White Paper

How Simulation-Based Digital Twins and the Industrial

Internet of Things Can Improve Product and Process
Performance

Simulation has long been used to improve the design of nearly every physical product or
process by providing the opportunity to evaluate a wide range of alternative designs prior to
building physical prototypes. Simulation has also long been used to model different operat-
ing scenarios to develop control strategies that are incorporated into control algorithms to
improve operations. The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) has created the potential
for a transformational journey in which a simulation model of the product or process is tied
through the Internet to sensors capturing data and to actuators controlling its operation. The
result is a so-called digital twin of the physical product or process that can be used to ana-
lyze and diagnose its operation and optimize its performance and maintenance in real time.
By using simulation in conjunction with the IoT, companies can analyze the performance of
products in real-world operating conditions and make confident predictions about future
performance to improve product operation and productivity, and to reduce the cost and risk
of unplanned downtime.

Emergence of the Internet of Things

The IoT is changing the way companies approach the entire product lifecycle
from development, testing and manufacturing to operations and maintenance.
Smart connected products leverage connectivity with the cloud and other
devices to deliver unprecedented functionality. The proliferation of smart con-
nected products offers exciting new capabilities for their users and enormous
opportunities to companies developing them. There are already more smart
devices connected to the internet today than there are human beings in the
world. IoT devices are creating massive opportunities for existing businesses
and giving rise to brand new markets and companies. The potential economic
impact by 2025 has been estimated to be up to $11 trillion per year.

Early IoT applications focused on relatively simple applications, such as

determining the state of assets and issuing simple commands, such as turning
an asset on or off. But manufacturers and users of smart connected products
are demonstrating that the power of the IoT can be increased through integra-
tion with simulation technology. Simulation can perform diagnostics and
troubleshooting in real time, anticipate breakdowns and determine the
optimal point to perform maintenance, tune the product to optimize its
|performance, and capture information that can be used to improve the
next-generation design.
 How Simulation-Based Digital Twins and the
Industrial Internet of Things Can Improve Product
and Process Performance

Role of Simulation in the IoT

Industry leaders use simulation to create complete virtual prototypes of com-
plex products and systems comprisingmechanical, electronics and embedded
software components, incorporating all the physical phenomena that exist in
real-world environments. For example, computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
software is used to model and predict fluid flow, which is critical to opti-
mizing the efficiency of so many products and processes, ranging from the
combustion of gases in an automobile engine to the movement of a chemical
solution through pores in a shale gas formation. Structural analysis software
is used to predict how a product will react to forces, heat, electromagnetic
fields, abrasion and other physical effects to determine whether a proposed
design will meet design requirements. Electromagnetics simulation predicts
the signal integrity, power integrity and thermal integrity of products such as
computer chips, circuit boards, cell phones, automobile electronic compo-
nents and entire communications systems, making it possible to quickly
optimize the design without wasting time building and testing costly proto-
types. Furthermore, software engineers leverage software development tools
and certified code generators to ensure the high level of quality needed to
prevent product failures in the embedded software that is increasingly being
used to oversee and control the operation of many products.

Multiphysics-based simulation drives the product development process

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 How Simulation-Based Digital Twins and the
Industrial Internet of Things Can Improve
Product and Process Performance

Simulation is also used to design simplified reduced order models that are
embedded in control algorithms to manage the operation of automobiles,
power plants, machine tools, printing presses, chemical reactors and oth-
ers. As an example, lets look at the difficult challenge of operating electric
batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).
Batteries provide the primary drive power for the vehicle as well as power
for numerous electrical auxiliary systems. The operation of the battery must
be carefully managed to avoid overheating, which reduces power-generat-
ing efficiency and shortens battery life. Engineers typically employ an air
cooling strategy for cylindrical cells that use housings shaped for optimal
cooling and a blower and guiding vanes to provide adequate airflow. For
rectangular cells, cooling generally is done with liquid circulating through
heat exchanger elements in contact with the cells. A control algorithm
varies the loads on different cells based on temperature readings and the
charger status.

Digital twin architecture

Simulation is typically used to evaluate and optimize the thermal perfor-

mance of the cells under a wide range of conditions. Fluid dynamics solvers
are used to analyze the complex 3-D cooling flows and conjugate (two way
solid-fluid) heat transfer. Engineers use electronic circuit simulation tech-
nology to evaluate control algorithms that manage the thermal performance
of the battery while also preventing overcharging, high-current charging/
discharging, external shorts and other electrical problems that could reduce
battery life and risk battery explosion. Engineering simulation is ideal for
designing such algorithms due to its ability to tightly integrate 3-D physical
models (fluid dynamics and mechanical) into the control circuit simulation.
Methods such as parameterization and design of experiments are used to
identify the best control system parameters at each set of operating condi-
tions. The simulation results are then used to generate reduced order mod-
els that are incorporated into the control logic used in a batterys electronic
control units (ECUs).

