocks in terms of engineering modeling
and data connectivity, and levels 3 and 4 representing more of the advanced
predictive modeling analytics and insights that both Ansys and AWS can provide.
For the purpose of this article, we will be focusing on levels 3 and 4 as they are
defined here:
• L3 focuses on modeling the behavior of the physical system, where the behavior
is same as in the past (e.g., virtual sensors, anomaly detection or short-time horizons
looking forward). The predictive models can be machine learning-based, first principles-
based (e.g., physics simulations), or a hybrid. In this context, we’re referring to physics and
machine learning (ML) hybrid digital twins, such as those that can be generated by Ansys
Twin Builder.

101000101
$
01000101 0
010100101

Engineering design Integration of loT, Predictions of Updatable models

and visual asset history, and unmeasured quantities to drive
representation maintenance data and future states actionable insights
based of historical data

L1 DESCRIPTIVE L2 INFORMATIVE L4 PREDICTIVE L4 LIVING

DIGITAL TWIN

Digital twin levels framework adapted from: Verdantix, Five Digital Twin Strategies For Industrial
Facilities, 2019.

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 27
 FO CU S ON T RAN S FO R M AT I O N / D I G I TAL TWIN S

“The world is moving more towards autonomous

operations, and in particular for industrial autonomy use
cases, we see digital twins as an enabling technology.
You need to be able to understand how a system will
behave under different scenarios to support autonomous
decision making.”
— Adam Rasheed, Head of Autonomous Computing at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• L4 focuses on modeling behavior in which THE ANSYS TWIN BUILDER/AWS IOT

the physical system’s inherent behavior TWINMAKER VALUE PROPOSITION
changes over time. Changes in behavior can Ansys Twin Builder is an open solution
occur as physical systems degrade or receive that enables engineers to create physics-
maintenance and upgrades, and they are based digital twins with hybrid analytics.
relevant when making accurate predictions Each of these digital twins takes shape
over long timescales. This typically in an integrated, multidomain simulation
requires applying probabilistic update and that mirrors the life and real-world
uncertainty quantification methods on top experience of that asset. Sensors mounted
of ML-based, first principles-based, or hybrid on an entity gather and relay data to a
models. simulation model (the digital twin) to
For digital twins, the distinction between mirror the real-world experience of that
L3 and L4 is seen in how the operational product. Simulation-based digital twins
data from the real-world system is used. For enable tracking of the past behavior of
L3, the operational data is used as an input an asset, provide deeper insights into
to a pre-trained L3 model that provides a the present, and can help predict future
response output. The implicit assumption behavior of an asset — facilitating discovery
is that the prediction is well represented that leads to system design optimization,
by past behavior (e.g., historical data used predictive maintenance, and industrial
to train the model). For L4, the operational asset management for customers. Ansys’
data is used to update the model itself simulation software — specifically,
using probabilistic (Bayesian) calibration Twin Builder — provides the simulation
techniques. The updated model is then used technology needed to build predictive (L3)
to make the forward prediction. In this way, and living (L4) digital twins.
the L4 model is always learning and reflects AWS IoT TwinMaker is an AWS service in
the latest behavior of the physical system. the industrial internet of things (IoT) space
that makes it faster and easier for developers

Export a Twin Builder twin model that easily plugs into AWS IoT TwinMaker.

28 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 Workflow of digital twin creation and deployment of heat exchanger equipment.

to create and use digital twins to optimize in oil refineries and in the chemical processing
industrial operations, increase production industry for heating and cooling applications.
output, and improve equipment performance. While quite robust, the primary failure modes
The service today focuses on 3D contextual tend to be caused by thermo-mechanical
visualization (L2) use cases, which involves fatigue. While sensing temperature at every
ingesting IoT data from the physical system location on the heat exchanger could help
and overlaying that data on a 3D virtual identify hot spots and prevent failure, using
representation of that system so that a user physical sensors to do this is not feasible
can have full contextual awareness of the due to cost. An L3 digital twin of the heat
state of physical system. The service also exchanger, as demonstrated in this example,
focuses on the three main customer pain offers a solution. Using virtual sensors allows
points of ingesting and querying disparate for a fine-grained representation of the
data across silos, making it easy to maintain temperature field. This representation can
the asset data model over its lifetime and then be used to identify hot spots during
creating effective visualizations (which operation. Suitable actions can then be taken
could be a 2D dashboard or 3D immersive to ensure that no failures occur.
experience). By connecting AWS IoT As shown in the architecture diagram on
TwinMaker with the simulation digital twins the opposite page, adding Ansys Twin Builder
from Ansys Twin Builder, customers are able into the mix also makes it easy to reuse
to build and deploy holistic L3 and L4 digital existing simulation models created during
twin solutions. the engineering design process and apply
“AWS’ focus on providing scalable them within an operations context. The goal
services for digital twins via AWS IoT is to maximize the investment in simulations
TwinMaker is great news for customers,” created during engineering design by
says Sameer Kher, Senior Director of Digital making them available to operations. Using
Twins at Ansys. “As customers build up reduced-order models (ROMs) and system
and scale out sophisticated digital twins, simulations, for example, engineers can build
the ability to leverage Ansys’ best-in-class an accurate representation of a physical
simulation software via Ansys Twin Builder asset, then convert that into a runtime or
and deploy using the AWS IoT TwinMaker software/instructions executed while a
service is going to be extremely critical.” program is running for container-based
deployment. The deployment easily fits into
UNLOCKING SIMULATION INVESTMENTS AWS IoT TwinMaker through APIs, which
TO ENHANCE OPERATIONS allows the customer to leverage simulations
AWS IoT TwinMaker provides the ability to from their design engineering environment
connect to data from a variety of endpoints, into the operations environment — including
including sensor data from both the physical to a dashboard of the front end visible in
asset and simulation models. This is where AWS IoT TwinMaker, with Ansys simulation
Ansys Twin Builder fits in. In many practical running as the predictive modeling engine
use cases, the physical asset might not have behind the scenes.
the right sensors, or sometimes it is even
physically impossible to use a sensor. RESOURCES
For example, shell and tube heat 1. “Digital Twins on AWS: Unlocking business value and
exchangers (shown above) are typically used outcomes,” Amazon Web Services blog, March 2022

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 29
 FO CU S ON T RA N S FO R M AT I O N / A RT I FICIAL IN TE LLIG E N CE

TEACHING ‘BRAINS’
USING DIGITAL TWINS
WITH MICROSOFT
By Tim Palucka, Engineers are increasingly
Managing Editor, using artificial intelligence
Ansys Advantage (AI) to automate processes
and make decisions faster
and more effectively than
humans can. But, while engineers are experts in
their area of specialization, most of them are not
data scientists. Many don’t have the time to learn
data science and write the complex code that AI
modules require.
Microsoft Project Bonsai helps engineers
create AI-powered automation without using
An engineer gathers operational data from a
data science by graphically connecting software working industrial machine
modules that have already been programmed to
perform certain AI functions. A complete set of connected functions that can perform a task is called
a “brain.” A brain is a standalone, portable software module that can be used as part of an open loop
to advise a human operator on the best decision to make. It can also replace the human entirely,
making decisions and carrying them out by itself when configured in closed-loop mode.
Microsoft is working with Ansys Twin Builder software to create digital twins of equipment or
processes to be automated using AI. Digital twins can generate the large amounts of data needed to
train AI brains much more quickly and at lower cost than using physical machines for data generation.

30 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 “ THIS IS REALLY EXCITING FOR US BECAUSE WE CAN SIMULATE

MANY DIGITAL TWINS SIMULTANEOUSLY, COLLECT THE DATA, SORT

IT OUT ON OUR SIDE AND MAKE SURE THAT THE RIGHT DATA IS

BEING GENERATED FOR OPTIMAL LEARNING.

”
— Cyrill Glockner, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft

Engineering
Specs
Twin Builder System
Model
AI/ML Calibrated
Model
Hybrid
Data Digital Twin

ROMs Runtime
at Scale

3D Model

3D
Geometry

Flowchart showing how Ansys Twin Builder and Microsoft Bonsai AI-based machine teaching combine
to produce a digital “brain”

MACHINE TEACHING VS. MACHINE LEARNING “Imagine you’re starting with the hardest
As automated processes become more complex, problem where the chances of finding a
the method of training an AI brain is changing, solution are almost nil,” says Cyrill Glockner, a
too. When the goal was simply image or text Principal Program Manager at Microsoft. “The
recognition, flooding the AI brain with tons of AI brain will never find a way to do that. But it
labeled data so it could pick out patterns worked can slowly work its way up to it by following a
well. This is the basis of machine learning (ML). combination of exploitation and exploration,
But when AI is being relied on to control a taking advantage of what it has already learned
complex, multistep process on an industrial and looking across the data environment to
scale, ML is not as effective. The variety of inputs ensure that it finds an optimal solution to the
from numerous sensors of different types simply problem.”
overwhelm the brain. In practice, human experts first break the
So, Microsoft engineers developed the process down into smaller tasks. They then
concept of machine teaching (MT), which relies give the AI brain a few simple problems so it
more on a human approach to learning. Just as a can begin learning how to use its algorithms to
math teacher doesn’t start trying to teach young solve these easy challenges. Then they combine
students calculus before they have mastered small tasks the brain has already seen into larger
the basic concepts of arithmetic, engineers can’t ones until it can automatically control large,
expect an AI brain to understand how an electric complex systems.
turbine works before it learns about rotation. “We basically reduce the mathematical

