Get physical - Distributed HPCN only works when you know your data

Bristol, 01 January 99 Design, however clever and advanced, only has a small effect on the overall cost of for instance a future aeroplane. When the design starts, the constraints given, already account for 70% of the total costs. Pierre Perrier, Dasault Aviation, pointed this out at the RCI Conference. In addition, he showed virtual product design of an aeroplane is very difficult. The reason is that every part and property is connected very closely to every other part and property of an aeroplane. It is difficult to break the design into parts that can be done by separate development groups, which can be at different places.

Perrier, discussing collaborative distributed design, stressed it is important to validate virtual products designed with for instance HPCN technology, as soon as possible against physical data. Because of the complexity of a design, getting physical with the real world data is very important.

The cycle ofvirtual product design should start with a preliminary design with a tentative geomotry and physical data. HPC techniques can then be used to extract critical points in the design, followed by a validation of tHPC tools by analysis of the critical points. When needed, one can the start networking for multisiciplinary or even multi company analysis.

In the modern European aerospace industry, development teams, in different countries, and often different companies have to collaborate. Perrier stresses that for collaborative work to be effecient, it is important to first understand the model and the data yourself. Once that has been done, discussions over the net can be fruitful. In general distributed collaborative work does not lead to a reduction of costs, but it can lead to more advanced products.

A problem with distributed work in this area is that it is difficult to define interfaces. Because the models are high;y non-linear and strongly interact, it is not easy to divide them in sub parts that with clear interfaces that can be analysed independently. Hence, Perrier sees most value in collaborations over the Internet that are organised as "workshops."

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