Honeywell Puts Ansys Simulation Software to Work

A nearly two-decade relationship between Honeywell Aerospace Technologies and U.S. simulation software firm Ansys is helping bring technologies to market. Because of the partnership, Honeywell has shaved ts engine design cycle times by about 30%, the company says, and cut back on the materials used to construct test rigs.  

At the outset, the long-term goal was leaning on simulation “so we can get closer to the final answer before we commit to hardware," says Todd Giles, Honeywell’s chief technology officer. The result has been lower development costs and less time for products to reach the market. 

“That was the initial thought, many years ago: How do I leverage these tools to get us closer to the real answer, so that I’m less dependent on testing and hardware? Which, obviously, takes time,” he says. ”You have to wait for hardware, design rigs, assemble the hardware, work out bugs and test if you got the wrong answer.”

The partnership between Honeywell and PA-based Ansys has also allowed Honeywell to be “less dependent on home-grown tools and to partner with somebody that could use these things in a production environment and maintain them.”

Simulation-aided engineering has allowed for faster development cycles, Giles says, accelerating Honeywell’s combustion designs and innovations regarding pollution reduction and autonomous flight. 

Giles emphasizes that, from a safety standpoint, simulations do not serve as a stand-in for testing aerospace components against real-world variables. 

“You can’t model every interaction yet—you can try, but the real world is the real world,” he says. “Trying to simulate every interaction across a complex system can be daunting. What we try to strike is the balance… between how much I can simulate, how accurate I can be, and then you go to testing.”

Advancements in artificial intelligence can streamline engineering processes further, providing more optimized and accurate results, Ansys reports.

“From the Honeywell standpoint, the most near-term activity that we’re working on is code development, verification and validation for software,” Giles says. “Honeywell is working on a ton of research around autonomy and how we leverage AI to solve some of the autonomy equations that we see coming forward.” 

Honeywell’s overarching goal is to cut pollution—both from developmental programmes and aircraft operations—and to “meet all future regulations,” he says. “There is a lot we can do to with the tools we leverage from Ansys to design for those future regulations and the future commitments to the industry.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.