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 31
 FOCU S ON T R A N S FO R M AT I O N / A RT I FICIAL IN TE LLIG E N CE

space that the AI brain has to look at by limiting it numbers of virtual models instead of fewer
to certain parameters and ranges,” Glockner says. physical ones reduces the time and cost of
“Then we increase the range over time. The brain training a brain. It also enables engineers
only has to deal with the new delta, and it already to introduce corner cases in the virtual
has some methods that it found in the earlier, environment — which might be potentially
smaller range that can be applied to the larger dangerous or damaging to a physical machine
ones as well.” — so the brain has seen all possible scenarios
before it is put into operation.
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL TWINS
While it is important when initially training a HOW IT WORKS
brain using MT to start with small tasks and Engineers start by using Twin Builder to
limited amounts of data, once the brain is well- create a multiphysics system-level model by
trained, it requires large amounts of data to fully combining different modeling techniques
optimize its operations. such as 0D/1D modeling and reduced-
Typically, this involves generating huge order modeling (ROM) from higher-fidelity
amounts of data by running a physical process simulation results. These higher-fidelity
over and over. This data can then be fed into the models provide the greatest simulation
brain to fine-tune its operation on the complete accuracy, but take a long time and many
machine or process it was designed to automate. computational resources to run. A ROM is a
But generating so much data from physical model that is smaller and less computationally
processes is time-consuming and expensive. Also, intensive than the original, but it runs much
if a condition occurs only once every trillion times faster while sacrificing very little in terms of
— a “corner case” — and is not encountered the accuracy of the physics involved in the
during the training runs, the brain will not have simulations. Twin Builder models the overall
seen it before and will not know how to react if system using component libraries (e.g.,
the situation occurs later. pumps, valves, actuators, sensors, etc.) and
Working with Ansys Twin Builder, Microsoft ROMs for components requiring accurate
Project Bonsai overcomes these limitations predictions that typically cannot be achieved
by running hundreds of virtual models of the with 0D/1D modeling (for example, a complete
machine or application simultaneously and field prediction of physical variables), which
feeding the data generated by these digital twins enables optimization and validation of
directly into the brain to optimize it. Using large component choices with the system response.

Mission Profile Outside air conditions

Initial Values Ram_Air
Height ICA EQU

CONST
Cabin_Pressure_Control
Velocity EQU
Scale
CONST
CONST V_inlet

EQU

Wall_Temperature

EQU Body_Temperature

Supply Air Velocity

CONST

B1 X4 Ceiling_Temperature
Supply_Air_Temperature
Temp Limit B2 X5
B3 X6
CONST LIMIT
CONST

tx

CONST
Recycling_Temperature

CFD boundary Cabin ROM Cabin ROM Outputs

conditions

Variables, sensors, and actuators that comprise a

Bleeding_Air PHE Compressor MHE Turbine Water_Separator Air_Mixing_Manifold Cabin

EQU EQU EQU EQU EQU EQU EQU EQU

cabin pressure control system

Schematic showing how cabin pressure and
temperature requirements feed into the ROM
to produce desired cabin conditions

32 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 A cabin pressure control system that combines a digital twin with a Microsoft Project Bonsai
brain to control the temperature and pressure of an aircraft cabin

The physics-based digital twin model can be commands (e.g., “turn down air conditioning”)
further improved by incorporating knowledge as outputs.
coming from asset data — for example, for In Twin Builder, the air conditioning
model calibration or augmentation, which leads subsystem can be modeled using 0D/1D
to a hybrid digital twin. The final models can be components in Modelica, and a high-fidelity
exported and deployed in the form of a Twin representation of the aircraft cabin can be
Runtime module. modeled with a 3D computational fluid
“We can directly integrate Twin Runtimes dynamics (CFD) model in Ansys Fluent. A ROM
into Microsoft Bonsai,” says Christophe Petre, is created from this 3D model and connected to
Manager, Product Specialist for digital twins the system model in Twin Builder. This provides
at Ansys. “Twin Runtimes come with a very accurate virtual sensors distributed spatially in
simple application programming interface (API), the cabin to monitor pressure and temperature.
which can be used in different programming Once the model is assembled and validated in
languages like a Python application, that tells Twin Builder, engineers can generate a portable,
the users how to manipulate the digital twins by plug-and-play Twin Runtime application.
transmitting inputs, simulating the models, and Through the simple Python API, it can be
retrieving the outputs seamlessly.” ported to a digital twin workflow and used to
Once the API is integrated with Bonsai, train a Bonsai brain to create a controller. In
engineers can determine whether a virtual this case, the digital twin will make predictions
change to any operating condition improves of the virtual sensors and, based on that,
the behavior of the equipment or process they the AI controller will take actions on the air
want to control. They can also access new conditioning system to maintain the targeted
information, like virtual sensor data (something pressure and temperature.
that you cannot measure physically but can be “Instead of using training datasets where
predicted with the model); explore “what-if” you have either labeled or unlabeled data for
scenarios; or run simulations to see how the supervised and unsupervised learning, we can
asset is aging to predict when maintenance use simulation at the digital twin as the data
will be required. generator,” says Glockner. “This is really exciting
for us because we can simulate many digital
THE BRAIN AT WORK twins simultaneously, collect the data, sort it out
A cabin pressure control system (CPCS) is one on our side and make sure that the right data is
way to demonstrate digital twin technology and being generated for optimal learning.”
its integration with Bonsai. A CPCS is an avionics
system designed to minimize the rate of change
of cabin pressure. Its purpose is to ensure the Eager to see a live demo of
safety of the airframe and passengers while Microsoft Bonsai and Ansys Digital
maximizing comfort for aircrew and passengers
Twin integration?
during all phases of flight. It consumes part of
the overall energy consumption of the aircraft
......
and therefore requires complex controls. Visit us at the Microsoft booth (Hall
In Bonsai, engineers can build the AI brain 004, Stand E34) during Hannover
by graphically selecting and connecting Messe in April 2023
functional blocks of control code that take
cabin temperatures and pressures at various hannovermesse.de/en/
points in the cabin as inputs and issue active

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 33

 FOCU S ON T R A N S FO R M AT I O N / C F D IN TH E CLOU D

CFD SIMULATIONS
PREDICT COVID-19
AEROSOL FLOW
IN STADIUMS
Thierry Marchal,
Industry Director for Healthcare Solutions, Ansys

The Johan Cruijff

ArenA stadium in
the Netherlands.
Copyright Johan Cruijff ArenA

34 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 | 2022

 F
ebruary 19, 2020. Early in the pandemic, before lockdowns and suspension
of sporting events. In Milan, Italy, 40,000 fans gathered to watch a
Champions League Football (soccer) match between the Italian team
Atalanta Bergamo and the Spanish team Valencia in San Siro stadium.
Following the 4-1 win by Atalanta, local newspapers described it as a
“magical” night for the fans in attendance. Two weeks later, when the
halls of Bergamo hospitals were filled with people dying from COVID-
19, one doctor had a different name for the sporting event: a “biological
bomb.” The game became widely known as “Game Zero,” the place
where potentially the pandemic really started in Italy.

Professor Bert Blocken of the Eindhoven performing Ansys Fluent simulations of aerosol
University of Technology in the Netherlands flows and build-up in stadiums, fitness centers,
and KU Leuven in Belgium watched the and classrooms. He validated his simulation
thrilling game on television, then watched with results with extensive experiments involving
sadness as the devastating results of such a artificial saliva in aerosol generators and
large gathering of people emerged. Instead sensors designed to emulate fans in stands
of doing nothing, he put his world-renowned when stadiums were closed to the public. And
knowledge and understanding of fluid flows he explored how air cleaners could be used
and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to make classrooms and fitness centers safer
simulation software to work to understand should COVID return in force.
how COVID-19 particles trapped in aerosols
— suspensions of fine solid or liquid particles SIMULATING AND VALIDATING
in gas, in this case air — expelled from the AEROSOL BEHAVIOR IN STADIUMS
mouths of cheering fans traveled in the If you’ve ever watched a professional football
stadium and could potentially build up to (soccer) game, you know that the fans begin
concentrations high enough to cause so many cheering and singing before the game starts
infections. and continue long after it is over. With every
“A football stadium is not an outdoor chant, droplets in a wide range of diameters fly
environment,” Blocken says, especially from the fans’ mouths. Large droplets tend to
these days when stadiums often have travel only short distances before succumbing
roofs with small openings and an enclosed to the force of gravity, but the small aerosol
circumference to protect fans from rain and particles can remain floating in the air for
wind. “That’s a good design in terms of fan tens of minutes, even hours, and travel tens
comfort, but in terms of stadium ventilation or hundreds of meters from the source. If you
when a pathogen like COVID is in the air, it can inhale one particle of the COVID virus, chances
be counterproductive.” are you will not become infected, but frequent
So Blocken spent the next 18 months inhalation over a certain period of time could

Simulated wind velocity profile around Johan

Cruijff ArenA Relative aerosol particle concentration in size
© Bert Blocken, TU Eindhoven & KU Leuven fraction PM1 in vertical cross-section through
the stadium
© Bert Blocken, TU Eindhoven & KU Leuven)

