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Companies can gain a sustainable competitive advantage and be environmental stewards — through robust design and optimisation
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Throughout much of the world, people expect that life will become better, easier and more comfortable for succeeding generations. Over the past century, privileges once limited to the wealthy have become commonplace; indeed, many are now considered a necessity.
Owning a car, flying around the world, accessing a computer, connecting to the internet from anywhere, and using a mobile phone are routine activities, even in emerging countries.
However, the world can't sustain such exponential growth forever. The planet has received a wake-up call about addressing overconsumption. Many scientists state emphatically that we are putting our planet, and the human species, in danger.
The population is rapidly draining the world's fossil energy sources; at the same time, emissions from these fuels are negatively impacting the environment and its natural evolution. Huge amounts of waste material are being stored with the hope that the earth can cope with it.
Most people are aware that the globe cannot sustain these practices forever. While a growing number of people are urging the world's population to do something about it, many individuals are unwilling to sacrifice their comfortable lifestyle.
Reluctance to Sacrifice Current Standards
Without a doubt, cars could be more environmentally friendly, but if you surveyed the planet, would you find people willing to pay more to achieve this objective? Most would be reluctant to accept significant reductions in performance, speed or acceleration.
Green building is a common aspiration, but will the occupants tolerate being a bit less warm in winter, and a bit more warm in summer? Renewable energy is a "must do" only if the
resulting power is less expensive and at least as stable. An admirable goal: Can we reach it without personal compromise?
Common sense dictates that we can't meet such expectations using traditional approaches and technologies. Real breakthroughs may be necessary to achieve sustainability goals in these areas:
Better energy management: Fossil fuels remain an important energy source, but they could be used more effectively and selectively. Sources of renewable energies should be exploited. Transportation, construction and manufacturing must become more energy efficient. Pollution reduction: Twenty-first century lifestyles result in the release of huge quantities of various materials into the environment, making absorption and recycling of these substances difficult without a direct impact on the planet. Product lifecycle: After a lifetime of use, products quickly become waste material. Shortened product life increases the amount of waste. Processing recycled materials into new products in a cost effective manner can benefit greatly from modern simulation technology.Virtual Experimentation, Virtual Testing, Virtual Prototyping
If sustainable products and processes today are merely "nice to have," it is likely green design will become mandatory in the future, legislated and forced by market pressures to develop better solutions. Pioneers and leading companies are already preparing for this evolution by designing sustainable solutions. But the challenge is daunting. Environmentally friendly products may require major innovations that could impact both cost and robustness.
Innovation usually requires intense experimentation and optimisation. Real breakthrough solutions need systematic testing to ensure that new designs behave properly throughout the entire lifecycle.
Experimentation and testing processes are typically time intensive, costly and difficult to manage in a highly competitive world. Best-in-class companies are addressing this issue by switching to the virtual world.
Numerous reports and industry studies suggest that an order of magnitude more experimentation can be done virtually for a smaller cost. Engineering teams can vary numerous parameters to identify the best combination of sustainable design, minimal cost and maximal performance. Leading companies are systematically testing their virtual product prototypes against conditions that would be experienced throughout the lifecycle to ensure that product behaviour will satisfy end users.
Continually increasing computational power combined with high-efficiency solvers can contribute to the effort:
They might enable the number or complexity of virtual tests to double every 18 months without impact on cost or time to market.
Robust Design and Optimisation
Sustainability adds a new dimension that is difficult to handle with standard technology. Designing smart, green products to a high level of product integrity requires investigating a growing number of parameters — such as dimension, materials and operating conditions — to provide designers with enough freedom to meet numerous constraints. Robust design includes identification of influential parameters and evaluation of design sensitivity based on performing variations.
The combination of parametric studies and sensitivity analysis for a large number of parameters using advanced tools (robust design and optimization) opens the door to a new era of design.
Engineering Simulation: A Profitable Green Technology
Engineering simulation has proven its cost effectiveness in developing innovative products. This
same technology can be used to design greener products and processes. Pioneering companies
are already creating a cleaner and more profitable future by changing their design processes and widely adopting simulation to transform the green challenge into a major business opportunity.
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