Tan Jianrong: Digital design and digital twins, key technologies and development trends

Energy News Network reported that on September 16, the 2023 Global Energy Transformation High-Level Forum with the theme of "Energy Security Green Transformation" opened in Changping District Future Science City.

After the opening ceremony, the participating leaders went to the exhibition areas of Huawei, National Energy Group, and Longi to visit the scientific and technological achievements exhibition held by the forum. During the forum, activities such as the main forum, nine thematic sub-forums, signing and unveiling ceremonies will also be held.

The following is the speech of Mr. Tan Jianrong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Zhejiang University, at the forum event of the nine thematic sub-forums on the high-quality development of the energy industrial Internet and the digital transformation of the energy industry:

Hello, leaders, experts, entrepreneurs, business managers, and grassroots personnel of enterprises. My name is Tan Jianrong of Zhejiang University. I am very happy to have the opportunity to communicate and report to you.

According to the requirements of the conference committee, the topic of my report is digital design and digital twins, key technologies and development trends. I will take this opportunity to share my experience in studying and researching, especially in the application of digital design and intelligent manufacturing in enterprises, to all of us present at the meeting. Guests make a communication report.

I am mainly engaged in data modeling and virtual reality, digital design and intelligent manufacturing at Zhejiang University.

Information technology has changed human production methods, human lifestyles, and human learning methods.

Information technology develops very fast, forming a new generation of information technology. The new generation of information technology has four distinctive characteristics.

1. Development from Internet technology to Internet of Things technology;

2. From virtual reality technology to augmented reality technology, and recently to metaverse technology;

3. Development from grid computing technology to cloud computing technology;

4. From machine learning technology to deep learning technology, several typical comprehensive cross-cutting fields have been formed, including industrial interconnection, mixed reality, big data, and artificial intelligence.

From the perspective of manufacturing development, advanced manufacturing is regarded internationally as an important position for powerful countries. The United States took the lead in proposing a national strategic plan for advanced manufacturing to maintain its leading position in high-tech manufacturing. He emphasized three priority breakthrough technologies, including advanced manufacturing. Perception control technology, intelligent manufacturing technology platform, hardware platform, software platform and advanced material manufacturing.

In order to maintain its technological advantages in the equipment field, Germany proposed Industry 4.0. He emphasized three major themes, including smart factories, smart production, and smart logistics.

Over the past 40 years of China's reform and opening up, our country's manufacturing industry has made great progress and achieved great results. In particular, there are many manufacturing companies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and they are developing very fast. From a certain perspective, it is also very important. Friendly, but some of them are still at the downstream end of the industry. Whether central enterprises, state-owned enterprises or private enterprises, they need to transform and upgrade. But at present, it is still difficult for Chinese manufacturing companies to transform.

Now, to help enterprises out of trouble, the most fundamental thing is for manufacturing enterprises to achieve transformation and upgrading. Under China's system, we must rely on many policies and measures. Fundamentally, we must rely on many advanced manufacturing technologies. The most important technologies are digital intelligence and networked manufacturing. and intelligent manufacturing.

Recently, in order to help Chinese enterprises achieve transformation and upgrading, the Chinese Academy of Engineering has launched three major consulting projects. Zhou Ji proposed a development strategy for a strong country, emphasizing intelligent manufacturing, strong industrial foundation, and green manufacturing. Now it is engaged in "double carbon", through carbon peaking and carbon neutralization. and green manufacturing.

Lu Yongxiang is the former president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the old president of Zhejiang University. He proposed an innovative design development strategy, including technological innovation, product innovation, and model innovation.

In 2016, Pan Yunhe, the former executive vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the old president of Zhejiang University, proposed China Artificial Intelligence 2.0. The main content includes big data intelligence, group intelligence, and cross-media intelligence. These three leaders have a lot to learn and work from. Zhou Ji is my teacher. They have a profound influence on my work and research and give me a lot of guidance. I also participated in the writing and research of these three strategic plans.