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 35

 FOCU S ON TR A N S FO R M AT I O N / C F D IN TH E CLOU D

“with
Using Fluent simulations, we filled the entire stadium
people. We had them all exhaling at different
intensities, we had them cheering. We had them wearing
masks to reduce particle concentrations. We had
different temperature conditions, different wind speeds.
— Professor Bert Blocken, TU Eindhoven and KU Leuven
”

CFD meshing around and including Johan Cruijff ArenA

© Bert Blocken, TU Eindhoven & KU Leuven

give you a high enough viral load or dose to Blocken and his team of graduate students
make you sick. The constant replenishment first performed physical experiments in the
of aerosol particles from human mouths empty Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam.
for two hours or more can be dangerous if Using aerosol generators containing artificial
those particles contain the COVID virus from saliva as substitutes for humans together with
infected people. aerosol particle detectors in a small section of
To better understand how aerosols travel, the stadium, they collected data on the size
Blocken took on the challenge of performing and concentration of aerosol particles as the
post-match forensics to determine what weather conditions and the associated natural
might have happened at that Milan stadium in stadium ventilation changed from hour to hour
February 2020. and day to day.
“It’s very difficult to do this kind of ‘crime A few months later, in March 2021, the
scene’ investigation afterwards and to see COVID situation had improved enough that
what really happened where and when,” Blocken could validate the artificial aerosol
Blocken says. “Many people argued that some study with 5,000 people in the stadium. The
of these infections could have happened results verified that the December 2020
during transport to and from the stadium, and experiment had produced results that closely
of course that’s true. It has taken the world a matched the aerosol distribution produced by
long time to realize that aerosols are actually people during a football match.
important here in this pandemic, and to realize Still, these physical experiments fell far
that simulation could play a very important short of the complex reality of the scenario
role in understanding how aerosols behave.” that Blocken wanted to study — a whole
In December 2020, when people were stadium full of people, at different elevations
barred from watching games in person, in the stadium, under varying wind speeds

36 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 | 2022

 Artificially generated aerosols were used to validate the computer models
© Bert Blocken, TU Eindhoven & KU Leuven

and directions, with a range of temperatures, “This simulation setup gave us a very good
with natural and mechanical ventilation. He view of what can happen in terms of actual
estimates it would have taken more than aerosol concentrations and ventilation in the
a year to do all these physical experiments. stadium,“ Blocken says, adding that wind
Simulation made studying all these variations speeds and direction and the ambient
possible. temperature proved to be important variables.
“Using Fluent simulations, we filled the “Maybe the most important thing with the
entire stadium with people,” Blocken says. “We simulation is that it allowed us to make an
had them all exhaling at different intensities, aerosol prediction protocol for the Johan Cruijff
we had them cheering. We had them wearing ArenA. Because of so many conditions that we
masks to reduce particle concentrations. We simulated based on the local weather forecast,
had different temperature conditions, different we can actually now predict what the aerosol
wind speeds.” concentration will be on that specific game day.”
Funded by the Dutch government He hopes that should a new pandemic wave
organization Health-Holland and The White arise, stadium officials throughout the world
House Consortium consisting of Ansys and will use his simulation protocol to make
Microsoft, Blocken and his team performed decisions about stadium closures on a case-by-
CFD simulations using the Johan Cruijff ArenA case basis, rather than imposing months-long
in Amsterdam as the model. The arena is lockdowns that keep all fans at home. .
surrounded by some high buildings, so they “This pandemic has taken us largely by
were also included in the 500 m by 500 m surprise and we should never allow anything
model because they would affect wind like it to happen again,” Blocken concludes.
patterns inside the stadium. Using mesh sizes “After this pandemic, let’s not go back to
down to about 10 cm produced a large model business as usual. Engineering solutions
containing approximately 30 million cells. The like ventilation and air cleaning exist, and
simulations also required using very small time engineering methods, computer simulations,
steps for very long durations. The resulting and measurement protocols also exist at a
60,000 time steps made it necessary to run top-quality level, so let’s all use them to fight
the Fluent simulations on powerful computers aerosol-driven health issues (COVID, flu, pollen
available from Microsoft Azure. allergies, etc.).”

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 37

 FO CU S ON TRA N S FO R M AT I O N / R O B U ST DE SIG N OPTIMIZATION

Optimizing
Design
Optimization
Efforts By Ansys Advantage Staff

38
38 AnsysAdvantage
Ansys Advantage Issue 33 /| 2022
Issue 2022
 I
n designing a new product or process, engineers must consider many
variables to arrive at an optimal design. Depending on the product, these
can include materials, mechanical strength, aerodynamics, thermal
radiation, electromagnetic compliance and interference, optical properties,
cybersecurity, and many other factors. A relatively simple product may only
have to optimize one or two of these variables, but most new products are
becoming increasingly complex, requiring the best balance of multiple
properties to produce the optimal overall performance.

Simulation rarely occurs in isolation. An robust design optimization (RDO) algorithms.

engineer may perform a stress simulation on It factors uncertainties and tolerance variations
the transmission mounts for a new car design, into account to automatically and efficiently
but that simulation likely takes place within a identify the optimal configuration for a given
broader context; one that might also consider design. Built into Ansys Workbench and
the stresses on the mounts of the engine, the Ansys Electronics Desktop (AEDT), optiSLang
rigidity of a car’s frame, and so on. Not only facilitates all aspects of RDO, including design
are there many different components of that exploration, optimization, robustness, and
design that one might subject to different reliability analysis. It’s not limited to specific
simulations, but each component comprises Ansys simulation tools, either. Organizations
materials — and reflects design decisions — that use optiSLang in automated workflows that
could be modified if the outcomes of these can incorporate simulations using virtually any
stress simulations are outside of acceptable Ansys or non-Ansys product. These workflows
specifications. parse and pass data from one step to the next
So many simulations. So many variables. and can run until design goals are optimally
How does one efficiently arrive at an optimized realized.
overall design? Many organizations have already created
Ansys optiSLang can help answer that workflows that perform these kinds of
question. simulations, but in many instances they
involve significant manual effort. Engineers
THE KEY TO ROBUST DESIGN OPTIMIZATION with expertise in Ansys Mechanical, for
Ansys optiSLang is a process integration and example, will run their simulations and then
design optimization (PIDO) solution that manually pass the output of those simulations
provides an organization with state-of-the-art to another engineer who specializes in

Example Initial Design Deterministic Robust

Summary: Optimum Optimum

Mass 790 g 588 g 666 g

Stress 439 MPa 200 MPa 176 MPa
Sigma Level - 3.3 4.8
Failure >0.5 10^ -3 10^ -6
Probability

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 39

 FOCU S ON TRAN S FO R M AT I O N / R O B UST DE SIG N OPTIMIZATION

Ansys optiSLang has an easy-to-use user interface (UI)

that simplifies the creation of workflows that automate
multiphysics simulations, extractions, and transformations.

simulations using Ansys Fluent. If the next optiSLang-based web apps that can easily be
engineer in the workflow uses a custom-built used by others within the organization.
or third-party simulation tool, the salient data
from Fluent or Mechanical may need to be WRANGLING THE VARIABLES
extracted or transformed before it can be The ability to link a wide range of parametric
used in the next application. Each of these simulation tools provides unprecedented
manual steps takes time, and each creates insight into the variables that can inform a
an opportunity for errors to creep in. While complex design. But that insight can also be
an organization approaching RDO in this a bit overwhelming. If everything from an
way can realize clear efficiencies through the individual component’s material composition
use of simulation software at each step, the to its size, shape, and tensile strength can
overall workflow can only be described as be manipulated, which are the most useful
discontinuous and inefficient. parameters to tune in pursuit of specified
Ansys optiSLang changes that dynamic. design goals?
Its easy-to-use user interface (UI) simplifies Parameter identification is another area
the creation of workflows that automate in which optiSLang shines. Ansys optiSLang
multiphysics simulations, extractions, and relies on several design of experiments (DOE)
transformations. It facilitates the inclusion algorithms, including the Meta-model of
of custom code and third-party applications, Optimal Prognosis (MOP) algorithm, that can
pre- and post-processing tools, and analyze all these parameters and point an
sophisticated processing and analytic loops. engineering team to the parameters that are
It facilitates the management of processing most useful in a design refinement effort. With
tasks across a high-performance computing the insights provided by the DOE algorithms,
(HPC) environment. It also interacts with an engineering team can quickly eliminate
Ansys Minerva, a knowledge management a wide range of simulations that it might
application that secures critical simulation have otherwise considered because those
data and provides simulation process simulations would involve the manipulation of
and decision support to simulation teams parameters that don’t make much difference.
across geographies and functional silos. For Instead, the team can focus on simulations that
workflows that might be used by different involve a much smaller number of parameters,
groups within an organization, Minerva which can considerably expedite design
also enables a team to build and publish refinements and reduce design costs.

Ansys optiSLang facilitates the creation of a wide range of complex workflows connecting
Ansys and third-party solutions.

40 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 Design Costs
Simulation Time Engineering Time Invested (total)
(CPU time) Time (overall) $75/hour

Before (manual) 30 hours 25 hours 55 hours $1,875

After (optiSLang) 20 hours 4 hours 24 hours $300

Improvement -33% -84% -56% -84%

Using Ansys optiSlang to create a continuous workflow involving multiple simulation tools, one company
reduced both total simulation time and total engineering time, resulting in a 56% reduction in stage
completion time and an 84% reduction in costs. The 84% reduction in engineering time enabled the
engineering department to accomplish far more over the course of a year.