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 How Simulation-Based Digital Twins and the
Industrial Internet of Things Can Improve
Product and Process Performance

The IoT connects simulation to the product or process in near real-time,

just-in-time or in replay mode to aid in operating and maintaining the
product or process. The simulation-based digital twin concept incorporates
the physical product or process, the simulation models and the connec-
tions that facilitate communications between the two. The digital twin may
consist of a simulation model that has been developed to duplicate the
current condition of the product or process, such as by incorporating wear
or degraded performance into the simulation model. The data from sen-
sors connected to the product or process may be used to provide real-time
boundary conditions for the digital twin. The digital twin results can be
calibrated based on the operation of the actual product or process. These
enhancements to the digital twin can improve its predictive capabilities far
beyond what can be obtained in the product design process. The predic-
tions made by the digital twin can be used to determine the root cause
of performance problems, evaluate results of different control strategies,
determine optimized maintenance schedules, etc. The digital twin can also
provide information about the product or process that cannot be measured
with sensors, such as flow velocities through internal passages. The result
is that digital twins can be used to substantially increase the performance
and reliability of the product or process while reducing its operating cost.
Pump application demonstrates
digital twin concept

Digital twin used to verify the root cause of low operational efficiency and improve pump operation

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 How Simulation-Based Digital Twins and the
Industrial Internet of Things Can Improve
Product and Process Performance

Application that demonstrates the potential for the digital twin concept

ANSYS recently demonstrated how a simulation model can serve as a

digital twin to process sensor data generated by an instrumented product
or process to predict failures and diagnose problems so that action can be
immediately taken over the IoT to fix problems and optimize performance.
The demonstration showed a motorized pump operating in a hydraulic
system with valves on the suction and discharge sides. The motor and pump
were instrumented with sensors to measure key operating parameters such
as mass flow rate, pressure, vibration and current draw. Actuators on the
valves were used to control their operation based on instructions generated
by evaluation of the simulation model.

In the recent demonstration, a machine learning algorithm predicted the

number of operating days left until failure. Then an operator introduced an
anomaly by closing the suction valve to 50 percent. The sensor readings
on the physical product immediately indicated that something was amiss.
For example, inlet pressure, outlet pressure and flowrate through the pump
decreased drastically, while pump noise rose to higher than normal values.
But the sensor readings provided minimal diagnostic information, and it
Pump operating (left) at the Best Efficiency Point and was not possible to look inside the pump and see why it was vibrating.
(right) in cavitation Furthermore, the sensor readings provided little or no help in determin-
ing what would have happened if various actions were taken to solve the
problem.

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 How Simulation-Based Digital Twins and the
Industrial Internet of Things Can Improve
Product and Process Performance

So the digital twin was used to address these challenges. The sensor read-
ings from the demonstration unit were transmitted over the internet and
used as boundary conditions for the system and component level simula-
tion models. The simulation model immediately began exhibiting the same
symptoms as the physical model, such as reduced pressure and flowrate.
While engineers could only view the physical product from the outside, the
digital twin enabled them to look inside the virtual product and understand
what was going on. The digital twin showed that the fluid in the interior of
the pump was cavitating. The drop in pressure inside the pump was forming
vapor cavities essentially bubbles where the pressure was low. In loca-
tions where the liquid was subjected to a higher pressure, the voids implod-
ed and generated noise. Next, engineers used the digital twin to evaluate
the impact of changing the operating conditions. After evaluating the effect
of different valve settings, they determined that opening the suction valve
to 100 percent would restore pressure and flowrate to normal levels.

Flow lines superimposed on image of pump

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 How Simulation-Based Digital Twins and the
Industrial Internet of Things Can Improve
Product and Process Performance

The digital twin concept is being extended far beyond this simple example
to encompass large and complicated assets such as petroleum refineries,
automobile assembly plants, distribution centers, wind farms, large scale
construction projects, etc. In each case, sensors and other devices capture
data that is fed into the simulation model to provide a detailed understand-
ing of the current state of the asset. Machine learning algorithms running
on the edge or in the cloud access information from the physical asset and
the simulation model to optimize the performance of the asset by sched-
uling maintenance, setting control points, sending alerts to operators,
providing reports to management, etc. The information generated by the
simulation model can also potentially be communicated by overlaying the
flow contours of the fluid flow inside the pump onto an image of the pump
so operating personnel can quickly understand and diagnose problems.

Conclusion
The simulation-based digital twin will help companies analyze smart ma-
chines in real-world operating conditions and make informed decisions that
will improve their performance far above what is possible today. Physics-
based and system simulations with big data analytics and industrial devices
augmented with embedded intelligence can reduce risk, avoid unplanned
downtime and speed up new product development. The resulting efficiency
and productivity gains will have a dramatic effect on an organizations bot-
tom line, as well as on the global economy. The combination of machine con-
nectivity with a data lifecycle management platform powered by engineering
simulation will enable organizations to perform diagnostics and trouble-
shooting, determine the ideal maintenance program based on the character-
istics of the individual asset, optimize the performance of their assets, and
generate insightful data that can be used to improve the next generation of
the product.

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