A partnership involving Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory aimed at developing “digital twins” for producing aerospace components is one of six new projects funded under the HPC for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced.
Sponsored by the HPC4Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) Program, one of the pillars of HPC4EI, the collaboration between LLNL and specialty materials producer Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI) will leverage advanced high-performance computing (HPC) software to create a digital twin of the near-net shape mill-products (NNS-MP) system — a strategy in which components are initially fabricated to be as close to the finished product as possible.
The project will address reducing energy usage and CO2 production in aircraft manufacturing, where about 95% of metal used in the process is converted to scrap due to the complex shape of components.