Simulation Time Engineering Time Invested

(CPU time) Time (overall)

Before (manual) 10 hours 5 hours 15 hours

After (optiSLang) 5 hours 1 hours 6 hours

Improvement -50% -80% -60%

Using optiSLang, a firm was able to reduce design iterations significantly by focusing in on those parameters
that optiSLang identified as having the greatest impact on design goals. The optimized design led to
increased margins and reduced manufacturing costs.

REFINING THE DESIGN FOR THE REAL WORLD and reliability goals while saving money by using
Just as optiSLang can help an engineering team a lower-cost material. Conversely, if the analysis
determine which parameters can be optimally of the variations suggests that the original
tuned to achieve the best design, it can also design specifications were insufficiently robust,
help determine whether the design itself is optiSLang can help the team determine where
optimal in terms of desired robustness and to make refinements that will result in a design
reliability. It’s one thing to optimize a design more likely to meet overarching performance and
to meet a given set of specifications; whether reliability goals.
those specifications themselves are or are not Indeed, such design tweaks might involve any
optimal is another question entirely. What if number of parameters — size, weight, materials,
the specifications achieve a level of strength or and more — with the result being that the
quality that is greater than actually necessary? organization creates a product that will meet
In any given engineering scenario, there may customer, regulatory, or other requirements in
be uncertainties in required tolerances, loads, the most efficient manner possible.
materials, and more. There may be a great deal
of variation when it comes to the conditions in OPTIMIZE OPPORTUNISTICALLY
which a given device may operate or in which For teams using Workbench or AEDT, optiSLang
a structure will exist. Ansys optiSLang includes is already embedded. Others can download a free
a series of robustness and reliability analyzers trial version of optiSLang that can be used for 30
that take all these variations into consideration days (with full support from Ansys engineering).
to help a team determine optimal tolerances, Visit ansys.com/products/connect/ansys-
loads, materials, and more. If the specified optislang and click Request a Trial.
quality level can only be achieved through the
use of a particularly expensive material, but a
different, perhaps more appropriate level of
quality could be achieved through the use of
Ansys optiSLang
a lower-cost material, then the organization ansys.com/products/connect/ansys-optislang
might be able to meet the critical robustness

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 41

 FO CU S ON T RA N S FO R M AT I O N / T EC H NOLOG Y PARTN E RS

To Go Far,
Go Together
By Erik Ferguson, The philosophy of an open ecosystem has driven the Global
Sr. Project Manager,
Partnerships team at Ansys for many years. Modern CAE tools
Global Partnerships,
Ansys and workflows are the result of strong collaborations between
the companies that build the constituent parts. From long-
standing titans in the software, hardware, and cloud computing
industries to up-and-coming players developing breakthroughs in machine learning,
healthcare, and sustainability, Ansys is securing and growing partnerships to give
potential customers the confidence to take a “leap of certainty” and include
simulations in the way they create products in the digital age.

42 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 T
here is a saying, commonly attributed as an
African proverb, that concisely illustrates a
universal truth: “If you want to go fast, go alone;
if you want to go far, go together.” Building on
that foundation, partners play a critical role in helping Ansys
deliver best-in-class simulation workflows. In addition to the
tremendous success and growth of the Academic and Startup
ecosystems, the near doubling of the Technology Partner
ecosystem membership since 2017 reflects the value that partners
are recognizing and reinforces Ansys’ core mission of empowering
customers to design and deliver transformational products.
The open ecosystem
undergirds the Partner team’s
focus of driving customer
value and scale. For Ansys, a
partnership may exist for many
reasons, but chief among these
are providing more value to our
customers by extending the overall
Ansys CAE ecosystem. By making
tools available on-demand via major
cloud platforms and improving
simulation workflows through more
seamless integrations, partners are
essential to enabling Ansys to deliver true
business value to our mutual customers. External aerodynamic benchmark
results on a multi-GPU solver
ANSYS TECHNOLOGY PARTNER PROGRAM
Our global partner community includes more than 350 Technology Partners, providers
of highly specialized software products, high-performance computing, and cloud
hosting services that complement Ansys solutions with leading products and services
in a variety of industries. The new Technology Partner Program offers four tiers of
membership for the community. Each tier has its own set of benefits and requirements,
and partners can rise from one tier to the next by meeting certain thresholds of product
integration and mutual customer success.
The program is designed to provide partners with the
tools and resources needed to connect our respective
technologies, drive growth, and deliver customer
value. As program members, Technology
Partners gain market visibility via
promotion of their solutions to
Ansys customers and are
eligible for marketing and
The interior of a PCIE sales collaboration based
module with sub-grid on their program tier and
defined in the heat sink area. joint strategy with Ansys. It is
Without a subdomain enabling this collaboration that paves the
finer mesh only in specific regions, Intel way for the design workflows that are
engineers would spend far more compute catalyzing the next generation of technological
time to simulate an entire server. breakthroughs. 

ANSYS AND EMA: TACKLING SERVER EMI

In the electronics industry, electromagnetic interference (EMI) is a growing issue with the
increasing speed and density of components in modern devices. At Intel, engineers were
looking to predict the interference produced across an entire server. This required the power
of Ansys electromagnetics workhorses Ansys HFSS and Ansys SIwave combined with the
functionality of EMA3D Cable software from our partner Electro Magnetic Applications (EMA).
Over a two-year period, Ansys and EMA worked closely with Intel to modify EMA3D Cable

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 FO CU S ON T RAN S FO R M AT I O N / T EC H NOLOG Y PARTN E RS

to improve meshing speed and add a subgrid

capability to increase resolution for specific device
subcomponents. Once the fields were imported
from HFSS and SIwave, these enhancements to
EMA3D Cable enabled Intel to simulate the cabling
and thin wiring within the enclosure. This joint effort
now allows Intel’s signal integrity engineers to simulate
all six cards in a server at once, as compared to previous
efforts that required simulation of a single card six
different times. With this new workflow, the Intel team can
understand and solve EMI issues at the design stage before
observing them in the lab, further demonstrating the value of
tool integration to solve complex problems.

ANSYS AND NVIDIA: FASTER SIMULATION,

LOWER HARDWARE COST
On the hardware side, Ansys and NVIDIA have collaborated for
many years to ensure that customers have the most efficient
performance for running large simulations by parallelizing the
computations. Indeed, customers can benefit from the power of
NVIDIA’s graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate simulation
across the board in structural, fluid, and electromagnetics analyses. For
fluids simulation in particular, GPU acceleration was first made available
in Ansys Fluent in 2014 with the introduction of NVIDIA’s AmgX solver,
which enabled speedups for certain classes of problems. However, before
this year, the entire Fluent code was not optimized to run fully on GPUs.
With NVIDIA’s recent advances in their GPU hardware and toolkits, their
creation of dedicated program languages has given developers the tools
to better architect fluids
solver modules for GPUs. 14.0
The desire to unleash the full 12.6
power of GPU acceleration 12.0
helped push Ansys to release
a new multi-GPU solver in 10.0
Fluent in 2022. Using the new 8.5
Speedup

8.0
solver, exponential speedups
can be achieved running even a 6.0
single NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core
GPU as compared to multicore CPU 4.0
clusters. Such performance gains are
2.0
just one benefit, as our studies have 1.0
shown that engineers who run their 0.0
fluids simulations on GPUs can reduce Intel , Xeon® Gold 1 NVIDIA 2 NVIDIA
®

6242, 32,cores A100 GPU A100 GPU

hardware costs by up to 7x and power
consumption by up to 4x. These cost savings Speedup for different configurations of CPU and
can help customers meet their long-term NVIDIA A100 GPUs
sustainability goals.

ANSYS AND MICROSOFT: BOOSTING CHIP DEVELOPMENT

To meet the continuous demand from consumers for high-performance electronics, the
devices themselves continue to become physically smaller or pack more features into the
same footprint. Radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) have become key enablers of these
technologies by making it possible to integrate most of the necessary electronic components
into a single chip. High-fidelity simulations for the electrical properties of full RFIC designs,
however, have been a struggle for chip manufacturers due to computational complexity and
meshing limitations.
In partnership with Microsoft, Ansys Cloud Direct is enabling IC designers to solve
an adaptively converged mesh in Ansys HFSS for an entire RFIC by using hundreds of

44 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 compute cores on Microsoft Azure. By offering designers access to what is effectively an
“on-demand supercomputer” through a simple GUI, cloud computing on Azure makes it
possible for engineers to get the highest level of accuracy possible faster than ever before. For
manufacturers, this could mean avoiding the kinds of mistakes or product delays that could
cost them millions of dollars in additional R&D time and future revenue.

LOOKING AHEAD
Ansys has achieved some notable successes this year by working closely with partners across
the ecosystem of software, hardware, and cloud providers. In addition to the stories highlighted
here, we also recognized several other partners with awards for their outstanding contributions
at our second annual Technology Partner Day in conjunction with Ansys Simulation World in
May.
As we look for the next “big bet” integrations, we will continue to evolve our partner
community to drive further adoption of CAE simulation. This includes the PyAnsys project to
catalyze a Python developer ecosystem that will extend Ansys solutions, and to ensure that all
Ansys tools are accessible on the cloud platforms that are important to our customers. Together
with our partners, these steps will be made with confidence.

