The UK’s Leading Digital Design Event Returns in 2022

Dr. Royston Jones is the Global CTO of Altair and Managing Director of Altair’s operation in the United Kingdom & Ireland. For over thirty years, Dr Jones has been involved in the application of CAE methods to produce design innovation. One of his many passions is leading the development of cutting-edge solutions for e-mobility, including methodologies to significantly reduce vehicle weight, create more efficient e-motors and creating batteries optimized for performance at the cell, module and pack levels.

• How Digital is the Key Technology for the Efficient Design of SMART Connected Products
• Convergence Between Simulation, Artificial Intelligence and High-Performance Computing

As chief operating officer, Stephanie Bucker is responsible for Altair’s corporate development efforts and field operations, sales, and technical support globally. Previously she served as senior vice president of corporate development where she was responsible for building strategic partnerships across Altair’s entire ecosystem including software, hardware, cloud, the Altair Partner Alliance, and with customers. 

Earlier in her career, Stephanie held senior management roles at Altair including director of strategic alliances where she surpassed aggressive new partner enrollment goals and was responsible for scouting, selling, onboarding, and managing relationships with third-party B2B software providers. Additionally, during her time at Altair, she also was the co-founder and chief executive officer of WEYV, a multi-content platform built on Altair’s patented digital content licensing model. 

Prior to joining Altair, Stephanie held analyst roles at Cisco Systems and American Express. 

Stephanie earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial and operations engineering from University of Michigan. 

• Simulation Highlights from the Recently Launched 5th Generation Range Rover
• The Competing Demands of Faster Results vs Higher Simulation Fidelity

Andrew Foster MA CEng FIMechE has served Jaguar Land Rover since 1984 when he joined as a structural analyst in Body Engineering. Subsequently he has held a number of leadership roles in Engineering, Manufacturing and Programme Management. He is currently Chief Engineer, Body Exteriors, responsible for the development of Body Structures, Closures and Exterior Trim including Body CAE and Vehicle Safety for Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. He graduated in Engineering at Cambridge University, UK.

• Key Technology Innovations: Packaging, e-Motor Miniaturisation, Battery Pack Design etc
• The Requirement to Win the ‘Technology Footrace’, Affordable Luxury EVs and the Utilitarian EV

Peter Rawlinson serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Lucid. As CEO, Peter is responsible for all strategic and business aspects of the company. As CTO, he is responsible for the creation and delivery of all Lucid products. He brings over 30 years of automotive industry experience to bear in these roles.

Prior to Lucid, Peter was Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla and Chief Engineer of the Model S, where he led the engineering of the Model S from a clean sheet to production readiness while building the engineering team.

A graduate of Imperial College, University of London, Peter was formerly Head of Vehicle Engineering at Corus Automotive, Chief Engineer at Lotus Cars, and Principal Engineer at Jaguar Cars.

• Creating the Lightest Brompton Ever, the T Line
• Advanced Structural Optimisation and Innovative Meshless Technology Pushing the Boundaries of Design

Every millimetre of the classic folding Brompton Bicycle has been reinvented to create our lightest bike ever, the T Line. The product of three years of limitless thinking, research and development, the T Line weighs just 7.45kg in its lightest form compared to 11kg for the traditional steel model.

To deliver this incredible weight saving, advanced engineering materials and methods were employed, with over 150 brand new lightweight components developed specifically for this bike. The frameset is made entirely from titanium, finished off with carbon fibre forks, handlebars, cranks and seatpost, delivering the required reduction in weight while retaining the strength and durability expected of a hard-wearing city bike.

Using Finite Element analysis and topology optimisation methods throughout the development of the T Line allowed us to use the minimum possible amount of material while maintaining targets for stiffness and strength. Utilising Altair’s OptiStruct, SimSolid and Inspire software packages enabled us to push the boundaries of what was possible, to deliver the most advanced evolution of the iconic Brompton folding bicycle to date.

• Highlighting the Challenges of UltraFan®; the Next Generation Engine Introducing a Step Reduction in Emissions, Noise, and Operating Costs
• Utilisation of Simulation to Enhance Structural Efficiency, Covering Rapid Concept Model Creation and Evaluation to Facilitate Design Exploration

Modern aerospace gas turbine engines are some of the most complex and highly-integrated machines on the planet. With huge responsibility on the aviation industry to reach a carbon neutral position in the coming years the engineering challenge isn’t getting any easier. This presentation covers industry and design trends and highlights the design challenges of the Rolls-Royce UltraFan® engine; a next generation gas turbine designed to introduce a step reduction in fuel burn, emissions, noise, and operating costs.

