Heavy Equipment Simulation
Accelerate the development of next-generation heavy equipment with a comprehensive suite of solutions for advanced simulation and testing.
Transforming Heavy Equipment Simulation With Dassault Systèmes
From construction machinery to mining and agricultural equipment, manufacturers face challenges in performance, durability and safety. Dassault Systèmes’ simulation-driven approach enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to design, test and validate heavy equipment in a virtual environment — reducing costs, improving efficiency and accelerating innovation.
Key Challenges in Heavy Equipment Simulation
- Structural Integrity and Durability
- Performance Optimization
- Operator and Safety Simulation
- Real-World Conditions Setting
Designing and manufacturing industrial equipment is a major challenge due to the extremely large and heavy nature of the machines. The equipment must be able to operate under heavy loads and for long operating cycles. Failure will not only be costly but also be dangerous to operators. Therefore, it's critical to ensure that the heavy equipment performs reliably before it is manufactured.
As such, manufacturers must work fast to keep costs down, deliver quality and reliable equipment on time, and manage increases in product variants, equipment combinations and design concepts. Simulation enables them to reduce the number of prototypes needed while quickly analyzing structural integrity and fatigue throughout the entire equipment lifecycle, and modeling its performance in a challenging real-world environment, such as a construction site or mine.
Heavy equipment is a complex system with multiple, often conflicting, performance requirements. It involves intricate interactions between various subsystems, including hydraulics, powertrains, controls and structural components. Design is complicated by the need to balance standardization with frequent customization for specific customer or site requirements. The difficulty is further compounded by the extreme, unpredictable conditions where the machinery operates — conditions that are hard to fully replicate in a virtual environment.
Optimizing for fuel efficiency (often related to weight and powertrain), aerodynamics (reducing drag) and raw power (required to move heavy loads or earth) simultaneously is difficult. Improving one attribute (such as aerodynamics) might result in structural changes that can increase weight and power requirements while reducing fuel efficiency.
- Ergonomics: Ergonomics plays a crucial role in preventing long-term health issues for operators. Extended periods of operating heavy machinery can lead to musculoskeletal disorders, such as back pain, tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Visibility: The physical structure of the machine (such as engine compartments, booms, counterweights and pillars) creates areas of limited or impossible visibility directly from the operator's cabin, especially at ground level near the machine. Manufacturers must therefore design and develop systems that maintain clarity in extreme weather and environmental conditions.
- Human-machine interaction (HMI): Heavy equipment can have the unintended side effect of increasing the operator's cognitive load due to a higher demand for attention from instrumentation and displays. The challenge is to present this complexity in an intuitive way that reduces errors, allows for gloved-hand use and doesn’t require excessive training.
Heavy equipment must withstand unplanned, high-magnitude loads and operate continuously across diverse, harsh environments. This challenge is further intensified by the industry's business model of high customization and low production volume, which limits reliance on generalized physical test data.
The necessity of creating unique configurations under tight deadlines demands a digital-first approach where virtual validation is paramount. Accurately simulating these conditions requires multiple advanced techniques, such as multibody dynamics (MBD) for machine motion and finite element analysis (FEA) for structural integrity. Failure to integrate these physics accurately can lead to flawed designs that compromise safety, durability and operational performance.
Key Benefits of Heavy Equipment Simulation With the 3DEXPERIENCE® Platform
Reduce design time by up to 20%
Shorten deployment time by up to 30%
Cut errors and rework during production by up to 90%
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With Dassault Systèmes’ simulation and validation tools, we can refine designs before production and check for manufacturing feasibility, leading to higher quality and less rework. Sharing reliable simulation data across departments has also strengthened collaboration and accelerated product development.