An Ansys HFSS
simulation of a radio
frequency integrated
circuit employing
Mesh Fusion at the
chip, package, and
PCB levels using
Ansys Cloud Direct on
Microsoft Azure.

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NI and Ansys
Launch Joint Solutions for Customers

O
By Jennifer Procario, ne thing Ansys and NI customers have in common
Staff Writer, is a shared desire for accuracy. Whether a group of
Ansys Advantage designers creates models using a tool from Ansys’
vast simulation portfolio, or a group of engineers authenticate
those models using NI’s validation software and hardware,
accuracy in design is a common objective.
While these groups can work independently and still achieve results, how
much more successful would design and development be if they connected their
approaches using joint solutions?
This potential has been the driving force behind the NI and Ansys partnership. The
success of this technology pairing has already been seen in the automotive space
with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) solutions for cameras in advanced driver assistance
systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles (AVs). But most recently, the companies are
off-roading onto new terrain by integrating NI tools with Ansys Systems Tool Kit (STK)
digital mission engineering software to deliver solutions for the aerospace industry
and beyond, with customer needs at the heart of the collaboration.

46 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 BETTER RESULTS AND VALIDATION between a satellite and ground station.
In its more-than-40-year history, NI continues to However, HIL concepts can be expanded to
produce modular hardware, software, services, other communication links such as 5G, other
and systems that set the standard for validation terrestrial networks, or even other systems that
through automated test equipment and interact using EM energy.
automated measurement systems. This year, NI “What we’ve done as a partnership most
demonstrated a satellite link emulator (SLE) at recently is focus on mission-critical applications
the Farnborough International Air Show. The SLE around communications and satellites,” says
connects with STK, which provides physics-based Chris Behnke, Chief Offering Manager of Radar,
modeling for analyzing platforms and payloads in Electronic Warfare, and Communications
a realistic mission context. at NI. “We’ve interfaced the STK software,
To develop the SLE, which has the potential to which provides the accurate simulation to
validate next-generation satellite communication our real-time hardware platform, and that
links, NI uses a HIL approach by connecting allows us to validate the hardware under the
NI’s PXI hardware and LabVIEW field- same conditions that the simulation was
programmable gate array (FPGA) technology run. Subsequently, it allows us to update that
into the STK platform. This combination enables simulation with real measured data. It’s a
communication links between satellite and synergistic cycle where we can inform the
ground stations to be validated against realistic system-under-test with the simulation, and
channel parameters in real time by simulating then further inform the simulation based on the
within a digital mission engineering environment. results of the testing itself.”
“Our tools — NI and Ansys — can work This collaborative approach provides
individually just fine, but the pace at which our customers with more insight to better inform
customers are being asked to innovate and their designs and missions in real time, which
the complexity of the systems they’re trying reduces error, time needed for development,
to develop is prompting us to ask, ‘What are material and operational costs for the project,
the connections that we could make between and, most importantly, risk. Consequently, the
our tools that would make that workflow more value of the partnership for both Ansys and NI
seamless, more real-time, or more iterative?’” says customers exceeds monetary value and results
Luke Schreier, Senior Vice President and General in richer, higher-fidelity simulations that ensure
Manager of Aerospace, Defense, and Government the safety and success of products and missions.
Business at NI. “How can we reduce the ‘throwing
it over the wall’ effect and failure to ‘close the loop’ DIGITAL MISSION ENGINEERING IN MOTION
with real data from real-world experiments that STK expands upon standard simulation tools
feed back into the simulation?” by applying simulation in a mission-planning
The SLE is just one instantiation of this HIL setting. Though other simulation tools can
concept to “close the loop” with real data, achieve results, such static, one-off models often
demonstrated within an electromagnetic lead to disconnected solutions that need to be
(EM) environment with the connection pieced together or compared later. Alternatively,

FPGA High-Speed Digital

VST Data and Control
Coprocessor Doppler Shift Channel Delay TT&C Signals

Space Vehicle
RF and Digital Link Parametric Test

FPGA
VST Coprocessor

Satcom Data Link

Ground Station Channel Channel Emulation
Impairments

In the connection between Ansys STK and NI solutions, STK provides the platform motions, kinematics,
payload models, and other environmental impacts that contribute to forming a realistic simulated
radio frequency (RF) link. This provides an executable simulation loop where engineers can design and
test their RF systems through both software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) strategies.

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 FO CU S ON T RAN S FO R M AT I O N / T EC H NOLOG Y PARTN E RS

“simulation
As the simulation is running, you can look at your
results and your real-time hardware results in
unison and in sync to see both sides of the coin.”
— Chris Behnke, Chief Offering Manager
of Radar, Electronic Warfare, and Communications at NI

STK provides a 3D, multidomain platform that including the RF environment. Similarly, the
is equipped for larger system-level projects and radar capability enables you to model system
supports various engineering disciplines within performance in synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
one application. This enables customers to see or search and track modes. This means you can
how critical engineering dynamics affect each model monostatic, bistatic, and multifunction
other in a real-time environment. This insight radars in the context of your mission to account
can inform designs — and the validation of those for the participation of every asset. The EOIR
designs — more comprehensively, speedily, and capabilities expand upon this by enabling teams
accurately both in unison and in motion. to model EOIR detection, tracking, and imaging
“A satellite, for example, can travel 17,000 miles performance, which support the product
per hour in space. The ability to model the motion throughout its life cycle.
of the platform, the kinematic effects, and the “The simulation is only as good as the data you
radio frequency environment effects all have an put into the model — so from our perspective,
impact on the mission,” says Shashank Narayan, the STK software provides an accurate first
Senior Director of Research and Development simulation, and then our platform gives the
in Digital Mission Engineering at Ansys. “As ability to measure the physical input and output
platforms move, relationships with other points or the physical hardware as it actually
platforms change, and the ability for a satellite operates, which gives you a next level of detail
to surveil a certain area depends on where it is in that you can then circle back to your design,” says
orbit. With the help of design reference missions Behnke. “The real-time nature really comes into
(DRMs) using STK, you can model these scenarios play when the hardware and software solutions
and then test against the DRM using NI tools.” can run in parallel. As the simulation is running,
Essentially, a DRM enables systems thinking, you can look at your simulation results and your
automation, and fact-based decision-making real-time hardware results in unison and in sync
across a product’s life cycle to ensure the safety to see both sides of the coin.”
and success of a mission. In simplest terms, it
helps design or prepare a “reference,” or plan. UPCOMING MISSIONS MADE POSSIBLE
Key features of STK that equip it for such Many of NI’s validation solutions are based on
mission planning include communications, radar, the premise of merging test instrumentation
and electro-optical and infrared (EOIR) modeling. with digital signal processing (DSP), which
With the communications capability, you can allows customers to emulate parts of the
model all the physical components of a system, system that may not be designed yet, or
perhaps the ecosystem for which the asset is
being designed. By implementing validation
into a mission-planning platform, not only is
predictive foresight strengthened surrounding
these known variables, but the potential to
visualize unprecedented scenarios that have
unknown variables can also be realized.
“Simulation environments like STK almost
inherently propose different combinations of
I/O that a normal validation process might not
explore, and that’s where the merger of the
two tools and approaches is really beneficial
for the customer,” says Schreier. “But making
LabVIEW is a graphical programming these connections is more than just the
environment developed by NI, which engineers sum or connection of two different tools. It is
use to develop automated research, validation, potentially unlocking innovation or accuracy
and production test systems. that wasn’t even possible before.”

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Ansys Channel
Partners:
A Link Around the World

By Ansys Advantage Staff In today’s interconnected world, working in isolation

isn’t a sustainable business model. The path to goal
completion is dotted with dependencies.
No project, no team, no company is an island, and Ansys is no exception.
To deliver its software worldwide, provide the outstanding service customers expect,
and help enable transformative innovation, Ansys extends its sales, support and
training efforts through a network of nearly 160 channel partners. These independent
companies represent Ansys across the globe.

VALUE BEYOND THE SALE partners are not transactional vendor-types who
For Erke Wang, Managing Director of Ansys Elite walk away after the deal is done.
channel partner CADFEM GmbH, the function Instead, like Ansys itself, they do everything
of the channel partner is easy to describe: they can to optimize the value their customers
helping to ensure both customer success and receive from Ansys products. That means
sustainable growth for Ansys through long-term helping with implementation, adoption,
relationships and local market knowledge. customization and workflow integration, as well
The reality of how that gets accomplished as providing both startup training and long-
isn’t simple and there are no shortcuts. Channel term learning.

