'Get it Right the First Time' with Simulation-Based Design

The past year has shown remarkable achievements with our leading customers expanding the boundaries of numerical simulation and taking on ambitious new projects. Among the most noticeable ones are:

- In automotive industry: (Renault-Nissan, VW Group) Multi-discipline optimization of a full car body combining requirements of crashworthiness and Noise-Vibration-Harshness; (BMW, Renault, Ford, Hyundai) Seat modeling for combined manufacturing and comfort improvement

- In aeronautics industry: (AVIC – Aviation Industries of China) a virtual simulation chain for combined composite materials design and manufacturing; (Embraer, Brazil) the virtual development of stamped parts in aluminum with minimal reworking during try-out.

- In ship building: (Van Cappellen) the reduction of on-board noise and vibration for luxury yachts.

- In energy field: (CEA, AREVA, COMEX) a comprehensive micro-physics modeling of fuel cells; a simulation-based process for electro-nuclear components.

- In space industry: (CNES) a full spectrum vibro-acoustic modeling of the Ariane V launcher.

- And many more that we will share together at EuroPAM 2008.

In our customers’ own terms, they have achieved ‘quantum leaps’ and ‘revolutionary results’ in design performance, as well as major economic benefits.

Numerical simulation today is becoming not only a standard but a competitive necessity in industry – the ‘next big thing’ in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). With a Virtual Prototype incorporating proven physical sense, numerical simulation promises to support end-to-end product design and manufacturing.

However numerical simulation until now has been mostly used to help improve the real ‘hardware’ prototype, with simulation models calibrated on imperfect real prototypes to bring along the needed improvements. This ‘hybrid’ prototyping process (combining both virtual and real) known as ‘Simulation-Driven Design’ is now rapidly evolving towards ‘Simulation-Based Design’ (SBD) where ‘intrinsic’ simulations are calibrated on data independent from and prior to the first real prototype.

The new industrial challenge in Virtual Product Development resides therefore in ‘Getting it Right the First Time’. Indeed creating a new product today is still a long iterative and mostly sequential process, working alternatively on real and virtual prototypes, adjusting to new materials, environment and cost constraints, customer expectations, and altogether requiring much time-consuming iteration. Virtual Prototyping, when used to its fullest, will provide the best solution to these challenges by allowing all essential design and manufacturing decisions to be made concurrently, ahead of the hardware tooling and prototyping stage. 

This new era of Simulation-Based Design, as illustrated by the remarkable projects quoted above, is already at work. It materializes the advent of effective Virtual Manufacturing, i.e. VM in PLM.

EuroPAM 2008 is our dedicated Simulation-Based Design forum where together we will present, discover and  share ideas and experiences on Virtual Prototyping, both hybrid and intrinsic, for product performance, materials selection and manufacturing processes, towards our common goal to ‘Get it Right the First Time’.

EuroPAM 2008 is your user meeting. We –- managers and experienced engineers at ESI Group –- will listen to your issues and challenges, recognize your successes, and examine ways to further provide advanced software support and engineering services worldwide, nurture our partnerships, and in general fulfill your expectations to achieve the desired results and to spur your ambitious innovation initiatives.

In 1985, the first CRAY and IBM super computers with Megaflop performance opened the era of virtual simulation for the automotive industry and its virtual crash test with PAM-CRASH.
In 2010, the first European hyper computing farms with Petaflop performance will become readily available for industry, providing a new and major disruptive innovation opportunity for Simulation-Based Design and Multi Disciplinary Optimization. Material physics and process modeling will become feasible at the micro and nano scales, making ’realistic’ multi physics and multi scale simulations a must!
Are we aware of this tremendous potential and ready for the challenge?

Let us convene in Prague to examine our Virtual Prototyping present and future, and prepare for it collaboratively, dynamically and efficiently.

We gladly address our sincere thanks to our keynote speakers and our partners, with a special mention to Skoda for their enthusiastic contribution.

Welcome to EuroPAM 2008!

Dr. Alain de Rouvray
Chairman & CEO
ESI Group

President's Address (PDF)