Weight comes at a premium in aerospace, and the second half of this presentation goes into detail on how Rolls-Royce have deployed the Altair Hyperworks toolset to enhance the structural efficiency of the UltraFan® engine, covering: rapid model and mesh creation; new insights from structural optimisation and robust design; integrated post-processing; and the resulting acceleration of the engineering design iteration cycle.

• Deployment of Machine Learning Techniques to Advance Prediction Quality
• Defining Key Performance Indicators with Machine Learning to Emulate Engineering Expertise

In this presentation Dr. Frenzel will discuss how machine learning elements can advance speed, automatisation level, and prediction quality in crash optimisation. Moreover, it is demonstrated how key performance indicators can be intuitively defined with the help of ML and thus emulate engineering expertise (“Expert.AI”) within optimisation pipelines.

• Extreme Performance to Enable New Paradigms in CAE
• Accelerating Innovation – Digital Twins, Multi-Physics, Optimisation

The session will discuss how we gain extreme performance to enable new paradigms in CAE such as digital twins, multi-physics, optimisation and generative design and how we accelerate innovation with the Dell Precision Workstations.

• Removing Barriers that Restrict Innovation
• Enabling Design Engineers to Take Ingenuity to a New Level

AMD technology is designed to remove the barriers that restrict innovation and creativity, by providing more capable, efficient and easily accessed computing solutions that enable design engineers take their ingenuity to a new level.

• Introducing a Simulation Driven Design Approach to Rapidly Evaluate Optimum Bridge Design Concepts
• Exploring Low Carbon Opportunities Available in Concrete Construction

Tomas is a MSc in Civil/Structural Engineering with more than 28 years of experience and is currently the High Speed 2 Head of Civil Structures. He spent more than 4 years working as Design Manager for the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Partner before joining the HS2 team. Prior to that, Tomas was Project Manager in the Ports and Maritime group of Jacobs in New York, where he enjoyed the opportunity to work in Port projects in the New York area as well as in the West Coast of the Americas.

In his early career Tomas was responsible for the design of more than 80 bridges. First as a Bridge Engineer in APIA XXI, a boutique engineering firm in Spain and after that in SAITEC, renowned Spanish engineering firm for its involvement in High Speed projects, where he moved to take up a senior role.

• Initial Explorations into How Data Analytics Can Provide Additional Insight into Product Design
• Deployment of Machine Learning and Decision Tree Algorithms to Deliver Insight into Hybrid Data Set

Kevin began in the Automotive industry as a Body Engineering Apprentice based at the Rover site in Cowley with the launch of the Rover 75. He has worked on Body and Exterior parts and in particular vehicles closures (Doors and Lids) of all types for more than 27 years, developing a number of engineering firsts and patent applications for Jaguar Land Rover along the way, including part of the team that developed and launched the world’s first Split Powered Tailgate for Range Rover.

Kevin leads by example and engagement and he enjoys getting involved in detailed engineering problems as well as improving the company’s engineering processes and knowledge and developing great engineers of the future.

• Off-Highway Industry Presents Many Exciting Opportunities and Challenges for Simulation
• Top-Level Benefits Outlined and Question of How to Best Adopt the Tools will be Addressed

Dr. David Panni has been working in the Off-Highway sector for 20 years developing innovative and robust structural solutions in the most arduous applications. In his current role he is responsible for the structural integrity of all JCB products globally.

David is passionate about simulation to accelerate the design process and to create optimised designs. David has formally embedded structural simulation alongside more established technologies in the NPIP process and since 2012 has established a centre of Structural Integrity in Pune, India. He has worked with FEA, Strain gauging and destructive rig testing in his career so has a broad understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the tools.

David is a Fellow of the IMechE and aside from his day-job he is a member of the NAFEMS Steering committee as well as a Non-Exec Director of TWI (The Welding Institute).

• Urban Air Mobility to Transform How we Travel
• Design of Composite Structures for Stiffness, Strength and Crashworthiness

In late 2021 Vertical Aerospace became a public company, giving us the means to bring our VX4 eVTOL aircraft to market and deliver on our vision of bringing safer, cleaner and quieter air travel to everyone.

The 20th century saw rapid advances in science and technology that transformed how people live beyond all recognition. Urbanisation lifted billions out of poverty; the combustion engine allowed cars to reshape our cities and the aeroplane to bridge continents – bringing people from all over the world closer together.

However, the technologies that powered the last century are choking our progress today. Existing urban infrastructure is creaking. Traffic congestion is becoming unbearable and uneconomic, and air quality is worsening in almost all major cities. Something has to change.