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 FOCU S ON TRAN S FO R M AT I O N / C H A N N E L PARTN E RS

Iso-surface of the Mach number Tidal energy turbine developed by Orbital

of a jet, simulated by Ansys Elite Marine, supported by Ansys Elite Channel
Channel Partner Rand Simulation Partner EDRMedeso

For example, Rand Simulation, a division of degrees, including Ph.Ds., who understand
Rand Worldwide and an Ansys Elite channel local requirements and know the pains and
partner, designed the Ansys Development pressures their clients face.”
& Ongoing Proficiency Training (ADOPT) Helping customers overcome today’s
program. Jason Pfeiffer, Vice President, challenges is just part of the channel partner
Rand Simulation, said the program provides workload. They’re also focused on what the
continuing education on an annual basis future may hold. For CADFEM’s Wang, that
to “strengthen user proficiency and overall means providing Ansys with insight into new
Ansys ROI through direct collaboration and technology trends and giving the company a
mentorship from our team of fluids, structures, headstart into the features engineers will need
and electronics experts.” in the years to come. It also means developing
Channel partners sometimes go even the next generation of simulation engineers,
further, becoming a hands-on, in-house something CADFEM does through its long-
simulation surrogate for small- and medium- term collaborations with local universities and
sized customers who don’t have simulation research institutes.
specialists on staff. “We’re helping educate and prepare future
simulation engineers to make them available
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS for industry,” Wang says.
Besides selling software and creating (and According to Guetari, the training Ansys
maintaining) happy customers, channel provides for its channel partners is just as
partners provide boots on the ground to help forward-looking. It prepares channel partners
Ansys grow. Because channel partners are to sell and support Ansys products effectively
well-known organizations with long histories across the entire product range.
and strong reputations, they can trade on “We have an ongoing mentoring and
established customer relationships and market development program to help channel
credibility to give Ansys a foothold in areas partners gain experience with all the products
where it would be time-consuming and costly we offer that is very similar in content and
to start from scratch — or where it wouldn’t quality to what our direct organization goes
make strategic sense. through,” Guetari explained.
“It’s very hard to have Ansys people To be sure that the development activities
everywhere,” says Chokri Guetari, Ansys meet all the expected benchmarks, channel
technical support manager. “In fact, in some partners participate in a certification program
markets, the channel partner presence is far that measures performance and provides
stronger than our direct presence.” additional training.
Channel partners also provide strength in
numbers, nearly doubling the Ansys force, MAKING THE GRADE
according to Guetari. He’s not talking just Most channel partners represent all Ansys
about the sales team, by the way, but also products. There are some exceptions, however.
about “engineers, people with advanced As Ansys has expanded through

50 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 “ We have an ongoing mentoring and
development program to help channel partners
gain experience with all the products we offer
that is very similar in content and quality to
what our direct organization goes through.
— Chokri Guetari, Ansys Technical Support Manager
”

KOLLIDE NFL helmet, simulated with support from Ansys Elite Channel Partner the SimuTech Group

acquisition and its product portfolio has HERE FOR THE LONG TERM
grown more complicated, some smaller Given all of the advantages channel partners
channel partners have found it challenging offer to Ansys and its customers, it’s no
to cover everything and have become more surprise the ecosystem continues to grow.
specialized instead, focusing on their market’s What’s probably more of a revelation,
higher-demand products. Among larger though, is how long some of Ansys’ channel
channel partners, specialization is common. partner relationships have been going on.
They typically have staff experts in widely The fact is, Ansys started selling through
used products such as Ansys Fluent or Ansys channel partners from day one. Companies
Mechanical on board. like CADFEM, PADT, and SimuTech have been
Guetari sees specialization as a possible with Ansys for at least 30 years. Other channel
precursor to increased vertical integration. partners, including Ozen Engineering, Tae Sung
Ansys is already adding more vertical channel S&E, Pera Global, Cybernet Systems, Taiwan
partners who focus on specific technology, Auto-Design Company, and LEAP Australia,
he says. Some have been swept in with an have a decade or two under their belts.
acquisition; as Guetari explained, when Ansys What’s behind the longevity? What makes
purchases a company or software product, there being an Ansys channel partner a winning
are often channel partners who “come along” proposition?
with it. No one wants to overlook the level of Wang says it comes down to a few things:
expertise those channel partners offer. There’s no working with the best simulation company,
guarantee from the start, however, that they will getting guidance to succeed, and shared
become affiliated with Ansys. values.
“During a transition period after the “We value the opportunity to represent the
acquisition, we’ll figure out if the channel highly respected Ansys brand, which provides
partner is a good match, if there’s an world-class simulation products developed for
alignment,” Guetari says. “If there is, then they the global market and executed in the local
become an Ansys partner.” market by us,” Wang says. “Ansys provides
If that new partner has what Guetari called support for us to succeed. Our long-term
“the will, intent, and capability” to expand, it’s relationship, built on mutual trust, integrity,
generally strategic for them to expand to other and common values, is the foundation for
products as well. But that’s not always the case. developing and growing our Ansys business.”
Sometimes, the channel partner who excels In the end, Ansys and their channel
at one thing continues to do so, with Ansys partners are all about breaking down silos and
leveraging their expertise by having them building up customer performance. Together,
support other partners and the direct team. we bring engineers the software they need
As an example, when Ansys acquired to connect to other software, interrelate with
structural analysis software LS-DYNA, it also other teams and, ultimately, intersect with
brought in the acknowledged LS-DYNA expert, product success.
DYNAmore.

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 EL ECTROM AG N E T I CS / SYST E M O N C H IP

State-of-the art digital cockpit domain

Automobile
controller containing one system on a
chip (SoC) driving five displays

Digital Cockpit
Enhances
Infotainment
and Safety
By Laura Carter, Staff Writer, Ansys Advantage

The proliferation of portable digital technologies has quickly transformed

our lives. If you want to check your email, know how many steps you’ve
walked, or identify the closest Starbucks, you can use your laptop, watch,
tablet, or smartphone to find out. At the same time, the advent of 5G and
autonomous driving is accelerating expectations for ultra-high speed,
low-latency performance, and multiple connections wherever we are —
including in our vehicles.

52 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 “ Ansys tools like Ansys HFSS enable us to
consistently stretch our performance goals through
the optimization of our designs and help eliminate
time-consuming design re-spins in the process. ”
— Frank Gitzinger, Director of Product Development, Digital Cockpit, HARMAN

Drivers, plus everyone they choose to bring along for the ride, are looking for a seamless
transition from home to their vehicles and destinations without compromising their digital
lifestyles. With help from Ansys, HARMAN, a global leader and innovator in connected car
technology, is delivering the hardware and software services needed to enable this experience.
“Fun in the car has moved from the actual driving experience behind the wheel to continuing
your lifestyle experience with all the preferences you have in your car,” says Frank Gitzinger,
Director of Product Development, Digital Cockpit, at HARMAN. “Ideally, streaming your favorite
songs at home, then jumping into the car — your playlist seamlessly continues through your
USB, Apple CarPlay, or a similar
connected app. And when you
arrive at your destination, you
should be able to continue listening
on your phone. This experience
will be as convenient as possible,
enabled by our 5G technologies to
ensure you’re always connected to
the internet and the cloud.”

BALANCING PERFORMANCE
AND POWER CONSUMPTION
As fast as our digital environment
has been changing, achieving
this level of performance sounds
simple enough. But most in-vehicle
infotainment systems still have
limited functionality due to infrequent hardware updates and computing capabilities, as well as
a lack of apps and services to support them. The shift to electrification and autonomous driver
assistance puts added demands on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to balance power
consumption with vehicle performance, requiring faster rates of data transfer, high-speed digital
interfaces, and next-gen memory. This is where DDR5, a synchronous, dynamic random-access
memory that uses less power and allows higher data rates, comes into play. DDR5 elevates the
performance and efficiency of next-gen mobile and other automotive apps to dramatically
improve 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and camera and display technology.
Implementing DDR5 into HARMAN’s cockpit environment is a complex task, so it’s difficult to
have confidence in the layout without signal integrity (SI) simulations, largely due to the high-
speed transfer rate and the complexity of the SI constraints involved. Extremely high data rates
coupled with a poorly designed circuit board result in undesired interference, which can lead to a
complete interruption in data transfer and, ultimately, to failure. To avoid this scenario, Gitzinger
and team used Ansys HFSS simulation software to simulate every aspect of their controller
design, from the main processor, also known as system on a chip (SoC), to memory. Drawing on
performance data, they could validate designs with simulation and fulfill the requirements of the
JEDEC, a global standards body for electronics, and other regulatory bodies simultaneously.

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“Every generation of SoC we integrate in our products offers higher performance

at about the same level of power consumption of the cockpit controller,” says
Gitzinger. “We’re getting more speed and more data without compromising vehicle
range. Ansys tools like Ansys HFSS enable us to consistently stretch our performance
goals through the optimization of our designs and help eliminate time-consuming
design re-spins in the process.”
The goal of many OEMs in the automotive space is to transform the instrument panel
into a display offering critical safety and infotainment information. HARMAN is using an
electronic control unit (ECU), also known as the cockpit controller, to do this. Gitzinger’s team
recently used Ansys simulation to enable this technology in high-end infotainment systems
offered by renowned German, North American, and Chinese carmakers. The digital design
incorporates a very powerful cockpit domain controller driving all displays, which are seamlessly
integrated into the dashboard, and also enables projection of smartphone applications.

The eye diagram is an indicator of signal quality, simulating the signal integrity (SI). It helps to predict
performance and identify possible sources of problems like crosstalk, jitter, and impedance matching.

The skew simulation is the time delta between the clock and the signals associated with it. This
simulation ensures that the signals in the same group will transfer the data at the same time.