Secondly, the mechanization, electrification, and informatization of infrastructure products are currently moving towards intelligence. If companies want to make good first-generation products, they need certain processes. Products solve the problem of what to do, and industry solves the problem of how to do it. For mass production, we still need a generation of molds, and all of these require a generation of design. It takes a generation of design to truly make a generation of products. Many of our products have been made and exported in large quantities. Many companies know that they are However, I don’t know why. Many products are similar in appearance but different in spirit. As a result, there is a big gap between the performance and quality of national electromechanical equipment products and developed countries. Why there are many gaps? The main reason is that the first generation of design has not been passed. Only through one generation of design can we truly do a good job in the next generation. Products, from appearance to spirit, can only master the core technology of the industry through a generation of design.

Whether it is a generation of design, a generation of tooling, a generation of craftsmanship, or a generation of products, we must use digital, networked, and intelligent technologies to achieve transformation and upgrading. Digital manufacturing here is the general expression. If we want to engage in production and manufacturing, we must first do digital manufacturing. We use digital manufacturing methods to achieve digital transformation, and digital manufacturing includes four links, intelligent design, intelligent processing, and intelligent manufacturing. Assembly, intelligent services, "digital manufacturing + digital twin" can obtain virtual and real interactive feedback, which is actually the key to moving from a manufacturing power to a manufacturing power. If we want to innovate independently and become a manufacturing power, we must first scientifically manufacture, and scientific manufacturing must first Scientific design, design programming and visualization are the guarantee of scientific design.

In addition, the three major methods of engineering science are theoretical modeling, experimental verification, and simulation.

Combining virtual reality with design technology is an epoch-making revolution in the history of design. Digital prototypes are used to partially replace physical prototypes for product function verification and performance analysis, reducing product development costs and shortening product development cycles.

Our use of digital prototypes for digital design is our current main means of helping companies achieve independent research and development, independent design, and independent innovation. Digital prototype technology can be traced back to 1965, when Dr. Sutherland of MIT first proposed the concept of virtual reality; in 1987, the U.S. Department of Defense Proposed scientific computing visualization; in 1994, Boeing used digital prototypes for the first time to develop its BOENG777 aircraft; in 2000, American Commercial Machinery Company proposed digital management of the entire product life cycle, and Ford proposed that digital prototypes are to enhance the core competitiveness of products and integrate digital design into , digital twins are applied to all aspects of automobile design, assembly and manufacturing.

Digital twins were first proposed by Professor Grieves of the University of Michigan in 2003 and defined as a three-dimensional model, including physical products, virtual products, and the connection between the two.

A white paper on digital twins was published in 2014. The U.S. Department of Defense, PTC, Siemens, and Dassault all accepted the concept of digital twins and used them in product development and marketing.

Digital twins include the design phase of the product, analyzing the manufacturability of the product through modeling, simulation and optimization methods, while also supporting the testing and design of product performance and product functions.

Digital twins emphasize the integration of virtual and real, and use virtual to control real. The basic function of digital twin is to reflect the real state and real behavior of the product entity corresponding to the image, to achieve the purpose of combining virtual and real, and to control real with virtual. Internationally, there are many applications of digital twin technology in product design. There are many successful examples.

The first is the Dassault Mirage series of fighter jets, which have the functions of three-dimensional modeling, virtual simulation, social collaboration, intelligent information processing, and real-time experience; Siemens built the Amberg digital factory to maximize the automation, personalization, and Flexibility and self-optimization greatly improve production efficiency, save production resources, and reduce production costs.

NASA combines physical systems with their equivalent virtual systems to study complex system fault prediction and elimination methods based on digital twins, and applies them to the health management of flight systems such as aircraft, aircraft, and launch vehicles.

General Motors has developed an industrial Internet platform, and Rolls-Royce has developed Total care services for aviation operators.

The U.S. PTC has established the Thing worx platform between remote sensors and simulation software to combine simulation and real-world products. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Structural Science Center achieves structural life prediction based on digital twins through models and analysis.

There are eight key technologies for digital twins and digital design.

1. Multi-source heterogeneous data conversion and integration technology for complex equipment. We need to engage in digital design and digital twins. Our company uses a lot of software, including CAD software, CAPP software, CAM software, etc. Our data structure is different from various software They are different. How to convert, share and integrate heterogeneous data is the first problem we need to solve. For complex equipment, multiple heterogeneous data conversion and integration technology is the first key technology for our data design and data twins. .