Fortunately, we are on the cusp of something equally transformational through the electrification of flight. In just a few years’ time it will be possible for most people to travel between and through cities in almost-silent, electrically-powered aircraft.

From rotor blades to structural airframe the Altair products have become an essential tool to enable us to design the lightest, stiffest, safest structures possible

• Early-Stage Development of an Autonomous Powered Parafoil, the STORK STM
• Extensive Deployment of Simulation to Optimise Structural, Multi-Body and CFD Performance

Animal Dynamics is in the early development stages of an autonomous powered parafoil, the STORK STM. Once certified, this vehicle is suited for crop spraying, surveying, emergency aid and military resupply, amongst other applications. So far, its development has made extensive use of Altair’s technologies ranging from finite element analysis and structural optimisation to multi-body and CFD simulations.

This presentation will highlight the various challenges in developing the STORK STM and how Altair’s simulation suite is used to resolve some of these challenges.

• Environmental Benefits of Recycled Road Construction Material (Hot Mix Asphalt)
• Simulation Providing Insight into the Key Stages of Asphalt Production (i.e. Aggregate Drying, Mixing and Reclaimed Heating)

Hot mix asphalt (HMA) is one of the most common materials used in road construction.  HMA is also 100% recyclable.  Increasing the amount of recycled pavement in new roads is one way to make infrastructure development more sustainable.  Producing HMA is an energy intensive process so sustainability must begin with thermally efficient equipment design.

In this presentation we will show how ASTEC’s use of simulation has led to better, more efficient equipment with a focus on several key stages of HMA production: aggregate drying, mixing, and reclaimed asphalt heating.  Simulation has helped ASTEC engineers deliver innovative solutions that improve equipment efficiency and increase recycled asphalt capacity, benefitting both ASTEC’s customers and the environment.

• Ensuring the Robust Operation of Safety Critical Signalling from Electromagnetic Interference
• Simulating the Complex Composite Electromagnetic Fields Generated by Multiple Radio Network Technologies

Railway safety critical trackside signalling and telecom equipment needs to be protected from external interference. Radio frequency (RF) base stations can support multiple radio network technologies, and the composite electromagnetic fields near the operational railway may affect the safety performance of the critical assets. Also, any radio frequency over-exposure risks from radio frequency sources need to be mitigated as mandated by the health and safety legislation and railway standards, this is to ensure the safety of the railway workers and passengers. Electromagnetic solver (i.e., Altair WinProp and Feko) enables railway to accurately encapsulate the complex environment (e.g., tunnel, cuttings etc.) and base station complex configurations – to efficiently conduct its RF assurance activities.

• Development of Digital Twins to Facilitate Rapid Structural Integrity Assessment
• Altair® SmartWorks™ as the IoT Backbone to Facilitate Communication Between the Twin

The use of Digital Twins, connecting models with their real counterparts via an always-on data link, is becoming well established in many industries and will continue to expand. It has, however, had less impact in the nuclear power generation sector even though the underlying digital models have been used for many years.

The inputs to these models must, by necessity, assume a worst-case design basis set of assumptions to encompass the lifetime of the plant (potentially up to 80 years for new builds) to present a sound safety case to the regulator. In reality, the actual operational loading may not as severe as expected, or the actual transient events on the plant do not easily fit into the pre-defined set of faults that were postulated to occur.

Altair SmartWorks has therefore been used as an IoT backbone to connect these full-fidelity structural integrity models with the plant data stream to allow them to calculate the key structural integrity metrics, considering the actual (rather than design basis) inputs. This offers great potential for life extension and therefore improved economics of equipment such as nuclear power plants.

• Development of an ‘Intelligent Digital Twin’
• Live Demo – Introduction to the Physical and Virtual Twins and Response to a Demand Request

Simulation is now the dominant technology driving the design process. Optimization and machine learning, together with the availability of inexpensive computing place simulation at the heart of the design process, and at the evolution of the Digital Twin. EV battery packs present a unique opportunity to showcase the power of simulation and the benefits of the Digital Twin.

Battery Thermal Management Systems (BTMS) use logic to control the thermal balance needed for reliable and long-lasting battery pack designs. A key driver is ensuring cells operate under load within a specified temperature window. The system design challenge is to balance the heat generated by current demand and supply against an efficient cooling strategy.

A Digital Twin has been created which presents a virtual representation of a physical battery pack subject to a transient duty cycle. The Digital Twin mimics the embedded control logic of the hardware to manage system heating and cooling during the event.

Capturing the complex physics and system response with the Digital Twin in timescales commensurate with the physical hardware enhances the role of simulation within the UK battery development community. The battery Digital Twin presents new opportunities for rapid, holistic, design exploration and innovation.