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MODELLING & ENGINEERING
Virtual patients may lead to healthier lives
A consortium of more than 25 academic institutions and industrial partners with expertise in ICT, the life sciences, public health, and medicine have come together to start a pan- European, 10-year project, called IT Future of Medicine (ITFoM). It is one of six pilot projects in the European Future and Emerging Technologies fl agship scheme, costing €1 billion. A project from the UK’s University of Manchester is among those initially approved for ITFoM. Working with several partners, the academics have been awarded funds to create ‘virtual patients’ – computational models of individual people – which could lead to everyone having their own individually- tailored health system based on their genetic and physiological make-up. Through genome sequencing and clinical information, the general model will be adapted to suit the particular health demands of an individual, including issues such as allergies, congenital defects and current treatment. ITFoM will also provide scenarios, such as what would happen if a patient
takes a certain medicinal drug or if they started running three times a week. An array of ICT developments must take place in order to make this medicine of the future a reality. This will include new techniques for the rapid acquisition and evaluation of patient data, dynamic storage and processing of real time patient data into relevant mathematical models, and the development of new systems that can learn, predict and inform. Professor Hans Westerhoff, who is leading the Manchester part of the project, believes computer models will fundamentally change the way healthcare is provided: ‘ITFoM will make general models of human pathways, tissues, diseases and, ultimately, of the human as a whole. These models will then be used to identify personalised prevention and therapy schedules, and the side effects of drugs. The models will be there to help diagnose a particular problem and provide solutions. Making personalised medicine a reality will thus require fundamental advances in the computational sciences.’
SOFTWARE CONTRACT TO MAKE BUILDING EASIER
Atkins, the UK’s largest engineering and design consultancy, has signed a £5.3 million agreement with Autodesk software to increase its use of Building Information Modelling (BIM), an intelligent model-based process for planning, design, construction and management of building and infrastructure projects. ‘A growing number of our clients are requiring BIM on their projects, mainly for its proven cost and productivity benefi ts and, most importantly, the signifi cant reduction of costly on-site changes,’
4 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD
said Kevin Bezant, Group IS business partner, Atkins. ‘I believe we are seeing the global building industry on the threshold of a full- blown transition to BIM.’ Atkins plans, designs and
manages the construction of complex infrastructure, such as roads, airports, rail projects, and buildings for clients in both the public and private sectors. The fi rm plans full BIM implementation on a range of projects, including urban planning in China, airports in the Middle East, and the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Software accelerates design optimisation of power transformers
Electromagnetic simulation software is a key tool in the design optimisation of power transformers for Kolektor Etra, a Slovenia-based electrical equipment manufacturer. The Opera-3D software package from Cobham Technical Services is being used for a diverse range of design related tasks, from the detailed characterisation of design aspects such as eddy current losses by quantifying stray magnetic fl ux, to comparing the effi ciencies of different construction and geometry ideas for transformers. In a recent analysis of magnetic shield placement in a three-phase power transformer, the company was able to reduce total eddy current losses by as much as 30 per cent, leading to a substantial reduction in transformer price and weight, and reduced long-term operating costs for the transformer operator. Before investing in Opera-3D, Kolektor Etra used some free fi nite
element software to perform tasks such as fl ux density and other electro- magnetic calculations. However, the lack of any 3D modelling capabilities meant that the company found it diffi cult to optimise their design in cases of asymmetrical geometry, such as winding exits and core clamping structures. It therefore took the decision to move to a professional fi nite element package that offered 3D modelling.
Andrej Jurman, head of Kolektor Etra’s electrical design department, said: ‘Gaining a clear picture of the effect of design changes can provide signifi cant cost savings, which is why we regard the Opera electromagnetic fi eld simulator as such a useful tool. Although the losses caused by stray fi elds are very hard to separate out from measured short circuit losses in a transformer accurately, modelling enables us to see the shape of stray fl ux and the places with the highest local loss generation visually.’
Distribution agreement brings SEA technology to acoustic simulation package
LMS International and InterAC have signed a strategic partnership to distribute InterAC’s SEA+, SEAVirt and related SEA modules to complement the LMS
Virtual.Lab acoustics package. In the fi eld of vibro-acoustic simulation, SEA (Statistical Energy Analysis) is a technology that provides a solution for high frequency problems as well as full system vibro-acoustic evaluation. As acoustics takes more of a defi ning role in product development, vibro-acoustic engineers need better tools to assess concepts and early stage designs. Unlike other methods, SEA does not
require geometrical details, but merely global system properties. This is why SEA is ideal early in the concept phase when design details, like CAD or a FEM mesh, are not available. LMS
Virtual.Lab Acoustics users will now benefi t from several unique technologies like Virtual SEA, implemented in SEAVirt, which automatically and uniquely converts a structural FE (Finite Element) model from LMS
Virtual.Lab into a SEA model. This model can then be further processed in SEA+ for mid- frequency vibro-acoustic analysis.
www.scientific-computing.com
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