2. Complex equipment geometry-physics-behavior-working condition modeling technology.

In the past, we engaged in CAD and geometric modeling, and did little research on product physical properties, product behavior, working conditions of manufacturing products, and working condition modeling of product applications. However, through digital design and digital twins, we can establish geometry-physics- Behavior-working condition unified modeling. In terms of unified modeling, Professor Chen Liping of Huazhong University of Science and Technology is also my junior. He opened a company in Suzhou and made good software, which is currently being promoted and applied.

3. Complex equipment digital twin multi-performance coupling analysis technology.

If we want to design products, we must conduct physical analysis, and physical analysis involves many properties, including thermodynamic properties and temperature fields. Multiple properties are coupled together. How we conduct system analysis is mainly through decoupling and coupling methods. To analyze the physical properties and mechanical properties of the product.

4. Digital twin behavior simulation technology driven by big data.

Through the behavior of the product, we can determine what functions and actions it has, what kinematic behaviors, and dynamic behaviors it has. We need to simulate, model, analyze, iterate, and optimize these.

5. Simulation of the entire life cycle operation process of complex equipment.

How to schedule production through job simulation and how to optimize logistics are all job process simulations.

6. Intelligent workshop layout planning and production scheduling optimization technology.

Should we test or report production scheduling first, and how to seamlessly connect and optimize scheduling? These are key issues to be solved in intelligent workshop layout planning and production scheduling optimization.

7. Visual analysis of operating status and intelligent fault prediction technology.

How to realize visual analysis of workshop operation status and enterprise operation status. We can understand at a glance the operation status of the enterprise, the sales status of the enterprise, the management status of the enterprise, and the visual analysis of the entire production process of the enterprise. What are the faults, whether the machine will malfunction, and the production line? Whether there will be a fault, we need to carry out intelligent prediction, early warning, and forecasting to ensure that the enterprise can produce without fault and carry out continuous production.

8. Repair and maintenance operation navigation technology based on augmented reality.

Regarding how to maintain, repair, and maintain our equipment, we need to train new operating departments, and standardize operations, standardize repairs, and regularize maintenance for old operating departments. As for how to navigate, it needs to know what to do first, what to do next, and what results to produce. What tools are needed for repair and how long will it take? We need to use our navigation technology for repair and maintenance operations.

These eight technologies are key technologies for digital twins and can be successfully applied in enterprises.

There are three major trends in the direction in which digital twins and digital design will develop.

1. Realization, involving multi-physics modeling, including three-dimensional geometric models, structural dynamics models, computational fluid dynamics models, thermodynamic models, stress analysis models, material state evolution models, fatigue damage models, and digital twins. These models perform simulation, diagnosis, prediction, and control, which is virtual reality.

2. Full life cycle. In the past, many companies also engaged in digital design and digital simulation, often focusing on a certain stage. Now the entire life cycle includes research on different stages of digital twin manufacturing, including product design, maintenance, use, sales, and delivery. and applications.

3. System integration. Now the entire digital twin is based on big data system data integration and systematic analysis, through the organic integration of universal technology, big data analysis technology, virtual reality and augmented reality technology. My team has also done a lot of work in this area. Report part of the work to the experts.

This is a virtual assembly system for automobile engines. It is the earliest and best in China. There are many people doing virtual assembly, but there are still very few such powerful ones in China. We have solved three problems. The first One is the issue of assembly design, what to install first and what to install later. The second issue of the assembly path is whether to install it in parallel or rely on the supply chain. The third is to solve the problem of assembly interference, greatly improve product development efficiency, improve product development quality, and shorten product development time.

There are thousands of parts that not only fit in, but also move. To ensure that the entire system operates scientifically and correctly, including how the kinematics and dynamic performance alternate in the hardware, and how the cylinder connecting rod alternates, we dynamically display it through visualization. There are many successful examples and time relationships. I will not give it up. In addition to the digital design and digital twin of products, it also includes the design of ultra-large low-energy air separation products, digital forward design of high-end CNC machine tools, and large-tonnage deep-drawing liquid pressure design. We also welcome companies and experts to have the opportunity to continue exchange projects at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou.

This article is compiled by Energy News Network from the transcript of Tan Jianrong’s speech at the nine thematic sub-forums of the Global Energy Transformation High-level Forum: High-quality Development of the Energy Industrial Internet to Help the Digital Intelligence Transformation of the Energy Industry. It has not been reviewed by me.