Key Benefits of Simulation

Simulation modeling—both in engineering and business disciplines—can realize

numerous benefits for an organization that uses it. The main benefits are:

 Shorter design and testing cycles: The ability to modify and re-test a virtual
design means you don’t have to spend time (or money) building and testing
multiple prototype iterations. You can settle on a design that satisfies the
requirements in simulation before building an actual prototype.
 More (and more realistic) test scenarios: With physical prototypes, it’s not
always possible to test all possible operating conditions. In simulation, however,
there’s no practical limit to the operating scenarios that can be modeled and
tested.

Thus, simulation modeling has advantages over more traditional approaches, such as
data analytics, forecasting, and optimization. These approaches are far more theoretical
and are based on various assumptions about how an object will behave. With
simulation, you don’t need as many assumptions—with the proper mathematical model,
you can try different scenarios and know exactly what the behavior will be.

Challenges in Simulation
Simulation modeling is not without its challenges, however.  If you don’t understand the
limits of your model, you can be lulled into a false sense of security that all of your
simulation results are 100% reliable. This can have disastrous results. Here are some
common issues with simulation:

Validity of the mathematical model:  Some models, such as the airfoil mentioned
earlier, have well-defined equations that describe their behavior. In other situations,
designers are breaking new ground and don’t have a sufficient body of basic research
with which to construct a mathematical model. In this case, the equations may be based
more on guesswork and a limited amount of empirical data, rather than generalized
physical relationships. In this situation, the model validity can be questionable, and the
simulation results may suffer from reduced reliability.

Garbage in, garbage out: Using incorrect parameters will obviously cause bad results.
As well, in some cases a physical parameter is not a single number but a range of values
with a certain distribution. This variability must be properly accounted for in the model.

Tradeoffs:  For complex systems, especially those that are modeled with FEM,
designers often must make decisions regarding the tradeoff between accuracy and time
or computing power. Extremely detailed models may require much more time and
computing power for simulation than is readily available. That said, cloud computing is
making additional computing power available at a reasonable cost for simulation tasks.

How do companies overcome these challenges? Apart from the computing power issue,
the reliability of the simulation results depends on proper validation and accreditation of
the model. Fortunately, there is a growing body of knowledge on the proper way to
build simulation models and conduct model verification, and experts in simulation
modeling can help make sure a given model is defined in sufficient detail to match
reality as closely as possible.

As CAD and other simulation software packages decrease in cost and become easier to
use, simulation modeling is becoming an essential tool in businesses across the
commercial landscape.  If your organization isn’t already using simulation modeling in
some aspect of its operations, chances are good it will be soon.