54 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 SOLVING HIGH-SPEED SIGNAL
MEASUREMENT CHALLENGES
WITH ANSYS HFSS
High-speed signals are not easily
measured with conventional measuring
activities. Using HFSS, engineers can
analyze signal quality and timing
relationships across the various nets
that compose the memory interface of
their infotainment system quickly, with
extreme accuracy. Additionally, results
can be generated at any point between
the transmitter and the receiver.
In the case of a complex circuit board, Steering wheel incorporated into the HARMAN
for example, HARMAN has several digital cockpit
transitions from one layer to another,
then onto another integrated circuit (IC), then to a connector. The piece of copper between one
IC and another is called the net. Signal probing of the net, which is required to test SI, is not
always possible in a real physical application. If you have a multilayered printed circuit board
with four to eight layers, you can’t always reach the inner layers to test the signal properly
with a traditional measurement device. Using HFSS, HARMAN can do a digital probing of the
signal at each of those nets to quickly and accurately verify that signal timing and behavior
is tuned for optimal performance.
For Gitzinger, the benefits of using Ansys simulation software are easy to grasp. For his
team, testing accuracy in a simulation environment enabled by real physics is the key to
accelerating development while reducing costs.
“No one in the industry can afford to run unnecessary loops in hardware design
because it takes months,” says Gitzinger. “Each time involves fixing the schematics,
redoing the design, and then building new prototypes, which is a pretty expensive
endeavor. So, we use Ansys HFSS tools to shorten the development lead time
and keep costs at a reasonable level to be able to provide the best electrical
performance we can.”

TURNING UP THE VOLUME ON INFOTAINMENT

F rank Gitzinger, Director of Product Development, Digital Cockpit, at HARMAN, puts

his electrical engineering background — including time spent at Visteon and Bosch
— to good use leading a team of functional experts and project leads within HARMAN’s
Digital Cockpit business unit. Looking to the future, Gitzinger believes the integration
of in-vehicle functionality will be even higher, involving deeper digital integration
of additional features like HVAC controls, passenger entertainment and rear seat
entertainment options, and even advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS)-related
in-cabin features like driver monitoring or cabin monitoring. Signal integrity (SI) analyzed
within the constraints of power integrity in an automotive cockpit environment is integral
to these advancements, but relatively new in the field of simulation.
“When you have a processor that drives five displays and output music to an
amplifier that’s fully loaded, the increased current draw affects the whole system’s
behavior,” says Gitzinger. “It’s a scenario that influences data line quality, and a new field
that needs to be elaborated in much more detail in the future to predict the performance
of these high-performance systems more accurately. The accuracy of Ansys HFSS tools
to analyze signal integrity will continue to play an integral role in shaping automotive
cockpits of the future.”

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 55
 AD D IT IVE M A N U FACTU R I N G / S U STA I N AB ILITY

Scrapping Errors,
Not Materials,
with Simulation
By Laura Carter, Additive manufacturing (AM) is promising to be one of the
Staff Writer,
biggest trends in sustainable manufacturing. New design
Ansys Advantage
practices such as topology optimization result in much lighter
optimized parts, which translates, for example, into lighter
vehicles and greater fuel efficiency. During the 3D-printing process, a part is
created through the melting, binding, or fusing of a prescribed amount of material
to support a reduced-waste environment. That’s not to say that 3D printing isn’t
somewhat wasteful — printing shapes often requires supports or structures that
prevent deformation of a part during the printing process, resulting in a nominal
amount of discarded material. But what happens in the case of failed prints?

56
56 AnsysAdvantage
Ansys Advantage Issue 3 /| 2022
Issue 3 2022
 “improved
Ansys’ tools, including Additive Suite, have dramatically
overall part quality while speeding up the
development process for Combitech customers.”
— Tomas Sjödin, Head of Computer-aided Engineering (CAE) and Analysis, Combitech

Engineers can potentially 3D-printed demonstrator

scrap a significant number showing a tetrahedral
of parts and materials to mesh used for simulation of
realize success during the printing with the selective
design phase. Addressing laser melting (SLM) method.
errors often comes only after
Credit: All simulation images
a failed part is identified
in this article originated from a
late in the manufacturing
research project sponsored by
process, along with the
Vinnova’s strategic innovation
realization that continuing
program (SIP), Production2030.
to print it is not an option.
Additive manufacturing
design methodologies AM to streamline production
may still be unfamiliar to for their customers. They
most manufacturers, and initially wanted to be able to
relying on a trial-and-error simulate an actual production
approach to printing is cycle in the 3D printer to
impractical. Using Ansys identify any issues during the
software enables Combitech, an printing process that led to failure.
independent consulting company primarily Together with Ansys, Combitech has carried
in the Nordic region, to help their customers out a number of projects to strengthen their
identify printing process issues that lead to competence in this area.
failed prints of parts through simulation. “Among our customers we see an increased
“We do the design work and simulate use of 3D printing, both to save time and
the production process at the part level,” increase performance,” says Sjödin. “I come
says Tomas Sjödin, Head of Computer-aided
Engineering (CAE) and Analysis at Combitech.
“For some customers, we only do the design
work, and for other customers, we only do the
simulation work of the production process. In
other products we simulate the performance
of the actual part itself, considering variables
such as stiffness, fatigue, or strength.”

DRAWING THE LINE

BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE
The idea to simulate production emerged
from Combitech’s well-established
working methods for sheet metal design
verification, which involves sheet metal
forming simulations. In addition to achieving
a final product design, the methodology
ensures that a product meets, and can be
successfully manufactured in consideration Transient thermal distribution of build part with
of, customer requirements. Similarly, the support structure and base plate for printing
Combitech increased their activity within with the SLM method

© 2022 ANSYS, INC. Ansys Advantage 57
 AD D IT IVE M A N U FACTU R I N G / S U STA I NAB ILITY

WHEN ACCURACY COMES DOWN

TO A FRACTION OF A MILLIMETER
Using Ansys simulation solutions, Combitech
has carried out a research project and two
industrial projects in the defense industry. One
of these projects required the use of selective
laser melting (SLM), an aspect of AM that
requires a high-power-density laser to melt and
blend metallic powders together. This method
was used on a part that included cooling
channels to maintain specific mechanical
properties and cool down electronics. Each
cooling channel was measured down to 1
millimeter in diameter. Another requirement
was that the surface should be flat down to
0.1 millimeters, ruling out milling as an option
after printing.
Simulation of static structural deformation after The big challenge was achieving a detailed
printing (i.e., after the removal of base plate and geometry that required a very fine mesh with
support structure) long simulation times. In this scenario, Sjödin’s
team wanted to see if Ansys Additive Suite
from the automotive industry and have could handle these high demands for accuracy.
been working a lot with body-in-white and The overall goal was to implement changes
sheet metal parts. For every single stamped to the geometry to achieve less distortion and
automotive part manufactured, there’s a sheet meet the demand for the final geometry in a
metal stamping simulation of it before it’s part with a very flat surface. Initially, this was a
produced, with no exceptions. This is to find challenge for the customer — the first part they
and solve every issue before tools are ordered. printed had a 1-millimeter surface deviation.
We’re using the same strategy for 3D printing Using several tools in Additive Suite, the
— before every part is sent to the printer, the geometry was imported as STEP files and
process should be simulated to avoid print machine data was collected from the printer
failure before production begins.” operator. Afterward, the team compared the

Ansys Simulation Software: A Catalyst for Environmental Change

R ecognizing additive manufacturing as a potential catalyst for environmental change,

Vinnova’s strategic innovation program (SIP) Production2030, an initiative that
funds advanced research projects that create sustainable competitiveness for Swedish
manufacturing, sponsored the work of Combitech’s Tomas Sjödin together with more
than 20 other industry partners. Ansys simulation software was used to study efficiencies
along the entire digital production chain, from ID to printed part. This involved a large
flow of information necessitating a lot of documentation, from requirements down to
the traceability of the powder and more. Accurately studying the digital information flow
during the 3D printing process involved test cases using Ansys Additive Suite, with the
intention of mimicking the workflow of a real project involving the manufacture of several
parts. The ultimate aim of the project was to gauge efficiency and traceability along the
digital production chain.
“Normally when you manufacture with traditional tools, you can always go back to
the tools you have to reproduce and see what you can control, or what you can get
from production,” says Sjödin. “But when it comes to 3D printing, you can send your
3D-printing data to a printer in Sweden, the U.S., or wherever, which means you lose
control of your data and the quality of the product. You can also lose your data. You want
to make sure you have the appropriate cybersecurity in place so that no one can steal your
data and use it in other factories. Ansys simulation solutions were instrumental in helping
us track the flow of production and our data.”

58 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 simulation results with scanned data. Additive depositing a metal powder or wire. Together
Suite’s integration capabilities were critical to with the customer, the team wanted to
Combitech’s overall success, enabling them investigate the possibility of simulating the
to seamlessly import part geometry from WAAM process involving a smaller product
STEP files for analysis. They also used their and a different printing method than what
own scripts to compare scanned data from was previously used. With help from Additive
real parts with the simulations’ results, which Suite, the team managed to capture the overall
helped them identify the causes of printing phenomena and gain confidence in the method,
failures and arrive at a different solution for results, tools, and timing required for the
their customers. manufacture of a slightly different application.
Pre- and post-processing were done on “The results are very promising for Ansys
engineering laptops in Windows; however, all Additive Suite in capturing physical phenomena
design analyses were done on the Linux cluster that occur in reality,” says Sjödin. “I am convinced
with the appropriate number of CPUs. Due to that simulations of the manufacturing process
the detailed geometry, engineers had to use a for AM will become standard work in the future,
very fine mesh requiring long simulation times in the same way that simulation of sheet metal
to achieve less distortion and meet customer forming is today. By using Ansys simulations, we
requirements for the final geometry. can reduce the number of failed parts and can
correct a design before it costs our customers
ADDITIVE SUITE REDUCES CUSTOMER COSTS more time and money in 3D printing.”
Sjödin’s team also achieved success using Ansys’ tools, including Additive Suite, have
Additive Suite for a smaller wire arc additive dramatically improved overall part quality
manufacturing (WAAM) project that also while speeding up the development process
involved laser metal deposition (LMD) — a for Combitech customers. Using these tools,
direct energy deposition technique that is Combitech will continue to set new quality
often used to 3D-print metallic parts or add standards for production with simulation
features to an existing metallic structure. that make for lighter, low-waste solutions for
During this process, a high-power laser is used aerospace, medical, transportation, energy,
to melt a metal surface while simultaneously consumer products, and more.

