Ansys ModelCenter
Connecting system requirements to engineering analysis
Empower engineers to create and automate multi-tool workflows, optimize product designs, and enable Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) by connecting requirements to engineering.
UNLOCK THE PROMISE OF MBSE
Automate any Engineering Analysis Tool to a Digital Thread
Automate the execution of any software tool, such as Ansys LS-Dyna , MathWorks MATLAB®, Microsoft Excel®, MSC Nastran®, PTC Creo®, and many more. Integrate these tools to create automated engineering workflows and build a workflow library. Leverage high-performance computing to ask “what-if” questions to perform trade studies. Connect all of it to a systems architecture model to enable Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE).
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Reduce Development Costs
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Design More Competitive Products
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Verify Requirements Using Any Engineering Analysis
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Connect Any Analysis to the Digital Thread
Quick Specs
ModelCenter simplifies engineering workloads by automating repeatable tasks and creating direct links between engineering tools and requirements. Users have gone from a few simulations per day to hundreds. Organizations can now shift resources left, reducing developmental costs while accelerating the time-to-market.
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Early Concept Design Exploration -
Open Architecture -
Automatically Execute Workflows -
Identify Problems Early
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Integrate MBSE to Analysis & Simulation -
Behavioral Simulation -
Make Better Decisions -
Increase Collaboration
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Automate Any Tool -
Easy-to-create Engineering Workflows -
Explore Trade-Offs -
Model as a Service
Integrating Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to Simulate the Mission Trajectory of the OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft
Leveraging MBSE to improve the continuous verification of requirements and mission design parameters
“Automating and integrating the simulation into this system model then allows the team to rapidly identify potential issues with changes to mission requirements, as well as perform continuous verification of requirements and mission design parameters throughout the lifecycle of the spacecraft... The overall improvement versus the original process was about a 7x speedup in turnaround time.”
—Phathom Athena Donald, Systems Engineer, Lockheed Martin Space
On September 5, 2016 an Atlas V rocketed from Cape Canaveral carrying the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on a mission to discover the origin of our solar system by exploring the asteroid Bennu. Bennu may help us find answers to the questions central to the human experience: Where did we come from? What is our destiny?
The specific mission had the following objectives:
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Return and analyze a sample of Bennu’s surface
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Map the asteroid
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Document the sample site
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Measure the orbit deviation caused by non-gravitational forces (the Yarkovsky effect)
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Compare observations at the asteroid to ground-based observations
In October 2020, OSIRIS-REx conducted a “touch-and-go” maneuver to collect at least 60 grams, a far larger sample size than any other previous sample retrieval mission. On May 10, 2021, OSIRIS-REx fired its thrusters and heads on a 2.5-year course back to Earth.
The OSIRIS-REx mission was complex and daunting. Preparing for it required months of testing, modeling, and analyzing each step. This case study explores how Lockheed Martin planned for the mission using ModelCenter® and ModelCenter MBSE to enable Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for the success of the mission.
JULY 2022
What's New
In 2022 R2, Ansys ModelCenter continues to increase engineering productivity, increase collaboration and accelerate innovation by creating a connected digital thread across the product development lifecycle. ModelCenter’s Behavior Execution Engine (BEE) integration ensures that system design meets behavioral requirements early in the development lifecycle.
Simulate Systems Behaviors
Call any ModelCenter workflow from a Behavior Execution Engine (BEE) simulation. Connect any analysis into your behavioral simulation. Simulate your designed system and ensure that it meets behavioral requirements.
Greater Integration
Quickly integrate any Functional Mockup Unit (FMU) or Ansys Fluent simulation into your ModelCenter conceptual design workflows. Utilize Ansys Fluent to verify that your system meets requirements.
Trade Study Warm Start
If something goes wrong (power failure, computer restart, or crash) halfway through your trade-study (parametric study, design of experiments, optimization, or Monte Carlo), restart it without losing any of your work.
ModelCenter Case Studies
Model-Based Engineering processes require an intuitive, flexible and open framework
ModelCenter implements Model-Based Engineering processes flexibly. With ModelCenter, engineers can create and maintain a library of modeling and simulation tools and engineering workflows. You'll automatically execute the workflows, leverage high-performance computing resources to perform trade studies, and ask "what-if" questions. Best of all, these workflows connect to a systems architecture model to perform Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE).
Key Features
Drive innovation and improve product quality by enabling users to thoroughly explore and understand design alternatives, make better decisions, and find optimal solutions.
ModelCenter provides a graphical user interface for executing the connected ModelCenter workflow. Analysis results can be used to check requirements conformance, with unsatisfied requirements automatically highlighted. Trade studies can evaluate different design configurations and optimize the system design. New design configurations can update the systems model.
ModelCenter permits engineers to connect any analysis to behavioral diagrams created using NoMagic MagicDraw/Cameo or PTC Windchill Modeler. The integrated model (behavioral diagram plus analysis) results in a high-fidelity system simulation allowing engineers to accurately VERIFY system behavior and performance early in the design cycle, reducing costs and designing better products.
ModelCenter provides users with tools and methods that allow them to automate the execution of any modeling tool. Examples include user-created tools and scripts, legacy FORTRAN/C++ programs, spreadsheets, mathematical models, databases, and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) models.
Once a few software tools are automated, ModelCenter's drag-and-drop graphical user interface can be used to assemble these tools into a complete engineering workflow. An engineering workflow specifies the order and conditions of how and when to automate the tools. Like flowcharts, workflows can contain branches, if-then statements, loops, etc. Execute the workflow – automatically.
ModelCenter's Link Editor allows you to specify the data transferred from one tool to the next when the workflow executes. Your workflow may contain tools that run on any number of different computers and operating systems.
Analysis and trade-study results can be used to significant trends and trade-offs. Once a repeatable engineering analysis process is created, engineers can repeatedly execute the process (using parallel computing resources if available). Each execution corresponds to a different set of inputs. Engineers can explore and quantify the performance, cost, reliability, and risk of many various design alternatives in a relatively short time.
MODELCENTER RESOURCES & EVENTS
Resources & Events
On-Demand Webinar
Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Expert Panel
Listen and learn about Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) from the experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SAIC, Vitech, Northrop Grumman Corp., and Ford Motor Company.
On-Demand Webinar
Digital Mission Engineering (DME) Expert Panel
Listen and learn about Digital Mission Engineering (DME) from the experts at the Office of Secretary of Defense – Research and Engineering, Parsons, SAIC, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, and Space Systems Command – US Space Force.
On-Demand Webinar
Multidisciplinary Design, Analysis, and Optimization (MDAO) Expert Panel
Listen and learn about Multidisciplinary Design, Analysis, and Optimization (MDAO) from the experts at Air Force Research Laboratory, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems, ManTech, The Boeing Company, and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
Webinars on Demand
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DME Webinar | Mission Engineering and Analysis at SAIC – Empowered by Modeling and Simulation | SAIC -
MBSE Webinar | Modeling the Digital Enterprise: An Approach to Organizational Modeling through the Application of Enterprise Architecture & MBSE | NORTHROP GRUMMAN -
DME Webinar | Integrated Modeling and Simulation to Support the Digital Mission Engineering Environment | PARSONS
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MBSE Knowledge Seminar | Introduction to MBSE: Systems Modeling Expressing Design Intent With Rigor | SAIC -
MBSE Webinar | A Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Approach to the Design & Optimization of Phased Array Antenna Systems | Northrop Grumman Mission Systems -
MDAO Webinar | MDAO for Conceptual Aircraft Design at Northrop Grumman
Blogs
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