Advanced DIGITAL TWIN Technology Gives America’s Cup Contender More Than Just Wind in the Sails

SIEMENS XCELERATOR TECHNOLOGY SIMULATES and OPTIMIZES HYDRAULIC FLIGHT AND AERONAUTIC SYSTEMS. It is hard to think of a better marketing effect for a PLM developer than that the company's design software is used by successful development teams in sports that have an aura of both tough combat moments and of cutting edge technology; such as Formula 1 in motorsport or the America’s Cup round-the-world sailing competition.
The PLM developer Siemens Digital Industries Software has implemented this with great success. The company's software within the PLM portfolio Xcelerator, including NX CAD, the cPDm (collaborative Product Definition management) solution Teamcenter and the simulation platform Simcenter's apps have helped sharpen the product development work in the world-leading F1 team Red Bull, with world champion Max Verstappen as the leading driver profile. (It should be mentioned that Ansys was used in Red Bull's aerodynamics development). But it doesn't stop there, today Siemens announces that the French America's Cup challenger, the Orient Express Racing Team, is also using Siemens Xcelerator software.
In this latter case, among other things, to create a digital twin which in the next step will also be used to simulate hydraulic flight and aeronautic systems that control sails and rudder/foil flaps actuation. This is done to study and optimize the yacht's behavior in the water through virtual and immersive technologies. With Siemens software and the comprehensive digital twin, it becomes possible to optimize design, engineering and manufacturing processes to transform ideas into sustainable products of the future: From chips to entire systems, from product to process, Orient Express' America's Cup team uses Siemens Xcelerator’s software apps.
Working closely with Siemens Simcenter Engineering Services, the Orient Express Racing Team is gaining an understanding of the real world performance of the systems on board. Digital twins of these systems have been built, parameterized and functionally validated, along with dedicated libraries, helping to ensure that the layout and interface are comprehensive and easy to use in an interdisciplinary team effort spanning the Performance, Mechatronic and Hydraulic groups.
"Dealing with all the new airframe, or flight, technologies has become a real game-changing challenge," says Stephan Kandler, CEO of K-Challenge and the Orient Express Racing Team.