3D-printed demonstrator using the powder-based laser metal deposition (LMD-P) method, showing
transient thermal distribution after printing

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 M AT E RIA LS / D I R ECT F U N CT I O N A L M O DE LIN G

Nature Architects
Reshapes a Cleaner
Future with
Metamaterials
By Jennifer Procario, Staff Writer, Ansys Advantage

Nature Architects provides shape design

solutions for manufacturers to incorporate various Nature Architects
uses Ansys Fluent
physical functions such as vibration, acoustics, heat to analyze two-
conduction, deformation, and weight reduction into fluid heat exchange
performance in
their products by using metamaterials. lattice structures.

60 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 /| 2022

Issue 3 2022
 “manufacturing
By innovating designs based on the use of conventional
methods, we can improve the efficiency of
product design and add value to products. Ansys simulation
is beneficial for the automation and advancement of
analysis in our proprietary design system.
”
— Taisuke Ohshima, CEO, Nature Architects

Metamaterials are structures assembled parts. In addition, metamaterials

that realize functions beyond the enable designers and engineers to go beyond
physical functions of materials, conventional methods by balancing multiple
such as resins and metals, through trade-offs in design requirements, such as light
artificially designed geometric weight and high stiffness.
structures. Appropriate use of With support from the Ansys Startup
metamaterials will make it possible to Program, which encourages early-stage
achieve advanced physics properties that startups by offering affordable access to
were previously thought impossible to Ansys’ simulation solutions, Nature Architects
achieve using conventional materials and is using simulation to advance this emerging
components. technology and build more metamaterials
Metamaterials include structures that and structural solutions that will reshape the
generate mechanical movement through future.
elastic deformation such as moving parts that
are referred to as compliant mechanisms. SIMULATING NEW GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONS
In addition, metamaterials can be used to Founded in 2017, Nature Architects set out to
create advanced physics properties in a single empower designers and engineers to create
structure without assembly. Such structures products capable of functions that defy
have conventionally been achieved by the bounds of conventional materials and
assembling mechanical parts or combining components. Metamaterials allow developers
different materials. Typically, these are made to control diverse functions through shape
by additive manufacturing, but in some cases, and at times achieve capabilities that were
conventional manufacturing methods such previously impossible.
as injection molding, press molding, and To appreciate the unique capabilities of
machining can be used. metamaterials, you must first recognize the
In this way, metamaterials can be used constraints of nature and physics. A basic
to incorporate new physics properties into example of this can be demonstrated with any
products without increasing the number of stretchy material such as rubber or spandex.

The movement of a robot

hand, which typically
requires at least 30 parts,
including hinges and other
rigid mechanisms, can be
reproduced using Direct
Functional Modeling
and a single compliant
mechanism that
requires no assembly.

©
© 2022
2022 ANSYS,
ANSYS, INC.
INC. Ansys Advantage 61
 M AT E RIA LS / D I R ECT F U N CT I O N A L M ODE LIN G

The perforated structure of the

engineering plastic plate follows
the human body and deforms in
such a way as to disperse
pressure efficiently. It is made
up of diagonal beams that include
a re-entrant honeycomb structure
and boxes that are properly
aligned to achieve a
double-curved surface.

When you pull on both ends of a rubber band, metamaterials have the potential to contribute
it becomes narrower and longer. In mechanical to sustainability because they can add
engineering, this concept is the basis of the functionality without increasing material
Poisson effect — the deformation of a material usage.
perpendicular to the point of force or direction “By combining structures that express
of loading — or, in this example, the direction innovative functions, such as metamaterials,
that the hand pulls the rubber band. For the with inverse calculation techniques, we are
rubber band, Poisson’s ratio is the relationship of able to achieve a high level of function-to-
the width as the band narrows and contracts to shape,” says Taisuke Ohshima, CEO at Nature
its extended length in the pulling direction. By Architects, describing the company’s DFM
knowing Poisson’s ratio for a material, you can technology. “The Ansys Startup Program
predict its reaction to stresses in a repeatable has allowed us to use advanced simulations
manner. that would have been cost-prohibitive
However, by creating metamaterials with to implement at the startup stage of the
a negative Poisson’s ratio, it is possible to company and has helped us automate and
generate new properties that enable the advance our analysis and design systems,
material to react differently than expected, or expanding the range of industries and
what is even considered possible. For a rubber problems we can handle as a company.”
band, this could result in widening of the band Ohshima and fellow engineers have
upon pulling its ends, instead of narrowing. integrated simulation to conquer what they
Materials constructed with a negative Poisson’s say is a top challenge in geometric design:
ratio are also known as auxetic materials. the automation of new structure discovery.
The simple geometry of elastomers with Using Ansys Mechanical for structural analyses
holes realizes controlled buckling deformation and fluid-structure interaction, the team
and efficient conformity to the human body. implements Ansys Mechanical Parametric
Integrating this concept to construct Design Language (MAPDL), a scripting
mechanical metamaterials, Nature Architects language that automates simulation tasks and
developed their signature Direct Functional streamlines workflows. This automation allows
Modeling (DFM) technology to create structures the team to visualize and explore countless
that go beyond what regular materials can new structures. Engineers can also use MAPDL
achieve. to build models with new variables and
The company can design a material that parameters through features including design
substitutes plastic for rubber by utilizing optimization and adaptive meshing.
metamaterials. For example, the cushioning “Automation of simulations and
portion of an office chair is made of an advancement in dealing with nonlinear
integrated plastic honeycomb structure to problems are helping us to develop systems
achieve flexibility that disperses body pressure to overcome this challenge,” says Ohshima.
efficiently. Appropriate substitution of materials “We have a customized and automated system
can create added value, such as lower cost, for DFM using Ansys Mechanical APDL, from
improved design through better moldability, geometry definition to analysis and post-
improved recyclability, and lighter weight. processing, benefiting from a wide variety of
In addition to enhancing creative possibilities, constraints and elements.”

62 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022

 The simple geometry of elastomers with holes realizes controlled buckling deformation and efficient conformity.

Additionally, the group uses Ansys Fluent to Currently, Nature Architects provides
analyze two-fluid heat exchange performance three solutions using DFM technology,
in lattice structures, which enables them to including DFM PULSE, DFM TOUCH, and
design heat exchangers. DFM UNWELD, which enhance capabilities in
vibration, haptics, and sheet metal processing,
SOLUTIONS IN ACTION respectively. Applications range from
DFM technology boosts the capabilities of automobiles to music equipment.
traditional functional modeling by generating An automotive component company
the appropriate metamaterial structure currently uses DFM PULSE to isolate vibration
instantly based on its desired physical function. in components around sensors and is
With DFM, Nature Architects can add various working with a leading air conditioning (AC)
physical functions into products that were manufacturer to develop vibration isolation
unattainable before, including flexibility, components for AC systems. A construction
deformation, thermal conductivity, and company integrates DFM UNWELD technology
vibration absorption. DFM technology is used to manufacture building components,
most effectively for products that deal with and DFM TOUCH is being used to develop
motion, such as automotive, aerospace, and equipment for the entertainment industry.
robotics, as well as components such as fans, Metamaterials are key building blocks to
springs, switches, and levers. By reimagining DFM solutions and offer a range of properties
these compliant mechanisms, Nature Architect depending on the needs of the company or
engineers produce the desired movement application. For example, the triangular prism-
through integrated structures, reducing based auxetic lattice structures used for the
the need for external operating parts and cushion padding mentioned above possess
components, including hinges, screws, and unprecedented rigidity control that provides
bolts. stress relief for automotive sensor peripheral
If the movable parts can be made as a components and can also be implemented
single piece using a compliant mechanism, it to reduce vibration. Traditionally, vibration
is possible to eliminate the need for multiple isolation techniques require elasticity from
parts, and therefore, assembly. In addition, if external components such as rubber or
a compliant mechanism is properly designed springs, but DFM technology recreates these
with DFM, it is possible to integrate those compliant mechanisms in other materials. For
functions into the piece, creating the same instance, DFM PULSE can be used to fabricate
functionality in a single unit. elastic properties with metamaterials to alter
With a team of 15, Nature Architects does any composite or material, including glass,
not directly produce end products, but plastic, wood, or metal.
supplies metamaterials and DFM solutions “By innovating designs based on the use of
to manufacturers, often collaborating in conventional manufacturing methods, we can
development and supporting product design. improve the efficiency of product design and
Essentially, Nature Architects builds and add value to products,” says Ohshima. “Ansys
operates software modules equipped with DFM simulation is beneficial for the automation and
technology to automate the design process for advancement of analysis in our proprietary
each customer and project. design system.”

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 60 Ansys Advantage Issue 3 / 2022