Ansys Interview: New Acquisition Boosts Its MBSE and Digital Twin Capabilities

Ansys customers will see more integration and Phoenix customers will gain access to Ansys technology.

(Image courtesy of Ansys.)

(Image courtesy of Ansys.)

Ansys has acquired Phoenix Integration, adding Phoenix’s model-based engineering (MBE) and model-based systems engineering (MBSE) capabilities to its expanding suite of engineering tools. Engineering.com spoke with Anthony Dawson, vice president and general manager of product at Ansys, to learn more about the acquisition and how it will affect the customers of both companies.

Ansys and Phoenix Integration

Ansys is a physics-based simulation company, creating software that engineers use to simulate real-world scenarios. For example, car companies run thousands of virtual crash tests before putting actual vehicles and crash-test dummies in harm’s way, saving both time and expense. In addition to its automotive customers, the company serves industries such as aviation, sporting goods, aerospace, renewable energy and more.

Engineers use a multitude of tools to design, model, analyze and test products. In addition, they employ project management software to set up and maintain workflows, spreadsheets to manage parts, accounting software to track costs and email to communicate with each other. Juggling the data from these disparate sources can be a nightmare for project managers, engineers and support personnel; Phoenix Integration merges the various products into a unified interface, allowing the applications to share information, maintain data integrity and assure traceability regardless of vendors. 

(Image courtesy of Phoenix Integration.)

(Image courtesy of Phoenix Integration.)

MBE and MBSE

We asked Dawson why Ansys decided to make the acquisition. He told us that Phoenix Integration’s strength is in model-based engineering (MBE), a broad term that describes the use of computer models to aid the engineering workflow at every stage. Ansys, through its simulation tools, has been a component of that process for a long time and, by acquiring Phoenix, the company is bolstering its ability to provide end-to-end MBE integration services. Phoenix’s software, at its core, is about process integration—allowing one to string together multiple engineering tools into a single workflow, even if those tools are made by different companies. For example, MBE can blend CAD software to generate a model, Excel spreadsheets to track costs, analysis tools like Ansys’s physics-based simulation, and even proprietary customer-made tools used in-house to control a process. Phoenix’s software acts as a hub that connects the products. Ansys wanted to further its capabilities in this area by allowing Phoenix’s process integration software to talk to all of Ansys’s tools. It already talked to some of Ansys’s products, but the acquisition will allow broader and deeper connections between the tools. 

Another reason for the acquisition involves Phoenix’s other strength: model-based systems engineering (MBSE), a subset of MBE. MBSE represents a schematic view of a system. For example, in an airline cockpit, the pilot pulls the stick, which activates a pneumatic system that adjusts the plane’s ailerons, elevators, or rudder. The MBSE schematic shows the various input conditions and the resulting outputs. Phoenix interfaces these schematics with other engineering tools, such as Ansys simulation software, as well as product life cycle software from AGI, another recent Ansys acquisition. 

ModelCenter MBSE. (Image courtesy of Phoenix Integration.)

ModelCenter MBSE. (Image courtesy of Phoenix Integration.)

It’s Not Rocket Science … Well, Sometimes It Is

As you can imagine, NASA’s engineering teams are enormous, diverse and highly specialized, yet the systems they design are tightly integrated. At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), engineers use Phoenix Integration’s tools to keep projects organized and to maintain quality across the board. In the following image, the upper left shows a simulation of a solar array powering a satellite. To its right, the model is representing the high-level interactions among the system’s components. At the bottom, the design document is depicted.

(Image courtesy of JPL.)

(Image courtesy of JPL.)

Each object in the diagram is created with a different tool—simulation, modeling and design—and although each tool comes from a different vendor, each needs to communicate with the others to remain in sync. For example, a simulation may identify a potential issue that requires a design modification, which, in turn, affects the modeling. An integrated environment with an automated workflow allows engineers to use data from the simulation to change the design and update the model. 

The above example is obviously oversimplified. Here’s a sample of the many tools that JPL actually uses, and that Phoenix’s software manages:

(Image courtesy of JPL.)

(Image courtesy of JPL.)

JPL refers to this as a multi-paradigm modeling environment. Rather than choosing an all-in-one solution that encompasses all of the tools, they’ve opted for the best tool for each task, adding an integration layer to make sure they work together as a cohesive unit. The web services maintain the data from all those sources in their native formats, making the information available and readable to any other application that needs it. 

The elements and requirements of a workflow (or pipeline) are shown below. The top half represents the various engineering tasks involved in product design, broadly categorized. Across the bottom, we see project concerns and requirements. 

(Image courtesy of JPL.)

(Image courtesy of JPL.)

NASA needs to ensure that all steps in the engineering process are traceable. When a change is made in one place, there must be an electronic trail that leads back to the source. Results need to be auditable to enable verification. Repeatability allows engineers to run the same test over and over while tweaking a single variable each time to see its effects. And like a symphony performance, the process needs orchestration to keep all elements working in harmony. Continuous integration means that when a change is made in one place, there’s an immediate check in the background to identify and communicate its effects. Issue management is the overarching project supervision—-assigning tasks, scheduling, coordinating, etc. 

Digital Twins

At their core, digital twins are used to predicting the performance of real-world physical assets. Dawson described a situation in which an industrial customer wanted to monitor a large machine but couldn’t place as many sensors around it as needed. Armed with Ansys’s Twin Builder application, engineers created a digital model of the machine, placed a few sensors in key areas of the actual machine and fed that data back into the digital twin. They were able to see the actual machine in various states and, based on each state, quickly run simulations that predicted when the machine would experience problems. With that, they could run further simulations to evaluate ways to avoid that problem and optimize the machine and its operating environment. Ansys’s digital twin helped to reduce operating costs and improve performance. Phoenix’s tools will smooth that workflow and offer customers even more engineering tools. 

Examples of digital twin applications. (Image courtesy of Ansys.)

Examples of digital twin applications. (Image courtesy of Ansys.)

More Tools, Integrated Processes

Dawson told us that Ansys and Phoenix clients will benefit from the merger by having access to better tools and more integration in the PIDO (process integration and design optimization) space. While Ansys has existing capabilities in that area, this move will provide more options for its customers in the immediate term and a more unified approach with a larger toolkit in the long run. Both companies’ product lines will continue to be available.

“Companies across industries benefit from process integration and MBSE through improved communications, increased product quality and heightened productivity across their engineering teams,” said Ansys Senior Vice President of Products Shane Emswiler. “Acquiring Phoenix Integration will complement our acquisition of Dynardo in the process integration and design optimization space, and expand our capabilities providing customers with strong MBE and MBSE offerings to further our pervasive engineering strategy.”