Drive Sustainable Product Development & Manufacturing with Virtual Twins

Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA, Lenovo, and Intel collaborate to deliver high-performance simulation solutions.

Author: Srini Chari, Managing Partner, Cabot Partners.

In 2020, according to the EPA[1], direct industrial greenhouse gas emissions accounted for 24% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the third largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, after the Transportation and Electric Power sectors. So, it is not surprising according to the Manufacturing COO Pulse Survey (pwc.com) (see figure below) that over 70% of manufacturers are prioritizing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments to improve energy efficiency, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance the health and safety of products.

Sustainable manufacturing trends

Leading companies are implementing sustainable manufacturing throughout the product lifecycle in several ways:

• Using recyclable/biomaterials and renewable/clean energy sources, which is good for the environment and can also reduce costs
• Implementing innovative service models that amplify customer value by leasing products and refurbishing/replacing them responsibly at the end of the lifecycle
• Embracing technologies such as Virtual Twins that replace tedious, expensive, manual processes involving physical prototypes that could harm the environment. 

Virtual Twin

The Virtual Twin is an exact digital representation of a product and its components, which can be used to evaluate real-world physical behavior.  With it, you can design and perform simulations to optimize component size, shape, weight, material use strength, cost, and other performance characteristics needed to improve efficiency, drive sustainability, and gain a competitive advantage. Consequently, throughout the product lifecycle, many manufacturers are ramping up the use of virtual twins and their constituent technologies, such as computer-aided design/engineering (CAD/CAE) and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) as you can see in the next figure.

The solution for sustainable manufacturing

Dassault Systèmes is a global leader in providing solutions for sustainable innovation. Their 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables companies to create and visualize virtual twins of products, processes, and operations. The platform unifies their best-in-class CAD and CAE software allowing their customers to collaborate on the design, modeling, and simulation of innovative new products to address the major challenges facing the world today.

Intel® and Lenovo® provide best-in-class high-performance computing (HPC) solutions optimized for the Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA® portfolio of realistic simulation software.  The companies also provide additional computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and AI/ML solutions directly or through other complementary software partners.

This technology partnership provides integrated solutions that help optimize design and engineering functions across the entire product lifecycle, from virtual product development to production to customer operations helping customers meet their product quality and sustainability goals.

How the SIMULIA portfolio enhances sustainability[2]

Achieving global sustainability goals within a constrained timeline requires adopting new ways of managing products and services over their entire lifecycle, from design and use to end-of-life. To support process and sustainability improvements, many companies are adopting digital transformation initiatives enabled by the Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform and the breadth of design and simulation technologies available. The platform enables development teams to collaborate on the design and simulation of Virtual and Digital Twins. SIMULIA’s multiphysics simulation, automation, and optimization capabilities are critical for improving real-world product performance to meet energy efficiency and sustainability goals.

Here’s how three companies use the Dassault Systèmes platform and applications to improve sustainability with virtual twins:

1. Transpod, a startup company, is using Dassault Systèmes modeling and simulation applications on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to develop a new generation of affordable and environmentally friendly high-speed ground transportation[3].
2. AMCOR uses SIMULIA’s realistic simulation capabilities to identify strain areas and potential failure points, resulting in lighter but stronger products, lower production costs, and less waste in landfills[4].
3. ECCUS, another startup, is using modeling and simulation applications on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to design and analyze underground storage facilities to reduce land and energy use[5].

How Lenovo helps manufacturers further improve sustainability[6] for HPC systems

Lenovo uses the circular economy approach that includes Smarter Design – Smarter Use – Smarter Return, to address internal and customer sustainability goals. 

Smarter designs lower waste and pollution with innovative recycled materials and packaging design:

• Novel rack integration of pre-installed servers reduces the number of cardboard boxes and the amount of foam, plastic, and paper used to ship systems.
• Greater use of abandoned plastic waste and recycled materials in packaging and systems.

Smarter use optimizes energy efficiency, carbon-optimized operations, and logistics:

• Traditional air-cooled data centers consume a massive amount of power, whereas liquid-cooled systems like Lenovo Neptune^TM have several features and benefits:
  • Up to 40% lower power costs by using water, and also eliminates fans
  • Energy Aware Runtime (EAR) and xClarity Energy Manager minimize power consumption
  • Adaptive air technologies like the Thermal Transfer Module (TTM) or Liquid to Air heat exchanger (L2A) help reduce power consumption or increase processing power
  • Rear door heat exchanger is 3.5 times more efficient than air alone

Smarter Return to optimize resources and value with proper disposal and recycling when systems reach end-of-life. Lenovo offers the Asset Recovery Services (ARS) program to:

• Assure customers that the entire systems lifecycle is planned, from installation to retirement.
• Provide proper disposal, and potentially offset some costs related to refreshing the technology.
• Recover value from decommissioned equipment, lowering the total cost of ownership for the latest technology investment.

When disposing of hardware that houses sensitive and confidential data, Lenovo will:  

• Securely transport assets from the client location.
• Dispose assets in accordance with both customer practice and applicable laws.
• Receive, test, and prepare equipment for resale.
• Recycle to ensure proper disposal of obsolete equipment.
• Donate equipment to an organization of the customer’s choice.

A winning holistic partnership for your sustainability goals

The Lenovo circular economy approach helps you be environmentally and socially responsible, as well as maximize the recoverable value for all your technology assets. In addition, you get outstanding performance and scale by running the SIMULIA portfolio and other complementary AI/ML applications on Lenovo HPC systems with 3^rd generation Intel Xeon® Scalable Processors. This means with a Virtual Twin, your engineers can detect and solve issues faster with fewer physical prototypes. The digital transformation of your entire manufacturing process is the greatest enabler to accelerate you toward your sustainability goals.

[1]Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions | US EPA

[2] Designing Disruption | Sustainability – Dassault Systèmes (3ds.com)

[3]Transpod Case Study

[4]Amcor Case Study

[5]ECCUS Case Study

[6]The Role of Infrastructure Technology in Driving a Sustainable Future – Lenovo StoryHub

SIMULIA offers an advanced simulation product portfolio, including Abaqus, Isight, fe-safe, Tosca, Simpoe-Mold, SIMPACK, CST Studio Suite, XFlow, PowerFLOW, and more. The SIMULIA Community is the place to find the latest resources for SIMULIA software and to collaborate with other users. The key that unlocks the door of innovative thinking and knowledge building, the SIMULIA Community provides you with the tools you need to expand your knowledge, whenever and wherever.